We'd perhaps caught Grantham by surprise in the home fixture, a narrow 2-3 defeat. No such luck here as they let us have it with both barrels. Jerry, Bob and Alan were shot down in flames by the powerful trio of Paul Cumbers, Jason Dilley and Nigel Birtwhistle. I got us on the score-sheet with a draw, exercising the captain's prerogative of claiming the White pieces on Board 5. The match result allows me to justify this as  entirely in the interests of the team rather than a cowardly attempt at self-preservation. Stand-in, Neil Graham, was also within touching distance of a draw against Steve Prior, which just eluded him.

Result Grantham  4.5   Ashfield  0.5    We averted the whitewash .... Always look on the bright side of life ...