SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCES
| Season | Played | Won | Drew | Lost | Match points for | Match points against |
Defaults obtained | Defaults conceded | Players used |
| 1992/93 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 60½ | 59½ | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| 1993/94 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 79½ | 80½ | 4 | 1 | 32 |
| 1994/95 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 81 | 67 | 1 | 0 | 33 |
| 1995/96 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 48½ | 46½ | 3 | 5 | 25 |
| 1996/97 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 85 | 59 | 4 | 0 | 28 |
| 1997/98 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 101 | 43 | 27* | 0 | 26 |
| 1998/99 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 86½ | 57½ | 5 | 0 | 26 |
| 1999/00 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 73½ | 46½ | 4 | 0 | 30 |
| 2000/01 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 77 | 51 | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| 2001/02 | 11 | 8 | 1~ | 2 | 101½ | 74½ | 3 | 0 | 27 |
| 2002/03 | 8 | 5 | 1~ | 2 | 69½ | 58½ | 2 | 0 | 25 |
| 2003/04 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 80 | 48 | 6 | 0 | 25 |
| 2004/05 | 7 | 4 | 2~ | 1 | 69½ | 40½ | 7 | 0 | 23 |
| 2005/06 | 8 | 6 | 1~ | 1 | 73½ | 54½ | 5 | 0 | 25 |
| 2006/07 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 65½ | 46½ | 2 | 0 | 22 |
| 2007/08 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 88 | 72 | 1 | 0 | 25 |
| 2008/09 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 80½ | 62½ | 0 | 1 | 28 |
| 2009/10 | 8 | 5 | 1~ | 2 | 67½ | 60½ | 3 | 0 | 27 |
| 2010/11 | 5 | 4 | 1~ | 0 | 44½ | 35½ | 5 | 0 | 25 |
| 2011/12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7½ | 8½ | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| TOTAL | 156 | 107 | 15 | 34 | 1433 | 1072 | 82 | 7 | 106 |
* including 16 from the defaulted match against Lancashire
~ including an 8-8 tie in the National Stages decided on board count
MOST APPEARANCES
148 – David Millward
124 – Colin Ramage
121 – Ian Hunnable
107 – Neville Twitchell
96 – Peter Doye
93 – John White
86 – Paul Williamson
74 – Ivor Smith
EVER PRESENT IN A SEASON (to 2010/11)
17 – David Millward
11 – Ian Hunnable
8 – Neville Twitchell
7 – Colin Ramage
6 – Larry Marden
4 – Paul Williamson and John White
3 – Ivan Myall and Howard Grist
2 – Jeff Goldberg, John Philpott and Kevin White
1 – Michael Ashdown, Justin Baptie, Stuart Bates, Ken Clow, Mike Cresswell, Fred Dorn, Philip Gregory, Andy Hartland, Tim Hebbes, Syd Kalinsky, George McNally, Jaco Nelson, Dave Pearse, Ian Pheby, Robert Parker, Bill Saunders, Ivor Smith, David Spearman, Roberto Waldteufel, Mark Weighell, Steve Williams and Julian Winkworth.
CONSECUTIVE APPEARANCES
For a long time, Neville Twitchell held the record with 46 consecutive appearances, starting and finishing with matches against Kent at Wanstead House on 18 February 1995 and 14 October 2000. The run was only broken as a result of the failings of the train network in South East England.
This mark was exceeded by David Millward during the 2005/6 season. By the end of the 2010/11 season (the 11th successive season in which he had been ever present), David had stretched his run to 89 matches.
LEADING POINTS SCORERS
77 – David Millward
75 – Colin Ramage
70½ – Ian Hunnable
68 – Neville Twitchell
54½ – Peter Doye
51½ – John White
44 – Paul Williamson and Larry Marden
42½ – Ivor Smith
37 – Ray Purse
36 – Howard Grist
32 – Mark Weighell
30½ – Terry Whitton
28½ – Ivan Myall
27 – Tim Hebbes
26 – Kevin White
25½ – Martin McCall
24 – George McNally, Robert Parker and John Philpott
23½ – Dave Pearse
22 – Roy Heppinstall
21½ – Andy King
LEAST SUCCESSFUL PERFORMER
Default, with 0 out of 7.
BEST PERCENTAGE SCORE (minimum qualification 10 appearances)
77.8% – Justin Baptie (14/18)
75.0% – Bobby Payne (7½/10) and David Spearman (15/20)
72.2% – Trevor Coote (19½/27)
70.0% – Andy Hartland (14/20)
69.6% – Bill Saunders (16/23)
68.5% – Ray Purse (37/54)
67.9% – Howard Grist (36/53)
68.2% – Jeff Goldberg (15/22)
68.1% – Mark Weighell (14/21)
65.3% – Dave Pearse (23½/36)
65.0% – Josiah Lutton (6½/10)
63.6% – Neville Twitchell (68/107)
63.2% – Stan Harwood (12/19)
63.0% – Steve Harvey (14½/23)
61.5% – John Philpott (24/39)
61.5% – Ian Pheby (8/13)
61.1% – Larry Marden (44/72)
SHORTEST WINS
Roberto Waldteufel v R John Wilcox, Surrey v Essex 7 February 1998
1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 Qb6 4.Nc3 a6 5.Nxd5 Qa5+ 6.c3 f6 7.Bc7 1-0
Les Crane v R C Grundy, Essex v Sussex 21 March 1998
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3 Nc6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Be2 Nxe4 6.d5 Ne5 7.Qa4+ 1-0
Chris Fegan v David Hall, Essex v Sussex 3 February 2007
1.d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3.e3 Bg4 4.c4 e5 5.dxe5 d4 6.exd4 Nxd4 7.Qxd4 1-0
MOST LOSSES BY MOBILE PHONE
Peter Doye – 1
MOST WINS WITH THE GROB
Colin Ramage – 20
MOST LOSSES WITH THE GROB
Colin Ramage – 7
Colin has kindly contributed the following Grob wins which he has recorded when not playing for the U175s to delight any connoisseurs of classical positional play who happen to surf into this website. In recent seasons, Colin his changed his opening repertoire as White, but reverted to the opening on the occasion of his 100th appearance for the team to defeat Roly Piggott of Surrey and duly won.
