17 Mar Essex finally got on the scoreboard with a home draw against Surrey, although the visitors almost overcame the concession of no fewer than five defaults.

Other match: Kent 9½-5½ Sussex.

25 Feb 0/2 to date, Essex had only one route to the national stages, which was to win its last two matches, while Kent gained no more than ½ in theirs, to see Essex scrape into the third qualification place. Kent fulfilled their part of the bargain by losing to Middx, but the wheels came of the Essex wagon when they lost 11-5 to Sussex at Hassocks.

In any match, a small handful of results can be expected to go against the grades - three such results would be a lot - while you expect to break even on the close pairings. What happened to Essex on this occasion, fits the concept of "a perfect storm". On four boards where the grading difference was no more than three points (for or against) were Essex losses, as were a further three boards, on each of which Essex held a grading advantage of between 7 and 23 points. In the drawn games, Essex held a grading advantage of between 8 and 12 points per board. Sussex had only one "accident", on board 8.

Other match: Middx 10½-5½ Kent.

21 Jan Essex 7-9 Middx at Wanstead was not the way the U180 wanted to start the New Year. 0/2 - it's an uphill climb from here, but three qualify from this section, so we still have a chance for the national stages. Skipper David Brock certainly can't be faulted for the example he has set, with his personal tally of 2/2 leading the team stats.

Other match: Surrey 9-7 Sussex

19 Oct Surrey 8½-7½ Kent;  Sussex 7-9 Middx.

22 Oct: In the U180 team's opening fixture, Essex suffered a narrow 8½-7½ defeat away to Kent at Dartford.

The other match was Middlesex 9½-6½ Surrey.

Report by David Brock

Essex won the toss and we were white on odd boards. On paper we outgraded Kent by a massive 110 points of which 25 of those were because their Captain stepped in for one of their players who was late on board 7.

From the start things were fairly even and after about 20 minutes there was no obvious advantage to either side. As I was playing myself I did not get a chance to study all of the games but I did notice that Colin Ramage was having his usual wild game (more to follow). Chris Hampton was under a bit of pressure from his young opponent and had to give up a piece to survive . I had the advantage myself in a Barry attack against my own young opponent.

The first game to finish was Mark Murrell with and early draw. This was shortly followed by draws by both John Moore and Ian Hunnable. Ian's opponent, the Kent Captain, did particularly well as he had to step in after 30 minutes as one of his players had not appeared. However as soon as he started playing his player turned up and did not seem too happy that he did not have a game. I could see both sides as a captain how long do you wait for someone to step in and as a player you have travelled all that way not to have a game? Who is right and who is wrong?

Finishes by John Philpott and David Millward followed with further draws. In Chris Hampton's game he seemed to have got back in the game with pressure against his opponent despite being a piece down. However his young opponent seemed to have an answer to everything Chris tried and eventually the extra piece paid off.

Luckily enough I was next to finish with a nice win against my youngster who overplayed his position and was left with an isolated pawn on my 7th rank, which I quickly mopped up and left me with a passed pawn extra pawn to the good. He resigned soon after. This levelled the scores.

Just after this there were a few games which finished in quick succession with points going both ways. Firstly Matthew Shaw could not hold his game, facing a pawn on the 7th supported by Queen and two rooks; with Matthew stuck on the back rank he was eventually worn down.

Colin Ramage seemed to have the game of the day with first one winning then the other. At one stage Colin had an all out attack against his opponent and I thought he was going to mate him easily. Next I looked Colin had lost all of his pieces and had a Queen and pawn on the seventh against his opponent who was about 3 pieces up but they were all stuck on the back rank. But some how he managed to win the game which you can find below. (Source: Chess5 - WM)

Ian Reynolds managed to win on board 1 with a passed pawn supported by his bishop on the a-file against his opponent's knight. The bishop won that battle.

Next was Neville Twitchell who was up against 3 pawns to his 1. Neville could snatch two pawns back, but unfortunately chose the wrong pawn to attack and lost on time a few moves later in a lost position.

This left the scores all level.

Both Peter Doye and Philip Staniland agreed draws in level positions and this left 3 games to go. On two they seemed fairly level but on Gavin's board he was a piece down against his young sharp opponent. In fact I saw his young opponent's Mum and sister outside in the corridor trying to peer through the door as they did not want to put him off. They asked me how he was doing and I had to confirm that unfortunately he seemed to have a won position, which was proved right a few moves later when Gavin resigned.

Which left two games to salvage something and both games were down to the last few minutes. Jim Howson agreed a draw with his opponent in a fairly level position. This just left Ivor Smith who at one stage seemed to have the better position. But once things were swapped off his opponent managed to get his king into Ivor's position and win a pawn. This led to a pawn race with Ivor having to give up both knight and bishop. His opponent Queened his pawn and we were down to the last few minutes on the clock. Ivor had his king and  two pawns on the seventh where his opponent checked him with his queen in haste. Ivor could have taken the queen but mistakenly seemed to think it was protected by a pawn which was pointing in the wrong direction. But instead he moved his king away!! However, his opponent managed to stalemate Ivor soon after.

