Mid Sussex League

A glance at the website revealed I hadn't posted a report for the final match of the season vs Worthing 2 which confirmed Horsham 1 in second place in Div 1. So here is the scorecard and a puzzle...

Congratulations to Matthew Forster for winning the Knight trophy with a very impressive score of 86% (6 out of 7).

As a club we scored 102 points from 210 games in the MSL leagues and KO which represents 49% .

I have circulated the full results by email but have copied all those with over 50% in the picture. Please remember that those with fewer than 4 games are not eligible for the Knight (hence the shading).

Julie, Anthony and I represented the club at the AGM last night. It was a pleasant evening which was not too contentious. I took home brief notes which I copy below. Julie stood down as fixtures secretary and earnt a round of applause for all her excellent work for the MSL.

Horsham 3 have been confirmed 2nd in the second division - this is a very strong division and does a lot of credit to the players involved.

John got an update from Brian Denman (see below) about the Brighton Crowborough match and its the worst possible result for Horsham 1 and Horsham 2 - a draw. This pushes Horsham 1 to second place, just nudging them out of the top spot once again (our last win was in 2010) and means relegation for Horsham 2 ... a disappointing end to the season.

The 2nd team completed their fixtures with two matches in the space of 4 days. Last Friday we played our re-arranged match away at Crowborough who fielded their strongest team of the season (!) and edged a 3-2 victory.

The 2nd team travelled to third place Hastings last Thursday. We managed three solid draws on Boards 1, 3 & 4, losing the match 3½-1½.
Phil was somewhat unfortunate as he had the initiative against his opponent’s London System but overlooked a combination that resulted in the loss of a piece.
J Sugden (191) ½-½ P Harbott (171)
H Tebbs (186) 1-0 P Stimpson (170)
B Cafferty (183) ½-½ T Pavlovic (170)
P Kelly (169) ½-½ I Comley (167)
B Ruane (160) 1-0 P Taylor (164)

The visit of Haywards Heath saw a chastening defeat for the first team from an initially promising position...

Horsham's junior rapidplay team travelled to Eastbourne for a tough fight ending in another tied match...

The junior team's second match saw a hard-fought tie...