One must be circumspect when commenting on another club's team selection but we were somewhat surprised to find that Clifton A had replaced their registered board six with a 190+ player. Well, perhaps not very surprised since the last time one of our teams played them the player parachuted in was graded over 200.

This ploy brought mixed results. On the one hand they were able to budge three of their stalwarts down a board. John, Duncan and David must have represented Clifton in more title wins than any other club trio for decades. This time John built pressure against Andrew C and stubborn resistance at least garnered a draw for us when the clocks were running down. Andrew M and I were not so fortunate. Call it ring-rustiness or bad luck but, let's face it, Duncan and David were simply too good and deserved their success. Only half a point from the bottom three gave us a mountain to climb.

But the ploy backfired in the sense that Dominic came up against Oli on hot form. Oli knew exactly how to handle a miscalculation and pounced emphatically. It was one of those games he will remember with great pleasure and will undoubtedly feature in the vote for September Game of the Month.

Which leaves the top two boards. Steve was up against James, both of them fresh from success in the UK Open Blitz at the weekend. Steve was holding his IM opponent and the game was pretty level throughout. By the time they were down to Queen and a minor piece each neither side had serious winning prospects and Steve took a perpetual check to clinch a well-earned half point.

Meanwhile, Mike had come under pressure against Gareth and a quick glance suggested he might be in danger of losing the exchange. But he found a way to avoid this, at the cost of a pawn. Continuing pressure, plus the pawn, allowed Gareth to capitalize on his advantage, making the final score 2-4. We can't have any complaints about being outplayed on the night.

Incidentally, a look at the team registrations on the league website shows that Clifton A have a curious similarity with Horfield A. They both have their B-team captains registered for the A-team. And both of their B-teams are packed with five or six players above the threshold. Hmm.