With the sudden death of Sean Horan just before the ECF quarter final, Essex have found themselves without an U1650 and U1450 captain in addition to the already vacant U1850 team captaincy. The ECA Executive at its recent meeting has resolved to only enter County Teams which have a captain. At the present time this means […]
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Having emerged from the AGM in June with absolutely no County teams personnel at all, the ECA is happy to announce that the four rating-limited teams entered for the County Championships now have team captains and, what’s more, one deptuty team captain. Team Captains for 2023-24U2050 – Michael Spurr; Deputy Captain, James Robinson;U1850 – Mark […]
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From Mark Murrell Last season Kent teams in the closing stages of the SCCU County Championships were responsible for ending Essex ambitions and how close they came on the final day of the present Essex U1850 and U1450 campaigns. In the U1450 Kent raced into a 3-0 lead whilst in the U1850 three early draws […]
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From Mark Murrell Middlesex playing at their fourth venue this season, at Clayhill Community Center, Wembley Park, seemed to hold all the cards for a difficult away trip for both Essex U1850 and U1450 teams, particularly as the U1450 team lost a key middle order player over night due to illness. Just how Essex like […]
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From Mark Murrell As champions elect going into dead rubbers for our Essex U2050 and U1650 teams and the longest excursion of the campaigns, skippers Mark Murrell and Malcolm Crane nevertheless assembled competitive teams whilst taking advantage of the opportunity to introduce new players to Essex over-the-board county chess. It was not however all plain […]
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From ECA Match Captain, Mark Murrell: Essex made up for a double defeat away to the visiting Surrey teams back in November with a double home win both the Essex U1850 and U1450 teams turning the tables – and some – in the case of the U1450s, who as a result top the table with […]
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From ECA Match Captain, Mark Murrell Double wins have been the norm this season whenever the U2050 and U1650 Essex teams have played together and round 5 of 6 was no exception. This one was special though with both Essex teams securing a divisional Championship with a match still to play. The U1650s join the […]
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SCCU U1650: Essex 10½-5½ SurreyAt Wanstead. At the start of play skipper Malcolm was bemoaning the loss of some of his top players who were available for the original match date back on October 1st but not for the rescheduled match. On paper, Surrey out-rated Essex over the top 10 boards, but Essex won by […]
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SCCU U2050: Essex 12½-3½ KentAt Wanstead. Great effort today against an under-strength Kent, but nevertheless making the most of the rating advantage and pressing for those extra half points for a 9 point winning margin: 12½-3½. Kent took the early lead, Sasha beat the Kent skip to level and from then on it was plain sailing. […]
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SCCU U2050: Middx 7½-8 EssexAt Shepherd’s Bush Essex were missing a number of regulars for various reasons, but when the teams were declared so were Middx and there was nothing between the two teams on paper. Some Essex players were delayed by problems on the M25, but all arrived within default time. Middlesex held the […]
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