Emanuel lost 7.5 to 4.5 against a very strong Sutton Grammar School ‘B’ team last Friday.
We were expecting a very tough encounter against a school who have a squad of over 50 players and three teams in the Briant Poulter League. We also play Sutton ‘C’ after half term, but thankfully we are in a different division from Sutton ‘A’! The opponents also brought a reserve player, so we were able to field seven players.
After the first round of games the score was tied in an exceptionally close 3-3 match, with boards 1-4 all edgy encounters and Sutton winning comfortably on boards 5 and 6. Our points in this first round were scored by Charlie Robb (win), MacKenzie Sopocko (draw), Joe Barton (draw) and Zeeshan Islam (win). In the second round of matches we didn’t fare so well, only winning 1.5 out of 6 points. MacKenzie battled to another draw and Zeeshan won for a second time.
The match also featured Gabriel Guidon-Boyd and Karan Arya, both from Year 7, who competed well but were up against much older and more experienced players. Sophie Le Gouellec De Schwarz also played and performed well against tough opposition.
This was a competitive loss against a very strong team and a special well done to Zeeshan for a fantastic double victory.
Mr Jones (Senior Librarian and Archivist)