Horfield certainly got their season off to at least half the start they wanted with a pretty crushing win against our C-team. We were pretty out graded too and sadly the only thing that was not pretty was some of our chess. (For the other half you'll need to potter over to Mike's A-team report.)

Being the last to finish, I didn't see too much of the other games. It looked like Nigel had sacrificed a-pawn for promising pressure against Thomas but in the end the-pawn told. Andrew decided to use the evening to get in some practice pressing the new clock for about 35 moves more than was strictly necessary against Brent. Dominique had a complex middle game with some chances of reaching a level ending but time pressure eventually told coupled with his slightly inferior position against Mike. I had a murky opening with a number of second best moves on both sides until I chose a fourth or fifth best move which lost an exchange. Although I had a good bishop which held Rob up for twenty odd moves the writing was on the wall. On another day we might have scored better against their top two 170-plus players but not yesterday, so that was 4-0.

It was left to Richard to get a solid draw against Prakash and James to get a slightly more fortuitous one (I understand he was playing on the increment at the end) against Nigel: well done for getting those two draws to prevent an absolute horror score line! I would say all the games were over slightly earlier than might have been the case under the old regime so, if that becomes the norm, at least there will be a little more time at the bar.

Our C-team is certainly not as strong as last season, so we can probably rule out a repetition of silverware - or should that be "possibly"? Whatever, I think we can expect to be Horfield very much in the running for promotion based on the squad they brought yesterday. They were certainly too good for us last night.