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.
4-Counties Match, Reading - 14th January 2012
4-Counties Match, Reading - 14th January 2012
Headline results:
|
Round 1 |
Round 2 |
Round 3 |
Total |
Position |
Oxford |
26½ |
1 |
|||
Sussex |
11½ |
5½ |
5½ |
22½ |
2 |
Berkshire |
19 |
3 |
|||
Barnet |
4 |
4 |
The team:
Lucy Bennet-Stevens, Laura Borland, Lucy Hargrave, Milly Haward, Poppy Haward, Abbie Herlihy, Isabel Jones, Madeleine Liu, Sophia Martin, Grace Norman, Phoebe Ralph, Alienor Turanli.
Twelve Sussex girls travelled to Reading to play in the annual U11 4-Counties fixture against Barnet, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
Sussex were matched against Barnet in the first round. Commendably slow play is a feature of girls’ chess, and it was over 20 minutes into the round before Abbie, making her debut for Sussex, recorded our first point. This set the tone, with a steady stream of impressive victories to follow, including a very efficient display by Alienor and an impressive fightback to deliver checkmate by Grace. Poppy and Isabel coped admirably with the late arrival of their opponents to achieve comfortable victories. On board 1, Phoebe fought back from an early loss of queen for rook and ultimately reached a winning endgame position – however, by this stage she only had 30 seconds remaining, and she wisely bailed out for a draw. 11.5 out of 12 was a very encouraging start, and Abbie and Lucy Hargrave both deserve great credit for winning their first games representing Sussex.
Rounds two and three proved much tougher, Sussex losing to both Berkshire and Oxfordshire by the narrowest of margins. Despite our overwhelming win in the first round, these results were sufficient to push us down into second place overall, with Oxfordshire running out as deserving winners. It was most encouraging to see Madeleine, Poppy and Grace all bounce back from losses in round two to achieve excellent wins over Oxfordshire in the final round (scoring 2/3 on the day, as did Sophia, Lucy Bennet-Stevens and Abbie). All the players scored at least 1 point, Phoebe coping admirably with a very high standard of opposition on board 1. Seated next to each other on boards 11 and 12, Milly and Laura belied their diminutive stature and both scored 3/3.
This was an excellent start to the girls’ campaign, and the excitement and mutual support in the Sussex team room were most encouraging, auguring well for this team in its national final. Thanks are due on behalf of the players and SJC to: Team Manager Victoria Finnegan, and stand-in Team Manager Mike Ralph; Sue Howell for her input in team selection; Jonathan Tuck for his coaching expertise; and all the parents who gave up most of Saturday to travel to Reading and support their daughter. Thank you also to Poppy and Milly’s grandparents, who inspired their granddaughters to a combined 5/6!
Finally, we are duly grateful for the considerable efforts made by Berkshire to organise and host this most worthwhile and enjoyable event.
Tom Borland