We were pretty comprehensively done over by Hanham at their place last November, so it was good to have the opportunity to return the compliment.

It started off pretty well, so well in fact that on my first walkabout I saw that James had won the exchange. But John was too quick for me and had already notched up our first win and disappeared to the bar.

Dave had, to my uneducated eye, a rather turgid position with each player's remaining knight and bishop restricted by pawn chains. I couldn't actually figure out which of them was trying to win. But things were at least livened up a bit when half a bottle of Newcastle Brown was emptied over Tiiu's scoresheet. If that was a cunning plan, it didn't work because the only mopping up that was done was on the table, not on the chess board.

By then James had duly converted his win and Mike had built a very promising position with doubled rooks on the a file (that's the QR file to older readers). He then craftily avoided any simplification which might have reduced his advantage and manoeuvred his Queen to attack Philip's King. Not long after, the rook on the seventh rank combined with the Queen to force checkmate. That's two wins in a row for Mike. Whatever will he do next!

Alan had a pretty level game which came down to just a bishop and a few pawns each and definite drawing possibilities. But Alan demonstrated a better understanding of the ending and did a very nice job to make his advanced pawn become the deciding factor. A good win to put an emphatic end to a lean patch!

Which leaves me, the last to finish again and, even if I say it myself, I had done a good job with Black against Mike to be a pawn up and plus 3 on the engine by move 18. Then I had an aberration and instead of choosing one of umpteen moves that would have maintained the advantage, chose one which got the queens off but left horrible holes for his knights to jump into. Only a draw, drat it, but at least Dave will be keen to see all the gory details.

So, 5-1 in the end, then and it's nice to be removed from a relegation spot, not that there is relegation from the third division.