Grand Prix 6 - Worthing - 15th May 2010
The last grand prix of the season traditionally attracts a strong field competing for the prestigious salvers and loyalty medals. Today was no exception - a very high standard tournament with 3 England players and one part-qualified player adding zest to the U18 event. As usual there were no easy games in the U11 Major - well done to Joseph Allin for accepting the challenge of a promotion from minor to major section for the last event and still walking away with a grand prix salver! The U11 Minor saw several new and impressively talented faces scoring very well in their first ever grand prix - well done Alexander Miller, George Neale & Sam Lennard.
A few schools deserve special mention as centres of excellence for Chess - Copthorne Prep, Holy Cross (Uckfield), and Broadwater CofE (Worthing) all fielded 6 or more competitors; and St. Lawrence (Hurstpierpoint) provided two of the champions.
Several sections were hotly contested, having to go to tie-break (progressives) to separate the players. In particular, 3 players were in the running for the U10 prize on 4 points; Joshua Higgs emerged victorious on tie-break, but Alisha Gunn (surely one of the most improved players this year) and Alistair Smith both deserve a mention. I've also lost count of the number of times that Freya Finnegan has missed out on a prize on progressives this season, and once again she just missed 3rd place...but good to see her good humour rewarded with the U9 prize.
So - a great day's chess - but not without spills as well as thrills. We are lucky to have several chess dynasties in Sussex and while exhilirating to celebrate the winners, our thoughts go out to those families (my own included) where one sibling sat in the car home clutching a trophy while another was empty handed. At the end of the day - all the children who competed today were winners - they are the best in our County.
As usual, an army of people made the event possible, and our thanks go to:-
- Thomas A Becket Middle School for the spacious venue.
- Paula & Andy Payne for arriving first and leaving last........and helping everywhere during the day too.
- The catering team were on good form as usual - thanks to Ed Gooda, Derek Ferguson and Catherine Finn.
- On the chess side we were blessed with Chris Howell and Chris Lear on pairing; supported by Brian Stockham, Chris Jones, Gary McCullough, Trevor Norton and Dave Graham as arbiters. We were able to run an analysis room this year so thanks to Julian Tarhon, Chris Jones and Gary Willson for supporting this.
- The unsung heroes - Karen Gooda who has ensured everyone receives the right trophy all season and left home at some unearthly hour to collect the trophies from a courier depot at 7:30am this morning; Huiqi Liu for trying to make sense of the finances.
Finally - thanks to all our parents, grandparents and teachers who have travelled the county this season to support the children and without whose support these events would not be possible.
The headline results for the Worthing grand prix are given below, and a photo gallery from the day here.
The final 2009-2010 Grand Prix placings can be found here.
U18 Major |
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U18 Minor |
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1st |
Matthew Payne |
6 |
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1st |
Connor Gunn (on progressives) |
3 |
2nd |
Billy Twigge-Molecey (on progressives) |
4½ |
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2nd |
Robin Ferguson (on progressives) |
3 |
3rd |
Will Graham |
4½ |
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3rd |
Stephen Kennedy |
3 |
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U11 Major |
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U11 Minor |
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1st |
David Liu |
5 |
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1st |
Freddie Coleman |
5½ |
2nd |
Edward Critchley (on progressives) |
4½ |
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2nd |
Thomas Finn |
5 |
3rd |
Brian Tarhon |
4½ |
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3rd |
Indie Udsholt-Clayton |
4½ |
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Age Group Prize Winners |
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Arbiter's Prizes |
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U7 |
Scott Borland |
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Josh Rowe |
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U8 |
Joseph Allin |
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Amalia Finnegan |
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U9 |
Freya Finnegan |
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Ben Thomas |
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U10 |
Joshua Higgs |
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Jamie Lear |
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