Horsham 1 go down to Hastings 1 in season opener

The first Horsham 1 match of the season was the dreaded away trip to Hastings. I left early (shortly after 4:30pm) to make sure I got there on time, but only just about made it, due to some congestion on the A27. The Horsham 1 was pretty strong, despite a number of people being unavailable. Hastings 1 had a familiar look to it, with several regular fixtures dating back to the Ark (or so it sometimes seems), and only one new face (to me at any rate) on bottom board.

The board 4 game Cafferty - Roberts ended, to no one's surprise, in a draw. The point was also split in Lock - Rayner on the top board. Unfortunately, things went less well for us on the other boards. Paul Taylor lost material against Henry Cove on bottom board and resigned in a lost endgame. Anthony Higgs played one of his pet anti-Dutch lines as White against Howard Tebb to liven things up, but although he made it to the time control, he was material down with a lost position. The game Sugden - Mansson saw White apparently blundering an exchange in the opening, but it was in fact a known sacrifice and he gained good compensation in the form of the bishop pair and some strong central pawns. Black suffered from a lack of obvious counterplay, and his position gradually deteriorated until it was obviously lost at the time control.

The match therefore ended in a clear and disappointing defeat for Horsham 1. The full score of the match is given below:

Note that Horsham 1, as the away team, were White on odd-numbered boards.