Essex 8 – 8 Cambridgeshire, 22 May 2005

Starting with the 1996/7 season, Essex U175s had enjoyed a long period of success in the National Stages, reaching at least the semi-final every year.  That sequence came to an abrupt halt at the hands of Cambridgeshire (in a match that marked David Millward’s 100th appearcne at U175 level), and although the bord count decision suggested an extremely close encounter, there is no doubt that Cambridgeshire played the better chess on the day and thoroughly deserved to progress.  Indeed, the 8-8 scoreline was only achieved as a result of the last game to finish, when Justin Baptie won on time in a position that was so blatantly lost (Justin had queen against rook, bishop, knight and pawn about to queen), that the win might be regarded as “bringing the game into disrepute” but for the fact that Justin had overlooked the chance to deliver mate in one a few moves previously.

Cambridgeshire 4½ – 11½ Essex, 11 May 2003

Essex U175s have an extremely good record in the quarter-finals of the County Championship, and have now not lost at that stage since 1993.  This may say something about the inherent strength of the U175 competition within the SCCU, as the runners up from other Unions, against whom Essex have generally been paired, have rarely provided as much of a challenge as the familiar opponents from Sussex and Kent.  On this occasion Essex, in the unaccustomed role of the second SCCU nominee, were drawn away to the first EACU nominee.  However, the EACU does not run an U175 competition as such, and Cambridgeshire had qualified by virtue of coming third in the EACU Open competition, which primarily serves to determine the EACU nominees for the Minor Counties Championship. The Cambridgeshire line-up was much as expected with four strong players at the top (Lloyd Retallick being a much tougher opponent than his current grade suggests) but Essex being conceded a significant grading advantage elsewhere.

Cambridgeshire 6 – 10 Essex, 10 June 2001

When the Essex U175 team assembled in Whittlesford for their semi-final against Cambridgeshire on 10 June, it was the first time that the players had got together since the qualifying match away to Sussex on 24 February  There had been some correspondence on the SCCU website as to whether the bye that the U175s received in the quarter final and the walkover that the Open team had in the preliminary round meant that we were “lucky Essex” or “unlucky Essex”.  From a match captain’s perspective, the 15 week gap made it difficult to keep going the momentum that the team built up in early 2001.  However, the spirit in the squad is such that it was very much a case of “business as usual”, and the bulk of the side that had been Sussex 10 – 6 to clinch the SCCU title, with top half strengthening in the form of Howard Grist and Martin McCall, duly despatched Cambridgeshire by exactly the same score.