4NCL 2024-25 dates and venues

[LawrenceCooper]

If anyone is driving from Birkenhead/Liverpool to Peterborough in the morning I would be happy to hear from them as trains from Liverpool heading south all seem to be cancelled at the moment.

[LawrenceCooper]

If anyone is driving from Birkenhead/Liverpool to Peterborough in the morning I would be happy to hear from them as trains from Liverpool heading south all seem to be cancelled at the moment.

Thankfully the trains were operating again today so the player in question has reached his final destination.

[Roger de Coverly]

Thankfully the trains were operating again today so the player in question has reached his final destination.

Judging by the handful of defaults, it looks as if travel from Scotland was a problem.

[LawrenceCooper]

Thankfully the trains were operating again today so the player in question has reached his final destination.

Judging by the handful of defaults, it looks as if travel from Scotland was a problem.

Yes, in Alba's case they kept us informed as they heard from stranded players. Hopefully the league won't enforce the game point penalties currently showing on our match result.

[Richard Bates]

I guess the problem with that (as opposed to fines) is that the game point penalties can affect the match result (even if they didn’t in this case). If they aren’t going to be enforced then it should be decided prior to the match. It would set a pretty bad precedent I think if decisions on this sort of thing were made retrospectively (and dependent presumably on it not changing the match outcome).

[Jonathan Rogers]

From Rule 11.5:

"...Appeals against game point penalties must be made not later than the default time in the game or games in question to the Sector Arbiter at the venue, whose decision, in the interests of providing certainty to the teams involved, will be final and not subject to referral to the Management Board or the Appeals Committee."

So, if Alba were to have been successful in seeking this, Loz (as opposing captain) would already have known and (presumably) the discounts would not be showing on the results page. Alba can still appeal against the fines.

[John Cox]

More generally, was I the only one who thought Peterborough a totally unacceptable venue? It's ridiculous for a hotel to hire out a venue for a mind sport and not to turn off the loudspeaker playing elevator musak outside the door. (I'm assuming the party which started next door during the fifth hour on Saturday was a one-off accident.)

[Roger de Coverly]

(I'm assuming the party which started next door during the fifth hour on Saturday was a one-off accident.)

Not entirely. There was something similar during the earlier Div3 weekend.

[Ian Thompson]

More generally, was I the only one who thought Peterborough a totally unacceptable venue?

Also, dingy lighting in parts of the larger Division 2 playing room due to several lights not working. Nothing was done about it when I mentioned it 10 minutes before play started. It's something I'd expect the arbiters to check for, and attempt to get fixed, while setting the room up.

[Nick Ivell]

Luckily, I wasn't playing. I never experienced such poor conditions pre-pandemic.

[Paul Cooksey]

I was in the depths of the div2 gloom on Saturday. As Ian says not ideal, but I've experienced worse. Maybe it was not obvious the curtains would need to be closed to avoid glare.

Div1 sounds worse. I take John's point, but I suppose there are few quiet hotel events. So if the 4NCl isn't taking the whole venue likely to be an issue.

[Ian Thompson]

I was in the depths of the div2 gloom on Saturday. As Ian says not ideal, but I've experienced worse. Maybe it was not obvious the curtains would need to be closed to avoid glare.

Easy to predict, though, that even with the curtains open, the natural light would be fading by 4:45 pm and gone by 5:30 pm.

[Alan Walton]

I was in the depths of the div2 gloom on Saturday. As Ian says not ideal, but I've experienced worse. Maybe it was not obvious the curtains would need to be closed to avoid glare.

Div1 sounds worse. I take John's point, but I suppose there are few quiet hotel events. So if the 4NCl isn't taking the whole venue likely to be an issue.

I was playing Paul in said game; I actually sat at the board with my face to the window about 30 mins before the game; and what sun was out was right in my face (Ian's and Paul's team had the back to the windows); so the curtains were closed; I agree with Paul we have played in much worse, if anything playing on that side of the match (which I did on Sunday) was more problematic with space; admittedly we finished after 3 hours and possibly you could have opened the curtains when it was dark, but that wouldn't have affected the light in the room by then

[Leonard Barden]

My next Guardian column will be about last weekend's 4NCL, so I raised the noise and lighting issues mentioned above by John, Roger, Ian, Paul and Alan directly with Mike Truran. He promised to take them up with the hotel, and has since written back:

The hotel has confirmed to us that the lighting and noise issues will be remedied in good time for the British Rapidplay Championships and for future 4NCL weekends.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I hadn't realised that Danny Gormally started his game with three minutes (plus the increment) to reach move 40 ... against Lupulescu! There is only one person we know (a forumite to boot) who could hope to defy those odds ....