Future options...

[David Pardoe]

Looking at the 4NCL this year, its been a pretty reasonable seasons chess fayre..
Thanks go to Mike and others, and particularly to team captains and drivers for all there efforts.
Taking things forward...heres a few thoughts..
For the Final two weekends, switch Daventry & Hinckley Island, so that the Divs 1 & 2 move to Daventry.
This might help with travel and accomodation, since Div 3 has now grown to over 60 teams.
Venue variety...Divs 1 & 2 ... Hinckley, Daventry, Reading, Sunningdale Move one w/e to either Reading or Sunningdale to give Div 1 & 2 teams more variety.

Having the grand Finals w/e at Hinckley. Plenty of local hotels...maybe block book the local Best Western if good terms could be obtained.
Splittingt Div 3 South into two smaller leagues...

Other possible venues for an extra Northern w/e (ie, reducing the two Finals w/es to 1 joint north/south meeting for the Final w/e). Consider Derby, Harrogate or maybe Sheffield as an extra Northern venue for the March meeting.

Publicity...more of this to alert joe public to the UK chess world..
ie, send reports to Yorkshire Post, Lancashire Post, Birmingham Post, London Evening Standard, Northern Echo, South Western News etc... with games, photos, stories/news, contact data, etc..
Finally, to all UK clubs...start an initiative to attract more novice players...advertize in local papers.. clubs must run novice tournaments to attact more new grass roots players...it might boost membership numbers by 20%+, and bring a welcome crop of new blood to the table. New faces are vital....

And volunteers are vital to keep the wheels turning..
The Manchester team needs a new captain/manager for next season. Any offers to Mick Norris or Matthew Pollard..

Good luck for this weekends chessing....