Squeaking past Clevedon gives us our third Minor K.O. trophy in 4 years and, I think, a record haul of club successes for a single season when put with the championships of Divisions 2 and 5.

As usual the match was full of incident. Clevedon's board 6 arrived a minute or two after 8 o'clock. At the time I figured we wanted to win the match ' fair and square' over 6 boards, but in the heightened tension a couple of hours later I started to wonder about such fine principles.

Myself and Alex were both outplayed in games that went the distance. However a Rolls Royce performance from the Mountain Man, another splendid defence from Alan (unbeaten since November), and Prakash's demonstration that development trumps material (even when it's a whole rook) put us in front on board count should board 6, the last to finish, be drawn. With the flags hanging Doug May was using both hands to move and almost simultaneously press the clock. Happily this unconscious illegality didn't affect the outcome as he was still the first to run out of time (HKM).

The clock featured strongly in this Grendel encounter. Straightaway the Mountain Man had me resorting to my mobile before he appeared 15 minutes late - only to fall to a one move mate from Grendel new boy Alun Harford within another half hour. Meanwhile Patrick Flexman failed to appear at all; so that was one each with the remaining games all level. Clarke and Hibbut soon agreed about the impotence of opposite-coloured bishops, and The Postman reeled in another solid half point on bottom board.

With board count against us and time running out, the tension was palpable. In a tricky rook and knight finish, Chris Johnson collapsed from a combination of pressure from Prakash and severe time shortage. By now Scrapper Dunn had acquired a pawn deficit but was living up to his reputation in another time scramble. If he lost, it would be all-square on board count, and as my memory had erased all trace of the second tie-break mechanism I was resigning myself to a replay. In the event Alex claimed a draw under the 2 minute rule. This produced the usual confusion, but later research confirmed that rook and rook's pawn versus rook is drawn when the defending pieces are well placed, so we didn't need 'bottom board elimination' to settle the match. This result pits us against Clevedon at the end of April. (HKM)

Round 2: Clifton College forfeited the match.

A disgraceful performance by the home side who outgraded the visitors on every board, and by an average of 20 grading points. We came within a whisker of losing on tie-break as board 1 ( last to finish) oscillated through all possible outcomes in the final 20 minutes. All credit to Keynsham! (HKM)