Individual Tournament Kick Starts The Season In Style

16/09/24: The tournament season started at Highgate yesterday with the traditional individual tournament.

Not really a tournament at all, but rather an opportunity for some of the stronger players on the circuit to get together and blow away a few cobwebs in a series of mix and match games, the turnout has fluctuated wildy over the years, This year was a smaller gathering but no less enjoyable for that. Not even late drop outs and non-arrivals were able to put a dampener on proceedings and with reigning Kinnaird champions Riki Houlden and Hugo Young in attendance, the quality was high, As you would expect, Riki and Hugo both had winning records across the day but there were some notable performances from all the others present - Tom McCahon, Sunil Tailor, Aroop Bhattacharya, Alex Abrahams, James Alster, last minute supersub Emily Scoones and even your correspondent, who was forced into putting his gloves on and managed not to disgrace himself.

There weren't enough players available for a women's competition this time round but we'll have another go next year - this is a really fun way to start the season and well worth making the effort to play in.