Sussex Closed Girl's U11, U14, U18 Championships, London Meed School, 4th December 2011

A busy day, as alongside the Girls' Championships we had a training day and Christmas Party. New Academy School London Meed proved an excellent venue with plenty of space available. Thanks to locals Peter and Matthew Barton for their help in setting up.

Unusually the traditionally strong St. Lawrence and Copthorne teams were both short of players this year, however the Schools element to the day remained very closely fought with only half a point separating Burgess Hill School for Girls and Ashdown House in the Under 18s. In the Under 11s, the differential was just one point - congratulations to Great Walstead, and also to newcomers Birchwood Grove, gaining second place in their first team event.

Cosima Keen, just back from the World Youth Chess Championships in Brazil, proved a worthy winner of the Under 18 championship, having previously won the Under 11 title on three occasions. Close behind was previous champion Hannah Watkinson and a rich crop of Under-13s who shared the Under 14 title.

The Under 11 competition was also very hard fought with some tenacious play from Phoebe, and some very interesting long games, particularly the final round struggle between Madeleine and Grace. Finally it was encouraging to see some young girls starting out on their chess careers - look out for the Great Walstead team again next year - and under-7s Sasha and Laura starting to emulate their older siblings.

Thanks to tournament controller Trevor Norton, assisted by Will Graham, Gary McCulloch, Brian Stockham, and Tom Borland. As always, Ed Gooda ran a tight ship on catering, ably assisted by wife Karen and Catherine Finn.

At the end of the event, the girls joined the participants of the training day in a party tea and raffle, with some of the older ones participating in a simul led by coaches FM Alex Therrien, Dave Graham and Chris Jones, assisted by England junior Chris Yates.

Headline results are below, full cross tables here and photos here.