Mid Sussex League

In an evening of fluctuating fortunes Horsham 2 came close to a win but in the event had to settle for a sharing of the spoils with Lewes 1.

On board 1, Anthony stood modestly worse after a miscalculation in the opening which his opponent steadily exploited without ever allowing any counter play, ultimately leading to material loss.

Meanwhile Dix won an early pawn which he returned for piece activity but never quite enough for anything other than a shared point.

We started with an away match against the one Sussex Uni team and were wondering which of their previous two teams' worth of members would turn up. It was a mixed bag as it turned out. On board 1, Julie scored a fantastic draw against a player graded 70 points higher than her. Meanwhile, the next three of our team regulars all managed to shed material unnecessarily and lose against slightly weaker opposition. Our new member, Guy Turvey, played a solid game to achieve a deserved victory on board 5, giving the final result some respectability for our team (1.5 - 3.5).

On Friday the juniors played their first match of the season, and despite a brave showing the strength in depth of Crowborough shone through...

In its first 'external' match of the season, away against Worthing 2, Horsham 2 was modestly outgraded on all boards (average 15 points) and went down quite heavily 1.5-3.5.

First to finish after just 5 minutes and 5 moves (!) was Phil on board 1. His opponent was feeling particularly under the weather and in gentlemanly fashion, Phil agreed a 'grandmaster' draw.

Next up was Ian who, in a sharp position arising from his normal English, played his intended sequence of moves in the wrong order and as such finished the game in second place.

When a club has more than one team in a division in the Mid-Sussex League, it is normal for all the club's team to play each other, before playing the other teams. With Horsham 1 and 2 both in Division One, this meant that Horsham 1 vs Horsham 2 was the first match of the season.

Because of three first team players being unavailable, boards 3 to 5 of Horsham 1 were occupied by players one might normally expect to play for Horsham 2; admittedly two of them had played many games for the first team in previous seasons.

MSL have let us know that the first match of the season will be Horsham 1 v Horsham 2 on 16 October - let the opening preparation begin!

Horsham 1 drew with Brighton 1 in the final match of the season.

James Mansson won the exchange for a pawn after outplaying his opponent in the middlegame, but failed to find the best way to exploit his advantage and had to concede a draw.

The Forsters both drew as well. Mike Forster played a typically sharp game as Black where both sides seem to have their chances.

Horsham 3 were at home for their last match of the season needing a draw to guarantee second place in the division and it was bound to be a tough match with Lewes 2 needing a win to avoid probable relegation.

Horsham 2 finished their season with a disappointing loss 2-3 away against Lewes 2. As a result we will finish 3rd or 4th in Division 2 depending on the result of Woodpusher’s final game against Uckfield.
Lewes fielded one of their strongest teams of the season and all of the games were well contested. Phil was first to finish, agreeing a draw. I blundered badly on move 30 and resigned shortly afterwards as I was completely lost – this subsequently proved to be the critical game that cost us the match.

Horsham 1 scored a narrow 3-2 victory away against a strong Worthing 2 team.

Looking at the Worthing 2 line up, a number of the players could (and have) played for the first team, so it was clearly not going to be an easy night.

Matt Forster sensibly bailed out with a draw against Chris Jones when the latter offered it. His position looked rather shaky at the time as subsequent analysis seemed to demonstrate.

Paul Taylor won material against Peter Larwood on bottom board and consolidated to secure Horsham's first win.