Going into the final weekend in third place two wins seemed necessary to gain promotion. So we strengthened our team by including Charlie Fry, which turns out to be an advance signing for the League too as he is coming to work at Southmead Hospital from September. Meanwhile we had the pick of the draw as there was only one team in the top two score groups we had not already played.

Chris halved out early, in a position where it was not immediately clear that he had equalised, though computer evaluation later on was slightly positive. Mike obtained a winning position but allowed a degree of counter-play along the open h file. Rob's game looked dubious and reduced to Q+R+2 v Q+N+4 where the opponent had the draw any time he wanted it. David obtained connected passed-pawns on the queenside but his opponent found a way back in to the game. Charlie's game was fairly straightforward, going into a better bishop ending, and Richard looked complicated.

As the match approached the time control Mike managed to consolidate by giving up his extra piece and won the Rook ending. Rob had difficulty generating counter-play in the Q ending but Rich built up a superb queenside position with major pieces only. Charlie ran into technical difficulties with B + aP + hP v B + hP. David managed to reduce to a position with R+B v R+N with an outside passed-pawn.

In the second session Mike and Rich won their R+P endings easily. David had to settle for a draw and Rob's game proved unsaveable. So we won the match but all eyes were on Charlie's game which had a sea of drawn B+RP possibilities as well as a host of stalemate positions. Eventually he managed to thread his way through and his patient labour was rewarded with the full point.

This result kept us in third, though this time outright.