Junior Squad Young Masters

The annual Junior Squad tournament was held at Millfield School from the 17th July. Despite the clash with the Middlesex vs. Young England match, 31 of England’s strongest players met in combat and were joined by three Welsh, one Russian and one American. I was tempted to say “met in mortal combat”, as the whole tournament only saw 31 draws out of 179 games, most of which were long ones. Remarkably, there were 18/18 definite results in round 7. Perhaps the win bonus was an incentive for positive play or perhaps the players were just enjoying themselves. The Millfield facilities are second to none when it comes to sport and coupled with the onsite accommodation, the players had an excellent week. Table-tennis, pool, tennis, badminton, basketball and soccer were all available, although sadly the golf course was saturated. The 5-a-side football competition saw the five girls lighting up the evening, by beating an all boys team of similar age.

The chess was the raison d’etre for our being there and did not disappoint. Round Four saw Phil Makepeace as sole leader on 100% but he lost to Dominic Foord, who in turn lost to Joseff Thomas, who in turn lost to Ankush Khandelwal. Was there a curse of the lone leader?? After epic battles the final results were:
1st Daniel Hall
2nd James Adair, Joseff Thomas, Ankush Khandelwal, Philip Makepeace

We also had an unrated weekend tournament and probably the most impressive thing was that 48 out of 50 players got there, through the floods and continuous rain – one after a nine hour drive. In the end, the joint winners were Dashiell Shaw and Richard Weaving with 4½/5 whilst Toby Hall, Victor Jones and Joseph Quinn were half a point behind.

Finally my thanks to Millfield School for a superb venue, Gill, Matthew and Peter Turner for all their work on site and as local liaison officers and Alec Webster who, for 17 years, has been the powerhouse behind the event.

Peter Purland