Horsham 2

27/10/17 - Updated to include club events and Rapidplay competition

Horsham’s Mid Sussex League season kicked off on Tuesday night with the much awaited 2nd team versus 3rd team clash in Division 2. Both teams fielded strong sides and it was always going to be a close, tense affair. The 2nd team out-graded the 3rd team by an average of 12 points and being the away team had the benefit of three whites, but it was clear that each individual match would be closely fought!

John got an update from Brian Denman (see below) about the Brighton Crowborough match and its the worst possible result for Horsham 1 and Horsham 2 - a draw. This pushes Horsham 1 to second place, just nudging them out of the top spot once again (our last win was in 2010) and means relegation for Horsham 2 ... a disappointing end to the season.

The 2nd team completed their fixtures with two matches in the space of 4 days. Last Friday we played our re-arranged match away at Crowborough who fielded their strongest team of the season (!) and edged a 3-2 victory.

The 2nd team travelled to third place Hastings last Thursday. We managed three solid draws on Boards 1, 3 & 4, losing the match 3½-1½.
Phil was somewhat unfortunate as he had the initiative against his opponent’s London System but overlooked a combination that resulted in the loss of a piece.
J Sugden (191) ½-½ P Harbott (171)
H Tebbs (186) 1-0 P Stimpson (170)
B Cafferty (183) ½-½ T Pavlovic (170)
P Kelly (169) ½-½ I Comley (167)
B Ruane (160) 1-0 P Taylor (164)

Important wins by Phil Stimpson and Paul Taylor on Boards 2 & 5 respectively secured a vital win for the 2nd team against struggling Woodpushers 1.
Phil was the first to finish executing a beautiful attack against Ian Kelly’s exposed King. I made a couple of poor decisions in my game and could manage no better than a drawn rook, minor piece and pawn ending. Paul won a piece and duly turned his game into a win and Ian secured a draw to get to the all-important 3 points !

A very strong Brighton team gave the 2nd team an extremely tough match last night – the visitors were taking no chances after we had held them to a draw last year.
As I spent most of the evening concentrating on my own game I am not able to provide any commentary about the other games, save to say Paul played very solidly with the Black pieces to gain an impressive draw against Geoffrey James. Although I was a pawn up at adjudication the Queen, Rook & Pawn ending was technically drawn, so we ended up going down 1-4.
P Stimpson (171) 0-1 R Cumming (213)

The 2nd team entertained a strong Worthing line-up who out-graded us on the top boards. We were again strengthened by Dix playing on Board 1 and yet again he secured a draw against a higher graded opponent, this time with the black pieces.

A tough Friday night for the 2nd team who travelled down to Eastbourne - four of the five games went the full session but it was worthwhile as we gained a 3-2 win, thanks in part to a little bit of good fortune.
The team was strengthened by the appearance of Dix on Board 1 and he played strongly against Rasa and held a slight advantage throughout the game but did not have quite enough to convert the endgame into a win. Paul had been the first to finish accepting his opponent’s offer of a draw in a level position that resulted from the exchange variation of the French.

The 2nd team had a disappointing Division 1 match away at Haywards Heath, eventually losing 4-1. Despite being heavily out-graded on the top two boards both Phil & Peter had very close matches - their opponents only gaining advantages towards the very end of the playing session.