Sussex League

Horsham 2 achieved a pleasing 3-2 victory against Haywards Heath 1 last Tuesday. This promised to be a very tight match with both teams having the same average grade of 173 – they were stronger (on paper) on Boards 1 & 2 and we out-gunned them on 4 & 5 (with our strength in depth!).

A pretty impressive looking result for Horsham 3 last night.

The most unusual opening was on top board where Marc Bryant tried to outwit Roy Page with 1.a3 g6 2. h3 b6 which is unusual. He tried a later g3 and Rh2 to allow Bg2 but Roy always looked very strong and his attack soon became overwhelming.

Horsham 1 took a big stride towards winning the top division by defeating current leaders and last year's winners Worthing 1 decisively on Tuesday night...

Horsham 3 played a home game versus Woodpushers on Tuesday, we were missing our star performer Matthew but Roy Page was able to step into board 1 for us.

Only one game was finished before time control, Ian on board 2 had a great attack going and looked like a mating net was close after an exchange sacrifice but his opponent was able to get his queen back into the defence and hold.

With a few regulars missing, Horsham 1 still ran out comfortable winners down at Eastbourne 1...

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

Horsham 4 again failed to field a full team last night on our visit to Woodpushers. Our intended board 1 pulled out at the very last minute - indeed I only found out by a phone call at 7:45. As we hadn't actually started yet, we had to move everyone else up a board. The Woodpushers captain (Julian Mitchell) would have played on board 3, but then elected to move himself down to board 5, allowing all his other players to get a game.

Horsham 2 faced a tough match on paper with the visit of Brighton 1 on Tuesday. Despite missing three of their regular players, Brighton still out-graded us heavily on the top four boards so it was a marvellous effort by our players to secure a very creditable 2½-2½ draw.
Peter was the first to finish – his Torre Attack lead to a very blocked position and a draw was agreed after 21 moves with all the pieces bar two bishops still on the board! Alex was next to finish having won a pawn fairly early on followed by another, before mating Paul Selby to give us the lead in the match.

An under-strength Horsham 1 did well to take half a point from Hastings 1 back on 19th November...

The 2nd team journeyed down to Hove on Thursday and recorded a 3½ – 1½ win against Brighton 2. Overall it was a fairly comfortable win, being materially ahead on all five boards after 2½ hrs. play. Alex, playing a Sicilian with black, scored our first victory, winning a couple of pawns following a central thrust. Paul then put us 2-0 up winning a Sicilian with white; having captured a pawn through sheer force he had full control of the position and Paul Selby resigned shortly after.