4NCL 2023-24 Division Four

[Neil Graham]

And finally to complete the set - Division Four. Two teams were absent whilst Desert Penguins, led by IM Augustin Madin, started with two 6-0 victories.

[Mick Norris]

Table

6 teams on 4 points, Lancaster, with IM Sarakauskas playing on the Sunday, on 3

[Phil Neatherway]

I was playing for Oxford 3 and we got hammered by Desert Penguins. To paraphrase a well known cricket comment, we were lucky to get zero. Was it Fred Trueman that made the comment?

[Kevin Thurlow]

Allegedly it was rugby... https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id ... ky-get-nil

Fred would have said, "I don't know what's going off there - I really don't."

[Mick Norris]

Desert Penguins and ToBeDecided both on 4 wins out of 4

[Phil Neatherway]

And 2 more drubbings for Oxford 3, not helped by defaulting Board 6. We seem to have a lot more difficulty finding players this season. Presumably this is due to Telford being a lot further from Oxford than Daventry/Warwick/Leamington.

[Neil Graham]

And 2 more drubbings for Oxford 3, not helped by defaulting Board 6. We seem to have a lot more difficulty finding players this season. Presumably this is due to Telford being a lot further from Oxford than Daventry/Warwick/Leamington.

I think you were rather lucky not to finish your match against Ashfield to a loss of 6 to -0.5. Which brings me on to another point. Where games have been lost by default I think the bottom line should be 0. It seems pretty ludicrous for a team to actual finish a match with minus game points - imagine if football matches finished with a minus goal score. Winning 8-0 or 6-0 ought to be the best/worst possible match outcome.

[LawrenceCooper]

And 2 more drubbings for Oxford 3, not helped by defaulting Board 6. We seem to have a lot more difficulty finding players this season. Presumably this is due to Telford being a lot further from Oxford than Daventry/Warwick/Leamington.

I think you were rather lucky not to finish your match against Ashfield to a loss of 6 to -0.5. Which brings me on to another point. Where games have been lost by default I think the bottom line should be 0. It seems pretty ludicrous for a team to actual finish a match with minus game points - imagine if football matches finished with a minus goal score. Winning 8-0 or 6-0 ought to be the best/worst possible match outcome.

Is the reasoning to encourage captains to find six (or eight) players rather than to default boards?

[Neil Graham]

And 2 more drubbings for Oxford 3, not helped by defaulting Board 6. We seem to have a lot more difficulty finding players this season. Presumably this is due to Telford being a lot further from Oxford than Daventry/Warwick/Leamington.

I think you were rather lucky not to finish your match against Ashfield to a loss of 6 to -0.5. Which brings me on to another point. Where games have been lost by default I think the bottom line should be 0. It seems pretty ludicrous for a team to actual finish a match with minus game points - imagine if football matches finished with a minus goal score. Winning 8-0 or 6-0 ought to be the best/worst possible match outcome.

Is the reasoning to encourage captains to find six (or eight) players rather than to default boards?

Firstly can I say that Oxford gave adequate notice of their default. I am sure that that all teams endeavour to get six or eight players to their matches. If a team wins, a 6-0 or 8-0 game point victory makes no difference to their game score. I cannot fathom the idea that a team losing a match can actually finish with a minus score - nul game points (as in Eurovision) is the most a team should suffer. Incidentally on that point, the United Kingdom showing a remarkable lack of taste, gave nul points to Abba for Waterloo in 1974.

[Phil Neatherway]

Incidentally, I agree I was lucky!

[Neil Graham]

Round Five pairings:-

41 Desert Penguins (8) - - - ToBeDecided (8)
42 Guildford Young Guns (6) - - - Average Woodpushers (6)
43 Celtic Tigers 3 (6) - - - War and Piece A (6)
44 Ashfield 3 (5)- - - North West Eagles (6)
45 Wessex B (4)- - - Ashfield 2 (4)
46 Coventry (4) - - - English Deaf Chess Association (4)
47 Crowthorne B (4)- - - Apprentice Woodpushers (3)
48 CSC/Kingston 3 -(4) - - She Plays To Win Young Stars A (3)
49 The Full Ponty (3)- - - She Plays To Win Young Stars B (3)
50 Watford A -(2) - - Iceni 2 (2)
51 Oxford 3 (2)- - - Barnet Knights C (1)
52 She Plays To Win Uni -(1) - - Watford B (0)
53 Oxford 4 (0)- - - War and Piece B (0)

Oxford 4 and Watford B appear for the first time whilst Lancaster, rather inconveniently disappear, giving Ashfield 3 an unexpected (and unwanted) up float.

[Phil Neatherway]

I understand many of the Lancaster team will be playing in the Blackpool congress in preference to the 4NCL.

[Neil Graham]

I understand many of the Lancaster team will be playing in the Blackpool congress in preference to the 4NCL.

I'm not surprised - I have five squad members playing there which is not helpful. Surely this clash could have been avoided.

[Roger de Coverly]

Surely this clash could have been avoided.

Blackpool used to be mid-March and in 2020 was on the final weekend before the shutdown. 4NCL has been on or about Valentine's day for many years. So it's Blackpool who have moved. In fairness though, "southern" events are likely to be more on the radar for clashes against 4NCL weekends.

[Joey Stewart]

I'm not surprised - I have five squad members playing there which is not helpful. Surely this clash could have been avoided.

I guess it could be avoided by only picking squad members who aren't selfish and choose to play other events over their team commitments .