While the A team were wrestling with Horfield A, the D team were taking on a quite experienced Clevedon B in Division Three, a match which, were we to win, would put us embarrassingly close to the possibility of promotion.

The match started OK with draws from Dave Woodcock and me, the latter against Stuart’s trademark Polish Opening; one which no doubt often stymies opponents but, because of its inherent failure to dominate the centre of the board, can also make it fairly straightforward to equalize.

The other four games were much harder to call. Unfortunately the next two results went against us. Alan seemed to have a balanced position against Brian but fell to a bishop check which forced his King away from defending his Queen and it was all over in a flash. John drifted into a difficult game which he was unable to hold.

So now we were 3-1 down and it was going to be difficult to get anything out of the match. Dave Williams was holding Jason while Mike seemed to have the worst of it against Ben. It transpired that Dave drew but Mike capitalized on his opponent’s failure to maintain control of a key file and broke through himself to clinch an excellent win while very short of time.

The match was lost and Clevedon march on towards Division Two, while we remain in a solid mid-table position - not bad for a D team!