Nigel has provided his report on how the A team clinched the important win by 3½-2½ against Horfield A.

In round four of the J4NCL this evening our two teams excelled. In division one the Upstarts beat Stroud Cubs 7-1. In division two the Bishops beat Brentwood School A 5½-1.

The first report of the week comes from Peter who describes, with a little help from Dave, how the B team won against Horfield B.

Three matches last night. The B team emulated the A team by beating Horfield B 3½-2½ with wins for Humphrey and Alexis. As a result of this win, the B team currently heads division two.

The D team put up a good fight away to South Bristol B but lost, also by 3½-2½. Grant and Joe won.

The F team had a great win, beating Portishead B by 4-2, which will be pro-rated to 3½-2½ for the league table. Wins for Greg, Charlie, Hector (in around ten minutes!!) and Danny.

A notable feature was that over the two nights we succeeded in fielding 24 individuals so there was no need for anyone to play more than once!

The A team got off to an excellent delayed start to their campaign in division one, beating Horfield A by 3½-2½. Peter started the ball rolling with one of his gambit specials on board six and Oli finished the job, winning on board one.

Peter has provided a report on the B team's tense 3-3 draw with South Bristol A. His remarkable composure under pressure in his own game was noteworthy!

The Upstarts won again in division one of the J4NCL, beating Colchester Juniors B 7-1. Two wins each on the night for James, Alexis and Carolus! The Bishops were quite heavily out-rated by Swiss Cottage Gambits B and lost by 6½-1½ but not before Charlie had beaten a 1500!

The B and D teams were in action last night. The B team ventured out to play at South Bristol and after a tough match they shared the points with SBA 3-3. The D team were outrated by the merest 230 on average and did well only to go down against Clevedon B by 3½-2½. Well done to the winners on the night, Humphrey for the B team and Nigel and Greg for the Ds. Greg's win in particular drew acclamation on WhatsApp as "a top scalp"!

Apologies for the late reporting of last week's J4NCL results. The Upstarts fought back from their first round defeat with a 4½-3½ victory against Warwickshire Bears A while the Bishops went down 4-3 against Crowthorne. They are both playing again tomorrow (from 6 p.m.) and it's possible to follow games live on the J4NCL website.

And Greg has assembled the thoughts of the E team players into his report on the win against Bath D.

We should soon be seeing reports on this week's matches and, to kick things off, here is how the D team drew at Thornbury And, lo and behold, here is the news of the C team's glorious fight with Horfield B, losing 4½-1½.

We had two teams on the road last night. The D team started badly at Thornbury and had to fight back from a 3-1 deficit but, thanks to the endgame skills of Joe and Dave we managed to pull it back to a respectable 3-3 draw.

The F team fought hard at the University but came up short, losing by 3½-2½ which was pro-rated to 2½-1½ for the league tables. It was good that we were able to add on two extra boards to what would normally have been a four board match. It is difficult to know who you are up against with University at the start of the season but it looks like their top three were all in the region of a 1700 rating. Well done to Charlie and Nick for winning their games and to John for notching up his second half point in 24 hours.

The C and E teams were at home yesterday and had mixed results. The C team were heavily out-rated by Horfield B and went down by 4½-1½ but not before Carolus did what he does best and won quickly and James performed out of his skin to hold Mike Harris with Black, despite being down to just seconds in the closing minutes. The E team were gifted two defaults by Bath D and won 3½-2½ with John breaking his duck with a safe draw and Joe providing the final icing on the cake on board one. The four boards that Bath brought along had an average rating of nearly 1600, considerably more than the E team.

We learnt later that Bath had had a minor (we hope) situation en route causing two players to abort their journey. We wish them well and thank them for their apologies to our two players who missed getting a game.

Our two teams were in action in the first round of the new season of the J4NCL. The Upstarts in division one lost narrowly (3½-4½) against Ojays A. In division two the Bishops, aided by some defaults, won convincingly (5-2) against Barnet Knights B.

And now we have Peter's view on how the B team held their nerve to take the points against the C team! Let's hope this win augurs well for a good promotion run.

The first derby match of the season saw the B team travel to play the C team. As the away team, they had the advantage of White on the odd boards and used this to obtain pluses on boards 1,3 and 5, which they duly converted. They then rather unsportingly proceeded to win boards 2,4 and 6 as well. It was good news all round, though, since the C team put up a commendable fight while the B team's 6-0 victory places them in the top slot in division two.

Dan has provided an interesting report on the D team's opening game of the season against Yate A.

Unfortunately, two of our D team didn't get a game last night because Yate A turned up with only four players. Our team showed a degree of early season rustiness because they were unable to take advantage of this free gift. Despite draws by Carolus and Nigel, the match was drawn 3-3.

