David had an atrocious time trying to find a full team for WN1's match against Ashfield, working his way right through the first and second team squads and still only finding four players. In the end he had to snatch John Crawley from WN6, when a stronger player might well have been able to take advantage of a weakness on Ashfield's bottom board. Instead, the team fell to a 3½–1½ defeat, and Division 2 looms.

Worse still was the unfortunate effect on WN6. Andrew Garside was drafted in as a late replacement for John, but nobody remembered that he was already tied to WN5. That meant a 2½–1½ win against a University 4 team with only three players was turned into a 3–1 defeat.

The other teams more than compensated though. Nikolai took WN3 to play Nomads 2 and was the only winner in a 3–2 victory that puts the team solidly at the top of Division 3 – four points clear. Tracey's WNC also won, with a convincing 3½–½ demolition of Long Eaton C.

What we really need now is two committed 150+ adults for the first team. Anybody know anyone?