Hastings BEATEN in Cup Final!

East Grinstead 2.5 – 1.5 Hastings & St Leonards

Monday night saw Hastings’ first-ever appearance in the Sussex County Chess Association’s Paul Watson Trophy. A competition that’s been running since the mid naughties (’00s).  Not only was it our first appearance in this final, but also our first appearance beyond the first round!!

Expectations were high, our best team was selected, our ducks were in a row, everything pointed to an historic win. In our way was East Grinstead, the club that stole our glory last season in an epic MacArthur Cup final. Could the chess Gods favour us this season? Could they hell! We came second again. Runners-up two seasons in a row. Always second, never the winner, we are becoming the Arsenal of the chess-world. In that spirit, I, as captain, should get my excuses in, in the style of Mikel Arteta – We lost because they had the white pieces (we also had equal white pieces), their players were too playery, the pieces were too piecery, the boards were too checkery and each East Grinstead player had 16 chess-men to play with, how can break down that kind of defence!!! 🙂

Early draws from Adrian & Jim set up a tense end to the match. John holding on desperately against Dan Rosen managed to get another draw, with just Henry left and his opponent down to his last 30s, the match could have gone our way, but it wasn’t to be and East Grinstead crowned Paul Watson Trophy Champions.

Massive congratulations to East Grinstead, and we look forward to another great cup run next season.