The F team welcomed Clevedon C for a division five fixture. They included our former player, Dave Wilson, who obviously enjoys returning to his old stamping ground, even if we have moved venues a couple of times since he departed!

We were not able to field all the usual suspects but were glad to have Alan on top board. He defended a Queens Pawn set up and manoeuvred his pieces to obtain a space advantage against Jack. He also had an unassailable outpost for one of his knights on e3 and the occupation of it led to the win of the exchange. When he also mobilized his dark squared bishop he was able to win more material, forcing resignation. An excellent demonstration of how to handle the Black pieces meant two wins in 24 hours for Alan!

We also had Greg making a rare F team appearance against the experienced Geoff on board two. Following quite a lot of skirmishing with both sides not always playing best moves, Greg’s key step was to seize control of the e file, after which a nice combination brought the game to a sudden conclusion with the win of the enemy Queen. Greg was quite rightly very happy to have achieved his highest ever scalp, having played with a rating deficit in excess of 150.

We were also heavily outrated on boards 3 and 4. Nick was holding his own for 20 moves, and Per also put up a good fight, winning material at first but later being overwhelmed by pins. Both eventually came second on this occasion, meaning that the match points were shared.

Nicholas Woods