I thought we were goners arriving at Wednesday night's Knock Out match when it transpired Mikolaj had played in the first division as well as the third, meaning our grading average suddenly shot up by 30 points*. We were still the same underdogs but now minus the grading handicap. Ouch! However Robin overcame his 27 point difference and beat Peter Farr on top board. Paul Selby and I drew and Andrew won against roughly equal competition. Mikolaj was battling on against his 150 opponent on board three - both offering and declining draws - until finally Paul Kington's knight proved superior to Mikolaj's bishop in an equal pawn ending. Still, a good performance and we had beaten the Args. 3-2 with plenty of downtime in the Jolly Tanners (no speculative argy-bargy over unfinished games :-)). We now face Horsham at home in the quarter-finals.
* Ungraded players are estimated according to the highest division they have played in.
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