With the D-team all present and correct at 7.20 at the Rope Walk venue and no sign of the opposition we did begin to wonder if we had the right venue. Fortunately, we did, and looking around at the Cabot team it seemed there was going to be chances on either side, although Mike and David particularly were going to have their work cut out. A draw would be a good result for us tonight I thought.

About an hour in and most games were still looking fairly even, then the fireworks started.

Aron's game against Alastair Marston on Junior time control was well advanced, with both players even on material. Alastair appeared to have a slight edge having doubled his rooks on an open file, but it looked set for a long battle. About five or ten minutes later, I looked over to see both players shake hands and Aron walk off with another great win under his belt. Apparently, Aron had found a tactic that Alastair missed and won a knight. He then calmly consolidated his position and forced Alastair into submission. 1-0.

Around the same time, Richard kindly gave me an opportunity for a tactic to win an exchange, which also suddenly left a couple of pawns vulnerable after exchanging away another piece to remove a defender. A few moves more and Richard conceded. 2-0

Things were looking good, and in the bar below Alastair was already starting to talk about victory for Downend, and I was feeling a bit more comfortable as I had noticed Billy looking in control of his game. A quick chin wag with Alastair and a few swigs, then we had to go back upstairs to see how things were going.

Jack had been having an interesting game against Alastair Drummond, in a fairly sharp looking position. Jack seemed to be the more assertive with things seemingly building up to some attack - both players looked determined. Then I think Alastair must have found a tactic taking advantage of Jack's slightly exposed king pinning a piece against it, and Jack was then down a piece. Being the determined player, he quickly set about trying to find a counter attack and at one point looked like he'd found one with canny use of his bishop and rook to create multiple threats. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out, and before long Alastair's advantage was more concrete and Jack resigned. 2-1.

Cabot were perked up a little as they thought defeat now wasn't so obvious.

I didn't see too much of David's game which looked pretty complicated and his 160 graded opponent started to build up some pressure around David's king, and suddenly had serious threats and David was forced to resign. 2-2

Back down in the bar, Cabot players were now enthused by the last two results and we engaged in excited speculation about the last two games in what was now a real tussle between the two teams vying for top spot in division three.

Mike was doing well against Juan. Although Juan appeared to have had an attack going, Mike fended it off nicely. Billy had looked in control for most of the game and had found a nice tacit in the middle game to safely win a pawn. With a rook and a minor piece each and Billy with an advanced passed pawn he suddenly sacrificed his knight with the goal of promoting. My heart missed a beat as I tried to work out if his opponent's extra bishop which was covering the queening square was going to thwart the promotion. Back in Mike's game he was skilfully moving from a drawish position to one where he was two pawns up. Then a glance over to Billy's game where I noticed his opponent's

bishop had moved off the diagonal of the queening square and then a couple a moves later a nice tactic from Billy pinning his opponent's bishop against his rook while supporting the pawn promotion lead to an instance resignation 3-2.

Mike seemed to have every chance of winning from where he was, but he offered a draw straight after Billy won his game, giving Downend the match.

Well done team! All to play for now.