SUSSEX AWAY (SCCU STAGE)
CRAWLEY
17 FEBRUARY 1996

    SUSSEX   ESSEX    
Board Colour Home team Grade Score Away team Grade Score
1 W Stephen Hawes 173 0 Terry Donnelly 173 1
2 B Ian Kelly 172 0 Ivor Smith 172 1
3 W Robin Clark 170 1 Default   0
4 B Adrian Pickersgill 170 ½ Ken Clow 167 ½
5 W James Graham 160 0 Peter Doye 166 1
6 B Richard Power 166 ½ John Philpott 163 ½
7 W Erkki Pesonen 166 1 Mark Weighell 163 0
8 B Paul Batchelor 165 1 Colin Ramage 156 0
9 W Michael Reddie 164 1 Andy King 156 0
10 B James Mansson 164 0 Andy Hartland 156 1
11 W Paul Selby 157 1 Neville Twitchell 153 0
12 B Andrew Fleming 156 0 Stan Harwood 149 1
13 W Roy Harper 156 1 Steve Williams 146 0
14 B Sue Howell 154 ½ Richard Weeber 143 ½
15 W Ian Edgson 149 ½ Stuart Bates 140 ½
16 B Daniel Hirsch 154 1 Default   0
  TOTAL - Home 9 TOTAL - Away 7

So near and yet so far. Essex could have qualified as runners up for the National Stages by tieing this match. As they lost, Sussex had the opportunity to equal their match point tally of 3 by winning their final match away to Surrey which they duly did by the narrowest possible margin of 8½ - 7½. This necessitated a tie-break. Under the current SCCU rules the first criterion is the result of the matches between the tied teams. As Essex beat Sussex at Wanstead by a narrower margin (8½ - 7½) than they lost the return (9 - 7) Sussex went through. If the Sussex victory margin had been restricted to 8½ - 7½ in the return, Essex would have qualified on the secondary tie-break principle of aggregate game points.

This may make it seem that the team was unlucky, but the failure to field a full 16 in three of the matches amounted to hari-kiri. I will never forget the atmosphere at Crawley when the Essex players learned that in this make or break match, bottom board was being conceded (even before it emerged that board 3 had not made the pick up point for his lift). Fortunately the lesson was learned, and these two defaults were to be the team's last of the millennium.

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