Welcome

The County Championship competitions were given a new lease of life by the decision of the BCF to replace the old second and third teams competitions by grading limited events with effect from the 1992/3 season.  Essex have participated in the U175 competition (which evolved into the U180 championship when the grades were rebased for 2009/10) since it was instituted, initially under the captaincy of David Smith and subsequently under Stuart Bates, myself and David Brock.  In the early years, the County found it relatively difficult to qualify for the National Stages of the competition, although it succeeded in going through as SCCU runners-up in 1993/4 and 1994/5 and on the latter occasion gave a hint of future greatness by reaching the final.  However, starting with 1996/7, the team achieved a superb record of success, completing a simultaneous hat-trick of SCCU and BCF titles, and going on to make it six SCCU titles in a row by February 2002.  When the long unbeaten run was finally ended by Yorkshire in the BCF semi-final in June 2000 it had reached 29 matches.  Further national titles were achieved in 2002 and 2004, and there might have been further successes but for the unfortunate habit that the side developed of losing matches on tie-break.  However, the dominance within the SCCU has continued, and by the end of thye 2010/11 season the team had achieved an amazing 13 titles in 15 seasons.  These pages provide a record of these achievements and information on the team.

 

Kent 8½ – 7½ Essex, 22 October 2011

Report by David Brock

The Mick Jagger Centre in Dartford

Dear All,

Unfortunately I must report today that we lost yesterday to Kent in a hard fought game 8½ to 7½ .  For me this was my first loss as captain to another SCCU side over 3 years.  So although I knew the team would lose eventually I did not expect it to be yesterday.  But alas such is life and hopefully we can learn from this and comeback stronger for the remainder of our games.

Revised 2011/12 SCCU fixtures announced

On 19 August 2011, SCCU County Match Controller David Smith announced the County match dates for the grading limit divisions.  At that stage, Kent had not entered the U180 division, which would have given rise to number of fixtures from four to six as the competition would be run on a double-round rather than a single-round basis, and meant that there would have been two rather than three qualifying places for the National Stages.  However, a late entry from Kent was subsequently accepted, which restored the third qualifying place.  With the captians electing for a single rather than a double round event, the revised fixtures are as follows:

22 October 2011 – Kent (A)

21 January 2012 – Middlesex (H)

25 February 2012 – Sussex (A)

17 March 2012 – Surrey (H)

More information will be published about venues for away matches when these have been confirmed.

Essex 8 – 8 Lancashire, 14 May 2011

This quarter final was played a week early, to avoid a clash with the U160 match.  In the run up to the day, there was a request from Lancashire (quite correctly declined by Essex) to play the match over 12 boards, and suggestions that Lancashire might need to default a number of boards.  As it turned out, the County turned up just one short, as a result of clearance for a player without a published grade not being received from the controller: Essex captain David Brock switched himself to board 16 to take the default.  The point start for Essex was wiped out when I played a poor game and lost.  A close-looking match swung in Lancashire’s favour when Syd Kalinsky failed to follow up correctly what should have been a winning sacrifice.  From then on Essex were playing catch up, and although some late victories enabled the scores to be tied, this turned into yet another National Stage loss on board count.

Surrey 7½ – 8½ Essex, 26 February 2011

Report by David Brock

Our opponents, it seemed, had taken this game seriously as they had one of their strongest teams out and out-graded us by 49 points.  Unfortunately, I missed the start of the match as I was stuck in traffic after picking up Ken Groce.  I would like to blame him for being late but I think it might have been down to my poor judgement in route choice and the fact I kept taking shortcuts that were not shortcuts.  But in my absence the team sorted itself out and in fact everyone was in the same place apart from David Spearman and Philip Gregory who had reversed the order, but as they are the same grade it did not really matter.  What I was not aware of though was that my opposite number was in fact late himself and Surrey had to re-shuffle leaving out a player who should have been playing (David Sedgwick).  Less said the better.

Essex 11 – 5 Sussex, 29 January 2011

Report by David Brock:

We started the match 15 minutes late to allow for delayed travelling times owing to an accident on Eastern Avenue.

David Millward was first to finish with a quick draw after about half an hour.  Looking at the boards at around that time most were fairly level with the exception of John White having exchanged his queen for a rook and two knights, John Philpott was an exchange down and Terry Whitton had his queen in the heart of his opponent’s pieces.

Next to finish was Howard Grist, who won convincingly, and then John White who had agreed a draw as he took the safer option rather than trying to prove his extra pieces were better than his opponent’s Queen.

Middlesex 7½ – 8½ Essex, 27 November 2010

Report by David Brock.

We found ourselves playing at a new venue today at Lytton Estate, Kensington, two minutes from West Kensington District Line Station and the home of Hammersmith Chess Club.

We started at 2pm on the dot after Anthony Fulton went through the usual formalities which ended in a rather long speech comparing the event with the Ashes and Anthony deciding that Middlesex were England and we were Australia.  Rather strange but at least it laid down the gauntlet and I do believe we rose to the challenge admirably [as did England in Brisbane! IDH].

Essex 8½ – 7½ Kent, 30 October 2010

Report by David Brock.

We outgraded our opponents by 103 points so on paper the omens were good.  However 33 of those points were on the bottom board.

We started just after 1.30 pm with three players short for us and four for Kent.  After about 15 minutes all of our players finally arrived and three players then turned up for Kent with  one player still absent.  Terry Donnelly agreed a quick draw in a French exchange and stated he would win next time (I’ll put that point in the bank for next time then Terry).  Unfortunately the next point went to Kent when Peter Doye’s phone went off.  I believe Peter had a winning position at the time but unfortunately rules are rules and by the fact the phone rang was an automatic win for the opponent.  It would appear that Peter did turn his phone off at the start but then went out and made a call later on and forgot to turn it off again.  So there’s a message for all of us that phones and chess do not mix.

Essex 8 – 8 Nottinghamshire, 19 June 2010

The Essex U180 team played Nottinghamshire this afternoon for a place in the final.  This encounter took place at the Methodist Church, Eaton Ford (near to St Neots in Cambridgeshire), which can be added to the list of slightly obscure venues that the Essex County teams have visited for the National Stages.  The exchange of team lists revealed two very well-matched sides, but I did at least manage to win the toss.  With everybody present, play got under way shortly before the scheduled 2.00 starting time.  My thanks once again go to Paul Barclay for travelling up to the match as a reserve. 

Yorkshire 7½ – 8½ Essex, 22 May 2010

In the absence of the acting captain, who was on holiday in Anaheim, Essex had their first crack at Yorkshire since the end of the unbeaten run in June 2000, and just shaded a tight match.  Syd Kalinsky missed his pick up, but Paul Barclay learned of this in time to amend the board order and put himself in on bottom board; Yorkshire also had a no-show, but in the absence of a reserve Ian Hunnable gained a free point at the expense of an unnecessary journey to the Midlands.

Essex 9 – 7 Surrey, 27 February 2010

With nothing riding on this match in terms of the table, as Surrey and Essex were already confirmed as the two SCCU qualifiers for the National Stages, the relatively large number of draws was perhaps not altogether surprising.  There were just four decisive games, of which Essex managed to win three, albeit with the assistance of a serious blunder by the Suurey board 1.