The return match with Horfield A was an improvement on the previous effort just before Christmas but not enough to garner any points. With Javier still in Spain, we were very grateful that Lewis was able to play.

We started steadily enough with two fairly quick draws. I had what seemed to be promising attacking possibilities against Harvey, whose king was rather stuck in the centre, but couldn't find a breakthrough. Meanwhile Nigel also agreed to cease hostilities with Steve. They analysed for ages afterwards but I don't think either of them found they had missed any killer moves.

Next to finish was Dave, who did well to follow a line Karpov had played and hold Chris with Black fairly comfortably. Martin had spotted a neat manoeuvre which netted two of Phil's minor pieces for a rook but there wasn't quite enough to force a win. So four draws left the match all square with two exciting games to go.

On top board Lewis was holding on in a very complex position. But when Dan was able to get a protected passed-pawn on d6 it turned out that too many of Black's pieces were unable to join in the defence of his King. Mike played a trappy variation in the French which was working well until he chose an inferior square for a bishop retreat. After that it was hard work and Derek found some optimum moves to maintain the pressure, and time eventually caused a drift into an untenable position.

So a 4-2 loss against one of the highest rated sides, repeating the unfortunate story of our season so far. Nevertheless it was an improvement on which to base our hopes going forward...onward and upward!