Mid Sussex League

Yesterday, Horsham 1 scored a big win against Brighton 2.

Gavin Lock, James Mansson and Phil Stimpson all scored decisive victories over their opponents.

Anthony Higgs had a tough struggle against Robin Jones, who eventually slipped up, allowing Anthony an immediate win.

The last game to finish was Dix Roberts against Michael Hamilton. Dix appeared to have gained a decisive advantage in the endgame, but his opponent defended doggedly, and he was unable to find a way through; he therefore agreed to a draw.

This gave Horsham 1 a 4.5-0.5 win.

Horsham 1 scored a good win away at Worthing 1 last Monday.

Horsham was able to field its strongest team, which was important against a typically tough Worthing side.

Matthew Forster was first to finish, with a good win as Black against Mike Nicholas.

Seeing this, Anthony Higgs decided to offer a draw to Cassie Graham in a balanced position, which was accepted.

Mike Forster had a complicated struggle against Dominic Miller, which ended as a draw, as such things often do.

This left the two games on boards one and two.

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.