Sussex Megafinal
Saturday 2nd May 2009
Warden Park School, Cuckfield

Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm. All across Sussex families were foregoing a bank holiday lie-in in order to converge on Cuckfield for the Megafinal.

Everyone arrived in good time for registration, ensuring the event started promptly.

The good weather meant that families could eat al fresco in the school grounds and the children could enjoy healthy fresh air between rounds.

This year's event was the biggest to date with over 340 children aged 6 - 18 taking part on the day. Some were 'old hands' attending their 5th or more Megafinal; many more were attending for the first time.

Congratulations to the 107 players who succeeded in qualifying for the Southern Gigafinal - details can be found HERE and photos from the prizegiving HERE.

The children were magnificent. Behaviour was excellent, and games were fought hard but with sportsmanship; schoolmates were seen supporting and encouraging each other. The arbiters commented how few disputes there were during the day.

The adults were exhausted by the enthusiasm of the children! The picture here shows the children pouring into the playing hall at the start of Round 6, just as eager to start their games as they had been 6 hours earlier!

Many many volunteers contributed to making this event happen.

In particular we would like to thank tournament controller Andrea Cumming who not only ensured the smooth-running of the event on the day, but, together with entry managers Andy and Margaret Burch, was responsible for some slick administration behind the scenes. It must have been a late night on the 1st May!

Also to Colin Harding for running the U7 section single-handed; and the famous Sussex Junior Chess catering team.

Last but by no means least, thanks also to the army of parents and friends who gave their time freely on the day - cooking and serving refreshments, helping with registration, fielding enquires, and serving as pairers and arbiters. Many arrived at 7:30am and were still there at 6:00pm!

We hope you and your child enjoyed the day. If so, we would love to see you at some of our other events. We run training sessions and tournaments at various venues across the county. Our calendar lists the events for the current season, which is drawing to a close. We hope to have our new calendar for the 2009-2010 season available in August.

We would welcome your feedback; if you have any comments, questions, or things you would like to have known before the event, please contact us HERE.