Torrential showers made it hard work even to get to Bath in a fit state to play chess on top of the other rather basic problem of raising a team. With Oli and Andrew C unavailable it was time to call up the troops from the C-team and we were very grateful that Dave and James were able to answer the call.

Buckers explained that he also was two short because of players phoning in sick only that morning so it was a bit of a relief that they too had to draft players in.

I set about the task of neutralizing Andrew and decided that the best way forward was to mimic his moves for as long as it didn't give the game away that I hadn't much idea what was going on. Then, after a couple of minor pieces were swapped off, it looked pretty level to me so I offered a draw. Accepted. Job done and over to the rest of the team.

And, as I perambulated, things were looking better than half decent. James had a lead in development, having stuck Mauro's King in the centre and Steve was obviously enjoying his attacking prospects against David.

When Mauro snaffled a loose central pawn his Queen came under attack and James was able to use four consecutive moves to develop his two remaining minor pieces and both rooks with mounting threats. It was all over when his knight burst through to c2 and was going to win a whole rook for nothing.

Meanwhile Steve's pressure won the exchange with a dominating position to boot. David tried to rustle up a couple of cunning plans but Steve calmly saw them off and with threats of back rank mates looming, David conceded.

Two very nice wins (candidates for GotM?) had put us well in the driving seat. I thought Mike and Dave had positions that could both finish at least as draws. Andrew's was much harder to call and the main problem here was that he was using more time in a very tricky position.

Then, although Dave won the exchange against Patrick, he was down to playing on the increment and enough pawns were exchanged so that neither side had serious prospects of promoting one of the remaining ones. This draw made the score 3-1.

Mike had been enjoying pressure against Adam throughout the game but he defended well and Mike had a rook slightly awkwardly placed. A bit later on Adam found a manouevre which rather caught Mike off balance and, a little flustered by the suddenness of the turnaround, he succumbed to a combined attack by Queen and knight.

And the clock finally did for Andrew which was a shame after holding his much higher graded opponent for so long with the Black pieces, meaning the match was drawn.

When we arrived, expecting to play their top team, a draw might have been all we could have hoped for but, as it turned out, this was still a very useful point won. Teams have been dropping points all over the place and, despite some disappointing matches, this draw propels the B-team to the giddy heights of the top half of the table, pending other results!