While it was a relief to see that South Bristol weren't fielding their top 6 grades, they were hardly putting out any easy boards and with Henry missing, it looked like the match would be an uphill battle. Even Dr Fry arrived on time, resplendent in his suit, and we were off.

It feels like recently I've been reporting that games "started fairly quietly", but with an unusual opening on board 2 and some aggressive stances taken by both colours in most of the games, we appeared to be playing this one for the spectators.

Unfortunately, the spectators happened to be from the home club and what they got was most certainly to their liking. Within an hour we looked to be worse on all but board 1. In-form Richard Savory had a slight space advantage and appeared to be pressing. Chris had blundered a-pawn and felt it necessary to chuck another in order to stir up complications. Dapper Charlie had allowed a large queenside expansion perhaps aiming for a kingside attack but was later compelled to sacrifice the exchange to stay in the game.

Martin seemed to be playing the black side of the game on board one, though Richard Garrett had managed to attack some weak points and tie the heavy pieces to passive defensive roles. Not to be outdone on the difficult game front, I geared up for a position that never appeared and attempted a plan tantamount to wasting 5 moves and uncoordinating my minor pieces. Jerry's game was a little quieter but he appeared to be suffering from a slightly cramped space.

Chris appeared to have suddenly and quite accidentally found some compensation for his mistakes and despite the 2-pawn deficit wasn't out of the game yet. Martin's game became more difficult as his passive pieces were unable to effectively defend against a looming kingside attack and he resigned a few moves before the final mating attack. Jerry was glad to accept a repetition of moves for the draw and Humphrey's tactical sharpness easily kept any tricks I attempted at bay leaving me thoroughly walloped.

It wasn't all gloom as Chris' compensation went from ropey initiative, to speculative win of the exchange and finally to disgustingly undeserved victory. If Richard Savory could convert his edge and Charlie could miraculously hang on we may scrape an unwarranted point from the match. While Richard made his game look easy even under time pressure, sartorial Charlie's bishop couldn't make a fortress against Paul's rook and the match was lost by a surprisingly narrow margin.

South Bristol's recent surge in player availability and strength has certainly been impressive, though it's hard to imagine that it will be enough given Clifton's wealth of games yet to play.

Update: Richard's game is also now available to view complete with annotations from the man himself.