Four of the strong chess counties from the south of England were each represented by a team of 6 Under 11 girls, plus reserves - Berkshire, Kent, Oxfordshire and Surrey.

The girls' ages ranged from Under 11 to Under 8, with ECF (rapidplay) grades from 133 to many ungraded players. 

It was an enjoyable day with some great concentration on the chess boards, enthusiasm, good manners, excellent behaviour and wonderful team spirit. 

The girls from Berkshire and Oxfordshire played good long games in each of the 3 rounds and, win or lose, gained valuable chess experience and were a credit to their counties.  The home team from Oxfordshire finished in 3rd place with 5.5 points, with Berkshire 4th on 2.5 points.

Both Surrey and Kent got off to a good start in round 1, with only half a point separating them.  Surrey maintained their lead after round 2, so the tension and excitement was at it's highest for round 3.  

Kent and Surrey also had a selection of reserves for their teams.  Surrey had to call upon their first reserve to step up and replace their board 5 player who was unable to attend at short notice.  This reserve player, Maya, did a great job for her team, scoring a maximum of 3 out of 3 points.

The remaining 7 reserves played in a tournament alongside the main teams.  They all played wonderfully, with some of the longest, hard-fought games of the day.  Arya Nagwani (Surrey), the youngest player in the tournament, won 2.5 out of her 3 games!  The overall winners of the Reserves Tournament were the girls from Kent, each winning a medal to take home.

I would like to thank the county chess organisations, the team managers/supervisors (Matt Findel-Hawkins, Tony Rao, Heather Lang and Mike Bolan) and the parents for encouraging and allowing the girls to take part in this event.  But most of all, thank you to the girls themselves for making all the work involved in organising this event so worthwhile.  The four counties should be very proud of all these girls!