Horsham 2 lose to strengthened Lewes side

The match evening started with a bit of a surprise with Lewes fielding Peter Farr as their top board. Well known and a long standing anchor for the Args (who aren't currently running a team in the new look league), Lewes evidently did some good transfer work in the close season!
Nevertheless, Phil as our board 1, despite the black pieces and a rating deficit of 150, more than held his own with a well fought draw in the last game to finish. Indeed after a cat and mouse English opening where white emerged with the ostensible advantage of 2B's v 2N's, Phil established a passed pawn on b3 supported by an unchallenged N and seemingly had chances for a win which were missed in time trouble. Peace was declared shortly afterwards.
On board 4, Nick as white faced the French Winawer with the queens coming off quite early. Entering the end game he maintained a modest plus but with rooks still on the board his advantage proved insufficient for more than a draw.
Sadly the same cannot be said for either Ian or myself, each being fairly comprehensively outplayed.
My own game as black was a sort of Steinitz French where I found a clever innovation in the early middle game which needless to say was nothing of the kind. Not terminal in itself, I subsequently found an even cleverer idea which most certainly was and whilst I struggled on for a dozen or so moves thereafter, my opponent had no trouble in bringing home the full point.
Whilst this was going on, I didn't get much of a chance to see Ian's English opening which led to a very sharp middle game but where his opponent always seemed to have the upper hand. Ian's efforts to muddy the waters were all successfully rebuffed
As such, a disappointing 1-3 loss.