With the skipper sunning himself on the Icelandic Riviera, Oscar unavailable and Andrew succumbing at the eleventh hour to a recurrence of his lurgy, desperate measures were called for. So we were very grateful that the Mighty Brigden was able to saddle up and ride over from the High Sierras.

The beautiful weather I was having instead.

Horfield C were not quite as strong as last week, when they pulled out all the stops to beat University, but you never take anything for granted against Horfield, especially when trying to predict their board order. So the skipper's pre-match guidance turned out to about as useful as a chocolate fire guard. (Ain't it great when you can get your own back for some of his cruel comments!)

In fact their boards five and six, Tom and Peter, were soon conducting a private competition to see which of them could last longer after going a piece or more down against Andrew and me respectively. Peter won, in the sense that he outlasted both Tom and Nigel - the latter was very politely ripped open on the h file by Dominique, who was in killer mode for the evening. Three nil.

Mike, however, forgot to play his usual stodge, sorry, typo that should be, "careful game" and got into very tricky complications with Jon. Both sides attacked frenetically and by all accounts Jon played exceedingly well and managed to rebut Mike's advances, well, all except the not at all obvious mate in five that the engine later found. That would have been one for the annals! But Jon didn't miss his. C'est la vie!

So 3-1 and could Horfield win the last two games to earn a point as time pressure loomed? Not really! Richard had his trademark anti-Sicilian build-up and squeezed and probed until an exchange was won and soon after that Bob capitulated. And Nigel played excellently again to neutralise Patryk with Black and then outplay him in the middle game to reach a pawn ending a whole knight up. So a 5-1 win puts the A-team back in our rightful position above the geezers from the B-team! I wonder how long it will last this time.

Now all we need is a nice photo of some geysers.

I may have been standing too close.