Horsham 1 was away at Eastbourne 1 in the Mid-Sussex League last Friday. The match is still in the balance, with two games requiring adjudication unless a result can be agreed. In the completed games the score is 1.5-1.5. The unfinished games both seem to me to most likely be draws, which means that the match would be drawn.
The first game to finish was Peter Harbott’s game against Paul Carpenter. As I can vouch from playing him myself a few years ago, Paul is a dangerous player, and Peter suffered the consequences of underestimating his attack.
Both Gavin Lock’s game and my game were decided in time scrambles, although in quite different ways. Gavin managed to finally overcome Peter Fleming as the latter hallucinated and played an unsound knight sacrifice. He resigned promptly after Gavin’s reply.
In my game against Adrian Pickersgill, I managed to get much the better of the position, and was pressing for a win. However, I was down to about three minutes for fourteen moves, in a position that didn’t seem entirely clear. My opponent played his 29th move and offered a draw. Unable to see anything clear, I accepted the offer. He then pointed out that after playing the move, he realised that it was a blunder. Unfortunately for me, I had not seen the correct reply!
In the unfinished games, Dix Roberts is worse against Oliver Froom, while Anthony Higgs is better against Mike Roberts. However, in both cases the side with the advantage does not seem to have anything clear.