U14 County Match: 2nd December 2007, Guildford

Team Co-ordinator, Andy Payne, managed to find a Team of 12 players at very short notice for this match, which in the past we have won. Sussex team was not as strong as in the previous years, but we still managed to give a very creditable performance. As we set off from our various points in Sussex on one of the worst conditions for driving recently. I was pleased to see all our players and parents arrived on time for the match. The competition itself was between 4 counties our rivals this year Berkshire, Bucks, Surrey and ourselves in a 2 round jamboree format.

Looking at the other teams Surrey and Berkshire , had nearly their 1st team squads playing and would be hard to beat. Once we sorted out the Board Order and with our secret weapon (David Graham's youngest son Arthur playing his first match who was recruited at the last minute on Board 12), Round 1 began on time. We had several of our players whose opponents didn’t turn up so we collected the default points, the organisers managed to find pairings for them. Arthur, whose previous longest game had been 20 minutes managed to hold his opponent at bay for 1.1/2 hours before losing. After Round 1 Surrey were leading with 9pts, Berkshire 6.5pts, Sussex 6pts, Bucks 2.5pts.

Round 2: Zi had only just finished his previous game and now was facing Berkshire Board 1 Felix (Grade 170), a great performance by Zi to win this one.

The final result: 1st Surrey 18pts, 2nd Berkshire 13.5pts, 3rd Sussex 13pts and 4th Bucks 3.5pts.

Well Done to Zi (Board 1), Ben (Board 2) and Sam (Board 9) who maintained 100% record for this match.