Some of us may remember the Open section of the National Club in the 1990s, pre 4NCL. There would be over fifty teams, from all over the country so Clubs would have to travel far, and any one of a number of teams could win it - Barbican, Wood Green, Maidstone, Kings Head, Dundee, sometimes Guildford, Atherton, Charlton, Ilford, Oxford or Cambridge caused surprises ... Plenty of titled players around in all these teams, and Finals weekend generally merited a report in the magazines.
The competition (the Open section, that is; not the other ones) is an embarrassment now. Having had just four or five entrants over the last few years, always the same ones, there are just three now (Bedford and Ilford having got bored). So it is not even a knockout anymore (no room for the Plate competition even!); it is just a mini-league, which I gather from the SCCU site today is effectively over already since Wood Green has beaten Maidstone, by a closer margin than usual (5-1 this time, as opposed to the 6-0 whitewash in last year's final, which you probably didn't hear anything about and which omission you probably did not notice). Wood Green has now (I think) won the event every year bar two since 1997!
Why does the ECF allow the ghost which the Open section now is to haunt us in this way? Why not accept that the 4NCL has long since taken over as far as the strongest players are concerned, and just call the next event down "the Open", and bar teams which average more than 190 and proclaim the event to be one about "real" Clubs peopled by local enthusiasts? It seems to me that the Open section in its current state is just a grim reminder of how far something once valued highly has declined so disastrously and I am astonished that the responsible officials in the ECF do not feel embarrassed by its slow and unsightly death.
ECF National Club (zzzzzzzzz)
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Paul Buswell
- Posts: 427
- Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 4:56 pm
Re: ECF National Club (zzzzzzzzz)
Similar remarks could be made of the other sections, where 4NCL does not reign. I have the impression that ECF office (a) does not have an up to date database of clubs, perhaps no database of clubs, (b) does not mail out literature (e.g, National Club entry forms) to Clubs. About 18 months ago I offered to help set up such a database but after initial acceptance my offer was not taken further - things just went silent.
PB
PB
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Sean Hewitt
Re: ECF National Club (zzzzzzzzz)
Maybe they think you're working on it?!Paul Buswell wrote:I offered to help set up such a database but after initial acceptance my offer was not taken further - things just went silent.
PB
