Enquiries about the SCCA should be directed to the County Secretary, Paul Watson, at 7 Regency Court, Withdean Rise, Brighton, BN1 6YG (tel. 01273 505480).
Little information has drifted my way about the progress of the county competitions this season. However, I am informed by the ever-reliable Bernard Cafferty that in the McArthur Cup Hastings beat Brighton 4–2 in one semifinal (19 Mar), and will meet the winners of Chichester vs The Holt.
In the SCCU competitions the Sussex Open team was 3rd (out of seven); the U-175 team was 2nd (out of four, in a double-round competition); the U-150 team was 5th (out of six); and the U-125 team was 3rd (out of five). So the Open and U-125 teams improved their placings by one position over last year, but the U-175 and U-150 teams, who both won their sections last year, relinquished their trophies. The Open and U-175 qualified for the BCF National Stages but were both eliminated in the Semi-Finals. Full details can be found at the SCCU website.
In the final Brighton & Hove beat Hastings & St Leonards 3–3 (winning on board count).
Feliks Kwiatkowski is County Champion. Daniel Hirsch won the West Sussex Queen. The East Sussex Queen competition drew no entries. The Veterans' competition has still not been concluded.
At the Annual SCCA Jamboree on 12 July the winners were The Holt.
In the Ward-Higgs Cup inter-county competition the correspondence team scored 17½ points from 26 boards (+11=13–2), and took second place. Yorkshire were winners with 19½ points.
At the beginning of March 2003 the team began a match against the British Correspondence Chess Association in memory of Richard O'Neale, who died on 1 December 2002. Richard played for Sussex and was a regular competitor in BCCA competitions. The contest is over 14 boards – half e-mail, half snail-mail. The match concluded at the end of February, with a 9½–4½ win to Sussex.
The correspondence captain, John Dodgson, says he is ever on the outlook for new strong players to play in the team. If you are interested, I can put you in touch with him if you don't already know his contact details.
At the moment the Sussex County Chess Association does not maintain a website. This page has no official standing, but simply consists of interesting snippets of information about the association that come my way.
Copyright © 2005, David Roberts, on behalf of the Mid-Sussex Chess League