County Championships 2005/6

The County Championships were again held at Radcliffe College on 1st July. The attractions of the TV showing the England match in the refreshment area proved too much for some and there were a number of short draws.

The Open Championship was an all-SCCU affair between perennial finalists Essex and Kent (Essex being the underdogs on grading). The match was closely contested all-day and it was only with the last game that Essex emerged triumphant 8½-7½.

The Minor Counties Championship saw Norfolk make a hat trick of wins by defeating Surrey also in a closely contested match. In the U175, Devon were the defending champions. They had the misfortunate that two players didn’t turn-up and were outgraded. Nevertheless, the scale of Sussex’s victory (12½ to 3½.) was unexpected.

The U150s saw Yorkshire comfortably defeat Cambridgeshire 10-6. While the U125 saw another close finish with Bedfordshire edging out Warwickshire 8½-7½. Finally, the U100 also saw a close finish in which Kent narrowly edged out Norfolk 6½-5½.

The prizes were presented by Roy Heppinstall, the ECF CEO with assistance from Cyril Johnson and Chris Majer. Thanks were expressed to Julie Johnston who took over the running of the event at short notice, to Cyril and Julie Johnson who did the catering and to the controlling team, Messrs Shaw, Elwin Hewitt and Johnston.

14 of the winning Essex team plus officials. Photograph taken by Muriel Heppinstall.	Play gets under way between Neil McDonald of Kent and Lawrence Trent of Essex.	Cyril Johnson with the victorious Essex Open captains - Roy Heppinstall (official team captain) and David Smith (acting captain on the day).

Cyril Johnson Reports

This year’s event started with a new Controller and ended with a newer one. Julie Johnson taking over after David Lettington stood down because of pressure of work The teams gathered at Ratcliffe College, mindful of other sporting events at Wimbledon and in Germany.

The players were welcomed by Graham Sharpe, head of the 6th form at the College, and a county chess player himself. The controlling team of Adrian Elwin, John Shaw and Cyril Johnson was assisted by Sean Hewitt and fortified by Julie’s catering skills.

Onto the Chess. The U100 championship saw Kent defeat Norfolk by 6½ - 5½, a very close match. The U125 also went to the last board to finish, Bedfordshire over turning a 3 board deficit to win 8½ - 7½. Yorkshire had played their quarter-final against Norfolk down the road at Syston and had come back from the dead in that game, but defeated Cambridgeshire with some comfort by 10-6.

Devon were defending their U175 title, but disaster struck before a pawn was moved when two of their players did not appear at Ratcliffe. Sussex, organised by a Leicester old boy in Daniel Hirsch played magnificently in scoring a 12½ - 3½ win in which everything a Sussex player tried came off.

Julie double checked the Surrey gradings in the Minor Counties and congratulated Graham Buckley on his mathematical skill in fielding a team with an average rating of 179.56. This skill did not help his players who went down to Norfolk by 9-7. A very close match which would have gone the other way if any of the wins had been reversed.

The Open between Kent and Essex was a cliff hanger with the game going down to the last board to finish, which resulted in a win for Essex by 8½ - 7½.

Roy Heppinstall had arrived at the event, and was persuaded to present most of the team trophies, but the Acting CEO decided that Roy and David Smith should jointly received the recently refurbished County Championship trophy for Essex, a decision which met with much acclaim.

Julie was thanked for her taking over the event and providing an excellent refreshment table, Adrian, John and Cyril had a quiet time, and Sean was the man of the event, having organised the loan of a wide screen television. An excellent event and our thanks to Ratcliffe College, Chess Direct and all who helped make it a memorable tournament final.