That was the idea. It attempts to solve the problem of there not being enough players for the U180 while also retaining something approximating the Minor Counties definition. The obvious problems are that (1) the number of competitions is reduced, potentially leading to less chess being played, (2) players graded over 190 who would previously have been able to play in the Minor Counties would be excluded, and (3) counties that currently enter the Open and the U180 might run into the same problem of overlap that some U180/U160 squads have.Alex Holowczak wrote:I think Ian's suggestion was to turn the Minor into an U190. But you could enter both if you wanted. (I can't see in reality that anyone would.)
Essentially it would help mid-sized counties like Nottinghamshire, who don't enter the Open or the Minor Counties, but suffer from the U180/U160 overlap. On reflection, perhaps Nottinghamshire should just abandon the U180 and enter the Minor Counties instead. There is, after all, a healthy MCCU Minor Counties competition to play in, whereas the U180 is just an annual match against Warwickshire.