Another first round exit, this time for WN Daydream against the Radcliffe Rapscallions. Having finally assembled a team on Friday evening, I set off for a weekend of 4NCL chess happy to have got another job out of the way. Then, on Monday morning, the problems started. Not one, but two of the three players had to pull out – and for perfectly good reasons. So in came a couple of substitutes (Paul Mould and Lucien Holliday) at a moment's notice to join Phil Burley in the team.

It almost worked. Lucien rose to the occasion and scored 2/3, and had Phil not lost on time in the final game, his extra queen would have won the game and tied the match. As the lower-graded team, the Daydream would have gone through. Instead, it ended up 5½–3½ to the Rapscallions.