Since North Bristol have moved from their previous place, this was our first time at the new venue, which made a pleasant change. The bar area especially seemed very comfortable and I wish I had thought to decamp down there a bit earlier.

We had had a bit of a drama earlier in the day when Steve developed a minor health problem. We needed to scrabble around somewhat to cover the two matches (the E team were playing in tandem there) but we were grateful that Tom was able to respond to the call.

I was first to finish, having decided to hold on to a gambit pawn and hope for the best. I found a combination which seemed to win a minor piece (or at least the exchange) but Alex wriggled strenuously to regain it. First there was a nasty pin on the c file and then a skewer down the e file but, fortunately, neither of them quite worked. When I emerged into the ending still a piece and a pawn ahead, Alex conceded.

On the board to my right, I can quite honestly say I had no idea what Pete was up to. A cursory glance after five moves showed he had managed to lose a piece, although Doug's Queen was in very inhospitable territory. I am reliably informed it was all book. Pete knew enough about it that the worst case scenario was a small plus and in fact he emerged with a rather larger plus - namely he won the Queen for two minor pieces. But it wasn't all over yet so, with Pete somewhat cramped and with the minor pieces doing their best to cause havoc, I headed off to check the other games.

Dave had one of his favourite positions, piling up a huge attack against the castled King. Spoilt for choice, he possibly took too long agonizing over the best continuation and, when the crunch time came, he missed a key move and the attack faltered. Now, a pawn down, he had to try to beat off Patrick's counter attack with time dwindling.

Meanwhile Tom was more than holding his own in a material level position against Steve but with a central supported passed pawn. It developed into a knight and five pawns ending where Tom had all the threats, with his better placed King and knight, and the advantage soon became overwhelming.

So, two - nil up, we just needed an extra half point to clinch the match points and Pete demonstrated that he had it all under control. It had taken thirty odd moves, which included giving back the exchange, but finally he swapped off enough pawns to allow his Queen room to roam and the end came very suddenly after that, making it three-nil.

After Qg6+, Black resigned.

Back to Dave, and by now the enemy pieces were infiltrating and the task of keeping them at bay became too much in the time available and it was indeed the clock that finally decided matters. It was a pity that, after developing such a strong position, the win eluded Dave but, hey, why waste wins on a won match. Save it for when the match depends on it, Dave!

With the E team holding North Bristol C to a draw and our D team having hosted North Bristol B the previous evening also to a drawn match, it meant we had come through three potentially very tough matches with no losses and, most importantly, a win to keep the C team in contention at the top of the table.