C team share points with Keynsham A

1	George Miller (162)	.5	.5	Roger Pearce (142)
2	John Kilmister (148)	0	1	Nigel Pollett (143)
3	David Jarrett (146)	0	1	Tom Holmes (142)
4	Duncan Macarthur (134)	1	0	Pete Marks (131)
5	Ben Woodcock (118)	1	0	Mike Jennings (104)
6	Lawrence Wilmshurst (119)	.5	.5	Graham Strickland (101)
	Keynsham A	3	3	Horfield C

A proper relegation four pointer last night in Keynsham. One, if not both, of us will be getting relegated this season and this was a must win fixture for both teams.

Tom finished first – he created queenside pressure then switched to a mating attack on the kingside with much aplomb. Splendid. Elsewhere Nigel looked in control, Roger was just about holding George, I was comfortable against Duncan, Mike was a piece us against Ben and Graham was the only one struggling; being material down and positionally worse against Lawrence.

Graham’s game did finish next. Lawrence controlled it throughout and won comfortably enough. Then I heard John asking Nigel whether he wanted a draw but you tell from the tone of voice he knew the answer would be no. Sure enough Nigel finished it off nicely as his connected central pawns were too strong.

On the other three boards Roger was still holding George, I was still comfortable against Duncan and Mike was still a piece up against Ben with the added advantage of 30 minutes to Ben’s 10.

We should have won from there. But no. I managed to misplay an equal bishop and pawn ending (the horror) to add to my increasing repertoire of novel and mainly feeble ways to lose since Christmas. Match level. Roger was still holding George and as material disappeared it became clearer and clearer that he’d dug effectively and George agreed to a half. Decent.

Finally then to Mike. Having used most of his time trying to find a plan the game had transformed into knight and one pawn versus three pawns. Both had less than a minute left and a draw was agreed.

So a must win fixture for both teams. Inevitably neither of us managed to win. Alanis Morissette had a song about it.