Sussex League

Horsham 1's hopes of winning the league ended with a defeat against a very strong Hastings 1 team.

Horsham unfortunately had two of their first choice team (Gavin Lock and Matt Forster) unavailable, while Hastings 1, in addition to their club regulars, wheeled out GM Bogdan Lalic on board one.

James Mansson unsurprisingly lost with the Black pieces against Bogdan Lalic on top board.

Matters were then not helped by Phil Stimpson losing to Howard Tebbs, which left Horsham with a 2-0 deficit to overcome.

Division 3 have a final table for Mid Sussex League s I thought I would share it in case you had misssed it.

As you can see Horsham 4 had a solid performance - all these divisions keep getting tougher!

At the start of April, Horsham 1 scored a comfortable win away against Lewes 1.

Anthony Higgs and Matt Forster overwhelmed their opponents on the bottom two boards to give Horsham a 2-0 lead.

Mike Forster played out a solid draw to take the score to 2.5-0.5.

Although Gavin had a very good position, he judiciously accepted the draw when offered it, in order to secure the match victory.

Back in March, Horsham 1 scored another big win, this time against Haywards Heath 1.

Horsham were helped by Jeff Boardman's failure to turn up, which meant that Haywards Heath defaulted on board two.

Anthony Higgs scored a win over Martin Faulkner, as the latter's position rapidly went downhill after a mistake in a complicated position.

In mid-February, Horsham 1 played away against Hastings 2 in the Mid-Sussex League. Horsham 1 were not able to field quite their strongest team, while Hastings 2 were able to put out a strong line up, so a tough match was in prospect.

Early on, Dix got into trouble against Bernard Cafferty and ended up in what seemed like a lost endgame, but somehow managed to hold it.

Phil obtained a typically complex position against Tobias Stock, but the game fizzled out into a draw.

Back in February, Horsham 1 were up against Worthing 2 at home. The match ended in a one-sided 4.5-0.5 victory for Horsham 1.

Only Chris Jones managed a draw for Worthing 2, against Gavin Lock in a complicated game. James Mansson had a big slice of luck, where a mistake he made in a strong position went unnoticed by his demoralised opponent, who promptly resigned on the following move. Otherwise, the games went very much in Hosham's favour, as reflected by the final score.

Horsham 2 rounded off a highly satisfactory season back in division 1 with a 3-2 win against Brighton 2, thereby finishing with 4.5 match points out of 10 and 23.5 game points, not far off 50% on both measures.

H2 currently stands 5th out of 11, above all other second teams and three first teams (Eastbourne, Lewes and Haywards Heath). All of those teams below us have one or two matches still to play and it remains mathematically possible for us to slip to 7th but the position will be a lot clearer after the current flurry of activity.

Modestly out graded, Horsham 2 secured a good fighting draw against Eastbourne 1 though not without a huge slice of luck in one of the games.

With my own issues (see later) I observed little of Phil’s game though was aware he faced the Sicilian with an inevitably sharp position arising. I understand he then initiated some exchanges in the wrong move order with a terminal result.

Next to finish was Peter’s which looked a fairly solid game with a nice tactic ensuring a draw by perpetual.

Horsham Juniors have been in action in three successive weeks recently, here's how they got on...

With one result still to be agreed, Horsham 2 have already done enough (3-1) to ensure an encouraging win against Haywards Heath 1.

I saw very little of Paul's game which finished relatively early with decisive gain of material ensuring a good start to the evening for Horsham.

Peter for his part sacrificed a piece for a pawn whilst still in the opening which I understand was subsequently analysed to be unsound but which led to a lasting initiative in practical play and ultimately to an agreed draw after considerable adventures on both sides.