We had three matches scheduled for tonight: The A team away at Grendel and the D and F teams at home against, respectively, Yate A and Four Knights. Grendel had a problem with their venue, so that match has had to be postponed. We'll hope to be able to report more action on the home matches!

The F team were rather outgunned by the up and coming team from Bristol Four Knights and went down by 3½-½ with Shaun sparing our blushes with a draw.

Yesterday's UK Open Blitz Qualifier in Cardiff saw Oli have a great result, finishing third with 12 points from the 15 rounds, just missing out on qualifying. His 9 wins and 6 draws included victory over the tournament winner.

Oscar finished 8th of the 42 contestants with a very respectable 8½ points.

Greg has brought us up to date with a report on the E team's tough match away to North Bristol A.

Here is Peter's report on the knockout victory against Bath.

Our Knockout team had an emphatic 5½-2½ win against a strong Bath side. We shall look forward to hearing all about it!

The E team travelled to play North Bristol A in Division Four and lost 4-2 with wins again for Alan and Charlie. They are both on 100% after the first two matches.

In the MKO the Bishops outgunned the Rooks and won 6-0. In the second round they will be away against the winners of tomorrow's match between Clifton Knights and Grendel.

Update - it will be the Clifton Knights (mainly juniors) that we meet in the second round in the New Year.

The Knights won narrowly at North Bristol in a Minor Knockout match that could have been lost on board count. See the report for more details. Now we can be sure of having two teams in the second round!

Attention turned to the inaugural Swindon Chess Congress and the club's interest focused on the Under 1600 tournament., where forty odd players competed in a six round event.

Thanks to the miracle of the internet, we have been able to watch Carolus game by game and the only question remaining at noon today was whether he could convert his magnificent 5 from 5 to a perfect 6 out of 6. No trouble at all! So he finished a whole point ahead of the field with an excellent tournament performance rating of 2299.

Extremely well done, Carolus!

In the Open section Oscar and James were up against some very tough opposition, including various titled players. They both achieved a respectable three points, i.e. 50%.

Another week goes by and it was another successful weekend congress for our members. This time the event was a more local one - just over the bridge at Newport.

In the Open section Aron came top, with 4½ points from the five rounds, another excellent performance with a tournament rating of a rather handy 2428. Just half a point behind in second place was Haroon (they drew with each other in the final round) and in fourth place, a further half point behind, was Oscar. Incidentally, along the way one of Haroon's scalps was none other than Chris Beaumont! It was great to see our club dominate the proceedings in this way.

We were also represented in the Major section, where Alan, Dave (on his home patch) and Grant turned out and each finished in mid-table.

After the success in the English, attention moved to Liverpool and the whole week events in the British.

We didn’t have anyone in the Championship but James and Elmira represented us in the Major Open. Alexis and Carolus played in the Under 1750 afternoon event and Grant joined in by playing in the Under 1750 weekender where he achieved a very good result.

James also competed in the Under 16 section, Alexis in the Under 14s and Carolus in the Under 12s.

And so to the scores on the doors! In the Under 12s Carolus scored a very respectable 3½ from 7 rounds. In the U-14s Alexis had a rousing finish to end up with 4 from 7. And James did extremely well in the U-16s, coming 4th with 4½ points, including a last round draw with FM Max Pert, rated the merest 2263!

In the U 1750 event (6 rounds) Carolus scored 2½ against much stronger opposition for a tournament rating of 1621. Alexis did even better, finishing equal sixth with 4½ points and a rating of 1850.

In the Major Open Elmira fought back well after a losing streak to finish on 4 points from the 9 rounds. Then James gave us an exciting finish to the tournament with a 78 move win to reach six points with a performance rating of 2105. Wow!

Well done to all and especial thanks for much entertainment and excitement on behalf of those of us able to watch online.

Aron's warm up in our summer tournament evidently did him no harm at all when he competed in the ECF Championship which finished today in Kenilworth. He came equal 10th with 4½ from seven rounds in the company of seven GMs and numerous other titled players - an excellent result which gave him a performance rating of 2304!

Two former club players, Lewis Martin and Zack Norris achieved a 50% score from a total of 84 entrants.

In fact 22 turned out for a very successful summer tournament.

Two trophies were up for grabs. Four players (Nigel Hosken, Steve Meek, James Thomas and Mark Morris) tied on four points from the five rounds and it was Nigel who prevailed under the Buchhold tie-break system to win the Ian Ponter Cup. Aron and Oscar were only a half point adrift.

Carolus, with three points, won the President's Cup (under 1500 rating prize).

Thanks again to Greg for organizing and to Derrick for controlling the event and predicting the need for a tie-break process!

Over twenty souls have signed up to play next week (16th July at 7pm) in a Rapid Tournament (10+5), kindly organized by Greg. Should be a great evening!

Photo from the AGM and trophy winners

Carolus 🏆Junior trophy winner!

