Mid Sussex League

Last Thursday Horsham 2 made the long journey to Hastings, despite missing 3 of our best players, Ian and Bob stepped into the breach, and unfortunately we lost a close match having been noticeably outgraded.

Ian's game was the first to finish with an equal middlegame transtitioning to an endgame where Ian's opponent had unpleasant pressure down the a-file. Ian fought hard but his opponent found the right moves to bring home the game for Hastings.

Horsham 1 overcame Horsham 2 in a tightly-contested match on Tuesday 15th October.

The first team were missing only Gavin Lock on board 1, and the second team were also able to put out a good line up.

As technically the away team, Horsham 1 were White on the odd boards.

Not helped by my own poor effort, Horsham 3 made the long trek to Hastings for no tangible reward, losing narrowly despite modestly out grading our hosts.

I saw little of Chris S-L's game which he finished in quick time through a strong kingside attack against black's fianchettoed bishop resulting in serious material gain and leading to early success for Horsham.

Horsham 1 finished the season with a good win against Brighton 1. Depending on the result of Hastings 1 against Worthing 1, Horsham 1 will either end up in second or third.

Gavin Lock scored a fairly quick win in a sharp line of the Modern Benoni. His opponent made a serious error in a tricky position and resigned at once following Gavin's reply.

The game between Phil Stimpson and Paul Selby saw Phil launch a sharp attack, against which Paul was unable to defend. Horsham went two up with this game.

Horsham 1's hopes of winning the league ended with a defeat against a very strong Hastings 1 team.

Horsham unfortunately had two of their first choice team (Gavin Lock and Matt Forster) unavailable, while Hastings 1, in addition to their club regulars, wheeled out GM Bogdan Lalic on board one.

James Mansson unsurprisingly lost with the Black pieces against Bogdan Lalic on top board.

Matters were then not helped by Phil Stimpson losing to Howard Tebbs, which left Horsham with a 2-0 deficit to overcome.

Division 3 have a final table for Mid Sussex League s I thought I would share it in case you had misssed it.

As you can see Horsham 4 had a solid performance - all these divisions keep getting tougher!

At the start of April, Horsham 1 scored a comfortable win away against Lewes 1.

Anthony Higgs and Matt Forster overwhelmed their opponents on the bottom two boards to give Horsham a 2-0 lead.

Mike Forster played out a solid draw to take the score to 2.5-0.5.

Although Gavin had a very good position, he judiciously accepted the draw when offered it, in order to secure the match victory.

Back in March, Horsham 1 scored another big win, this time against Haywards Heath 1.

Horsham were helped by Jeff Boardman's failure to turn up, which meant that Haywards Heath defaulted on board two.

Anthony Higgs scored a win over Martin Faulkner, as the latter's position rapidly went downhill after a mistake in a complicated position.

In mid-February, Horsham 1 played away against Hastings 2 in the Mid-Sussex League. Horsham 1 were not able to field quite their strongest team, while Hastings 2 were able to put out a strong line up, so a tough match was in prospect.

Early on, Dix got into trouble against Bernard Cafferty and ended up in what seemed like a lost endgame, but somehow managed to hold it.

Phil obtained a typically complex position against Tobias Stock, but the game fizzled out into a draw.

Back in February, Horsham 1 were up against Worthing 2 at home. The match ended in a one-sided 4.5-0.5 victory for Horsham 1.

Only Chris Jones managed a draw for Worthing 2, against Gavin Lock in a complicated game. James Mansson had a big slice of luck, where a mistake he made in a strong position went unnoticed by his demoralised opponent, who promptly resigned on the following move. Otherwise, the games went very much in Hosham's favour, as reflected by the final score.