EPSCA U9 Championships

Final: 23rd April 2005

Having qualified for these finals by coming 3rd in the Zonal Competition in Edgware 6 weeks earlier, the Sussex Seals were ready for battle when
the coach arrived on Friday afternoon for the long Journey north. Jonathan Tuck has always stressed the importance of being calm and
relaxed ahead of a big tournament and the coach and an overnight stop close to the venue were a massive boost to the team.

At the venue in Nottingham the Sussex team room was rather fuller that most of the other 18 competing counties due to the usual reliable solid
support from parents and siblings.

Just prior to the start of the competition, the Jonathan and Gary pep talk seemed to last longer than usual and it was clear that Jonathan was
not going to be happy with anything other than victory. Every player was given a name check and reminded that, with such a strong squad, he was
likely to be the best player in the competition on his respective board. At 11.45 Jude Lenier led 15 psyched-up Seals out for the first round. An
hour later, with all the Round 1 results in, Sussex were joint 1st with an impressive 10 points out of a possible 12. Management deemed this to
be an acceptable performance and so the the team did it again...(and again!!), to finish up with 30 points, which put them 1 point ahead of
Wey Valley, the defending Champions. Every player put in a spectacular performance with 100% records on the day coming from Jude Lenier,
Barnaby Paul, Shyam Mohan, Ram Mohan, Freddie Keen, Robert Fitzgerald, George Galliano, Steven Jackson and Charlie Keen. (The consistency of the squad over the three rounds being demonstrated by Barnaby, Ram and Robert, who earned 100% records in the Zonals too!) Solid performances by Charlie Mills, Christopher Yates, Edward Reeves-Dienes, Louis Capron (battling through a bad nose bleed at one point), Jonathan Burch and John Simister contributed to the final winning result.

Special mentions also go to Jude for leading by example, winning a particularly impressive match against Yorkshire's board 1 and the
crucial last round victory against Wey Valley. The reserves also played an important part with Jonathan Burch scoring 3 out of 4 and John
Simister taking the bronze medal with 3.5 out of 4 in the reserves competions. A special mention too to Charlie Keene who was drafted in from
the substitutes bench for the last round to earn a vital point against Yorkshire and Ram and birthday boy Edward for battling through their last
games for a full hour, just to ensure that parents and management alike had bitten all fingernails down to the quick by the end.

When 15 smartly presented young victors went up for their champions' trophies at the end of the day, everybody who played a part in
the tournament got their just rewards. Every aspect of the tournament, from the training to the logistics right through to the way the children
conducted themselves on the day made for some very proud individuals on Saturday and enormous thanks and congratulations go to Gary McCulloch and Jonathan Tuck who made it all possible.

Report by Matthew Keene

Zonal: 12th March 2005

The U9 team have secured their place in the Finals having come 3rd in the Zonal, after Wey Valley took 2nd place on equal points but on a tie break. Herts came first, but only 2 points ahead of Sussex.