Disappointing but a great season (AD).

Agreed. The C's done great, after what was a very shaky start, and will probably finish fourth. Downend C finish second and is promoted (it is rumoured, with no great enthusiasm) to Division 1 along with Horfield B (JR).

Alan and Mr Sherman agreed a drew relatively quickly. Then, when he had 20 minutes, to the hour of his opponent, Alex was offered, and rapidly agreed a draw. Alex now set off to return the Third Division Trophy to Clifton but, like Horfield, when there are no matches, their club was shut too. Alex returned. Four contests continued. David was down, Howard was up a bit, Graham was up a bit more, but Mike was the first to triumph when Steve Woolgar found himself a pawn down in a pawns only endgame. Two one. Howard's game was very tense. Graham's opponent sacrificed a rook but before he could take advantage Graham had forced off the queens and the game was up. Three one. Howard's game was getting tenser and tenser but David was starting to look a bit better. In a position that merited rather more than the five minutes that each player had saved for a complicated endgame a draw was agreed. Three and a half one and a half. Another win. David succumbed, but not without causing his opponent a few anxious moments.

So Horfield C, whose cause looked lost in November, have reached 19 points, more than half marks and can be very satisfied with their performance this season. The team will be having a celebratory curry after the last match of the reason - the result of which does not matter a jot (AD).

Congratulations to Alan and David, who retain their long unbeaten runs. Well done to Andrew for his second win in two days for the club, coming in at the last minute. Hard luck, Greg ,on a tough introduction to league chess.

Howard and Alex had their chances.....

But we fulfilled the fixture and are safe from relegation. (AD)

The C team won again, to resume their winning ways, against South Bristol A. Kevin had an enjoyable battle with Bob Radford but eventually succumbed. Howard won, his opponent not being as familiar as he might be with the Benoni, and then Dave Reed agreed a draw in a drawn position. Graham lost from what seemed a good position. So Horfield were 2.5 to 1.5 down with just Alex And Prakash to go. Prakash duly pulled a rabbit out of the hat and all eyes were on Alex who eventually won on time with only a couple of minutes on the clock himself. Horfield were lucky to find South Bristol weaker than usual but were themselves missing Alan Clarke from board one.

Bring on Clevedon B, triumphers over Horfield B!! (AD)

Since losing to our B team in November, we have won five and drawn one, going from bottom to third in the table. On this night, nothing really went right. Apart from my own game, where I clung on by my fingernails to get a half.

David couldn't find a way through a pawn up and had to take a draw. Howard missed winning a queen (but might have lost on time in any case). Alex missed a draw. The long unbeaten run comes to an end, but the team can be proud that it's proved it can hold its own at this level.

An unusual thing happened during the match. One game started with the wrong colours and I was asked my opinion on what should happen. I said they should restart the game with the correct colours, so they did. Oops, I remembered it wrong, and Graeme Thomson got it right - as an ECF Arbiter I should know better. FIDE Law 7.2 says: "If a game has begun with colours reversed, then it shall continue, unless the arbiter rules otherwise." As there wasn't an arbiter on duty, they should have continued. Mea culpa (JR).

Report to follow.

So it was all down to board five. Alex had a slight edge but little time. His opponent played a little hastily and suddenly a bishop was lost and with moments to spare Chris Lamming resigned. This was a great win considering that earlier in the season Bath University had well turned us over.

Bring on the University B's (AD).

A poor early start for us when Mike lost his queen to a knight fork. David had a strong crush, and converted it nicely to level the match. My game was winning from fairly early and the point put us in the lead. Graham took a tactical draw (I believe) to get us close to the winning post.

Now it should have been plain sailing. Howard had a levelish position, and Alan was a whole rook up - if only he could get away from the queen checks he would be laughing. It's sometimes a bit like Wacky Races out there, and so it proved with Howard dropping a pawn and struggling to hold the ending, and Alan's king being chased around the board by a Penelope Pitstop queen.

Alan duly drew, so it was a case of whether Howard could hold on to secure the match. But Beaver blundered, Howard grabbed a rook in best Dick Dastardly fashion, and with it both match points. Can the C's stay up? With 7 points from 4 matches, it's starting to look a real possibility.

While talking about wackiness, I'm starting to warm to this crazy time limit. In the old days, I used to take chess very seriously,  work really hard, and then play moves largely based on intuition. Now, I just miss out the working hard bit, play intuitively and fast to keep my opponent on the hop, and don't take it at all seriously. Result: I'm unbeaten this season. Perhaps, we should knock it down to one hour for all moves. (JR)

8 Jan Horfield B 1 - 5 Horfield C

For a drawn match, this one was full of incident. Mike blundered early on to put us one down. Graham got into big time trouble and that was 2-0. I ended up in a rook and bishop v rook ending, which I somehow managed to win, leaving us 2-1 down.

The remaining three games were looking dubious, and I thought we could lose two of them. But then, Alan worked a bit of a swindle, Howard queened a pawn (somehow!), and Alex fought on for a draw. It looked like we were going to take the match. But Howard's queen couldn't grab enough pawns and it petered out to a draw. (JR)

The last game to finish was Alex against Howard with about 6 minutes time left between them; Alex having gone slightly awry in a four knights end game. A good time was had by all. This result means that the B team seem to be stretching clear at the top and the C team are a little off the pace at the bottom. But the division is extraordinary in that most teams are on 4 points after five games (AD).

Alex's opponent blundered rather badly on move 12 and was mated on move 13. There was then a long tense wait as the rest of the games moved to their ultimate resolutions. Graham seemed to have a strong attack. Alan's opponent was half an hour late. Howard and Mauro were engaged in a mighty battle that was last to finish. Finally Howard, pressing, blundered; his opponent offered a draw, with only 1m 15s on his clock to Howards' 8 minutes (honest!!), this seemed an amicable settlement to hostilities, Mauro didn't think he would have time to win and Bath were lost anyway. Alan almost held out on top board. Prakash played very well but missed a quicker win in his haste. More haste, less speed, Prakash, especially when you are half an hour ahead on the clock! Graham's opponent resigned to general surprise when Graham forced the exchange of queens whilst the exchange ahead but with a knight unable to move in the corner. David Reed was offered a draw whilst he had an extra pawn, and a better position, and his wise acceptance thereof sealed a memorable win. (AD)

8 October: Clevedon B 3½  - 2½  Horfield C