Sussex Under 12 team third in NYCA competition (25-Sep-99)
This year, Sussex was represented at the National Youth Chess Association’s under 12 team competition in Stoke-on Trent. The team members included many of the previous year’s under 11 team with a few younger players taken along to broaden their team competition experience. The event itself was unusual in that whole teams competed against other teams in a ‘Swiss’ style competition.
Despite missing some of the top players due to a clash with an England event in Belgium and last minute sickness, the Sussex team exceeded all expectations in coming overall third on 37 points , only 1 point behind second, and 2 points behind the eventual winners, Richmond..
In the first round, Sussex were drawn against Greater Manchester, and were obviously suffering from travel weariness as they went down 7 – 5 to a team of ability. The second round drew Sussex against the favorites, Richmond, who had also had a poor start against weaker opposition. The form book held true, and Sussex went down 8 – 4. Each of the individual winners, Matthew Linnett, Joe Richardson, James May and Christopher Murphy should be congratulated on gaining points against their strong opponents. Having dropped to 8th place, the next two rounds saw Sussex drawn against weaker opposition, and took full advantage winning both rounds by 10 points to 2 . This pushed Sussex up to 3rd, and those with calculators realised that there was a distinct possibility of gaining second place (or even first) should we beat Somerset comprehensively. In the event, Susssex nearly succeeded, and only a loss by Richmond on the last board to finish saw the team remain in third spot.
A great time was had by all, and congratulations must go to both players and parents for making this a day to remember.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Total | ||
| Board | v Gt. Manchester | v Richmond | v Staffordshire | v Cheshire & North Wales | v Somerset | ||
| 1 | Nick Campion | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1½ |
| 2 | David Barraclough | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Matthew Linnett | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 3 |
| 4 | Scott Lympany | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3½ |
| 5 | Andrew L’Estrange | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Joe Richardson | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 7 | Daniel Khoo | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 2½ |
| 8 | James May | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 9 | Ben Thompson | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Christopher Murphy | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 11 | Iason Prassides | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3½ |
| 12 | Jack Holman | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 5 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 8 | ||
| Running Total | 5 | 9 | 19 | 29 | 37 | ||
| Current Position | 7= | 8 | 6= | 3 | 3 |
Team Results 1st Richmond 39 2nd Gt. Manchester 38 3rd Sussex 37 4th Lancashire 34 5th Glamorgan 33½ 6th Warwick 32 7th Somerset 31½ 8th Wiltshire 30 9th Cheshire& N Wales 19½ 10th Staffordshire 10½ (including a 12-0 walkover)