This meant that Kent won the match by the odd point. At least we did not lose the battle of the youngsters as it was 2½ each.

Report by David Brock

The match started about five minutes late to ensure everyone was settled and team sheets were exchanged correctly. David Smith kindly agreed to play on bottom board as one of our players dropped out the night before. The Middlesex team was particularly strong and they out graded our team by a total of 72 points. They even had two substitutes who had travelled with them so they were obviously up for the game and wanted to win. I had lost the toss which meant we had white on even boards.

Early exchanges were fairly level and the first game to finish was David Smith who drew with the Middlesex Captain Anthony Fulton after about 40 minutes. This was a good result especially as he was out graded by 16 points.

At about this time my own game was rather strange in that my opponent seemed to be treating me with a certain air of confidence and some look of contempt every time I played a move. As I had not played for a while I had already decided to take my time today and I was playing rather slowly which may have given my opponent the impression I was going to be easy pickings, especially as he answered every move rather quickly. I say this as about now I managed to trap my opponent's bishop. He could exchange it for two pawns but, as he was playing so fast, he picked up the wrong piece. He then realised his mistake instantly and then tried to play dum and asked "did I touch my rook?" Which I replied "you must certainly did". He then thought about it, looked at me strangely and picked up his coat, bag and belongings and walked out. When I politely asked him whether he was carrying, ignored me. He was next seen outside walking down the road towards the station. His own players commented "I cannot believe he just did that". Anyway, I carried on quite expecting him to never appear again and having to claim a win on time. However, about 15 minutes later he came back, got himself a cup of tea and carried on like nothing had happened. I could only presume he had calmed down by then and seen the error of his ways.

Gavin was next to finish with another draw. As I obviously had time on my hands I took a look around at the other boards and I could see that on at least three of the boards we were looking worse. Mark had given up a piece for a passed pawn, while Howard had two of his opponent's pawns camped amongst his pieces and Syd had fallen for a fork on his King and Queen. Therefore the signs were not looking good.

Ian on board one was next to finish with a draw. Mark then lost to his opponent's extra piece. My own opponent had come back and we had made the time control. I had managed to swap off the other pieces and made a passed pawn supported by my extra bishop. My opponent then resigned, shook hands and left.

This levelled the match but we were now in a worse position on about five boards. Ivor was playing against the British U13 Champion who looked determined to add Ivor's scalp to his collection. So Ivor had to defend resolutely. Malcolm was next to finish as his opponent had worn him down and checked Malcolm's king on the back rank supported by the queen. Malcolm could have taken the rook but he would have been mated so he resigned.

Ian Hunnable's game finished quickly after this with a draw. Howard could not hold on as his opponent's pawns which, backed up with his pieces, made the seventh rank and Howard unfortunately capitulated. This left the match currently with Middlesex two games to the good.

Poor Chris Hampton had a rook which seemed to be pinned down and he was trying to find some counter play with his knight. Unfortunately this had put his knight in danger and he was having a long think. Syd finished next with another loss as the extra pieces his opponent had paid off.

John Moore was next to finish with another draw and at this stage things were not looking good as I could not see where the next win was going to come from.

Chris Hampton then resigned as his opponent had a pawn on the sixth supported by a queen and was about to win Chris' knight or mate him. Middlesex were now four to the good and the writing was on the wall with four games to go. We then surprisingly performed a mini revival and both Philip and Neville pulled off good wins against their opponents. Philip's game was double-edged but he manged to win through, while Neville had managed to get a pawn to the seventh rank supported by rook and king, which meant his opponent resigned.

This left just Adam and Ivor to finish. Adam's game was fairly level but he had two connected pawns in the centre in a R&P endgame which meant his opponent had to be careful. You could see the determination on Adam's face to win but unfortunately despite his best efforts it worked out in a draw and we unfortunately lost the match.

All of the damage had been done earlier in the day. Ivor Was trying hard to win his game but his young opponent seemed to have all the answers and a draw was agreed shortly after.

Thank you to everyone who played and a big thank you to both David and Jane Smith for all the help they provided and to Debbie Taylor for providing lifts on the day.

Comments by David Brock:

Despite the fact that Surrey gave us a four game start and then defaulted another board, we only managed to draw with them 8-8.

This is our last game this season in which has been a bit of a disaster to say the least. However I am sure we can rectify things next season as this year we have gone from winning the SCCU without losing a match to not winning a match this year. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

One good thing came out of yesterdays game was that Naomi Wei played her first game for Essex and although she lost she played well and only got worn down in the endgame. So I believe she could be a rising star over the next few years and hopefully she will continue to play for Essex. Hopefully there will be more players like Naomi and Adam Taylor coming through the ranks over the next year or so.

SCCU U180 Table - Final

Believe this table at your own risk. While every effort has been made to present this data accurately, in accordance with the SCCU County Match Rules, it is all the Webmaster's own work and he is only human. In the case of any doubt, please defer to the information published by the SCCU, the ultimate arbiter being the County Match Controller. Link: SCCU Website

Kent 9½-5½ Sussex, one board double default.