Yorkshire league players in the 4NCL

[MartinCarpenter]

Mostly to help in case anyone is planning to try hunting down extra players/teams for Div3N next season, but also because the patchwork intrigues me

The chessnuts site has considerable data on the Yorkshire league, with the top division in full detail being here - http://www.chessnuts.org.uk/ny5/league. ... ionid=1232 - click on each team to see who has played so far this year, score etc. Useful for anyone hunting for players.

Going by team you have,
York A - 5 to White Rose, 1 to e2e4, 4/5 to Jorvik and one to DCA.
Sheffield A - 2 to Blackthorne, 3 to Spirit of Atticus, 1 to DCA, 1 to White Rose,
Bradford A (also B) - 2 to White Rose, 1 to 3C's, ~3 to DCA,
York B (and C/D) - 1 to WR, 3 to Jorvik, 2 to DCA,
Rose Forgrove A (and B) - 1 to Jorvik, 2 to DCA.
Calderdale A - 3 to Manchester, 1 to DCA.
Huddersfield - 1 to 3Cs, Bradford Central - 0,
Sheffield D - 5 ish to DCA.
Hull - 1 to DCA, 1 to NE2,
Harrogate/Alwoodley - 1 registered to WR,
Leeds CCC - ~4 to Leeds Uni old boys (basically the same group), 2 to WR 2.

DCA is more Bradford themed that this makes it look - they've got a handful of strong Bradford based players who've never played much in the Yorkshire league. The Calderdale players in the Manchester team are a minor Lancastrian border incursion Sheffield D isn't Sheffield's fourth team - its their juniors. Bradford/Sheffield have the working junior systems in Yorkshire right now so a logical tie up there.

Anyhow, plenty of targets for anyone out hunting. The odd one I'm slightly surprised isn't playing actually.

Of course a lot of these people are probably happy with their existing ~8-11 weekends a year. The Forgrove players say are astonishingly commited and basically all play every match for them every year. Jorvik are player cycling, partially to let everyone play but also I suspect it isn't obvious if everyone would want to play all the weekends.

[David Robertson]

This isn't a complete picture. For example, Chris Shephard (Sheffield Nomads) plays 4NCL for Warwickshire Select. He's ex-Brum, like I am. And the Spirit of Atticus - Yorkshire connection lies with our local recruiting agent, Andy Mort, a university colleague of John Carleton, John Hall, and myself.

The nice thing about the 4NCL as a concept is that it facilitates 'genetic diversity' within squads. They're not tied to regions or leagues. Friends, and friends of friends, can come together. One of the happiest outcomes of this 'cross-pollination' occurred within our squad the Friday before Buxton. Peter Ackley & Andy Smith travelled up from London to stay with Andy Mort. The three share a passion for hill-walking and frequent breaks for real ale It's highly unlikely they'd ever have met, were it not for the 4NCL. This example pretty much justifies the concept in its own right. Fabulous.

[MartinCarpenter]

Don't think I'd quite fit in then Hill walking I rather like but I don't drink. Or stop much once moving come to that. Or paths..... Its certainly a great concept - I could happily play for about half the teams

The Yorkshire league is only very loosely regional. No rules enforcing anything at all. David Adams has played the last million matches in a row (missing about 1 a decade!) for York but has been living in Sheffield for most of that time. Goodness, half of Calderdale's team comes from Lancashire without anyone batting an eyelid....

In consequence, and with 11 matches a year, most of the Woodhouse teams are pretty cohesive units (and some amazingly so) so the obvious place to start looking for links/teams. Sheffield chess is rather different because their evening league is so strong/big they've always tended to care for/organise rather more around their Sheffield league teams. Not at all surprised to see that somewhat mirrored in the 4NCL.
(I'd have been deeply confused if I'd played in the Jorvik - DCAB match. About 90 Yorkshire league matches sat next to Jim by now ).

To be honest it looks there probably are enough 'spare' players for a decent WR3 but it'd take some very determined person chasing individual (groups of) people down. So not me!

[Ihor Lewyk]

For Bradford A you can add 1 player who plays for Sussex Smart Survivors too.