Season 2016/17

2016/7 was a mixed year for the club's teams.  The First Team briefly flirted with promotion to Division 1 before ending in comfortable mid table in Division 2.  A large part of this can be attributed to the arrival of a very strong payer at the club, Chaski Patrick, returning from Sweden to the UK and clearly much the strongest player at Uckfield but some good performances all round from all of the team members.

The Second Team were always likely to struggle in Division 3 following last years promotion and so it proved, with the team finishing 8th out of 9 on board points behind Horsham 4, which is where we would have been seeded to finish on average grade. It could not have been much closer and it only needed one or two results for us or for the other teams near the bottom to go differently for us to stay up.  In particular we narrowly lost to Sussex Uni 3-2 after looking like winning the match and they finished in 2nd place, gaining promotion.

A big thankyou to everyone who played, all contributed and although it was occasionally hard going playing against often much higher graded opponents we did not default a single board in the season.  Particular mention should go to Jack Graham who played in all 8 matches (as did Michael Stockham) scoring 5 points out of 8.

Promotion and relegation is never straightforward in the MSCL depending as it does on the number of teams entering next season, so we will wait and see where we end up. 

The Knockout Team had a very successful season, winning the trophy by beating Brighton in the final.  This is the second time Uckfield have won this trophy.  Well played everyone.  

The Rapidplay Team finished second in this inaugural year of the competition.  The team is comprised mainly of Junior players, with Brian Stockham tending to play particularly in away games, being the only one in the team old enough to drive.