The B team's visit to Bath started badly but finished with an exciting flourish as we nearly closed the gap to salvage a point.

We welcomed Hugo for his first match for the club and he treated us to a very interesting conclusion but not before we had got off to a disappointing start. By the time I arrived both the bottom boards had gone or were going badly for us with Martin and Rad against Patrick and Matthew unfortunately coming unstuck at a relatively early stage. With Peter agreeing a dead draw with Steven (and no blame attaching this time because at no stage had he been six points up on the engine!) we found ourselves with just one half point on the board and a serious challenge lay ahead.

I was reliably informed that Oli's position against Adam M had become rather dodgy, although in my own estimation it wasn't quite as bad as that because Adam had immobile doubled e pawns cluttering up the middle of the board and restricting his bishop pair. Meanwhile Dominique and Hugo had plenty of play.

Hugo had won two pawns but at the cost of finding himself under threats of a dangerous looking mating attack. His get out of jail card was a show-stopping bishop move which put it en prise from two directions but threatened the simple win of a piece and also the penetration of his Queen to f2 with check and the win of a rook. The lesser of evils as chosen by Clive was to give up the rook with a Queen exchange to follow and emerge the exchange and a pawn down. Hugo simplified to a trivially winning pawn ending and so one point had been clawed back. It had been a memorable first game for the club.

Dominique had controlled the open d file against Adam R but was under threat of a pawn attack against his castled King. He was low on time when he went in for a combination in a complicated melee of pieces and unfortunately overlooked a backward re-capture by a bishop which left him a whole rook down and he resigned soon after.

Oli's Queenless middlegame now entered a series of separate phases. In the first he was asking all the questions as he penetrated with his rook and threatened various weak pawns (winning one of the doubled ones) and the possible trapping of one of the bishops. Adam coped with all the threats and one pair of bishops was exchanged leaving Oli with R + N against R + B and somewhat awkward Q-side pawns.

In the next difficult phase Oli's knight was pinned on the back rank so that neither King nor knight could move and the danger was that Adam would bring his bishop to bear to win the knight. Fortunately this was avoided at the cost of yielding his extra pawn. The rooks were swapped off leaving Oli with N v B for the final phase and only three K-side pawns each remaining. Oli's King and pawns all occupied black squares where they were immune from harassment by the bishop.

By now Oli was down to under a minute and neither player was recording moves. They performed a ballet of knight and bishop moves while recovering time on the increment. Adam pushed his h7 pawn to h5 at a moment when it could not be taken en passant because this would have left Oli's knight undefended. But it meant that the final bastion of Black's formation was now the pawn on g6 and Oli was able to turn his attention to attacking this one. There were probably inaccuracies on both sides but one inocuous looking bishop move turned out to allow Oli to get his King to f7. He was able to mop up both black pawns while his own remained intact and the promotion of one of them could not be prevented. It had been a monumental effort by both players (and by Dave, who re-constructed all 85 moves!), very calmly played, and Adam can count himself unlucky to succumb in the end.

But of course, sadly, this did not affect the match result. Still, a narrow defeat is a bit easier to stomach than a crushing one and the fightback from a seemingly hopeless position had been highly creditable.