Without actually putting the effort into the calculations, I believe the A-team has averaged three registered players per match this season. Thank you to all three substitutes! Horfield B were apparently missing one player, but since the club is now down several players it can be tricky to gauge what the standard team would be. After some topical political "debate", we got started.

Nigel managed to confuse everyone with a fun opening that ran his own king to c3 before the pieces were fully-developed. Admittedly winning a pawn, black had a shattered pawn structure, no space and very awkward pieces. In order to justify my drive to Bristol, I tried to avoid Paul's attempts to symmetrise the position with an unusual line and some standard inaccuracies. Oli took apart the Hypermodern school of thought by staking a solid claim in the centre and then repeating his plan of " take a pawn and consolidate".

Andrew appeared to be settling into a hedgehog-like position, but a backward d-pawn became white's favourite target and it wasn't long until most of the plans were almost entirely based on that square. Dominique pressed, taking plenty of space, and although a few moves could've increased white's advantage, the edge was carried through middle and to the endgame. Aron was contending with an imposing centre but appeared to have hunkered down with a solid defence.

After I felt I'd survived the worst of the situation and a drawn endgame was in sight I offered a draw. Paul decided swapping a few more pieces was probably in order and once it was rook and seven each, the draw was agreed. Dominique also found that as the pieces were swapped the positional advantage was evaporating and he too accepted a draw. The level-pegging was short-lived as Andrew's defence of d6 had cost him the use of the light squares and with an exchange being lost soon and the d-pawn falling soon after, it was time to throw in the towel. Presumably Andrew's assessment of the remaining games was better than mine.

As in Andrew's game, Aron was defending a troublesome d6-pawn, this time in a black bishop vs white knight endgame, but in Aron's game this pawn was white. Once black made it clear that the pawn couldn't be defended, the knight decided to snaffle an h7-pawn instead and hope for a kingside attack. With some calm and excellent endgame play, Aron simply trapped the knight and although there wasn't enough time to win the piece before an escape could be organised, white to accept the draw or watch the kingside pawns fall.

Oli was finding that although he had three extra pawns, that just meant black had more opportunity to play irritating moves. Despite the two largely playing on increment, Oli found a way to return just single pawn and take a lot of bits off. With iron-solid play, Oli then swapped to a rook and two vs rook endgame that was finally enough to persuade Matias to resign.

I'm running out of Stubbs references.

Despite what looked like far fewer moves played, Nigel still had plenty of time while Patryk was labouring on increment. Black's position had been slowly constricted and even its eventual collapse appeared to happen in slow motion. Nigel forced the win of an exchange and invaded with the rooks. The ensuing simplification meant black's disorganised pawns fell very quickly and when black's knight found itself trapped on a8 by Bd8, Patryk finally decided enough was enough. From my perspective, it feels like all of the Game of the Month candidates for October could come from this match, but I would be very surprised if Nigel's doesn't run away with it.

Also, we're on a run of three wins from three! Who'd have thought that would happen three weeks ago? It's not like Division 1 offers any easy wins at the moment, but we'll have to see if we can pull out all of the stops for Clifton A next week! No more than two missing players please!