We welcomed University A to Fishponds, knowing that we had to try to win if we were to keep any hopes of winning the league alive. This was obviously not going to be an easy task as they had yet to drop a single point this season and had recently demolished Clifton who had in turn demolished us.

We were missing Nigel for this match but had Aldrin, the current holder of 'Attacking Game of the Season' as our substitute.

On board one Aron grabbed a poisoned pawn on b2 playing the black side of an advanced Caro Kann against James Clarke. This was all theory and both sides seemed to know what they were doing, James especially, as this was obviously his preparation. It was all pretty complicated stuff and Aron went wrong somewhere and was on the ropes for a long period. However he showed great defensive skills and kept ducking and diving while James ran his clock down to seconds searching for a knockout blow. He was unable to deliver it and Aron kept his cool to share the spoils.

I haven't seen Oscar's game on board 2 so have nothing to report other than to say he sadly lost against the strong opponent Zachary Lee.

Steve was playing black again on board 3 and hoping to keep his 100% record as black this season intact. His opponent Tom Shepherd played a Queen's pawn opening with 1.d4 and 2.Nf3 and Steve responded in Kings Indian style. Tom then developed Nbd2 and played e4 and c3 turning it into a Pirc defence. It was however not a particularly critical line and Steve quickly equalised. With a symmetrical pawn structure, major pieces being exchanged and even the engines saying 0.00 both players agreed to an early bath.

Mark was promoted to board 4 for this match after his impressive endgame win in the previous match against Horfield and had the White side of the Sicllian Sveshnikov. Presumably he knew what he was doing as he plays the same line himself as black! For the most part the game seemed pretty balanced but eventually Mark started getting the upper hand. His opponent defended well and after an inaccuracy by Mark the players agreed to a draw.

On board 5 I was facing the c3 Sicllian for the second time this season and again defended with a line I have been playing over 30 years since my junior days after Joe Gallagher recommended it in his book at the time 'Beating the Anti Sicilian'. My opponent didn't play one of the more critical lines and an early Queen exchange led to easy equality. We quickly ended up after 20 odd moves in a double Rook and pawn ending. I managed to win a Pawn but was unable to convert and the game ended in a draw.

Afterwards the engine and spectators showed how I could have won easily by simply advancing my King rather than greedily gobbling a white pawn.

On the bottom board Aldrin was a substitute for Nigel who was unavailable, thus meaning I had to write this report! Fortunately for us, Aldrin's opponent walked into some sharp preparation against the 'Black Lion' with an early h3 and g4 and was soon dead meat. Aldrin is clearly very dangerous in sharp attacking tactical brawls.

So overall an enjoyable match ended 3-3 which keeps our slim title chances alive.