Horsham 1 set to take Third Place

Dix reports:

A somewhat depleted Horsham 1 faced Knoll Knights on the dreaded Friday night (can't the League ban Fridays?).

Fortunately KK could only field 4 players and Ian kindly agreed to slip straight home again.

The remaining reults were: Stimpson 1/2 Bryant, Roberts 1/2 Nicholas, Taylor 1 Kelly. Harbott v Munday is unfinished. Peter has an extra rook, his opponent some advanced pawns. My computer thinks is a draw though longer analysis is needed. However we have won the match anyway.

Assuming Brighton 1 don't lose to Hastings 1 in their final match this will mean Horsham 1 will finish third, on goal difference just behind Worthing. Brighton are worthy winners. Looking back before Christmas I think we can count ourselves a bit unfortunate. Although failing to beat Horsham 2 was incompetence we could only draw with StFHH when Baker and Noyce turned up for just about the only time this season. As nominated players this does make a mockery of things and I seem to recall this pair are serial offenders at this sort of thing. We also ran into Lewes without Gavin when Mark Broom made his only appearance to date (and Lim, Lawson and Costley all played).

I doubt we could have beaten Brighton but with a bit more fortune with how the fixtures fell we may have been able to put more pressure on them.