Haywards Hth 2 v Uckfield 2

Our second team travelled to Haywards Heath for a match against their second team.  We were out-rated on all boards, Artur and I on boards one and two strongly so, but halfway through all looked good with positional advantage on three boards and significant time advantage to us on two. Artur was the first to finish on board two, having started with a Chaski-like unconventional opening which he gradually converted to stronger position and then the win;  Ian was playing his first ever competitive match and looked strong, but his opponent’s experience told after halfway and loss of material led to loss of game; both Steve and Benedict looked to have strong positions but Steve’s opponent survived several checkmate options with skill and emerged to win, whereas Benedict just blundered on one move; my game went right to the end with a time advantage and contrary to my poor form at the end of last season I never lost momentum nor was in danger of losing, and I recovered a pawn deficit which I had conceded for positional advantage to be a pawn ahead at the end with knight and two pawns against knight and one, but I could not secure the win and with both of us under time pressure I missed the potential winning line and had to concede the draw. So finally a 1.5/3.5 loss for the team.