It's always good to visit Clevedon, a town without peer, I think they used to say. As often, we were indebted to our reserves - to Rob who covered the skipper as he learns how to drive one-handed and to Mike for standing in at very short notice.

It was a game of two halves. After 45 minutes (well, not literally!) the scores were level. Steve had, to my uneducated eye, a slight advantage from an opening which saw plenty of pieces exchanged. But evidently Peter had it under control and they shook hands (well, not literally!) after just 16 moves.

Meanwhile Paul overlooked to do something about a hanging bishop and when that dropped off he resigned to Rob. Mike was on the wrong end of a very strong attack by Chris to level the match and not one of those first three games had lasted more than twenty moves.

Mine was next to finish. I gambled on all-out attack against David with pawns on g5 and h5 by move twelve and it paid off when I was able to consolidate and break through on the h file before a small coup netted a bishop.

Andrew had a very hairy time against Max. He invested so much time - Dave's photo shows him with 5 minutes against 49 in a tricky ending with Q + B versus two rooks and lots of pawns to be watched out for. It got down to seconds but once there were fewer pawns and the rooks no longer self-defended Andrew was able to offer up the bishop against pawns twice to eliminate Max's last chance and a fork soon won one of the rooks. Another very fine scalp for Andrew!

That clinched the match and it was down to Oli to put the icing on the cake. He launched a strong King-side attack and pseudo-sacrificed a bishop to reach a crushing position while too many of David's defenders were mere onlookers from the other side of the board. Very efficiently finished off with threats of mate, or worse, if that would be possible!

So, although we might chide Clevedon for not laying on better weather on the M5, we had had our usual friendly welcome and hope we shall be returning there next year. While we are now snapping at our A-team's heels for mid-table supremacy, they have it in their own hands to gather enough points to stay safe. Good luck with that!