A belated Happy New Year to all schools and chess coaches / staff. Thank you so much for completing almost all the chess from the first round of matches in a busy second half of the autumn term.
We welcome Bexhill Academy into the Butler Cup competition this term and along with Sandown C entering, having stepped in last term to complete a group, we now have 50 teams across both competitions for the first time since pre-covid which is most encouraging!
Most teams are in groups playing different schools to last term but keeping an eye on distances to host schools, there are occasions when teams come up against one team they played last term. Results of matches last term don’t significantly affect the groupings below but results from the first two terms of games will help determine the groups for Finals Day, to be played in the summer term on Tuesday 10th June.
As last term, most of the groups are ‘all play all’ but there are a couple of five team jamborees. The team with an asterisk is the suggested host school but if a school would rather not host I’m sure another school will be happy to do so. A list of contacts for each school is also attached.
The results from round 1 are now all in. Please find the finishing positions in each group below.
| Group | Team | Won | Drawn | Lost | Match Points | Game Points | Place |
| A1 | Brighton College (A team) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 11 / 12 | 1 |
| A2 | Lewes Old Grammar (A team) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 / 12 | 2 |
| A3 | Lancing, Hove (A team) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 / 12 | 3 |
| A4 | St. Andrew’s (A team) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 / 12 | 4 |
| B1 | Brambletye (A team) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7½ / 12 | 1 |
| B2 | Ardingly College (B team) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 / 12 | 2 |
| B3 | Cottesmore (A team) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5½ / 12 | 3 |
| B4 | Hurstpierpoint College (B team) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 / 12 | 4 |
| C1 | Hurstpierpoint College (A team) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8½ / 12 | 1 |
| C2 | Ardingly College (A team) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7½ / 12 | 2 |
| C3 | Windlesham House (B team) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5½ / 12 | 3 |
| C4 | Mixed Hurst / Ardingly / Windlesham team | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2½ / 12 | 4 |
| D1 | Brighton College (B team) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 10½ / 12 | 1 |
| D2 | Westbourne House (A team) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 / 12 | 2 |
| D3 | Lancing College (B team) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 / 12 | 3 |
| D4 | Windlesham House (C team) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1½ / 12 | 4 |
| (Group E played a 5 team, 3 round jamboree) | |||||||
| E1 | Windlesham House (A team) | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 10 / 12 | 1 |
| E2 | Lancing College (A team) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 8½ / 12 | 2 |
| E3 | Dorset House (A team) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 7 / 12 | 3 |
| E4 | Lancing, Worthing (A team) | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 / 12 | 4 |
| E5 | Westbourne House (B team) | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1½ / 12 | 5 |