On Wednesday 28th January Sidcup continued its run of close matches by defeating Chislehurst by the narrowest margin. Mark Lenette celebrated his first official English Chess Federation grade, which appeared two days earlier, by drawing with an opponent graded 18 points above him and nearly winning. Sarah Walker-Buckton, also with a newly minted first grade and playing someone graded higher than her, won two pawns for the exchange but blundered in time-trouble and lost. The opponents of Gary Sharp and Ian McAllan both blundered away the exchange and were not allowed to recover. Ken Smith blundered away a piece early on in his game and despite a strong rearguard action eventually had to resign. So all depended on the last game to finish where Dave Helps was a pawn up at the first time-control but looked to be heading for a draw. However, his opponent overlooked a trap allowing Dave to win a piece, so the match was won (just).

Ian McAllan