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Sussex Megafinal
Saturday 1st May 2010
Warden Park School, Cuckfield

Megafinal competitors enjoying outdoor play

Saturday morning dawned cold and grey, and the organisers feared we would all be cooped up inside all day. However, while never getting warm, the weather cleared enough to allow children to use the playing fields between games.

People came from far and wide - Bognor in the West to Rye in the East. Many thanks to everyone for foregoing a lie-in to arrive in good time so that the event was able to start promptly.

Megafinal 2010 photo
Megafinal 2010 photo
Megafinal 2010 photo
Megafinal 2010 photo
The U7 Section
The Main Hall - younger boys and girls sections
The Sports Hall - older age groups


Each year this event seems to grow - last year we had over 340 children, this year numbers were up to 360. Some were 'old hands' attending their 5th or more Megafinal; many more were attending for the first time. It was really pleasing to see so many U7s - a record entry of 39.

Congratulations to the 124 players who succeeded in qualifying for the Southern Gigafinal - details can be found HERE and photos from the prizegiving HERE.

Megafinal 2010 photo


Quote of the tournament:

"I'm desperate for the toilet, but I really want to checkmate first!"

Megafinal 2010 photo

Many many volunteers contributed to making this event happen.

In particular we would like to thank entries managers Andy and Margaret Burch who maintained good humour in the face of many phone calls, emails, forgotton forms and late cheques! We are blessed with many loyal families who still turn out to help with this event despite their own children having outgrown it - Andrea Cumming, Louise Lambert, Sue Carter, David Fryer, Paula & Andy Payne.

It was a bumper U7 entry this year and even the stoic Colin Harding had to call for the cavalry. Many thanks to Victoria Finnegan for stepping in at a minutes notice.

As usual, the Sussex Junior Chess catering machine were kept busy all day - thanks to Isabel Keen and team.

Finally, thanks 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.

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 2010-2011 season available by June or July.

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.