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 kindly organised by Berkshire before the final in March.
National Final, Oxford - 26th March 2011
4-Counties Match, Reading - 16th January 2011
National Final, Oxford - 26th March 2011
Headline results:
1st |
Barnet |
29.5 |
2nd |
Wey Valley - Surrey |
27 |
3rd |
Sussex |
24 |
4th |
Nottinghamshire |
22 |
5th |
Manchester |
21.5 |
6th |
Kent |
20 |
7th |
Oxford |
19 |
8th |
Essex |
16 |
9th |
Richmond |
14 |
10th |
Berkshire |
11 |
11th |
Cambridge |
7 |
12th |
Liverpool |
5 |
The team:
Rosie Burke, Amalia Finnegan, Freya Finnegan, Yelena Finnegan, Cassie Graham, Alisha Gunn, Megan Hammond, Poppy Haward, Milly Haward, Isobel Jones, Sophia Martin, Grace Norman, Loren Pepper, Phoebe Ralph, Ellie Ransom, Hannah Sutton.
The lead-up:
After moderate success at the recent 4-counties friendly we all decided that what the girls really needed was a bit of team bonding. So we had a very successful evening of training, pizzas and sweets – thanks to Amy Hoare for her coaching commitment – and the girls really got to know each other a week or so before the final.
Sat 26th was a lovely sunny day and Headington School, Oxford was not too far to travel compared to the recent U11 and U9 adventures. We had been told that it was a great venue for the final and it didn’t disappoint – we even managed to avoid any damage to the beautifully manicured flower-beds (just).
With the average team age of about 9, we were expecting a respectable 6th place and would have been happy with a score of 50% - we saw it as very much building for the future. Well, we did considerably better than expectations coming in 3rd!!!
To finish 3rd was a fantastic result – well done ladies! It was a terrific team effort, everyone contributing points and the effort and concentration was superb.
The competition:
After some discussion on the intricacies of board stewarding and Victoria’s SAS team-talk, we were underway:
Round 1:
Once underway, Sophia wasted no time in chalking up out first win whilst the other girls began what were to be some very long, tough games. In the end we posted a creditable 6.5 points, Cassie last to win after a patient ending against a determined opponent. In the meantime Hannah, Alisha, Poppy, Rosie and Ellie all got points on the board - Alisha and Poppy with their usual brand of tricks and traps whilst Ellie and Rosie opted for a steadier approach. Hannah played quite beautifully and just a few moves from mate she blundered her Queen for nothing – unperturbed, she just kept going and won the game all over again, fantastic!
Round 2:
The girls settled down to another long round with the exception of Sophia who rattled off another terrific quick win. Wins followed from Cassie, Hannah, Alisha, Poppy and Phoebe and we were up to 6 points for the round (or so I thought) with the 3 Finnegans left in play.
Freya played a really controlled, aggressive game to chalk up the point. Ami fought back from a difficult position to gain an advantage but wisely took a draw in time trouble against a strong opponent. Meanwhile, Yelena seemed determined that the rest of Dave's hair should go grey whilst her Essex opponent was similarly engaged in turning her manager into a gibbering wreck. After play was re-started a couple of times for various reasons, an extraordinary game followed ebbing and flowing at every move – eventually Yelena promoted a pawn to get her 3rd (or was it 4th?) queen and delivered checkmate with a big smile !
I came out of the hall thinking we’d scored 8.5 points which gave us a very creditable 15 from 2 rounds but I had missed the ending to Loren’s game and she had brilliantly salvaged a draw from the jaws of defeat.
Also, our score for the first round had been posted as 7.5 – eventually we told the organisers they’d got it wrong. Somewhat embarrassingly, it turned out that Cambridge only brought 10 players - Phoebe’s game on board 11 in round 1 was a friendly against an Oxford reserve and counted as a default win for us even though she lost! (I understand that Phoebe was being rewarded based on the number of points she scored and was later seen negotiating hard with Dad over the round 1 ‘win’).
Suddenly we were propelled from 15 to 16.5 points just 0.5 point off 3rd place
Round 3:
This was another long, nerve-jangling round especially with 3rd place a possibility. Sophia notched up her quickest win to date – a default as the Berkshire player had gone home ill. Other wins soon followed from Freya, Poppy (to make it 3 out of 3 for her - brilliant), Rosie, Amalia and Yelena and we were up to 6 with Isobel and Phoebe in play.
Now Isobel was having quite a day – everyone had noticed her concentration and high standard of play during the season and so she was propelled up the board order to 5. The jamboree system then paired her against the 3rd of the famous Wang sisters from Oxford and the top 2 teams (Barnet and Wey Valley)! Her 3rd round game vs. Barnet was nip and tuck the whole way and she eventually came away with a very creditable draw to leave Phoebe in the hall with her nervous Dad (our Board Steward) and Manager for company.
