Downend Juniors travelled across town to Redland Tennis Club for their second friendly of the season. The format was to be two games for each player, with a time control of 10mins + 5s. After a late pull out it ended up being a 7-board match. All the games were competitive, with many going right down to the wire.

Jim and Oli would like to thank all players and parents, both home and away, for supporting this match. Despite the weather it was a very good occasion.

Thank you also to Jim for kindly providing a variety of drinks and snacks for the players. On a cold night these were much appreciated

Now to the games:

The top two boards produced some excellent chess, and all four games went the distance.

For Downend, James scored 1.5 out of 2; including a win against Diana and a draw against Elliott. Diana (the only girl playing) was very unlucky when, with just 5 seconds left she blundered a Knight. In James and Elliott's game, they finally reached an equal endgame and agreed a well fought out draw.

Bilal scored 1 out of 2, and this time Diana's luck improved; in an equal pawn endgame, and both low on time, Bilal's clock suddenly fell! Bilal's game against Elliott saw gritty and tenacious play from both players. With clocks going low, Elliott lost a piece thinking he had no choice, or there was a back rank mate. Surprisingly it could have been averted, but neither player saw it.

On board 3 Alexis had a fiery first game against Soumil; after going a piece down, Alexis came back with a devastating attack, with a telling Bishop sac on h6. In Charlie's 2nd game (board 3) against Soumil, he found a clever tactic to win a piece. Then with winning chances ensuing, he unfortunately couldn't quite find the winning combination; a draw was agreed.

Siddharth (board 5) followed up his fine win against Grendel (last Thursday), with another solid game against Rayyan. With strong play throughout Siddharth finally put the icing on the cake with a neat Bishop and Queen checkmate.

Although Senna and Ivan didn't quite manage to get a result, they both came close, and fought hard for the team. With excellent opening play, they certainly had chances to make their advantage count. Better luck next time.

So, the final score was 8.5 - 5.5 to Knights of Bristol.

Congratulations to them for a fine win. Jim has certainly put together a very good team; with capable players all the way down.

Oli has also put together a very good Downend junior team; he has some very young players, and they will only go from strength to strength.

There is also a gallery of the event!