After our disappointing close defeat at South Bristol we needed a good result against the other frontrunners in Division Two, Grendel, in order to breathe fresh life into our promotion challenge.

Fortunately, we started very strongly. James seized the initiative and then capitalised on some slips by Christopher Johnson to win first an exchange which soon became a whole rook. 1-0.

Then I made a promising knight sacrifice against Roger Hardy's Caro-Kann. Neither of us found all the best moves but with his king stuck in the centre, defending was tricky. When he did break out, he fell into a trap which would cost a rook to avert mate. 2-0.

Against Dave, Will Robinson, playing the King's Gambit, also made a knight sacrifice — as early as move 6! Dave always seemed to have the game under control and by move 20 enough pieces had been swapped off to leave the result in no doubt. 3-0!

There was then a delay while the first three games were analysed and a few beers were consumed. By then in each of the remaining games somebody was in time-trouble.

Next to finish was Andrew. Patrick Flexman was the one running short of time. Andrew had built pressure in the middle game, won a-pawn and, when he took control of the KB file, there was no time left to find a defence. 4-0.

Mike ground out a plus position to arrive at an ending where his bishop had more clout than John Paton's knight. By the time John was down to his last minute his fate was sealed. 5-0.

On board one both Martin and Alistair Gilbert were down to their last couple of minutes. Sadly it was Martin's 57th move which allowed a fatal breakthrough but there is no disgrace in losing with Black to a 185 after such a struggle.

This rebound from the previous match beat our best expectations, improved our game points and should put us in good humour for the coming ones — next stop Yate.