Playing the University can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes they have the strongest team in the league, while other times are less formidable. Sometimes the venue is rubbish because it's hotter than Venus, while other times it's rubbish because it's noisy. Being the first to play their A-team since their Fresher's intake, we had no idea what we were up against but had our suspicions that it wasn't going to be a walkover.

Henry and Sam opened relatively symmetrically, with neither side pushing for anything too ambitious too quickly. Chris, as black, had gone for the ambitious play, while his opponent calmly took a solid stake in the centre. Charlie and Bogdan appeared to be playing some unusual sideline in the Spanish where black took as much space as possible on the queenside. Mike was facing a positional game with white expanding on the queenside. I had opted for a sensible opening and was almost immediately out of book, which says it all really. Jerry and this week's Downend nemesis Mark had a calmer start but they opted for complications early on.

Early on, we felt that the team was under significant pressure and would be lucky to come away unscathed. Jerry initiated some uncharacteristic complications that left him with both a backward-pawn on a semi-open file, and doubled-isolated-pawns. On the plus side, what he lacked positional security, he made up for with mis-placed pieces.

Mike's excellent play found him winning white's B-pawn, but Alice chose to play an aggressive sacrifice to create an interesting queenside attack. Charlie had allowed black to manoeuvre his pieces to the queenside and attempted an attack on the kingside, but with no pawns exchanged it was hard to clear any space.

Chris and Aito had a flurry of exchanges which resulted in a slightly worse endgame for black, but with reasonable drawing chances. I had triumphantly won a-pawn for what David immediately showed me to be a piece. Realising I was facing yet another terrible game and it was time to complicate matters. Not long after, Henry blundered into some compensation for the exchange he found himself losing but with a bishop pair against a rook and bad bishop still had hope.

First to finish was Chris, who had got away with the draw, followed by Charlie. The position with Bogdan had simplified to a rook and 8 pawns each endgame that wasn't going anywhere. Mike converted his win as our super-substitute for the week, and Henry earnt his draw against Sam with a persistent mate threat and good control over the dark squares. I had complicated my game, but David defended very well, and with too little time I was unable to find anything useful. In a queen vs two rooks and bishop endgame, my extra pawns dropped very quickly and I lost on time, only a few moves away from being mated. The pressure was on Jerry to save the match from my recent form.

Boldly sacrificing a-pawn to activate his pieces, Jerry suddenly sprang to life and managed to win a piece for a promoting-pawn forcing Mark to go for the perpetual. An excellent save by the captain to draw the match!