It was time to visit Clifton's new venue for the second time this Season for a critical match against their Bs. A charity's function opposite added to the atmosphere. Clifton were keen to reverse the recent KO result and with their average grade 8 points in excess of ours this was a distinct possibility.

I missed the action on top board, but believe it was a battle of the heavyweights with neither player giving chances; Nigel continuing his good run to earn a draw against Chris. There was little to report on board two either; Michael B denying his opponent any attacking chances: a repetition of moves leading to an early draw. On three, despite John's attempted-pawn pushes on the flanks, Martin easily held out to reach marginally the better of a drawn looking position before the players shook hands. Michael M and Dominic on the next board had reached a blocked drawn position after 20 moves and with neither player willing to take any foolish risks, the score moved to 2-2.

The bottom boards were the last to finish and would decide the match. I had another poor opening, conceding a backward-pawn early on which was to be a curse that caused me endless problems. Too much time was spent in dealing with the resulting positions and despite grimly fighting on, Manuel played pretty much perfectly and picked up the-pawn in the ending. My last minute attempted counter-attack came to nothing, despite initial appearances, with my opponent continuing to find strong moves that forced my resignation.

Ian's game had an interesting sacrifice by Alan early on, giving up a knight for two pawns, which lead to what looked like a dangerous central pawn storm cramping Ian's pieces. With time running out, especially for Ian, Alan's further piece sacrifice (whilst looking pleasing to the eye) appeared unsound. Despite this, Alan was shortly afterwards able to force a repetition of moves to claim yet another draw and with it the match.

A disappointing result especially for myself, although gratefully my poor form is currently being compensated for my teammates over achievements, leaving the team in mid-table. We need to pick up points against lowly placed Bath A next week to leave us in a comfortable League position.