English Chess Forum

MartinCarpenter wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 29, 2021 10:02 am

That's 6 known I guess. Wonder who makes 8? 8 is sort of enough to run as a competition by itself, if suboptimal.

It looks like there isn't actually promotion from Div 3 this season (or did I miss it?), so that isn't a worry.

Shropshire & Friends possibly?

78 entries in total; not sure if that's the final score

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 31, 2021 6:21 pm

MartinCarpenter wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 29, 2021 10:02 am

That's 6 known I guess. Wonder who makes 8? 8 is sort of enough to run as a competition by itself, if suboptimal.

It looks like there isn't actually promotion from Div 3 this season (or did I miss it?), so that isn't a worry.

Shropshire & Friends possibly?

78 entries in total; not sure if that's the final score

Up to 80 now. Shropshire are playing in the central division.

That's what I would have expected

Bradford have 2 teams now

So, 7 or 8 (but who?) with 2 sets of 2 paired teams in the division. Something might be possible to keep 3N self contained, I guess they'll probably merge into 3Central or something at some point.

Promotion still feels really weird to me, I guess Spirit of Atticus would like to avoid having to get promoted next season, not that their presumed returning full strength team would find that remotely difficult!

Hmm, 34 teams in Division 3 South, 16 in Division 3 Central, 7 in Division 3 North.

Roger Lancaster wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 05, 2021 2:14 pm

Hmm, 34 teams in Division 3 South

One team promoted, eight remaining in division 3S all play all. Potentially the rest all relegated to division 4 if all three teams relegated from division 2 elect for 3S.

Roger Lancaster wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 05, 2021 2:14 pm

Hmm, 34 teams in Division 3 South, 16 in Division 3 Central, 7 in Division 3 North.

Yes, looking forward to seeing how that works, especially in the North

Does anyone know if this is down to the sheer numbers of teams being that different, or regional differences in how keen everyone is to play right now?

MartinCarpenter wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 10, 2021 8:49 am

Does anyone know if this is down to the sheer numbers of teams being that different, or regional differences in how keen everyone is to play right now?

4NCL 3 North was always much smaller than 4NCL 3 South, which not only supported a 16 team division but also a viable Swiss paired Division 4.

In terms of comparisons

Div 3 N

7 teams

Bolton and Worsley
Bradford DCA Knights A
Bradford DCA Knights B
Hull & East Riding Tigers
Manchester Manticores 2
Manchester Manticores 3
Spirit of Atticus

In the aborted 2019-20 season, there were 16
3Cs 2
Bolton & Worsley
Bradford DCA Knights A
Bradford DCA Knights B
Bradford DCA Knights C
Euwe's North Sea Tigers
J'Adoube 1
J'Adoube 2
Jorvik
Manchester Manticores 2
Manchester Manticores 3
Manchester Manticores 4
Manx Liberty 2
Shropshire 1
Shropshire 2
Spirit of Atticus B

That's a net loss of 9 teams.
3Cs 2
Bradford DCA Knights C
J'Adoube 1
J'Adoube 2
Jorvik
Manchester Manticores 4
Manx Liberty 2
Shropshire 1
Shropshire 2

The Shropshire teams have moved to division 3 Central

And (I think?) 46 teams down south last time, which has apparently slightly increased if you count 3 midlands in with them.

Shrug

Pairings now published

Rd 1

31 Hull & East Riding Tigers - - - Manchester Manticores 2
32 Bolton - - - Bradford DCA Knights A
33 Bradford DCA Knights B - - - Chessable White Rose 3
34 Spirit of Atticus - - - Manchester Manticores 3

Rd 2

31 Manchester Manticores 2 - - - Manchester Manticores 3
32 Chessable White Rose 3 - - - Spirit of Atticus
33 Bradford DCA Knights A - - - Bradford DCA Knights B
34 Hull & East Riding Tigers - - - Bolton

Ah, I'd heard some very reliable rumours about WRIII but was presuming it'd arrive next season. Helps the pairings out massively

Also nice to have, with the Hull team too of course, a bit of variety of representation from within Yorkshire - endless Bradford vs Bradford matches not ideal.
(At a guess Jorvik might now be dead long term, but not sure.).

Atticus do look to have much the strongest team registered, and it would obviously be suitably tidy if they got promoted and didn't have to worry about losing their spot due to not wanting to play in Div1/2 this year.

Captains have been e-mailed to advise them that hotel room bookings are significantly lower than expected in the North & Central divisions which could impact on future weekends and leave Guaranteed Events out of pocket, 4ncl bedroom commission not being received and the threat of hotels not giving playing space for free at future weekends.

In the short term, the more players that can book accom for this coming weekend the better.

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 15, 2021 5:21 pm

Captains have been e-mailed to advise them that hotel room bookings are significantly lower than expected in the North & Central divisions which could impact on future weekends and leave Guaranteed Events out of pocket, 4ncl bedroom commission not being received and the threat of hotels not giving playing space for free at future weekends.

In the short term, the more players that can book accom for this coming weekend the better.

Quite why this is in the North section I'm not sure. It is a fact universally acknowledged that a chess player in search of a game will pay as little as possible. We'll move to the North first - Guaranteed Events have an allocation of 35 rooms of which seven have been taken up (this includes four for the arbiters). With only 48 players this will not get better when the Division moves to Bolton; with three teams from Manchester/Bolton who are hardly likely to stop at the hotel if they live 20 minutes drive away.

In Division 3 Central 135 rooms have been allocated - considering there are only 90 players I have no idea how Guaranteed Events/4NCL thought they would fill this allocation. With localised leagues you can anticipate that if the travelling is less than say 90 minutes, most players won't stop at the hotel but will go home. Nine of the teams in Division Three Central are within that travelling distance; consequently rather than spend £100 on accommodation and a meal many players will return home and come back the next day.

I have no idea what Division Three (South) looks like but again it looks to me that several teams are close enough to travel. I suspect that the eight player Division One & Two combined will have filled most of their allocation; teams like Alba, Manx Liberty, N.E.England & Gonzaga are clearly on stop-overs.

From my memory its even quite rare for 3N teams to field the same squad for the two matches of a given weekend - obviously further reducing the chances of anyone booking hotel rooms.