Match report from our captain Bill Tracey.
On Friday 24th march Bexhill hosted East Grinstead Bookshop 1 in
a Division 2 league match.
This was a match that we needed to win to stay in the Division,
it was also a match that on paper we were favourites to win.
However the match did not go well for us.
On board 1 Leo faced a player playing his first ever league match,
who turned out to be a very strong player and produced a very fine performance to beat Leo in 25 moves! Had Leo faced any other player that had previously played
for our visitors he would have been considered a firm favourite.
On board 3 Steve Blewitt faced an opponent that it is probably fair to say that he would beat maybe 9 out of 10 times, but, unfortunately, Steve made a very uncharacteristic early error that cost a piece, and,
despite battling hard, eventually he was forced to resign.
On 4 Michael played very well and had established a very strong position and was also 2 pawns up,
however he got a sequence wrong which cost him the game.
John Kimber was playing on board 2 and was against a very useful young player. John played a fine game and eventually his opponent was forced to resign.
So the final score was Bexhill 1 Bookshop 3.
This means that we are now relying on other results to avoid relegation.
Finally, after the match, which was our final League match of the season, John announced that he was retiring from playing League matches (unless we were ever to
be a player short for a match with no one else to play).
John played in our first ever League match in October of 2019, winning on board 2 against Uckfield so it was good to see him end his career with another win on board 2.
John has been an invaluable member of our teams in so many ways. Win or lose his Chess is always great to watch as he plays in such a bold attacking manner. He has on a number of occasions taken
on the role of Captain and travel organiser.
His good humour and Chess knowledge will be sorely missed on the long journeys around the County.
So on behalf of the Club I would like to thank John for all that he has done to support our League
teams over the last four years.