On average, the right result

 On Wednesday evening, I was on the top board for the University B-team in a home match against Harambee A. They apparently have a reputation as not the best-organised club in the world (rather like Wallington, as it happens, but anyway...) and indeed almost managed to arrive so late that even we had started their clocks. One of their players had the wrong date and caused them to default the bottom board without notice. Another got lost trying to park. But eventually 5 of the boards got going, and a close match was going on; 149-149, 127-128, 111-124, 109-96, 81-110, U-Def might leave you scratching your head as to the Harambee board order, but was certainly hard to call.

 In the end, my game was in some ways decisive. Yet, despite all odds, it failed to produce a decisive result, no matter how winning either side's position at some point or other - fittingly, even the final position is winning:

 Aaargh! I could have done with a win, and was totally in control by the end. But I was so fixated on trying to escape from the earlier mess that I was not ready to start playing for a win, hence I played the moves to give perpetual check without thought. And that's a shame. The position has swung from +4 to -15 by the end (he can delay the inevitable by 48... Qf4 49. Qxe5, but that didn't merit inclusion in the notes) - both sides ought to have won, so a draw is fair. Besides, it's certainly not as bad as when, as black against a 110 in the e2e4 Sunningdale U-140 last year, I managed to shift the position from -8 to +9 in one move...

 Irrespective of what I could have had, my draw still tipped us over the winning line; we prevailed DWLWLW. It was especially pleasing to see my fellow Old Suttonian on board 2 tear his opponent to shreds in the way only he can, but the reader is doubtless aware by now from my endless moaning that colours are fixed - the point being that I was the only person in either team to avoid defeat with the black pieces, and that was enough. That said, it could certainly have been more...

 The league season continues on Monday.