Great performances at the EPSCA U11 Girls' Finals

On Saturday 26 March 2017, Kent's U11 Girls' team travelled to Orleans Park School in Twickenham for the EPSCA Girls' Final.

Following a successful training day the previous Sunday run by GMs Chris Ward and John Emms, the team arrived in good spirits.

However, the quality of the other 15 county teams was emphasised in the 1st round as Kent could only muster 5.5/12 (+ 3/4 in the Reserves) leaving us down in 10th place.

Following an inspiring team talk and some much needed lunch, the team returned to the playing hall and secured a magnificent 8.5/12 in the 2nd round (although the Reserves struggled to 1/4).

Even better was to follow, with Kent scoring 9.5/12 in the 3rd Round. This left Kent in 6th place, albeit only 1.5 points off the four counties that all tied for second position. Congratulations to the Sussex team who finished in a convincing first place.

Well done to All the Kent players who put in a fantastic effort to improve their scores in each round and played some great chess. The reserves also had a good day and ended up in 3rd place in their tournament.

The girls who played were: Navieinaah Haridas, Radha Ratnesan, Iris Davies, Roxolana Chaban, Samantha Mercer, Diya Choudhary, Neya Iyer, Eleanor Colesmith, Josie Marshall, Laura Holmes, Vaidehi Varma, Hollyann Reeves, Sanuvi Amarakoon, Georgina Bruce, Anya Strivastava, Scarlet Watson

It is not fair to single out individuals as this was a real team performance where every player scored at least 1 point, but mention must go to Iris, Roxolana and Laura who all had perfect 3/3 records.

Thanks, as ever, to GM Chris Ward for his inspiration and enthusiasm at the Final. Also to Andrew Bruce, for his work as team manager and Taras Chaban, who was board steward on the day.

Full results are on: http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/