You never know quite what to expect from Clifton, with their seemingly endless line-up of improving juniors, although on this occasion their E team only brought two of them to play our D team. They also notified us in advance that they would only field five players, so skipper Dan awarded himself the evening off and we started a point ahead.

On board 3 Nigel, Black, defended carefully and won a pawn which he later lost back to a tactic. Then White had chances to build up on another pawn but Nigel had seen more and there was a tactic of his own which won a whole rook and, with it, the game. A very pleasant coup! This gave us a 2-0 lead which reverted to 2-1 when Joe came second in his game on board 5.

Next to finish was Alan on board 2, who was up against the same opponent for the third time this season! With a win each, they were relatively cautious this time and Alan was able to see off any danger and clinch a welcome half point, leaving us in need of just two draws from the remaining games.

It was certainly not yet a done deal that we would achieve this because Dave had an unclear position and I (Ian) had won a pawn but had settled for an opposite coloured bishops ending. Both games went on into the last ten minutes of normal time but I was allowed linked g and h pawns which White’s bishop could not restrain, so I succeeded in gaining one point. Then, as we all gathered round Dave’s game, he kept us waiting until a few repeated moves gave him enough time increments to see his way clear to promoting a pawn. So he also won and we ran out winners by 4½-1½.