With the league safely won we now sought to complete a league/cup double and anticipated a close match at Clifton. Did it turn out that way?

The teams looked well matched on paper. We started our scoring with a short draw from Humphrey on Board 7; he established some space advantage in the opening (which the computer often overrates) but John got in the f5 break to equalise and then some unconvincing shuffling by both sides’ knights led to a repeated position.

Worse was to follow on board 6 where I (Nigel) dropped a pawn early on with little compensation. My King was stuck in the centre and in his rush to exploit this Gareth sacrificed his knight. This gave me a fleeting chance to equalise with Qe2, threatening a rook sacrifice to force a perpetual check; I didn’t see this in time so Gareth justly won the game.

Peter on board 5 generated an attack with just Q and Rs. There was a win with precise play, but the enemy Queen was menacing back rank mates so Peter chose a line which finished with a perpetual check.

Haroon had some Kingside play to counter Carl’s pawn centre - both sides were happy to agree a draw. 1½-2½ down but with chances elsewhere!

Oli had an open position v Chris with both sides seeking tactical chances, James had won a pawn against Michael at the cost of getting his Queen offside, Steve had accepted Colin’s pawn sacrifice and was hanging on to it at the cost of a messy structure and Mark had established an imposing looking pawn centre, which could be vulnerable to a counterattack. The match hung in the balance!

The next result was a vital victory for Oli; so often this season he has delivered when needed. He won a pawn to get an ending in which his extra a pawn was going to slowly advance down the board. Chris resigned earlier than many would have done; he clearly trusted Oli’s technique.

James was also in control by now; his Queen had returned to the centre and his threats on h6 had forced Mike to trade his Queen for two rooks. This is often ok for the rooks but James had three connected passed pawns on the Queenside and soon also a passed e pawn. This proved to be too much for Mike to cope with - although there was a sneaky stalemate possibility just before the end and James sealed the deal to put us 3½-2½ up and with board count looking favourable for us.

Steve’s game was also reaching a safe conclusion. A spell of tactics had enabled him to return his extra pawn to get his pieces coordinated and simplification produced an opposite coloured bishops ending which was duly drawn to get us up to 4-3.

Mark’s centre had indeed proved vulnerable and Robert got to a rook ending with an extra pawn. There may have been some drawing chances but in the end Mark could not deal with Robert’s united passed h and g pawns.

The match ended as a 4-4 draw, with board count going in our favour 4-14, the successes on the higher boards outweighing the naughty boys’ corner on boards 6 and 8.

Thanks to Peter for his captaincy and assembling some strong teams. Are there any more worlds to conquer next year?