EPSCA Girl's U11 Championships
The English Primary Schools' Chess Association (EPSCA) exists "to advance the education of primary school aged children by teaching, supervising and developing the playing of chess by those children."
E.P.S.C.A. holds three annual team championships for member associations - Under 9, Under 11, and Girls Under 11.
The U11 Girls Championship is for teams of 12, plus reserves. Unlike the Under-9 and Under-11 championships, there are no qualifying stages, but Sussex usually compete in a local "4-Counties" match before the final in March.
4-Counties Match - 17th January 2010 - Reading
On Sunday 17th January, the Sussex Junior Chess under 11 girl’s team travelled to Reading for the traditional 4-Counties season-opener, kindly hosted by Berkshire. This event is in preparation for the National final which will be held in Barnet on April 17th.
The SJC trainers were a little nervous going into the event; half the team were under 9s, some of the girls had only started competing in chess events this year, and others hadn’t moved a piece in anger since the final in Bolton back in March last year!
We needn’t have worried – the girls were brilliant and won the event against strong opposition:
|
Round 1 |
Round 2 |
Round 3 |
Total |
Sussex |
5.5 |
9.5 |
7 |
22 |
Barnet |
6.5 |
6.5 |
6.5 |
19.5 |
Oxford |
8.5 |
5.5 |
5 |
19 |
Berkshire |
3.5 |
2.5 |
5.5 |
11.5 |
The team:
Serena Bhargava, Rosie Burke, Amalia Finnegan, Freya Finnegan, Yelena Finnegan, Cassie Graham, Rosie Hennessy, Annabel Hickson, Cosima Keen, Alexandra Mathison, Katerina Mathison, Daniela Parada-Sanchez, Ellie Ransom, Breagh Rose, Hannah Sutton, Helen Todd-Saunders.
Thanks to Team Manager Kate Lavender’s tireless efforts we had a full turnout. Many thanks to the Keen family - Isabel and Cosima journeying from Liverpool, while Matthew mobilised the Ashdown House contingent. Also to the Finnegans for supplying 3/16th of the squad.
With Barnet, Oxford and ourselves so closely matched, the key to success was a fantastic second round performance against Berkshire - 9.5 out of 12. It really was a brilliant team effort with all players scoring points.
There were some long games on the top boards where we scored very heavily (10.5 out of 12 from Cosima, Daniella, Cassie and Freya). Many thanks to Hannah Sutton, Sussex under 8 champion, who found herself propelled onto board 5 in an under 11 competition and held her own.
There were some terrific individual performances – Cosima (fresh from her 2nd England half-norm in Liverpool the previous day), Freya and Rosie H all scored maximum 3 out of 3. Breagh, 1 of the 7 debutants, came through her 3 games unbeaten and all the other debutants scored wins too – really well done to the Mathisons, the Finnegan twins (just turned 7!), Annabel and Ellie.
Great credit also to Serena, Rosie B and Helen who worked so hard in the middle boards, enabling our debutants to score heavily on the lower and reserve boards.
All in all a great day out, the girl’s behaviour and play was a great credit to SJC. Just one unfortunate incident to report – one of the trainers (who shall remain nameless), reduced his daughter to tears after a stalemate in round 2 and is still feeling guilty 24 hours later as he pens this report.
Finally, many thanks to Nigel Dennis and Berkshire for organising this very enjoyable event.