I know it looks like we are in mid-table safety, but apart from Yate, whom I think are adrift in last place, there is a log jam of teams all within a few points of each other, where a run of good results can catapult a lowly placed team to safety, and conversely (please note, that's a very long word for a Welshman) a bad run can see a team, almost any team, including ourselves, slide into jeopardy. It is important therefore that we keep the pressure up,and last night we did it in some style.

First to finish was Jack, whose opponent is not yet graded, but in the few games he has played he has been unbeaten with a performance rating of 140+.

Well, Jack soon put a stop to that and beat him so quickly that I saw nothing of the game, but an impressive win for another of our hot juniors who has been a real asset to the C-team when called upon.

This was followed by draws first by the Duffer, then James, to give us a 2-1 lead going into the later stages of the evening.

I watched some of Keith's game which looked to me to be fairly even (but what do I know?), and then went into the other room to see how Dave and Andrew were doing.

Dave was in trouble both on the board and on the clock, and Andrew was two connected marauding passed-pawns down, and behind on the clock, though with opposite coloured bishops to give us just a little comfort.

At this stage, I thought it looked difficult to convert our lead into a win, or even a draw for that matter, and then I heard sounds of Keith's game having finished, so went back to his room to see with much glee that he had won with a lovely mate, and a good win against an opponent rated quite a bit higher than him.

Right then, 3-1, and a draw secured, so back next door to see if we could extract anything from Dave and Andrew.

Dave's position was becoming terminal, and he soon duly resigned to make it 3-2.

It now all rested on Andrew, who was doing some pretty fierce marauding with his own pawns, and putting such pressure on his opponent's f2 square that he finally broke through with an unstoppable passed-pawn, and yet another impressive win for us on a night of several impressive wins.

A 4-2 win then, which looked beyond our wildest dreams for most of the evening.

I'm having a lot of fun captaining and being part of this team.

Well done, guys.