Thanks to Tim Kent and Edmund Player (Suffolk), Jonathan Blackburn (Staffs & Wales) and IM Lorin D’Costa (SPTW) for making this match possible; great preparation for the upcoming under-11 Final on May 8th.
The same 4 teams battled it out back in February when She Plays to Win Team came out on top. Would things be different this time? No! the Final saw the girls run out winners over our under-11s by the narrowest of margins 10.5 to 9.5
With our top under-9s rested (they had their national final the day before) it was a chance to give some of our loyal squad players a game and they performed well.
In round 1 we were paired against Staffordshire with Wales and scored a fine 13-7 victory. There were many long, hard-fought games and the final score line was probably a little flattering.
In round 2 we faced She Plays to Win and the match was decided by their dominance on the top 8 boards where we were heavily outrated. From board 9 downwards the ratings levelled out and we scored 8.5 out of 12 but with just 1 win from the top 8 it was not quite enough.
The children were fortunate to have former UKCC winner and International Master Lorin D’Costa leading analysis of the games with the help of the other managers, at one stage over 50 children were on the zoom call picking up some great tips.
The Sussex squad:
Emily Ashcroft, James Beecroft, Henri Blin, George Boxer, Luke Chapman, Luke Freeman, Niamh Grace, Caspar Irani, Thomas Irani, Risha Jithendra, Joseph Johnson, Louisa Kiss, Cillian Nagy, Nayan Keats Rastogi, Amelie Rees, Kaysan Salajee, Taran Sharma, Ann Tagg, George Tagg, Charlie Wannasin Bell