An important match was in prospect as Clifton arrived a little below full strength with some trusty old campaigners on the middle boards sandwiched between youth on the top and bottom. It was also good to see some familiar faces from Portishead, again combining age with youth, in another league match.

Some cagey play on board 1 produced a short draw; then all the other games were hard fought. Reinhold on Board 2 seemed to gain some advantage against John who kept things tight and reached a drawn ending. Peter on Board 5 had control of the only open (d) file, but at the cost of getting his bishop entombed behind a barricade of two sets of doubled pawns (one pair of each colour on the e file). Peter infiltrated but Dave C kept the bridgehead narrow and no breakthrough proved to be possible. On Board 6 our Dave had a promising looking ending but the enemy bishop got active and a fourth draw in the match was agreed.

All depended now on the middle two boards. I (Nigel) had a complex position in which I was hoping that my knights could maintain a blockade and keep his bishops subjugated. In the battle of the Morrises on Board 4, Mark had the better pawn structure in a bishop ending. Gareth created some counter-play as the position became more double edged. There may have been some missed chances in the race to queen; indeed both sides succeeded but by then Mark had an extra bishop which was decisive. In my game Duncan had offered an intuitive exchange sacrifice which I had to decline at the cost of dislocating my position somewhat, and after some more clever manoeuvring he was able to play a d5 pawn thrust to open up the position to enable his bishop to use a pin to win a piece and the game. Neatly done!

There we have it then, a drawn match and the prospect of an equally tough match at Horfield coming up next.

Nigel Hosken