Horsham 1 undertake the Tour de Sussex

A loss for the first team away at Hastings 1, following which the team explored Sussex in the dark...

Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World is a classic of early twentieth century literature, but rather than evoking the icy wastes of the Antarctic plateau he really should have tried to drive home from Hastings of an evening. Horsham 1 were confronted with three closed roads at various points, with the result that James (furthest to travel) probably got home at 1am!

Before that though there was the small matter of the match. On board 4 Alex had heroically stepped in as a Covid substitute but found himself in a crossfire from Bernard Cafferty's bishops. This won material and Alex was soon forced to resign. On board 1 Mark had a good position out of his English opening against Daniel Lowe, but some dogged defence held Mark at bay and secured the draw for Black.

On board 2 James faced another English from Francis Rayner. Francis offered a draw but with the team one down James played on. Unfortunately the position turned against James and he succumbed to a kingside attack. Finally on board 3 I was last to finish as usual! In a slightly unusual Benoni against John Sugden (I played Nc3-d1-f2) the position was dynamically balanced and I sacrificed a pawn for piece coordination. This seemed to work and John returned the pawn to neutralise my threats. When James lost I offered a draw as the match was gone and this was accepted.

So a 3-1 loss but a close match really. Next week Hastings 2 visit us, hopefully they will have better luck with the roads.

D. Lowe 1/2-1/2 M. Broom
F. Rayner 1-0 J.C. Mansson
J.N. Sugden 1/2-1/2 A.R.J. Higgs
B. Cafferty 1-0 A. Taylor