Here we go again - a home match with white on the even boards. There was a slight problem in that Andrew C was suffering after a trip to the dentist, so Mike and I both budged up two boards to make room for Dave to come to the party.

Grendel brought a strong team so we had our work cut out and after Steve neutralized Alistair smoothly enough there were no obvious advantages on the other boards.

First blood was to Andrew M, who manoeuvred his QR in such a way that Will felt obliged to castle queenside and attack on the other wing. But it was too slow and Andrew crashed through with Q, R and N all bearing down decisively. Nicely done, for the second time this week!

Dave got his customary pressure from the opening but didn't follow up quite accurately enough and was rather grateful when Ben missed a key move that would have given him real problems. He was happy to agree a draw in a slightly worse position.

Oli conjured the win of a pawn against Mark but it was by no means obvious that this would lead to a win. So, all that was really needed now was for Mike and yours truly to play solid chess and not lose. Easier said than done! Mike's comment afterwards was that he would like to borrow my marbles as he seemed to have misplaced his. I had no such excuse, having built a solid plus against Patrick's uncastled King but somehow frittered it all away. Mike had only been a pawn down against Richard but his King turned out later to be too exposed while I embarked on a final attack that simply didn't work. Somebody is going to suffer when we start getting it right again - I just hope it will be this season.

So, 3-2 down and back to Oli, who was still a pawn up and now with N plus two against B plus one and possibilities for Mark to draw by giving up his bishop for one pawn if he could get his King near enough to mop up the other. It was exciting stuff, because while Oli had two or three minutes, Mark was down to seconds and neither player had enough time to analyse thoroughly. But Oli managed to force the minor pieces off, after which the pawn ending was one that even his father could have won. There were many well deserved pats on the shoulder for saving a match point for the team right at the death.

Overall, therefore, there had been draws at the top and bottom, while all four middle boards were won by Black. Is that perverse, or what?