The A-team visited South Bristol with nothing much at stake from our point of view except pride, while they were looking for the finishing touches towards winning the League for the first time.

The final result, a narrow defeat, was disappointing, partly because if I had held the draw which everybody told me afterwards was there for the taking, we would have shared the points. Especially disappointing because Nigel and Michael M had excellent wins against SB's new star players and Martin drew comfortably. So for their sake we would have hoped to have done better but in the end the rest of us only managed a Norwegian Eurovision score.

However, I well remember the first time Downend and Fishponds won the League. We were pretty chuffed to have stopped the Clifton / Bath juggernaut back in the 1960s. It would be churlish now not to appreciate SB's pleasure in their achievement this year and congratulate them when (as they surely will) they succeed in putting a new name on the Shield for the first time for many years.

But, whatever else, please try to play through Michael Meadows' astonishing game against Arturo Wong. I think this was a case of astute preparation backed up by accurate execution. Well worth a look!

Meadows, Michael vs Wong, Arturo

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