That was an interesting anomaly that only really became evident during the knock-outs. The team that won Div 4 had a 2200 on board 1, who only played once during the regular season. He had played on their Div 1 team throughout the season, but in the final round, he swapped places with their regular Div 4 board 1. The effect of this was that he was now eligible for the knock-outs, and so the side could put out an extra 2200. This was a regular enough occurrence I think - Kent Kestrels fielded a 2000-rated player in their Div 4 knock-outs even though he'd played all bar 1 of his games for their Div 2 team.John McKenna wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 4:06 pmIf the ratings given in the results of the recent Finals are to be believed then the 1st season was already lopsided since the team that won Div. 4 had a higher average rating (2044) than the teams that were runners-up in Div. 3 (2021) & Div. 2 (2025).
In the 2nd season any new or rejoining team with an average rating of 2000+ could start in Div. 4 to avoid more lopsidedness than is necessary.
Several knock-out sides bore little resemblance to the sides that had come through the groups, so the first season in general wasn't as lopsided as it would appear from just looking at the final. So taking the Div 2 final, only one of those 8 players played their in club's opening league match. Half the players in the Div 3 final didn't play the first round, and 3/8 of the Div 4 finalists.
It should be noted of course that this wasn't against the rules - but by manipulating the 80-point rule, it is in theory possible to have two teams, for your second team to make the knock-outs, and for your first team to play that match. This doesn't seem right. I don't know what rules the regular 4NCL has on subbing, but in the Leinster leagues for example (because that's what I play in usually), each player is declared on a club's A/B/C/etc team and then can't ever sub down. If they sub up more than three times, they are deemed to have moved up a team and can't sub down any more.