Sussex League

Well, it slipped my mind to post a report of this one (played 23rd Jan vs Crowborough 1) so here is a short summary of what I can remember...

But more of that later…..

So yesterday evening (3 February) brought Horsham 5 “to the turn and heading for home” and to the first of our three remaining MSL fixtures in Division 3 - all of which must be completed by the end of the month. I can now see why Mourinho complains about fixture congestion at this time of the season.

So first up a home game against East Grinstead 1. Although strong opponents across all boards we were calm and focused, buoyed up by the fact that we had all (slightly) improved our grades in January.

Update (19 January) - Uckfield 1 have now conceded Board 1 securing a win for Matthew and a drawn match for us....

.... So a cold, wet and dark Wednesday evening saw the Horsham 5 tour bus arrive in Uckfield for our first MSL game in Division 3 following the Christmas break. We were confident and determined to bounce back from our defeat at the hands of Eastbourne at the beginning of December. We were also quite relaxed - well I was anyway which I put down to the ongoing effects of jet lag having just flown back from Australia a few days earlier.

Last Tuesday saw Horsham 2 host Worthing 1, a team boosted by the presence of two strong former Knoll Knights players and therefore a force to be reckoned with this season...

The 6th team were victorious in their home match against Woodpushers 2 last night, winning by 3.5 - 1.5. Oliver Thorne and Richard Hewitt each won on the lower boards against noticeably higher-graded opponents. Peter Helliwell provided the 3rd win on board 3, while I had a draw on board 1. Roger Waddingham, alas, went down to a counter-attack from what had seemed a strong position.

Horsham 6 reach the mid-season point in a strong position, having now scored 4 out of 5 in MSL Division 4.

The full match results were:

Horsham 3 recently hosted Brighton and Hove 3 and despite being caught offside on a couple of occasions, ran out 3-2 winners. Ian and Nick, both with the Black pieces, were outplayed to leave us 0 - 2 before half time.
The second half was hard fought and saw Tim and Chris, both with the White pieces -- and almost identical attacks following their Closed Sicilian openings -- slowly gain ground. Chris won a piece late on, and Tim turned a solid draw into an excellent win. 2-2

I’d like to start by thanking John Marshall for his commitment to get to our Worthing match last night, after train delays to his morning commute he was faced by several more delays in the evening but still managed to make the venue just in time. Unfortunately even after knocking out the first 20 moves quickly he was still very much down on time which gave his opponent enough of an edge to take the game away from him.

Melusi’s game was also moving quickly however he had built a very strong attacking position with which he was able to tactically control and win his game, 1 all.

Horsham 2 nearly took their first points of the season in a very tight match with Haywards Heath 1 last Wednesday, but the hosts just edged it 3-2...

Earlier this week saw Horsham 5’s next sortie into the maelstrom know as MSL Division 3 – a home game against Worthing 3. On paper it was a very evenly matched contest. Could Horsham 5 bounce back from their close run defeat by Horsham 4 in their opening fixture?

First up was a crushing win by Brian on Board 4 so quick that he was able to get home to watch the second half of the Scotland v England football friendly! This was closely followed by a solid draw by Tony on Board 1.

The 1sts vs 2nds has been a close affair in recent years, but Horsham 1 reversed that trend by winning 4.5-0.5 over Horsham 2 on Tuesday night, although the result could have been a bit closer than the scoreline suggests…