Prescot started the match with a 1½ point handicap lead, but as they say in football, 'the match was a lot closer than the scoreline suggests'. Steve B, wisely looking far ahead to the final scoreline, saw the wisdom of agreeing a draw. Accordingly, I felt obliged to capitalise on an early tactical error by Kevin to notch a point for us. True, it looked as though Andrej and Giorgos were positionally unfolding winning positions, as they both gradually did, but the drama started to unfold on Tom and David's boards. Tom seems to live his opening life in a most original manner these days, and this very nearly came unstuck here, yet he still found a way to win to maintain his 100% start to the season. The match was decided in our favour before David's game finished, but credit to his opponent, who built on an early sacrifice to reach a winning position, However, this allowed a reconstruction of Houdini's famous 'locked in a milk churn at the bottom of the ocean' escape, as David still managed to extricate himself from at least twenty different losing positions to win. So, a sporting match ended in our favour, and we march on to the semi finals.

Report Steve Kee