(1) v Chris Clegg, Essex v Surrey Open 2 December 1989
1.g4 d5 2.Bg2 e5 3.c4 c6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Qb3 e4 6.Nc3 Ne7 7.d3 exd3 8.Bf4 Nbc6 9.Nb5 Be6 10.Nd6+ Kd7 11.Qxb7+ Qc7 12.Qxa8 Ng6 13.Qe8# 1-0
(2) v Mark Weighell, Eastrbrook v Waltham Forest Essex League February 1996
1.g4 e5 2.Bg2 Bc5 3.b4 Bxf2+?! 4.Kxf2 Qh4+ 5.Kf1 Qf6+ 6.Nf3 e4 7.Nc3 exf3 8.Bxf3 d5 9.Bb2 c6 10.Nxd5 Qxb2 11.Nc7+ Kd8 12.Nxa8 Qf6 13.Qe1 Bxg4 14.Qg3 Qxa1+ 15.Kg2 Bxf3+ 16.exf3 Qd4 17.Qc7+ Ke8 18.Re1+ 1-0
(3) v David Sedgwick, Surrey v Essex Open 30 November 1996
1.g4 d5 2.Bg2 c6 3.c4 dxc4 4.b3 Bxg4 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.bxc4 e5 7.Rb1 Qc7 8.Qb3 Bc5 9.Qxb7 Qxb7 10.Rxb7 Bb6 11.Ba3 Nfd7 12.Nf3 Na6 13.Nxe5 0-0-0 14.Nxc6 Kxb7 15.Nxd8+ Kb8 16.Nc6+ Kc8 17.Nb5 Bc5 18.Bxc5 Ndxc5 19.Nbxa7+ Kc7 20.Nb5+ Kb6 21.d4 Na4 22.Kd2 Bd7 23.Ne5 Bxb5 24.cxb5 Kxb5 25.Rb1+ 1-0
(4) v P Bisson, Essex v Cambs Open 29 October 1994
1.g4 d6 2.Bg2 e5 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4 Ne7 5.Nc3 Nbc6 6.Qa4 Bd7 7.h3 g6 8.Bg5 Bg7 9.Nd5 Bxb2 10.Rb1 Nd4?? 11.Nf6 1-0
(5) v Mark Weighell, British Championships week 2 Harry Baines tournament
1.g4 e5 2.Bg2 Bc5 3.e3 Nc6 4.c3 Qf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb6 7.Nc3 Nge7 8.Ne4 Qe6 9.d5 Nxd5 10.Ng5 Ba5+ 11.Kf1 Nxe3+ 12.Bxe3 Qf6 13.Qc2 Ne7 14.Ne2 d5 15.Qa4+ Nc6 16.Bxd5 Bb6 17.Qe4+ Ne7 18.Rd1 Bxe3 19.Bxf7+ 1-0
As Mark Weighell featured twice in the above selection, it seems only fair to restore the balance with one of Mark’s scalps with the Morra Gambit (transposing into a line of the c3 Sicilian), which seems more noteworthy with every passing year.
Mark Weighell v Magnus Carlsen, Bergen 11 October 2001
1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 Nc6 4.cxd4 d5 5.exd5 Qxd5 6.Nf3 e5 7.Nc3 Bb4 8.Bd2 Bxc3 9.Bxc3 e4 19.Nd2 Nf6 11.Bc4 Qg5 12.Qb3 0-0 13.0-0-0 Bg4 14.h4 Bxd1 15.Rxd1 Qf5 16.g4 Nxg4 17.Rg1 Nxf2 18.d5 Ne5 19.Rg5 Qd7 20.Bxe5 f5 21 d6+ 1-0
MOST CONSECUTIVE WINS
8 – Howard Grist.
Mark Weighell won on 9 consecutive appearances for the team starting on 20 February 1999, although these were not consecutive matches. The last 6 of these came as part of a magnificent run of 11 consecutive wins for Essex in all competitions (including the Open, U150 and U180 jamboree).
MOST CONSECUTIVE TOSSES WON
Stuart Bates – 4 during 1995/96.
MOST CONSECUTIVE TOSSES LOST
John Philpott – 8 from the start of the 1996/97 season when he assumed the captaincy. The sequence was only broken in the final (much to the relief of Paul Williamson who played board 1 that season) when Lancashire did not arrive in time for the toss.
