Another loss last night, unfortunately, but a strong battle against the team topping the table. Four of the games were drawn, with the other two going in the wrong direction for a 4-2 defeat.

Andrew's game seemed equal, when, knowing that a win was needed to give us a chance of rescuing a match result, he bravely refused a draw offer, only to go on and lose narrowly. It's remarkable how often that happens.

Dave's position looked like a central London road junction in the rush hour and though he was positionally better, with only two minutes left on his clock and no apparent path to make progress in the jumble of pieces even if he had hours left, a draw was agreed.

I saw little of Keith's and James' games which ended in a loss and a draw.

I spent most of the evening trying to isolate as many of my pawns as I could and having done so, realised it wasn't the cleverest idea, but managed to sort it out for a draw.

The game of the night was Toby's and great entertainment it was for the crowd gathered around his board.

He reached a Q and 5 pawns vs R,B,N and 3 pawns position with one minute left.

He must have played at least 30 moves on the 10 second increments, energetically winning the N, but just not having the time to find a win (was there one there anyway?), he finally ended his opponent's torture by agreeing a draw.

A remarkably strong minded performance from a player who significantly reduces the average age of our team.