Sussex League

When a club has more than one team in a division in the Mid-Sussex League, it is normal for all the club's team to play each other, before playing the other teams. With Horsham 1 and 2 both in Division One, this meant that Horsham 1 vs Horsham 2 was the first match of the season.

Because of three first team players being unavailable, boards 3 to 5 of Horsham 1 were occupied by players one might normally expect to play for Horsham 2; admittedly two of them had played many games for the first team in previous seasons.

MSL have let us know that the first match of the season will be Horsham 1 v Horsham 2 on 16 October - let the opening preparation begin!

Horsham 1 drew with Brighton 1 in the final match of the season.

James Mansson won the exchange for a pawn after outplaying his opponent in the middlegame, but failed to find the best way to exploit his advantage and had to concede a draw.

The Forsters both drew as well. Mike Forster played a typically sharp game as Black where both sides seem to have their chances.

Horsham 3 were at home for their last match of the season needing a draw to guarantee second place in the division and it was bound to be a tough match with Lewes 2 needing a win to avoid probable relegation.

Horsham 2 finished their season with a disappointing loss 2-3 away against Lewes 2. As a result we will finish 3rd or 4th in Division 2 depending on the result of Woodpusher’s final game against Uckfield.
Lewes fielded one of their strongest teams of the season and all of the games were well contested. Phil was first to finish, agreeing a draw. I blundered badly on move 30 and resigned shortly afterwards as I was completely lost – this subsequently proved to be the critical game that cost us the match.

Horsham 1 scored a narrow 3-2 victory away against a strong Worthing 2 team.

Looking at the Worthing 2 line up, a number of the players could (and have) played for the first team, so it was clearly not going to be an easy night.

Matt Forster sensibly bailed out with a draw against Chris Jones when the latter offered it. His position looked rather shaky at the time as subsequent analysis seemed to demonstrate.

Paul Taylor won material against Peter Larwood on bottom board and consolidated to secure Horsham's first win.

Horsham 3 were away to Crowborough on Friday evening and expecting a tough challenge. Crowborough put up two strong players but thankfully not as strong as we were expecting and we out graded them heavily on boards 3-5 so fancied our chances.

Horsham 2 returned to winning ways with a convincing 4-1 home victory on Tuesday against Eastbourne 2.
The four games that we won were all done so fairly comfortably – Dix, Lucy & Chris all won material quite early on and had no problems converting their advantage to win. Phil was able to play one of his favourite lines of the Grand Prix Attack and a strong attack also lead to a comfortable win.

Horsham 1 were defeated at home by Worthing 1 last Tuesday.

Horsham 1 fell behind with James Mansson losing quickly after a couple of mistakes as White in a sharp Sicilian Dragon.

Matt Forster also lost as he fell into a bad position as Black against his opponent's Grand Prix Attack and was unable to recover.

Anthony Higgs pulled one back, as he unearthed a brilliant continuation to turn around a bad position.

The top and bottom board games were unfinished on the night, but subsequent analysis showed them both to be drawn.

This gave Worthing a 3-2 win.

Woodpushers 1 were only able to field four players against Horsham 2 last night but they somehow managed to conjure wins on the top three boards to take the match 3-2.
Lucy, playing her first match for the 2nd team, produced a top class win. From a Maroczy Bind position against the Sicilian she had full control of the whole board and black’s position fell apart after Lucy sacrificed a piece in an attack against her opponent’s King and followed this up with clinical accuracy.