Hot on the heels of the D-team's very respectable result against a massively strong University A two weeks ago, comes a great result against Horfield C.

When Horfield arrived, I was slightly relieved that they didn't appear to have their full complement as shown on chessit and so we were out-graded by a much smaller margin than normal.

We were a couple short and Elmira and John kindly stepped in.

John's game with Michael seemed to be fairly evenly balanced from the start with neither side offering concessions, and this was the first game to finish with a draw agreed. 0.5 - 0.5 and points on the board.

David was doing well to hold off Prakash who appeared to be building up a nice attack, and things might have been different but for a stumble near the end which left black's white bishop vulnerable, and Black unfortunately resigned a few moves later. 0.5 - 1.5.

My game against Peter started to look drawish once a few pieces came off early on, and although I had visions of ganging up on an isolated pawn there wasn't really enough firepower to back that up. Peter offered a draw. I declined temporarily while I tried to assess the remaining games which I thought might well be going our way. 1 - 2.

I glanced at Elmira's game which showed all the signs that Elmira was in control and exploiting some weak pawns of Piotr's. Jack seemed to be dominating his game, and all was looking rosy. Toby's game was a bit trickier to assess with lots going on, and an uncertain result.

Jack had a great game with some lovely assertive play with his opponent on the ropes going into the end game. Victory seemed assured until a missed tactic let Nigel off the hook to breathe long enough to get a perpetual check and a draw was agreed. 1.5 - 2.5.

With Elmira's opponent now under extreme time pressure trying to defend his weak pawns Elmira could simply continue to press her advantage and edge her passed pawn ever more inevitably to the queening square, and Piotr resigned with a couple of seconds on the clock. 2.5 - 2.5.

All eyes were then on an exciting tussle on board one with both Toby and Bob getting short of time and the result still uncertain. Toby looked calm and focused, and when Bob made a mistake late in the game seemingly trying to fork Toby's rook and queen, Toby simply shimmied his queen to the other end of the board delivering a devastating check picking up a rook in the process and so ending up a piece. Bob tried hard to get out of trouble but Toby's accurate play closed all the doors. A cracking win. Well done Toby.

Final score 3.5 - 2.5 and the D-team's first win in a season when it looked like we were unlikely to get any. Who knows what happens next?