After an hour's play, we seemed to have a borderline edge overall, mainly based on the colours. With White, Chris had a slight plus against an isolated queen's pawn, Richard was calmly building pressure while staying at least level on time and Michael M was preparing a kingside attack. Conversely Henry was having trouble freeing his queenside (no fun with Black against David Buckley), Nigel's position was getting blocked, so I was marking him down for a draw and Michael B's Caro-Kann was leading to slight disadvantage.

The top three were first to finish. Henry was unable to hold a couple of pawns and gave up an exchange in the hope of conjuring some threats but it wasn't enough. Chris was unable to make any headway in a R + N endgame and soon agreed a draw. Nigel, however, had winning chances because there were enough complications in the position for him to cash in on a huge time advantage - 30 minutes versus less than 5. With the benefit of hindsight, he possibly tried something that was a little too flashy. He always had the draw in hand but his opponent had enough counter-threats that were playable even with only seconds remaining and so the predicted draw duly materialised. So 2-1 down on the top and something special needed.

Richard was still building pressure steadily with doubled rooks on the f file bearing down but Michael B's game was looking drawish and Michael M was in danger of reaching an ending a couple of pawns down unless he could take advantage of his opponent's rather exposed king. We were well into the final tense ten minutes of the match when he managed to uncork a rook sacrifice to which there were two replies - one which lost in three moves and one which probably lost after more of a struggle. To the home crowd's relief Andrew Gregory made the wrong choice which was a shame for him as he had played resourcefully while under considerable pressure. With only a couple of minutes remaining for both players, Michael B then drew on his huge experience to outplay his opponent in a K+P ending. The last to finish was Richard who emerged into a R + P ending with passed a and b pawns. When they reached a7 and b6 that was curtains and a 4-2 win the final nerve-racking result!

Earlier in the evening I had feared the loss of a point or even two but the lower boards came up trumps and, as we have since heard that Horfield A lost to Clifton A last night, we now lead the table. This season could be a real cliffhanger as no team has been as consistent as they would like but we are certainly in with real chance now.