Middlesex Juniors are champions again
Following
the success of the Middlesex juniors in winning the national U18 and
U13 County Championships last Sunday, the U14/130 team beat Berkshire
16.5-7.5 in the U14/130 Southern Counties Final held in Maidenhead on
Saturday.
This is a fantastic feat by the U14/130 team and Middlesex Juniors ended the week with three trophies.
The
team in Board Order was Gabriel Balouka-Myers, Reuben Balouka-Myers,
Harrison Willmoth, Jacob Goldberg, Liam Reed, Tim Lewis, Dylan Hung,
Devin Karia, Tej Shah, Lara Mallin, Toby Balouka-Myers and Raphael
Balouka-Myers.
This was a fabulous team effort
with great results across the Boards. Eight of the players were
undefeated with five winning both matches - Reuben, Dylan, Devin, Toby
and Raphael. Gabriel and Lara had a win and a draw. Liam had two draws.
The
U14/130 team played five matches across the season starting with Essex
in November and ending with the Final on Saturday. The team had wins
against Kent (13-11) and Sussex (16.5-7.5), draws with Essex (12-12) and
Surrey (12-12).
Many of the players who played
in these zonal matches were not available to play on Saturday but their
contribution to the team's success also need to be recognised - Sam
Cohen, Max Faircloth, Emmanuelle Gelain-Sohn, Nikita Nunes, Zachary
Potel, Adam Rosenthal, Charlie Sprung, Ruben van der Lubbe, Arnav Varma
and Joshua Wong.
I also followed the policy of
giving priority to children in Year 7+ in team selection even if their
grades were lower than the stronger Year 5 and 6 players. But when we
are short of players younger siblings played on the reserve boards or on
odd occasions on the lower boards in the team.
For
the Final, Toby and Raphael stepped in to play on Board 11 and 12 and
did fantastically well - securing maximum four points for the team. In
fact the Balouka-Myers boys had a great chess day scoring 7.5/8 - almost
50% of the team's final score of 16.5.
Thank you
This was the last game of the junior county chess season. Many thanks to all parents for their support and help.
Kamlesh Karia
Middlesex U14 Team Manager