The reason for the delay with this report lies squarely on Martin's shoulders, on account of the need to get a book from the library on deciphering Sanskrit. I hope you think it was worth the trouble.

The very last B-team match before lockdown was at Clevedon so it was fitting that the first visitors to the Cross Hands after the restart should be them. We were glad to be able to welcome back many well-known faces and both sides fielded one new member - that's Graham for us and Carl for them.

The teams were reasonably well matched according to the ratings, although I, for one, will take a little while to get the hang of these new-fangled ones.

Graham was first to finish. He defended a Queens Gambit Declined which was level until move 20 when Matthew chose to un-develop a rook in order to protect a pawn which was in fact poisoned. Graham took control of the central files, winning one pawn and soon polished off all White's Queen-side pawns to reach a trivially won rook ending.

Martin's game transposed into a Caro-Kann, Panov variation. He held a small advantage until Leonid eliminated his knight on e5, after which Black was able to push back in the centre. The ensuing opposite coloured bishops and rooks ending was not thought worth pursuing from either side.

Oscar was third to finish. As Black he built up pressure on the K-side, leading to the win of a pawn and the stranding of David's King in the centre. The pressure told with a crushing invasion and David resigned when faced with catastrophic loss of material.

Toby defended against the Alapin's variation of the Sicilian and was playing Paul at the junior rate. Toby would probably have been wiser to castle but chose to play aggressively on the queenside and his decision to win the d-pawn backfired when Paul quickly developed a very strong attack. But his decision to allow all the rooks to be swapped off eased the pressure and Toby emerged into a complicated ending a pawn up. When Paul pursued an attack with Q and B against Toby's somewhat precariously placed King, Toby grabbed a second pawn and when the attack petered out Toby was able to get the Queens off and finally convert after seventy odd moves.

Aron's Ruy Lopez was level for ten moves, when Andrew allowed his KB to be swapped for a knight. By move 20 Aron had much the easier game as Black had not castled and he used this advantage to eliminate most of the pieces while winning a pawn. This turned into a pretty straightforward ending with B v N on an open board and a far more active King.

Which left Oli (W) against Carl in a Queen's pawn game which soon led to a spacial advantage for Oli and a seemingly dominant position. But Carl had defensive resources and when he unleashed a pseudo sacrifice of a bishop, the correct follow up would have led to a complex position which the engine declares to be level. But he didn't and instead emerged a piece down in a hopeless ending.

So some very tough games had mostly gone in our favour and the five and a half points go some way to making up for the disappointment of losing out to the A-team in the previous match. Next up, Clifton!