Our first team was strong for this Surrey Trophy match against Wimbledon and we outrated them by over 100 points a board on average. So the final score of 5–3 in our favour was what we might have expected on paper. In fact the match was much closer than that.

Six of the eight games finished inside two hours. Alan Punnett lost on board 4, James Toon won on board 6, and there were draws on boards 1, 2, 3 and 7 for Gwilym Price, Nigel Povah, Clive Frostick and Julien Shepley.

The last two boards took much longer to finish. They did not look promising. Rolandas Lukosius was the exchange down on board 5, in an ending with bishop and pawns v rook and pawns. Trevor Jones was passively-placed in a complicated middlegame on board 8. It seemed that a draw was the best we could hope for in both games, and we might even lose. But both players showed admirable fighting qualities to keep the games going. Admittedly with some help from their opponents, in desperate time trouble…

First, Trevor's opponent blundered, overlooking a tactic that won the exchange and then a piece. Then, Rolandas's opponent managed to misplay the ending completely, allowing Rolandas to establish a passed pawn on the 7th rank that was defended by his bishop, resulting in an easy win.

This win keeps us top of Division 1 with three of our eight matches played.