It was a busy night in the club, and a reasonably successful one at that, with all the matches finishing comfortably in the favour of the home team. We were without Richard (who then showed up to watch!), but Oscar was willing to still not get to play as white for the club. Andrew C was also unavailable, preferring to play for a club that won't berate him in the match reports, but Andrew M stepped up to make sure we weren't without a trademark half point Andrew.

David was a little late, but when the clocks started both players took their time figuring out what sort of open game they wanted. It seemed that Oscar wanted one with extra-pawns. Nigel and Max raced into a theoretical opening which melted into an endgame with exchanges down the narrow files that weren't clogged with-pawns. Paul and I tried to make up an opening but it transposed disappointingly into a Closed Sicilian. White took all the space and pressed to stop black castling. Refusing to back down Paul played a knight sacrifice that Stockfish describes as "level at worst". Fortunately, not being Stockfish, I thought it was "probably losing for white in 10 or so" and that really helped my confidence.

Dominique was playing yet another opening and Chris was the second Clevedon player to chuck a piece for a quick attack. Again, I fancied Dominique's chances because my positional assessment is strictly points-based. Ian was snapping off-pawns on the defensive side of one of the greatest ever gambits. I assumed this risky endeavour would prove too greedy, but as Ian demonstrated the position is fine. The later loss is purely incidental. Andrew, fulfilling his half-point duties, swapped off some pieces in a French Exchange and then fought for control of the e-file.

Nigel demonstrated why his knight was going to be stronger than Max's bad bishop and as the-pawns started to fall Nigel took the point. Clevedon then drew the score back to level with a well-placed tactic on board 5. Oscar converted his endgame with ruthless efficiency and Paul helped me convert mine by staying under reasonable time pressure. Having jostled respectably for the mantle of "a slight edge" Andrew and James split the point. As Andrew pointed out, Clevedon's board 5 and 6 weren't on my prep notes, so it may be on me, but that's really suggesting a very high standard for the notes (or the ridiculous notion that anyone looks at them).

With the match in the bag Dominique had no pressure on him, other than a slight time squeeze, to convert his improving position. It soon became clear there'd be no swindles and after that, no stalemate traps and the final game was conceded to white.

We're back to 11 points from 11 games which only keeps us a surprising 4th from bottom, but with a reasonable margin between us and the relegation zone, though I do wonder if we'll actually see the full A-team out for a second time this season...