If any justification was needed for our decision to support the League by asking for two teams in Division One, this was it! Three wins and, oh, so nearly, a draw to clinch the match against University A, who had not dropped a single point prior to this.

Because of a work-related absence by Dominique and a last minute Covid scare with Toby, we had to call on two new reserves, one of whom had never played in Division One before and they both found themselves battling against much higher rated opponents.

All the games were pretty well balanced for over an hour. First to finish was Oscar who emerged with a slight plus after Alex opted to give up B & N for a rook while holding an imposing central pawn mass. Oscar was able to undermine this and emerged with a passed pawn himself which soon advanced to e2 where it was defended by his bishop. Alex attempted to block off the defence with one of his pawns and should have ended up losing just one pawn with a "Black is Better" on the engine but instead made a huge oversight which forced him to concede one move later. A typical Oscar game, much too difficult for the watching layman to fathom out fully, with thrills and spills all the way.

The next phase of the match saw University re-take the lead as first Graham and then Steve succumbed. Graham, Black, gradually went under the cosh against Dan V but Steve conjured up some excellent chances against Dan S and in fact was winning the exchange by move 12. Unfortunately his advantage turned round when he got the move order wrong in swapping minor pieces and drifted into a difficult ending where he possibly missed a drawing line.

But then came a rebound from our side as Mark demonstrated why he had been called up from the depths of Division Two. He nursed a small advantage which soon became a threat to win the exchange and in fact resulted in the win of a knight. Tactics abounded and however Fergus wriggled Mark had the antidote, culminating in promoting a pawn and forcing resignation a few moves later.

After a couple of dozen moves Oli had reached an equal game against James with Q, R & B plus five pawns each. Oli's Queen was more active and he also had a handy advantage on the clock which may have contributed to James choosing to put his bishop into ultra-defensive mode and place his rook awkwardly. There followed a little combination which won a key pawn for Oli and, with the Queens coming off a few moves later, suddenly the result of the ensuing ending was not in doubt.

That gave us three points and all eyes turned to Martin who had an ending with B & N versus two knights plus four pawns each. The bishop certainly had only limited scope but Martin was hanging in there until in time pressure for both players many of the pawns started to be eliminated. It came down to K + N for Martin against K + 2 knights and a pawn for Ian and there were definite possibilities to give up the knight for the pawn and leave White two knights up but with no way of winning. One check by Ian was met with a stunned silence when it was realized to be checkmate as Martin's King had, sadly, strayed into a trap. Desperately unlucky in the end!

So, with these three immensely satisfying wins, a drawn match was achieved against all the rating odds and we find ourselves basking in mid table comfort. This point taken off University could even be key in starting the A team's recovery to re-take the lead in the second half of the season. All to play for!