Butler Cup
For the second year running the Ashdown House chess players have proved to be the best in the county. The prestigious Butler Cup has been won by our U14 quartet of Cosima and Charlie Keen, William Douglas and Alexandra Mathison.
The competition was held at Great Walstead School on Monday 9th May and it featured the top four chess schools in Sussex: Windlesham House, Great Walstead, Copthorne and Ashdown House. In this very strong field, Ashdown House overcame Windlesham 3-1 in the semi-finals and then faced Copthorne in the final. This went down to the wire, with Ashdown’s William Douglas winning the very last game to give us a 2½ - 1½ victory and the prize.
Congratulations and well played, Ashdown. NM
During the holidays, Ashdown House was well represented in the ESPCA National chess finals in Nottingham, with Freddie Smith playing for Sussex on Board 7 and Alexander Keen in the Sussex Reserves. Despite tough opposition from 18 other teams from all over England, the Sussex U9s' team fought well and were rewarded with a great result, coming first by a margin of 1 1/2 points, and bringing the championship title home to Sussex for the first time in six years.
A full report can be seen on the SJC website
Freddie and Alexander are to be congratulated for their valuable contributions to the victory, with Freddie winning all 3 of his games and Alex adding a further win to the scoresheet.
The attached photos give a flavour of the excitement of the day - Freddie and Alexander both received individual trophies and an enormous silver cup was presented to the team captain. Unfortunately, Alex went home before a photo could be taken of him with Freddie holding the cup, but it will be coming to Ashdown some time over the coming months for a presentation and an opportunity to take further photos.
Let's hope Ashdown can repeat this success at the Sussex Megafinal on Saturday!
