Sunday 1st December saw Bexhill make the short journey to take on Hastings in the Watson Trophy.
This competition involves a 4 person team with an average rating of no more than 1825.
Our team in board order was Andrew, Luke, Michael Hubbard and myself.
First to finish was Andrew. His opponent, playing to a team plan, offered Andrew a draw after just 8 moves! Andrew and I exchanged somewhat surprised glances, I was happy for Andrew to take the draw
as I was very confident that we would have an edge in both games on boards 2 and 3. Andrew had a long think and then accepted the draw. This did suit us, as, although I fell behind in my game early on and eventually had to resign, Michael and Luke were both looking fine in their games. Michael kept continuous pressure on his opponent, and eventually gained an overwhelming position and a resignation came from the Hastings captain. The rules of this competition are such that if the match ends 2 all board count would come into play since we had won on 3 and lost on 4 we were in front so Luke needed just a draw for us to win. However he negotiated a tight end game very well and won his game.
Final score Hastings 1.5 Bexhill 2.5.
It has been quite rare for Bexhill to be able to compete with Hastings on a level playing field
so this is a particularly fine win for our club.
Our other team in the competition play at home v Crowborough on December 13th, so hopefully we may have 2 teams through to the latter stages.