Going into this match we knew Chris would be unavailable as he was expecting a "busy day", but Javier volunteered to be our super substitute. On an unrelated note, Charlie was still available after his day at the hospital covering the work of the striking junior doctors. Mike H then let us know that Horfield B were only going to be able to bring five players, so Jerry volunteered to step aside, but in my confusion I thought I had been dropped and nearly didn't show. Worse yet, Javier had to pull out meaning that Jerry and I were both required. After all the nonsense, teams were finally ready.

The match began relatively quietly, with the white pieces pushing for space either in the centre or on the queenside. Henry was pursuing a pet line that I simply refuse to compliment. Richard had a monstrous bind in the centre. Charlie, Jerry and I appeared to be simply developing pieces in our games.

Despite the slow start, the was a sudden burst of excitement. Running out of space on the queenside, I saw a way to win a-pawn for no more than a-pawn and a sharp position. In the ensuing confusion I found myself a knight up in an endgame. Then in Henry's game, Daniel was forced to sacrifice his queen and knight for two rooks after an attempt to win an exchange backfired and his queen simply ran out of squares. Mike L then attempted a d5 pawn break against Richard's formidable bind. To a casual kibitzer, it looked like he may even get away with it after some clever moves, but it appeared that Richard was always one step ahead and he emerged an exchange up.

Jerry went down a-pawn, but converting looked like a mammoth task for Mike H. Was Jerry in danger of breaking his eight draws in eight matches streak? Charlie had a slightly worse-pawn structure but it seemed like his disadvantage was probably minimal. I converted my game by pushing my extra passed-pawn, and Henry converted his imbalanced advantage not long after. At 3-0 up, we appeared to have avoided our trademark "making hard work of every match". When Richard converted, Jerry appeared to be keener than every to get his ninth draw of the season.

With time running low, Jerry then uncorked a piece sacrifice and followed up with an exchange sacrifice. Naturally, the crowd went wild.

Dave showing his trademark interest.

Unfortunately for us Kajetan's king was making significant progress in a four-bishop endgame against Charlie and that game was soon lost. With only minutes left, Jerry had gone from a-pawn down, to equal in material and then a piece up, after which Mike H threw in the towel.

We may have started 1-0 up, but this was certainly an excellent result for the team. Maybe we're not entirely out of the running for the league title just yet!