Sussex Juniors vs. Irish Juniors - Brighton - 13/14 April 2002

Over Saturday and Sunday 13th and 14th April Sussex Junior Chess hosted a match against a representative team of Irish Juniors. The visitors consisted of 37 players who were drawn from both the Republic and Northern Ireland.

The match took place at the Princes Marine Hotel in Hove and involved 5 different sections, under 16, under 14, under 12, under 10 and Girls, the results of which decided the outcome. 

The Mayor of Brighton and Hove Harry Steer opened proceedings on Saturday morning by welcoming both teams to the City, and presenting both Captains with the City Crest. He then made the opening move of the game between the Captains Simon Jeffares (Ireland) and Thomas Rendle (Sussex). 

The early stages of the match gave a good indication of how evenly matched the two teams were, with several of the sections being tied at the end of day one.

There was some light relief for the players on Saturday evening when a number crossed to play Laser Quest at the King Alfred Leisure Centre.

On Sunday there was an early start for group photo-sessions and then back down to the chess. The older age groups remained very close throughout the day, but in the younger sections the Irish asserted themselves in the Under 10’s whilst Sussex held sway in the Under 12’s.

Honorary Vice President of Sussex Junior Chess, Sir Patrick Moore arrived as the match was concluding to present individual medals to every competitor. He then awarded the top scoring players in each section with an autographed certificate – these being Thomas Rendle (Hastings – U16); Robbie Lunn (Ireland), Joe Fraser (East Grinstead) and Sebastian Pozzo (Morden) U14; Hannah O’Reilly and Lesley Fennelly (both Ireland) Girls; Andrew Tucker (Ditchling) U12; Catherine Danaher (Ireland) U10.

Sir Patrick, as well as being the Vice-President of Sussex Junior Chess and the founder of a Sussex chess club in 1955, is also Britain’s best known Astronomer and is a popular TV presenter most famously of ‘The Sky at Night’ programme. He was also the first Director of the Armagh Planetarium in Northern Ireland and author of over 60 books.

The final match result was then announced and although Sussex claimed the Cup having won 3 of the 5 sections and tied one, when the individual scores were added together – after 241 games the scores were 120 ½ - 120 ½. It could have not been closer had someone scripted it!

This was a fitting conclusion to a match which brought a lot of young chess players together – many meeting up for the first time – to foster new friendships, which hopefully may continue in future years through return matches.

Simon Deere
Sussex Junior Chess

David Howell - super-sub	Irish Girls Team

The team lineups:

Results:

Timetable:

The Series is being split into 5 matches; Under 16s, Under 14s, Girls, Under 12s and Under 10s. The winning team of each match will be decided by game points; 1 for a win, ½ for a draw, 0 for a loss. The overall Series result will be decided by match points and if equal on match points then the total game points will decide. Where possible no two players will play each other twice.