Congratulations to our U11 chess team who, following a sterling performance at the regional semis at the weekend, have made it through to the English Primary School Championship Finals to be held in the Midlands in early July. Eighteen boys and parents (thank you parents!) travelled to the Sussex seaside, making 3 teams of 6: U9 and U11 teams in the main events, and an U11 ‘B’ team competing in the Plate competition. The boys showed great dedication and gained many admirers in the way they both performed and conducted themselves in incredibly tense team competitions. Our U11 ‘B’ team came very close to winning their tournament, eventually finishing 3rd. Our very young U9 team gained some excellent experience and emerged with a silver award after finishing in the middle of a 34-strong field, but the real drama was reserved for the young U11 ‘A’ team.
In their final game, needing to beat the much-fancied Latymer Prep by 4 ½ – ½ to qualify for the National Finals, they did just that – finishing on 20 points out of a possible 30, just behind Haberdashers (21) and Westminster Under (23). The reward for finishing a point clear of Highgate is a 2-day trip to the West Bromwich Radisson Park Inn on 2nd and 3rd July to battle against the seven other top ranked schools in the country. Good luck and thank you boys; with special thanks to our coach, Chris Ward!
