Despite the atrocious weather we all managed to arrive on time and somewhat raring to go. Naturally we were hoping to claim the 2 points, but playing Clevedon is never simple. They seem to consistently-cause us trouble in a manner that suggests that at grading calculation time the ECF ought to just give them all a bonus 20 points.

There were a number of unorthodox openings, though with a team featuring both Peter Chaplin and Stuart Iles I daresay no one was too surprised. Eventually, known positions appeared on most of the boards, though the speed of play was particularly slow.

Henry (thesis submitted) seemed to be playing for a positional edge, while Chris was going for the classical kingside hack. Charlie was carefully playing down black's sideline and seemed to be doing well. Richard was being Richard; attacking down the centre as black and making it look jolly convincing. Jerry had carved a good space advantage against the English and looked comfortable. On the other hand, having eschewed development in favour of moves like 3. f3, 7. f4 and 8 Kf2, people seemed sceptical of my position, though I would like the record to show that objectively white stands fine. It was my dubious middle and endgame play that sank that particular boat (game available upon request).

Black to play. Stop laughing, this is fine for white.

Although no one looked to be in particular trouble, no one appeared to be winning easily either and the match was certainly looking tense. Jerry was first to finish having charged into a symmetrical rook, f, g and h-pawn endgame that only Rob Thompson would attempt to grind out. Draw agreed. Henry, in his own words, was completely outclassed by David and was lucky to be offered a draw in a time scramble at the end, which he gladly took.

In Charlie's game both sides had criminally exposed kings due to white's rampant pawns and black allowing a Greek-gift-style-pawn grab. Despite white's ambition black defended well enough to earn himself the draw. Richard too, having worked himself into a reasonable position found himself relatively short on time and in the end was obliged to agree the draw.

Much to Chris' confusion Peter sacrificed a kingside knight for a handful of-pawns and some potential on the queenside. Fortunately, from here Chris made it look straightforward and converted the point gaining the team's only win that night. Unfortunately, I had struggled valiantly against my reasonable position and through a combination of miscalculation and simple tactical blindness managed to get myself into a poor position which in the time scramble Stuart converted without any difficulty.

With that loss, it meant that the points were split between the teams which seems a fair result for the evening. We may have dropped a point early on, but there are still plenty of games left to play!

Note: The order in which the games finished may not be entirely spot on, as at the time I was busy flailing around trying to save my game.