Middlesex 7 – 9 Essex, 13 February 2010

Following the two successive defeats, this was a must win game for Essex, up against a Middlesex team that was already out of contention.  On the day the team turned in a good professional performance, with Syd Kalinsky’s victory being undoubtedly the game of the day, and awaited developments elsewhere.  Sussex’s 10½ – 5½ loss to Surrey, in which the bottom three boards were conceded meant that Essex had qualified for the National Stages in view of the favourable tie-break against Sussex, but confirmed Surrey as champions, rendering the final game of the qualification cycle against Surrey an academic one.

Sussex 8½ – 7½ Essex, 23 January 2010

A rare second successive defeat meant that the SCCU Championship was realistically out of reach and that hard work would be needed to secure the second qualifying spot (although a favouurable tie-break against Sussex was at least secured).  The afternoon fell into four phases.

(1) A deceptively comfortable start, with a win for Ian Hunnable and three relatively quick draws.

Surrey 9 – 7 Essex, 5 December 2009

A disappointing conclusion to the first cycle of matches, with Surrey putting themselves in pole position to take the SCCU title which they were in the event to clinch prior to the return match at Wanstead House.  Surrey fielded a strong team and outscored Essex by 5 – 3 in decisive games.  The Essex cause was not helped by Robert Parker’s journey from Colchester having to be aborted as a result of engineering works.  This compounded the absentees from the Essex middle order, but the real damage was done at the top, where Surrey outscored Essex by 3 – 1 on boards 1 to 4.

Essex 9 – 7 Sussex, 21 November 2009

A far from convincing performance, with the victory margin being precisely equal to the two defaults conceded by Sussex.  However, a win is a win, and this left Essex and Surrey level on 2/2, with the next match between the two Counties at Ashtead in December set to determine the leader at the end of the first cycle of matches

Essex 9½ – 6½ Middlesex, 31 October 2009

The exchange of team lists revealed Essex to have a grading advantage on every board, with some marked advantage in the lower order.

However, events did not unfold quite as these bald facts might have indicated, as Middlesex took an early two point lead when the “Batchelor boys”, father and son who coincidentally had identical grades, won in short order at the expense of Neville Twitchell and Gavin Strachan.  Essex hit back with wins for Aidan Corish and Syd Kalinsky.  There were relatively early draws for John White and Robert Parker, but further losses for Colin Ramage and Terry Whitton saw the Middlesex lead restored.  However, Essex clawed their way back thanks to wins by John Moore (whose opponent arrived 50 minutes late clutching his A-Z and then did a lap around the building before finding the entrance), David Millward and Martin McCall.

Lancashire 9 – 7 Essex, 13 June 2009

Played at Gaddesby, Leicestershire.

Sussex 5 – 11 Essex, 7 March 2009

Played at Hassocks.

Essex 9½ – 6½ Middlesex, 31 January 2009

Played at Wanstead House.

		ESSEX			MIDDLESEX
Board	Colour	Home Team	Grade	Score	Away Team	Grade	Score
1	W	Kevin White	173	½	Peter Ackley	172	½
2	B	Jeff Goldberg	172	1	Steven Coles	172	0
3	W	Ivor Smith	167	½	Nevil Chan	169	½
4	B	Tim Hebbes	167	½	David Ebbett	168	½
5	W	Philip Gregory	167	½	George Dickson	168	½
6	B	Martin McCall	163	1	D Ian Calvert	162	0
7	W	David Spearman	160	½	Michael Tasker	163	½
8	B	Larry Marden	160	1	Martin Lee	160	0
9	W	Kanwal Bhatia	160	1	Peter Morton	139	0
10	B	Peter Doye	158	0	Anthony Fulton	157	1
11	W	Syd Kalinsky	157	½	Jim Falzarano	155	½
12	B	Terry Whitton	154	½	Martin Crichton	152	½
13	W	John White	154	½	Jonathan Kay	148	½
14	B	Neville Twitchell	153	0	Charles McAleenan	141	1
15	W	Howard Grist	148	1	Bill Phillips	143	0
16	B	David Millward	147	½	Joe Franks	153	½
		TOTAL – Home		9½	TOTAL – Away		6½

Kent 7½ – 7½ Essex, 24 January 2009

The board 15 game between David Brock and Geoff Bishop was ruled void by the Controller.  Essex’s appeal against this decision was unsuccessful.

Essex 8 – 8 Surrey, 3 January 2009

The first default conceded by the team since February 1996 contributed to a match being tied that really should have been won, although the unceaten run continued.