Michael had had his customary trawl around to get 6 players available and the match started with the team with high hopes. Oscar and Nigel on the top two boards had both dived into a French as had happened in our first match vs North Bristol. Both games had blocked centres. Oscar (with white) was pressurising the dark squares on his opponent's kingside in return for a queenside pawn; Nigel's position was obscure with much activity from both players on the kingside. Martin had won a pawn with a neat Bxh7 trick and was well placed whilst on boards 4 and 5 we had plenty of pawn occupation of the centre. On board 6 Richard had clean development to compensate for some doubled f-pawns.

At around the halfway mark Richard had pushed his f-pawn forward with hopes of an attack on the enemy king, but sadly a central thrust with d5 from his opponent produced complications which ended in Richard having to resign. Things were much better on top board where Oscar's play had crashed through against poorly developed pieces and a vulnerable king, so 1-1. Dominique's dynamism had produced a pawn all the way down on d2, with strong support from his active pieces. He duly converted to win, 2-1 up! On board 5 Aron had suffered the loss of his e-pawn and was heading for a dubious ending with knight against bishop, Martin was apparently consolidating against a fighting opponent and Nigel's position was obscure with his king evacuated to the queenside and coming under attack as he tried to open the centre for his white squared bishop, as so often a key piece for Black in the French.

Aron did a great job in holding his ending, managing to activate his knight and make the Black pawns vulnerable, to secure a key half point for the team, great to see a junior prepared to do the hard work in this type of position. Now 2.5-1.5 up!

Nigel and Martin finished last within a couple of minutes of each other. Nigel's game had resolved into an opposite coloured bishops ending with level pawns, so a draw after much obscurity. Martin was left still with his extra pawn but with no chance of converting in his opposite coloured bishops ending.

Overall an important 3.5-2.5 win after a close match in which we always appeared to stand better, but our opponents fought hard.