Saturday 29 April 2023
EPSCA U11 Final Nottingham 2023 - Report by Mark McCallum
Essex 11 Team at the EPSCA Final 2023.
Having comfortably qualified in fourth place at the South Zonal in March, the Essex team took part in the EPSCA Under 11 National Final against 12 other teams at the Nottingham High School in Nottingham. Normally the final is held on the first Saturday in May, however due to the Coronation it was brought forward a week. Unfortunately, there were several late withdrawals which meant we were two short of a full team.
Round one started well with a couple of quick wins for Oliver and Ashwin. However, after that it was very up and down with groups of wins and losses. One game of note was Ethan’s win on board 16 against as excellent Sussex player as they battled way after most of the other games had finished. There were also good wins for Karthik, James, Gautham and Jeremy. A score of 9 was a reasonable return.
Round two did not start well after Hayden’s quick win with three losses, however good wins for George and Louie improved the situation. There after there were only three move losses, with a good draw for Rezin, and good wins for Ashwin G, Luoke, Jason and finally Zoe. For the round an improved score of 11.5.
Round three was like round one with groups of wins and losses. There were particularly good wins for Oliver, Rezin and Shrishti. This led to a good score of 11 points for the round.
So, the team finished in a commendable 7th place with 31.5 points and only two points behind the fifth placed team. Special mention to Ashwin A and Grace who won all their games. There were some titanic battles with some top-quality opponents and every member of the team contributed to the team score.
Detailed results can be seen at https://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/TeamsOverall.cfm?EventID=170
Many thanks to the parents for all their support, especially the volunteer board stewards and the U9 Team Manager. Also, thanks to EPSCA, the tournament organisers for running the tournament and the other teams involved.
Mark McCallum
U11 Team Manager
Photo by Melinda Wilde
For more photos of the day, click here to visit the gallery