The Macc Lads arrived in good time for this tricky cup fixture at Stockport's lush venue. £5 for a pint of Peroni ! Were we in London? Perhaps Man with Hat needs to get out more often! (A trademark rolling of the eyes from Mrs Hat). This was an evenly matched tie and possibly a chance to knock out the holders and winners of the last 3 years (since our glorious victory in 2015 - never to be forgotten in Macc folklore). First up or rather down was Francis who had lost the exchange to David P for very little compensation. Denzil appeared to have an advantage over Jill but on closer inspection Jill had blocked Denzil's extra pawn and despite Denzil's best efforts a draw beckoned. Behind that game was Macc's Tony B V Jeff and this was also jammed up with Tony doing well to halve after allowing Jeff's knight to occupy a key square. Tony then explained that we needed Joachim to at least draw and Geoff to win giving us a win by board elimination. Having been there as a non-playing captain MWH had little to do apart from work out the score and he couldn`t do that right. Still Joachim managed his draw in another blocked up game with Peter T and on we marched more in hope than expectation. Geoff was in a terrible position when I slipped him the scorecard showing that we needed to win - If a picture is worth a thousand words then this was it. Andy C for Stockport was about to smash into Geoff's defences when he decided instead for a clever innovation that unfortunately for him was an oversight or miscalculation that hung a bishop. Game On! Geoff then had a lot of work to do to free himself from the shackles but he did it giving back the bishop for a position that was IMO winning. Unfortunately with the draw offers coming in thick and fast (well at least 2) the Secretary slipped into 5 minutes left and then 1 minute and the last chance disappeared when Andy kept the queens on leaving Geoff to lose on time. So a terrific fightback from the Secretary was thwarted as he narrowly failed to secure the win that would have seen Macclesfield progress to the next round. Well played Stockport and good luck for the rest of the competition.