Horsham fail to KO old foe

A team that married experience with youth travelled down to Brighton but was ultimately unsuccessful in their knockout match...

Well as KO team captain I relegated myself to the bench as Thursday nights are problematic for me without lots of notice. Keen to give the younger players in the club a chance, I selected a team of rising stars alongside the cool heads of Mick and Paul. We always seem to come up short against Brighton when playing in KO matches, whether MSL or McArthur Cup, would history repeat itself? Mick reports on what happened:

"Brighton threw us a curve ball and played Callum Brewer – a 188 graded first team player, but the team grading differential was only 58, meaning Brighton needed 3 points to win and Horsham 2.5 to win.

Oliver played a level opening and a good middlegame, but was foiled by a shrewd tactic losing the exchange in an endgame.

Next to finish was Zevon who was the hero of the night. He completely outplayed his 120 graded opponent and brilliantly won a piece which caused his opponent’s immediate resignation.

Paul and Mick on boards 3 & 4 were both guilty of getting into time trouble and towards 10pm both lost hard-fought games.

Matt was playing Callum and was undoubtedly outplaying him! A high class game with queens, opposite coloured bishops and 6/5 pawns left. Callum in severe time trouble did have an outside passed pawn which eventually tied down Matt’s bishop after the queens were swapped -- allowing Callum a breakthrough on the opposite flank and a win at about 10:30pm.

The rain and wind were extreme for the journey home to add insult to injury. Many thanks to the mums for their patience in waiting for the final game to finish."

A valiant effort. Results:

188 Callum Brewer 1–0 Matthew Forster 156
158 Robin Jones 1–0 Paul Richardson 149
124 Michael Cain 1-0 Mick Harris 137
120 Anthony Stanton 0–1 Zevon Rustom 107
105 Sue Chadwick 1–0 Oliver Thorne 89

4-1 to Brighton, who go through.