Peter Chaplin 🏆 Mike Wood best attacking game winner

Haroon Majeed 🏆 Club Champion

2025 Knockout winners

** Club AGM ** The club AGM will be held on Wednesday 25th June at 7.45pm and all members are welcome. A buffet will be provided. Please attend if you can.

🏆 The Mike Wood Trophy for Best Attacking Game – Voting Open!

Nominations for the Mike Wood trophy for Attacking Play are now closed. The six nominations can be seen via this link. Please vote by 24th June. Votes are to be cast via the Poll published on the Downend Members Whatapp, or you can email grant.daly@talktalk.net with your vote.

Downend & Fishponds were out in force at the Cotswold Congress last weekend. Top honours go to Alexis for a great performance of joint third in the Major with 4.5 out of 6, just half a point off the lead.

And here is the full story of how we won the Knockout!

STOP PRESS

Cup Final thriller goes to Extra Time!

🏆 The Mike Wood Trophy for Best Attacking Game – Call for Nominations!

Have you played (or witnessed) a thrilling, all-out attacking masterpiece in the League or Knock-Out this season? We’re now collecting nominations for the Mike Wood Trophy, and we want your swashbuckling finest!

Don’t be shy — if you played a cracker of a game, let us know! Or if a teammate lit up the board with flair and firepower, nominate them! Captains — we’d especially welcome a few standout suggestions from you.

Many potential gems can be found in past WhatsApp chats, and even more are saved under "Games" on the club website (log in to access).

📅 Deadline for nominations: Sunday 8th June This gives us enough time to open voting ahead of the AGM.

Let’s celebrate the games that brought the drama, the risk, and the thrill. Send in your entries!

Greg has provided us with a report on how the E team, despite being seriously out-rated away to Portishead A, still fought hard and managed a couple of creditable draws along with some near misses.

The final league match of the season saw the F team host Yate B and we won 3-1. It may not be enough to avoid relegation to Division Six but the E and F teams, which operate pretty much in tandem, gave 21 members league chess. And that is really what it is all about!

And now for the final of the knockout - a home match against Clifton in two week's time. Can we finish the season with some silverware?

The B team’s final match of the season was a tough trip to play one of the championship contenders, Clifton B. Unfortunately three players were unavailable and, by a quirk of the scheduling, the go to place for reserves, the C team, had played just 24 hours before.

By mid-afternoon the unthinkable was being considered - to incur penalty points by calling the match off. Thanks to Peter’s assistance, many possibles were contacted by email or WhatsApp and gradually three souls agreed to fill the gaps. We are immensely grateful to Tom, El and Leon for changing their plans and answering the call.

Following the tension of the afternoon it was unclear how the evening would go. We had the additional disadvantage of having to use the unfamiliar junior rate on board five but the entire team played out of their skins. No doubt more detail will be forthcoming but, for now, suffice it to say that Haroon and James neutralized two of Clifton’s big guns, Oli and Michael, while Oscar and Tom clinched the major scalps of Chris and Colin.

It meant that, by drawing 3-3, we came within a whisker of a famous victory which would have denied Clifton B the league title. Congratulations to the whole team on this fine result.

The final week of the league season started with two away matches and in both we were rather outgunned.

The highlight for the C team was Tom's draw at Grendel A in a 5½-½ defeat, nevertheless they maintained the team's respectable mid-table position in Division Two. The E team went one better with draws for John and Shaun in the 5-1 defeat at Portishead A.

It was the final match of the season for the A and D teams and, unfortunately, their aggregate was eight draws and four losses. The A team went down narrowly (3½-2½) at home to Bath A while the D team travelled to play Bath C and they lost by 4½-1½.

It wasn't all bad news though, since at the foot of Division Three Cabot A lost to the Champions, Clifton C. It meant they failed to overtake the D team, who are saved from relegation by just one point. Phew!

Nigel has provided his usual comprehensive commentary on our great win against Horfield in the knockout semifinal.

Greg has sent the E team's comments on how, despite their best endeavours, they came to be overwhelmed by Clifton K. It was all good experience, though!

And the next day the E team went to Clifton to play Clifton K which is so named because they stepped in to replace Keynsham in Division Four when the latter folded after a couple of matches. Clifton K have been able to call up over 20 players and look like getting promotion to Division Three; on the night they were just too good for our team, winning 6-0. We shouldn't be too downhearted because they started with a player rated 1861 and averaged 1650 against which our average of 1394 didn't stand much chance!

The F team ventured out to play Cabot B, with one extra board. They lost 4-1 which will be pro-rated to 3-1 for the league tables.

The club pulled off an excellent win in the Knockout semifinal, beating Horfield 5½-2½ with wins from Haroon, Oscar, James and Martin. Great result! (You need to log in to access all the photos.)

Photos courtesy of Dave

Greg has provided the story of the E team's match with South Bristol C.