We had some very mixed news as we prepared for this match. How does one react to the replacement of our absentee skipper with the excellent young Oli? With sigh of relief, did I hear you all say? Also Richard was unavailable and here we welcomed a newcomer, Oscar, for the first of what we hope will be many happy returns.

But the bad news started soon with the sight of Clifton B's line-up, which augured for a very tough match. From a lowly first half of the season with just four points they have transformed themselves and now have three players graded over 200. (Why is it always us?) And then Dominique was unable to arrive and because of fixture clashes we had nobody available to stand in and avoid a default on board five. We could have put a junior in but chose not to, partly out of respect for the opposition - perhaps this will spare us any DPPs.

Never mind, we have fought our way out of bigger holes than this. I thought Oli and I might have some prospects with White, although Nigel was finding it tough against Andrew (the merest 218!). He overlooked a tactic in a complicated middle game and that was two nil down.

The other White games didn't give us any points, either. Oli struggled hard but in the end his bishop proved less effective than John's Knight in a difficult middle game. I dismally confounded my own hopes as too many pawns dropped off against Anton. Four nil down.

Oscar was putting up a good struggle with the pleasure of Black against Chris! Andrew, meanwhile, had the better of it against Dominic (the even merer 204!). Andrew won a pawn in a very tricky position and another followed but with it came threats of counterplay. A rook check which seemed to win one pawn back was coupled with a draw offer and Andrew, very tired after nearly three hours of difficult play, accepted, An excellent result, although less satisfying when afterwards Andrew realised that if he had interposed the check with his own rook it would have led to an straightforward endgame win. One that got away!

And then Chris did what he does best and ground out a win from a small but lasting advantage. So just a point for our troubles was a disappointing start to the half for the only team to have defied Bath this season! Clifton B obviously deserved their win and will no doubt trouble many more teams if they are able to field this line-up regularly.