A frustrating end to the season for Horsham 2

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.
Peter played a very solid game with the black pieces against Gareth Anthony who out-graded him by 25 points and accepted his offer of a draw. Phil fell victim to a very sharp attack by Amardip against his Scandanavian Defence. My game was a fairly lack-lustre affair which ended up in a drawn Queen, Rook & Pawn position. Ian was somewhat unfortunate having had the initiative before reaching a rather bizarre position where his attacked knight had no squares to move to. Paul won comfortably, being the first to finish.
G Anthony (196) ½-½ P Harbott (171)
A Ahluwalia (182) 1-0 P Stimpson (170)
R Elliston (178) ½-½ T Pavlovic (170)
D Fryer (170) 1-0 I Comley (167)
M Redman (123) 0-1 P Taylor (164)
We followed this up with a visit to Worthing 2 on Monday knowing a victory would definitely secure our status in Division 1 for next season. It was therefore particularly disappointing that we were defeated 3-2 again.
Peter was a pawn up before making a blunder that cost him a piece – he fought on valiantly but was unable to save the game. I missed a tactic that would have won a pawn before reaching a sterile position. Ian played the English against an English player and ended up in a solid but equal position and accepted his opponent’s offer of a draw. Paul went astray in his French Defence and Matt played very well to secure our only victory.
C Graham (169) 1-0 P Harbott (171)
N Skinner (161) ½-½ T Pavlovic (170)
P Larwood (163) ½-½ I Comley (167)
J Everett (160) 1-0 P Taylor (164)
G Neale (150) 0-1 Matt Forster (168)
We must now await the outcome of the Brighton v. Crowborough match this Thursday, 27th April as we need Brighton to win to secure our Division 1 status at the expense of Crowborough, who have had one point deducted for the late cancellation of their originally scheduled match with us. Should Crowborough win that match then we would be relegated but Horsham 1 would win Division 1. The worst result would be a 2½-2½ draw in which case Brighton will win Division 1 and we will be relegated – finger’s crossed.