Sussex League

Alex, Julie and Anthony represented Horsham at the Sussex League AGM last night and received the Mowatt Cup for league Division 1 winners Horsham 1. Team captain James is pictured with the cup after it was delivered to him in the pub the same evening!

Last Tuesday, Horsham 1 scored a memorable victory in an exciting match against a strong Brighton 1 team.

Since my last report, on the excellent away win against Worthing 1, Horsham 1 had accumulated enough points, given the results in other matches, that they needed a win by any margin to definitely take the league title.

Horsham 2 had another successful evening on Friday with a good draw against Bexhill maintaining our 4th position in Division 1.

I have been very lax in not posting on the progress of the 4th team as the season progresses. Our 4 - 0 thrashing of our luckless Eastbourne opponents last night has spurred me into action.
The season opener intra-club match had Roger's 5th team hold us to a draw. We then had a long break till past mid-November when we hosted East Grinstead Bookshop 2 (but following problems fielding teams, now their only team in the League) and we notched up our first win, by the margin of 3 - 1.

Horsham 1 scored a fine away win over Worthing 1 last night.

First to finish was Mark Broom, who was up against Russell Granat with Black on board two. His position look passive to start with, but he managed to launch a counter-attack to exploit his opponent's over-extension, winning material and forcing resignation.

The score was now 1-0 in Horsham 1's favour.

Horsham 1's progress in Sussex League Division 1 was halted by Eastbourne 1, as they crashed to a narrow away defeat.

The match looked to be going well for Horsham 1 as Gavin Lock secured a good win against the dangerous Maks Rozman on top board. However, progress was not so serene on the other boards.

Anthony Higgs ran into difficulties against Laurence Butt on board 4. He came under pressure from his opponent's Stonewall Attack and blundered, resulting in a loss.

The Horsham Knockout team have reached the knockout final for the second year in succession after a 2.5-2 win over Crowborough in the semi-final. The match was a tight affair with the teams fairly close on grading, Horsham conceding only a half point handicap with 2.5 points required for the win.

Horsham 1 continued their good run with an away win against Crowborough 1.

In the Sussex League, Horsham 1 continued their good start with another big win.

Eastbourne 2 arrived with a team filled with players who had previously graced their first team. However, the 200 point average grading difference proved too much as Horsham 1 defeated them by the margin of 3.5-0.5. Gavin Lock defeated Adrian Pickersgill, Mark Broom defeated James O'Dell, and James Mansson defeated Laurence Butt, while Paul Carpenter was the only Eastbourne player to salvage something by drawing with Anrthony Higgs.

Horsham 1 started the season with a 3-1 win over Horsham 2. Mark Broom beat Phil Stimpson and Mike Forster beat Ian Comley, while Gavin Lock drew with Anthony Higgs and James Mansson drew with Rob McDonald. The last game was an eventful encounter, where both sides had chances to gain a signficant advantage.