Death of 4NCL division 4

[Sean Hewitt]

The following bombshell was received by team captains today revealing that the 32-36 div4 teams will be competing all year for 1 (yes, one!) promotion place. Unbelievable!!

From: claire [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 15 August 2007 20:19
To: brian smith; jonathan arnott; rupert jones; ian clark; michael yeo; andy baruch; dai carpenter; matthew parry; clare salimbeni; charles morris; mark adams; david james; tristan cox; phil makepeace; donny muter; peter roberson; sam williams; gawain jones; ben purton; arnold lutton; alec aslett; nick mitchem; dai james; stephen swanson; kevin mccarthy; dave bruce; kieran smallbone; tony wright; charlie kennaugh; kevin thomas; neville twitchell; katherine djabri; sean hewitt; peter bayliss; colin mackenzie; chris rice; mark hogarth; windsor peck; julien shepley; nigel povah; dave osborne; phil dodwell; richard freeman; ray ryan; robert milner; senan bannon; rohan churm; jonathan bourne; david buckley; chris ross; steve ledger; kanwal bhatia; jonathan rogers; max devereaux; jim stevenson; colin aniecko; steve ruthen; ian wallis; john upham; david anderton
Subject: 4ncl newsletter

There are a number of matters that I wish to bring to your attention on behalf of the Board.

1. Paul Littlewood has resigned as 4NCL Chairman after many years of hard work. Paul has been instrumental in developing the 4NCL over the years to its present position as the pre-eminent team tournament in the UK, and I’m sure that everyone will join me in thanking him for his invaluable contribution.

I’m extremely pleased to have been appointed as the new 4NCL chairman and look forward to working with the board to ensure that the 4NCL continues to be the most prestigious team event in the UK.

2. 2007/8 season rules as published on the website have now been signed off.

3. A new junior 4NCL is due to be launched in the 2007/8 season. Designed to introduce new players to the 4NCL structure, it will provide excellent opportunities for juniors to compete in a high quality long-play championship, mix with the best players in England and receive top class coaching. Full details will be available on the 4NCL website shortly.

4. Following the survey that took place a few months ago we can confirm that there will be no change to time controls in the 2007/8 season.

5. We can announce that the proposed changes to 4NCL format for the 2008/9 season have been confirmed:

Divisions 1 and 2 will comprise two preliminary pools of eight for the first seven rounds, with the two pools in each division of broadly equal strength. The top four and bottom four teams in each preliminary pool will form two final championship/promotion and relegation pools respectively. With regard to the teams in each final pool, only matches played between themselves during the first seven rounds will be carried forward to the final pools (i.e. matches played by teams against teams in the other final pool during the first seven rounds will not be carried forward). Division 3 will be a Swiss format (similar in structure to the current Division 4, i.e. six players per team, no gender requirement etc).

The two principal reasons for introducing the new arrangements are to:

Reduce the space pressure on venues based on a more equal split between the number of players at each weekend.
Allow a faster track promotion route for new strong teams entering the league by taking one year out of the current cycle.

6. There have been some changes to the 2007/8 season promotion and relegation rules, as originally published in the entry guidelines. The new arrangements are as follows:

Promotion:
Div 2 to Div 1 5 promotion places
Div 3 to Div 2 8 promotion places
Div 4 to Div 2 1 promotion place

Relegation:
Div 1 to Div 2 1 relegation place
Div 2 to Div 3 1 relegation place


7. The 4NCL will be supporting 4NCL qualifying teams participating in the 2007 European Club Cup 2007 with a bursary of £1,000 per team up to a maximum of three teams. The Club Cup is being held in Antalya, Turkey 2nd–10th October 2007.

Claire Summerscale
4NCL Chairman

[Sean Hewitt]

I've had two phone conversations with Mike Truran today. In the first, he accpepted our argument that the change was unfair that the promotion places offered at the time teams entered should be honoured. He agreed to put it to the board that the 2nd promotion place should be re-instated.

In the second conversation he confirmed that the board had agreed to his recommendation and so the second promotion place is restored.

Fair play to the 4NCL board for holding their hands up and correcting this so quickly.

[Gavin Strachan]

With so many teams in the lowest division, I am surprised they don't incorporate a pyramid type structure and have regional type bottom. The Swiss format though a bit unusual in a team event. It seems a shame that the 4NCL seems quite disparate to county chess and that like in football, rugby, etc there is no real link. I suppose people like the current structure as it is!