What an amazing match!

Five draws and a win on time.

Grant's team must be so disappointed, and justifiably so.

They put up a great fight, and actually had the better of the drawn games.

It started peacefully enough with Elmira and Thomas drawing, though they had both queened pawns near the end.

Grant held off James's Gruenfeld to earn a strong draw, and Dave and I drew quite fortunately for me as my over aggressive attacking (I think I must have been eating too much red meat) left me with dodgy pawns in a rook and pawn endgame and was happy to shake hands.

So, 1.5 each and the fancy players on the top three boards to decide the result.

Dave and Toby looked drawn but fought it out until the clocks were almost gone, with Dave having to hold the draw a pawn down in an opposite colour bishops ending.

Keith was getting the upper hand against Mike whose defensive exertions were taking up time, and his clock made the final decision in Keith's favour.

Then it was left to Gladiator Jack vs Gladiator Aron to seal the match one way or another.

Jack held a pawn advantage in a rook and pawn ending and was doing all the pressing with Aron resisting hard, and for at least a dozen moves they both played on incremental time only.

In the end Aron held the draw and the C-team held the win.

Did Jack miss a win? Was Aron's position safe all the time?

Do me a favour, I haven't a clue, but the outcome is two more precious league points for the Cs and no reward for a wonderful effort for the Ds.

Neither team is safe, though the Ds situation is somewhat worse.

The way they played must give them hope though, and although beating any opposition is precious, a concentrated effort by both team against South Bristol, Keynsham and Horfield would benefit both our sides.