Sean Hewitt wrote:Christopher Kreuzer wrote:It seems a bit strange, but then I've never really understood the criteria for the Minor competition - is it like a Plate competition for the Open?
It's a competition open to all teams as long as the average of the team is under 180. In the MCCU teams enter either the Open or Minor at the outset of the season. In the SCCU, the Minor seems to be treated as a plate competition.
The SCCU approach is closer to the original concept, but that's not intended as a criticism of the MCCU or any other Union.
When the competition was introduced in 1982, it was for Open teams which had not qualified for the National Stages for five years or longer.
After various refinements and suggested refinements involving quite heated discussions (fortunately before the advent of online forums), we've arrived at the present position where the five year rule has been replaced by the under 180 grading average.
Depending on the Union, there are nowadays two ways in which a county can fail to qualify for the Open but qualify for the Minor:
1. Finishing in the Open Division in the two places immediately below the qualifiers for the Open (SCCU).
2. Entering the Minor section of a competition divided into Open and Minor at outset and finishing in the top two places (MCCU).
This year's winners, Hertfordshire, only got in because Kent declined nomination.