It's getting easier to write reports for the B-team. Just pinch what you said for the previous match: "There's no point in dwelling on the losses on boards four to six, which were pretty comprehensive and best forgotten." Possibly a little harsh on Keith who had kindly stepped in when Chirag was unavailable but broadly true, nevertheless. Fortunately I don't really need to see all the pgns!

There was quite a bit more to write about though. Buckers had a cunning plan to disorient us by arranging a collapse of the ceiling in their main room so that we all had to huddle cosily around the pool table. Pool tables in chess rooms are becoming a bit of a feature of life. It all started reasonably sedately with our hopes, based on Bath missing a couple of mid-order stalwarts, being to hold the top and cash in lower down. The first bit worked all right. Steve and Mike played carefully to secure two hard fought draws with David and Roy. The latter had tried to help us by having to pop in and out for various reasons, although I'm not sure whether it was to move his car or get a pizza but he certainly lost a fair amount of time on the clock.

Possibly the most entertaining game was Oli's. (Well, actually, there's no "possibly" about it.) In the end Joseph played very well to force through a stronger attack on the queenside than Oli's on the other wing. The jury is still out on whether Oli could possibly have found a better sequence - a very tough game! There was a bit of drama when Joseph promoted a pawn and just left it there and pressed his clock. After some thought Oli claimed two minutes for an illegal move and David impressed everyone with his ability to adjust the clock. But here's the thing: an extract from Wikipedia when this happened between K and K some years ago.

An unusual situation occurred in a 1993 game between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.[26] Karpov was in serious time trouble, with one minute to make 16 moves. In this position, Kasparov captured the rook on d1 with the pawn on c2, and said "Queen!", indicating that the promoted piece was a queen. However, no queen was immediately available. It took some time for the arbiter to come up with a black queen. Kasparov said that if he had been attentive, he would have promoted to a rook, which was available. Kasparov's clock was running while the arbiter was getting a queen, so he started Karpov's clock. Karpov immediately played 25.Qxe4 and Kasparov told him that he was in check. Karpov replied "From what? It might be a bishop on d1." The clocks were stopped. The arbiter found a black queen, the game was backed up to the position after 24...cxd1=Q+, and Karpov was given an extra two minutes on his clock because of Kasparov's illegal move (since starting the opponent's clock signified the completion of his move, which was not possible without a piece to promote to). Kasparov disputes that he made an illegal move. Kasparov soon won the game, however (Kasparov 2010:332).

But with no arbiter allowed under League rules what would have been the outcome if Oli had done this last night and simply ignored the pawn and made a capture elsewhere on the board? You see what Karpov said! Oli's opponent's pawn could also have been a bishop. I don't know if he said "Check" or "Queen" like Kasparov did but even if he did would that have been relevant? Answers on a postcard please. What larks!

So, after a disappointing last week of the half season, we are no longer favourites for the title. Never mind, the B-team has had some famous moments so far this season.

One other sadder piece of news to report... concerning the Salisbury Club cat. I am sorry to say Sunny passed away during the summer. Who can forget his evident appreciation of my game with Horia just twelve months ago as he demonstrated when admiring our post game analysis.