ongratulations to Hilsmark Kingfisher 1 who are promoted to Division 2 with two rounds to spare. No real dramas this weekend as three straight wins put the 1st team in sight of the Division 3 trophy. This weekend we welcomed two french players to the 1st team. The best performance was from GM Manuel Apicella [2539], scoring 1½ from 2 games, including a piece down (for what looked like no compensation) against FM Graham Lee in his second match. Now, with only 1 point required to win the Division 3 title, player of the season looks like being between our top board GM Mark Hebden [2544] or IM Lawrence Cooper [2311]. Mark has only dropped 1½ points from 9 rounds. He is also joint top scorer in Division 3 at the moment with Claire Morris of Guildford-ADC 3, although Claire has had two wins by default and has played all her games on Board 8. Where as, Lawrence has a tremendous record of five wins and one draw, no losses.

fter, a successful start to the season, all realistic chances of promotion died out on Sunday evening when a poor result against Division 4 leaders Brown Jack, ended all possibility of reaching 16 points. So, the 2nd team will have to try again next season, hopefully with a strengthened side. A dissapointing weekend did have some highlights though, with Simon Fowler ending Alan Smith's perfect 100% record. And, the introduction of new boy Pierre Agrech who dispatched Cheddleton's Yangshi Yu with ease on Saturday afternoon.

ood news too for Andrew Bullock who became only the second player to get a part rating, whilst playing for Hilsmark Kingfisher. A regular in the 3rd team, he stepped up to play in the 2nd team on Monday, and was rewarded with his third rated player. Hilsmark Kingfisher 3 having received a bye, due to Nidum Liberals 2 not appearing this weekend, moved up to 16th of 18.