Phoebe’s game was going through similar phases to Yelena’s in the previous round – eventually she managed to get to a Rook and King versus King ending with a couple of minutes on her clock. I gleefully told her Dad the position thinking checkmate was just around the corner but Mike replied along the lines of “we only learnt that mate last night”. But we needn’t have worried, Phoebe worked it out over the board and we had scored very well again (7.5) - but would it be enough?
Alongside the main event, our reserves had been battling away against reserves from the other top counties and scored a very creditable 6 out of 12 – well done to Megan and Grace plus Loren, Ellie and Milly who dipped in and out of the main team.
Post-match:
We waited nervously in the team room for the results and after a loud cheer from the Nottingham room opposite we feared it was not to be our day. However, it turned out they had won the reserves competition and that we had got 3rd place overall. A very happy and proud squad then marched off to prize giving to collect their well-earned 3rd place trophies.
A great day out and a great result – all the girls contributed points, a fine team effort.
There just remains to say a big thanks to …
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Parents and helpers for their commitment to the cause
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Jonathan Tuck for giving up his Saturday to support and advice
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Mike Ralph for being our board steward
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Oxford Juniors for hosting a very well run event
Report by Victoria Finnegan and Dave Graham
4-Counties Match - 16th January 2011 - Reading
Headline results:
|
Round 1 |
Round 2 |
Round 3 |
Total |
Position |
Oxford |
7.0 |
7.0 |
8.0 |
22 |
1 |
Sussex |
5.0 |
9.0 |
6.0 |
20 |
2 |
Barnet |
8.0 |
5.0 |
6.0 |
19 |
3 |
Berkshire |
4.0 |
3.0 |
4.0 |
11 |
4 |
The team:
Rosie Burke, Amalia Finnegan, Freya Finnegan, Yelena Finnegan, Cassie Graham, Alisha Gunn, Poppy Haward, Milly Haward, Isobel Jones, Sophia Martin, Amy Manvell, Loren Pepper, Phoebe Ralph, Ellie Ransom, Breagh Rose, Hannah Sutton.
On Sunday 16th January, the Sussex Junior Chess under 11 Girls team travelled to Reading for the traditional 4-counties friendly hosted by Berkshire.
We are very grateful to Berkshire for putting on this event which provides valuable practice for the girls before being plunged into the national finals in March.
The Sussex team arrived in good time - before the venue opened in fact - and it wasn’t long before we were helping to set-up the playing room with Amy’s big brother, Daniel, putting in an extended shift.
It was a very young team with only one girl in the under 11 age group and several under 8s and 9s – I was delighted with the overall result and it was a great chance for me to have a close look at the games.
Oxford were very strong and brought 6 reserves – with no reserves from Barnet and Berks this meant our reserve boards faced Oxford opponents each time - which was character building for them.
It was great to see several up and coming players making their Sussex debut – Amy, Loren, Milly and Sophia – and they all did really well showing great determination. The Barnet team manager was very taken by 6 year old Milly’s poise and maturity (not to mention her 2 wins)!
Cassie, Freya and Hannah are very experienced match players and they were brilliant, cleaning up on the top 3 boards scoring 9/9. Our ‘middle order’ gained valuable experience and great credit goes to Alisha, Poppy, Sophia, Rosie and Ami for their efforts. There was some terrific play combined with some unfortunate blunders which led to a number of won positions not materialising into the full point. Just like a football coach talking about his strikers, for me the encouraging thing was seeing the players getting into good positions and I’m confident we’ll get the finishing right in the final to notch up some extra points.
Isabel and Yelena worked really hard and deservedly scored 2 from 3. Loren, Phoebe, Ellie, Breagh, Milly and Amy were terrific – they made no fuss about the coach jumbling the board order around each round and produced some great chess. As mentioned above, the Oxford reserve boards provided very strong opposition and there were no easy games.
As usual, these events provided some entertainment moments too:
-
One girl when told she couldn’t castle because f1 was guarded by an enemy piece said: “But I’m not going via f1, I’m going via f2 !!”
-
Another girl was very insistent that her opponent should NOT move the piece touched
-
At 5-0 down to Barnet inside 4 minutes, I’m ashamed to say the Sussex coach had given up hope and was somewhat embarrassed when Breagh and Freya won the last games in progress an hour later to make the score 6 all !
-
The pairings were put into computer software and the players names helpfully printed on the results slips underneath their colour .... in round 2 half the games were printed as White vs. White and the other half Black vs. Black which took a few minutes to unpick
-
Phoebe demonstrated advanced negotiation skills with her Dad and me over how many moves she would write down in each game – 15 for round 2, 20 for round 3. And that is exactly when she stopped - not a move more, not a move less
-
Cassie’s justification for blundering a Rook....... “but I was a Bishop and a Pawn ahead at the time”
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Loren talking her opponent through possible variations and what might have been ... during the actual game!
I would like to say a big thanks to Victoria for co-ordinating the team, and to all parents and players for supporting the team so well - I hope you all enjoyed the day and I’m looking forward to the final at Oxford in March.
Thanks to Nigel Dennis and Berkshire for organising this very enjoyable event.
Report by Dave Graham
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