Do or die

The decider, then. We were playing White Rose 2, a second Yorkshire team in succession, and in practice we needed at least a draw and the rub of the green. Surrey have been knocked out of the Counties Championship by Yorkshire in the last two years, which didn't seem like the best of omens - but then again Downend is a Bristol team!

I almost predicted their board order, my only error being to put the madman who takes black in every single game on board 3 instead of board 1. Even so, it wasn't pleasant reading: 214-198, 206-217, 184-194, 185-200, 175-184, 177-187, 179-197, 165-f160. I was white against Kieran O'Driscoll (184/2102) and had to play for a win at all costs.

There were several boards that I thought we could win on a good day, but everything had to go right. Usually when you find yourself thinking that it all ends in a heavy defeat. But just for once, the stars aligned:

Downend's 5-3 win (WLDDWDWD) was unquestionably our best result of the season. We lost every other round that had an 11am start, and I've already mentioned our travails in the middle of the season, so goodness knows where it came from. It was obviously nice to win my game in 12 moves, but I felt more relief than happiness really: it was nerve-wracking enough to watch.

I've been involved in relegation dogfights before, most obviously Bristol University's miraculous comeback in my final year there. But back then I was largely a spectator, chipping in useful draws on a high board but never doing anything special. This time I made a real contribution: with 5/7 and a 203 performance I was our joint top scorer and won more games than anyone else. Attitude can rub off on your team-mates too, of course - in the end it turned out that we really did want to stay up. Whether we will have enough players to do so is an open question though - whether I, or anyone else, will be playing for Downend next season is unclear, but I certainly intend to stay in a Division 2 team. I've shown that I can hold my own at that level.

After this came my second ungraded rapidplay of the season: a tournament in memory of Michael Uriely, a very promising junior who died at a tragically young age. Since we ran the London Chess Classic Super Rapidplay for him, I thought it was important that someone flew the CSC flag if nothing else, and I was hoping to experiment. But somehow I couldn't bring myself to do it. Although I mugged a 191 junior an exchange down in a time scramble - not how things normally go! - and scored 3/5, nothing is worth reconstructing. So now I seem set to go quiet for a while: with no British Championship qualifying tournaments on the horizon I may not play again until the County Championship semi-finals in mid-June. Maybe it's best to calm down after this drama though...