4NCL 2015-16

Venues, fixtures, teams and related matters.
Mike Truran
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by Mike Truran » Tue Nov 18, 2014 11:28 pm

If the Holiday Inn's parking charges are similar to the nearby Birmingham Hilton Metropole's that would seem to be essential.
Agreed today: (a) free to residents (b) £5/day to non-residents (c) Plenty of overflow parking close by (NCP, Travelodge) at the same rates if arranged through Holiday Inn.
And the chances of Midlands teams moving from South to North have dropped with the venue change to Telford?
Don't understand!

Mick Norris
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by Mick Norris » Wed Nov 19, 2014 10:10 am

Mike Truran wrote:
And the chances of Midlands teams moving from South to North have dropped with the venue change to Telford?
Don't understand!
I wonder whether the chances of getting teams from the Midlands in Div 3 South to switch to Div 3 North have decreased with the move of Div 3 South to Telford - maybe the west Midlands will be happy with Telford, but the east Midlands may not?

Depends on where the Div 3 North hotels are located next season I guess
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Brian Valentine
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by Brian Valentine » Thu Nov 20, 2014 8:16 am

Mick Norris wrote:
Mike Truran wrote:
And the chances of Midlands teams moving from South to North have dropped with the venue change to Telford?
Don't understand!
I wonder whether the chances of getting teams from the Midlands in Div 3 South to switch to Div 3 North have decreased with the move of Div 3 South to Telford - maybe the west Midlands will be happy with Telford, but the east Midlands may not?

Depends on where the Div 3 North hotels are located next season I guess
MK Phoenix has its roots in Milton Keynes and therefore must be one of those more northerly southern teams. Given we've been blessed with proximity to the current venues we have picked up some players from more southerly places. I'm not sure how wedded our squad are to the Telford idea. However I note the time to Telford would equate to somewhere like Sheffield.

When we had two teams in division 3 we researched doing one team in each division. The critical equation was that Wokefield Park (the furthest at that time) was about 1.5 hours away whereas Darlington is over 3 hours. All matches at Crewe would might have worked.

To equate the size of divisions one probably has to move both the northern and the southern venues south. This might disenfranchise both the "extreme" northerly and, perversely, the midland teams.

Steve Rooney
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by Steve Rooney » Thu Nov 20, 2014 10:20 am

Mick Norris wrote:
Mike Truran wrote:
And the chances of Midlands teams moving from South to North have dropped with the venue change to Telford?
Don't understand!
I wonder whether the chances of getting teams from the Midlands in Div 3 South to switch to Div 3 North have decreased with the move of Div 3 South to Telford - maybe the west Midlands will be happy with Telford, but the east Midlands may not?

Depends on where the Div 3 North hotels are located next season I guess
I believe there may have been brief consideration of Div 3N when the Shropshire team formed last season (I did at least suggest it was considered) but it was quickly resolved by the organisers that Div3S would be better. Some of the Northern division venues are quite a long way off and the travel time is clearly in favour of a midlands venue.

Obviously the team will find it even easier next year in Telford, as long as they don't do something rash like getting promoted.

Mick Norris
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:50 am

Brian Valentine wrote:MK Phoenix has its roots in Milton Keynes and therefore must be one of those more northerly southern teams. Given we've been blessed with proximity to the current venues we have picked up some players from more southerly places. I'm not sure how wedded our squad are to the Telford idea. However I note the time to Telford would equate to somewhere like Sheffield.

When we had two teams in division 3 we researched doing one team in each division. The critical equation was that Wokefield Park (the furthest at that time) was about 1.5 hours away whereas Darlington is over 3 hours. All matches at Crewe would might have worked.

To equate the size of divisions one probably has to move both the northern and the southern venues south. This might disenfranchise both the "extreme" northerly and, perversely, the midland teams.
Typical chess players, analysing in detail what is best for them and missing the bigger picture of what is best in the long term - bit like some of our lot that only play when they can commute to venues rather than staying at the hotels :roll:
Any postings on here represent my personal views

MartinCarpenter
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by MartinCarpenter » Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:06 pm

Well, Milton Keynes is firmly southern :)

Finding hotels must be a truly horrible task so I don't want to criticise too much. Still, as Mick/Brian have noted, if the idea is to roughly balance the size of Div3S and Div3N then there's a considerable strategic problem with moving all the Division 3 South matches to Telford.

Like it or not, teams will judge which league to play in based on travel. So if you want to balance the leagues you have to balance the venues for those leagues in terms of travel time from major population centers. So South somewhere near Milton Keynes and North just South of the main Yorkshire cities/Manchester. Maybe pull the Darlington leg down to nearer York or something.

In all honesty, Telford would not be an entirely insane venue for the Northern league! Its considerably closer to Manchester than it is to London. Actually closer to Manchester than Darlington is, and likely the same for Spirit of Atticus too (Liverpool/Chesterfieldish). I'm sure Bradford etc could get there if it came to it.

Mick Norris
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:30 pm

Manchester is 73 miles from Telford and 114 from Redworth I am told :lol:

I have said I don't want to spend 5 weekends in Telford, I liked it when I was there but not that much
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LawrenceCooper
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by LawrenceCooper » Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:43 pm

MartinCarpenter wrote:Well, Milton Keynes is firmly southern :)
On the other hand, the July ECF board meeting scheduled for the Midlands was held in Saunderton, Buckinghamshire, HM14 4HU :roll:

MartinCarpenter
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by MartinCarpenter » Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:55 pm

How logical :)

Perhaps the more worrying thing than the distance to Manchester etc is that Telford is only ~40 miles from Holmes Chapel and Cheddleton, so you could very easily see them going over to Div 3S.

Steve Rooney
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by Steve Rooney » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:10 pm

Mick Norris wrote:Manchester is 73 miles from Telford and 114 from Redworth I am told :lol:

I have said I don't want to spend 5 weekends in Telford, I liked it when I was there but not that much
:lol:
As a Shropshire resident I feel much the same.

However, there is a very good reason to spend the weekend of 3-4 Jan 2015 in Telford!

(Wondered how long I could restrain myself from giving the Shropshire congress a plug.)

Mick Norris
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Re: 4NCL 2015-16

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:24 pm

Steve Rooney wrote:
Mick Norris wrote:Manchester is 73 miles from Telford and 114 from Redworth I am told :lol:

I have said I don't want to spend 5 weekends in Telford, I liked it when I was there but not that much
:lol:
As a Shropshire resident I feel much the same.

However, there is a very good reason to spend the weekend of 3-4 Jan 2015 in Telford!

(Wondered how long I could restrain myself from giving the Shropshire congress a plug.)
:lol: Exactly, don't want to spend 6 weekends in Telford then :wink:
Any postings on here represent my personal views