Downend A welcomed Clevedon A, a side that had well beaten both Clifton teams in their previous two contests, for what was clearly going to be a tough encounter. It didn't help that Nigel was absent on top board and that Ian Ponter also missed the match, meaning that the first choice team that Clevedon arrived with out-graded us on all boards.

Last to start (replacing Ian Ponter at late notice) but first to finish was Matthew who produced an excellent strong attack, marching a-pawn down the board, that quickly forced Jonathan to resign. This was followed by a fabulous win from Humphrey over Peter (who had beaten James Cobb two weeks earlier) when the opening appeared to go slightly awry. Captain Michael then repeated last week's performance with a solid win. 3-0 up at half time.

However, I started the rot by blundering the exchange after a rather too complicated opening, in which I struggled to fully equalise and find any attacking play, with David defending soundly. Martin had a tough game but seemed to be reaching what he thought was a drawn opposite coloured bishop ending: however his highly graded opponent managed to prove that it wasn't quite. So everything depended on board 6, where Ian was down a-pawn due to a clever move by David, but despite this seemed to be building up a good attacking position. Unfortunately, Ian's opponent found a few more good moves and the draw didn't materialise despite Ian's best efforts. 3-3 at the full time whistle.

In the end, this was more like a game of football: a match of two halves, two substitutes who scored, a strong captain's performance and the feeling that the result might have been better but that a draw was good enough – maybe?

Away to Horfield A next Tuesday. They're not getting any easier. We need to try to exact revenge for our B's defeat.