26.1.16  Report from Gambit's website.

The 1st team continued their progress to the end of season show-down with Grantham 1 by beating Ashfield 1 by 3.5 – 1.5. Pete Mercs, John Swain & Mike Barnes beat Steve Burke, Derek Jarvis & Phil Morgan respectively, while Michael Naylor escaped with a draw against Andrew Toothill. Brian Hayward faced an outrageous attempted rook sacrifice by Neil Graham. Brian declined it and missed a mate 3 moves later (mind you, the only way to prevent it was giving up his queen for the rook) but taking the rook probably also led to defeat

 Result Gambit 3.5 -Ashfield 1.5

p.s. For a move or two I was on terms with Mike Barnes after his slip gave me a pawn. I even had the temerity to offer him a draw.  He considered this but elected to play on. The game hinged on a couple of critical moves which I got wrong. I feel  proud that as Black I got into a close arm wrestle phase with a player of Mike's quality. Phil