| 1. | w | John Littlewood | ½-½ | Adam Hunt |
| 2. | b | Glen Charleshouse | ½-½ | Matthew Broomfield |
| 3. | w | Gary Quillan | 1-0 | Lawrence Trent |
| 4. | b | Brett Lund | 0-1 | Martin Taylor |
| 5. | w | Charles Kennaugh | ½-½ | Nick Frost |
| 6. | b | Dale James | 1-0 | Thomas Rendle |
| 7. | w | Ben Hague | 1-0 | Jessie Gilbert |
| 8. | b | Claire Summerscale | 0-1 | William Bennet |
| 4½-3½ |
Another close shave against a team we should have defeated more comfortably on paper. Claire on bottom board had the unusual task of taking on a male player, our opponents having a relatively strong female player, Jessie Gilbert, on board 7. Claire was actually only slightly outgraded by her male opponent, William Bennet, and indeed seemed to have little problem equalising as black with the Tarrasch defence. In fact most of the game seemed fairly comfortable for Claire but as the time control approached she came under a little pressure and unfortunately overlooked a tactic, which netted a piece for white, in a position that was still essentially drawn. Glen on board 2 was unable to make any real headway against his opponent's solid Queen's Pawn opening and the game was quickly drawn. John Littlewood on board one was considerably outgraded by his opponent, Adam Hunt, and seemed to come under pressure when the latter found a combination that gave him an endgame with a rook, two pawns and some activity for two minor pieces. However, a few accurate moves from John steadied things and he was able to force a drawn rook and pawn endgame.
Meanwhile our esteemed captain quickly and convincingly refuted his young opponent's wildly optimistic attacking lunge against his king, thus chalking up our first win. This was, however, counterbalanced by an absolutely horrendous blunder by Brett in a position that looked like it was going to be drawn. Gary, on board 2 against a promising junior, levelled the score again by eventually outplaying his young opponent in the sort of endgame (or queenless middlegame) that was similar to the Kasparov-Kramnik games with the Berlin Defence. However, it was by no means clear that Gary had any real objective advantage for much of the game; he merely put his extra experience to use when it counted.
That left the score at 3-3 with both my game against Nick Frost and Ben Hague's against Jessie Gilbert going deep into the second time control. My game was hardly a classic. After an inventive and rather confusing opening (Tchigorin System against the French) I should probably have obtained some advantage, but got a bit carried away and finished up losing a pawn for very little. Fortunately my opponent allowed me a dangerous exchange sacrifice which should have put me back on top as the first time control neared. The game was then marred by a number of errors on both sides. My excuse (for what it's worth!) was that for much of the endgame I wasn't sure whether I needed a win or a draw. Ben Hague had always had a pretty good position against his young female opponent and had obtained a favourable rook and pawn endgame, but it was by no means clear that it was winning on best play. However, the defence was not easy to play and in the end Ben prevailed. In the meantime after blunders on both sides I had managed to obtain a winning endgame with a powerful knight and two pawns for the rook. However, with one final egregious oversight I managed to blunder my advanced passed pawn away and had to settle for a draw. However, that was sufficient for a 4½-3½ victory and a few sighs of relief all round.
Not a particularly convincing performance, but a win nevertheless which maintains our challenge for promotion and indeed still the title. The next round against Bristol1 now is going to be crucial.