End of season round-up, part three
Posted: Sun May 12, 2019 6:11 pm
...in which JR speaks of the teams who finished 9-12th in the first division this year, and 5-8th in the original Pool B for that matter, and who may well all finish between 9-12th again but in a slightly different order next year.
3Cs
3Cs secured their survival easily enough by winning all three matches in the final weekend to top the relegation pool, by virtue of adding a second GM. whether it is one GM or two seems to make a big difference to 3Cs: with two regulars they can trouble all but the very best, as they did in 2016/7 when they finished fourth, but otherwise they can struggle and they were very fortunate that their weakest team of the season, in the first weekend, came across the especially weak version of Midland Monarchs. The impression one gets is that, with the possibility of calling in reinforcements should the need arise, 3Cs don't worry too much in the early season about relegation risks, which is all very well but perhaps a bit surprising from the team which once got relegated despite two of their players making GM norms during the season (2006/7).
Midland Monarchs (Wood Green 2)
Promotion to the first division had not been on the agenda in 2017/2018 and a string of first team absences left the team adrift after the first weekend of the season. But the win against a representative Grantham Sharks side in the second weekend was a turning point and from then onwards there was something to cheer in every weekend; had they anticipated the relatively weak Manx Liberty side in March, then a dramatic late bid for the championship pool would even have been possible. Many more FMs were found, to support this effort, but the team was never quite flooded with them, and many of the players who had played regularly in the second division continued to play. A quick glance at the table 1d, ie the matches which most mattered to the team's survival bid, reveals that FM Jonah Willow was their star player, and he must have been high up on the long list of Wood Green players gunning for norms.
Grantham Sharks 1
Not quite the dramatic escape performed by Blackthorne Russia in 2013/14, but creditable nonetheless. They started as number eight seeds (having finished seventh in 2017/18, and allocated eight position on account of Manx Liberty's strength) and so "ought" to have been the team which finished fourth. But they did not find their form and also found no easy pickings in Pool B, and things went from bad to worse after the loss to Midland Monarchs. Worse still, one of their two draws in pool B was "lost" when Blackthorne Russia made it to the championship pool, and so they started the relegation pool with just one draw - but like Blackthorne in 2013/4, proceeded to win all four matches in the reconstituted pool, assisted by foreign GM power in the final weekend. James Holland proved to be a reliable point scorer lower down the team but could not always be used by the first team because of an ever graver crisis in the second team. For all of that, if their form can be rediscovered, they might be the most likely team between 9-12th this year to make their way to the championship pool next year.
Celtic Tigers
Survived in division one for the first time, at their second attempt. For all the newsletters, it is not obvious why to me why they did not field their top players the last time they played in division one (though they twice deployed them in division two). Nor do I quite know how so many of them came to be staying in Shrewsbury in the last weekend, which almost led to mass defaults in the crucial last round - most 4NCL captains spend enough of their time worrying about traffic and car breakdowns on the Saturday of every 4NCL weekend, without adding other days into the mix. But they did deserve their survival, and were the early talking point of division one after wins over Blackthorne Russia and 3Cs, before they lost momentum after their defeat to the resurgent Midland Monarchs. With the lost momentum in mind as well, things must have seemed grim on the final Monday morning when they started 2-0 down on account of the transport-related default. A loss would have spelt relegation, on account of Oxford's win, but luckily for them North East England did not rise to the occasion, and agreed a draw in a good position in board two and unaccountably declined to play 20 Nxd5 and 21 Bc4 on board three. With big positions achieved early on boards one and six, the Tigers were soon to breathe more easily.
3Cs
3Cs secured their survival easily enough by winning all three matches in the final weekend to top the relegation pool, by virtue of adding a second GM. whether it is one GM or two seems to make a big difference to 3Cs: with two regulars they can trouble all but the very best, as they did in 2016/7 when they finished fourth, but otherwise they can struggle and they were very fortunate that their weakest team of the season, in the first weekend, came across the especially weak version of Midland Monarchs. The impression one gets is that, with the possibility of calling in reinforcements should the need arise, 3Cs don't worry too much in the early season about relegation risks, which is all very well but perhaps a bit surprising from the team which once got relegated despite two of their players making GM norms during the season (2006/7).
Midland Monarchs (Wood Green 2)
Promotion to the first division had not been on the agenda in 2017/2018 and a string of first team absences left the team adrift after the first weekend of the season. But the win against a representative Grantham Sharks side in the second weekend was a turning point and from then onwards there was something to cheer in every weekend; had they anticipated the relatively weak Manx Liberty side in March, then a dramatic late bid for the championship pool would even have been possible. Many more FMs were found, to support this effort, but the team was never quite flooded with them, and many of the players who had played regularly in the second division continued to play. A quick glance at the table 1d, ie the matches which most mattered to the team's survival bid, reveals that FM Jonah Willow was their star player, and he must have been high up on the long list of Wood Green players gunning for norms.
Grantham Sharks 1
Not quite the dramatic escape performed by Blackthorne Russia in 2013/14, but creditable nonetheless. They started as number eight seeds (having finished seventh in 2017/18, and allocated eight position on account of Manx Liberty's strength) and so "ought" to have been the team which finished fourth. But they did not find their form and also found no easy pickings in Pool B, and things went from bad to worse after the loss to Midland Monarchs. Worse still, one of their two draws in pool B was "lost" when Blackthorne Russia made it to the championship pool, and so they started the relegation pool with just one draw - but like Blackthorne in 2013/4, proceeded to win all four matches in the reconstituted pool, assisted by foreign GM power in the final weekend. James Holland proved to be a reliable point scorer lower down the team but could not always be used by the first team because of an ever graver crisis in the second team. For all of that, if their form can be rediscovered, they might be the most likely team between 9-12th this year to make their way to the championship pool next year.
Celtic Tigers
Survived in division one for the first time, at their second attempt. For all the newsletters, it is not obvious why to me why they did not field their top players the last time they played in division one (though they twice deployed them in division two). Nor do I quite know how so many of them came to be staying in Shrewsbury in the last weekend, which almost led to mass defaults in the crucial last round - most 4NCL captains spend enough of their time worrying about traffic and car breakdowns on the Saturday of every 4NCL weekend, without adding other days into the mix. But they did deserve their survival, and were the early talking point of division one after wins over Blackthorne Russia and 3Cs, before they lost momentum after their defeat to the resurgent Midland Monarchs. With the lost momentum in mind as well, things must have seemed grim on the final Monday morning when they started 2-0 down on account of the transport-related default. A loss would have spelt relegation, on account of Oxford's win, but luckily for them North East England did not rise to the occasion, and agreed a draw in a good position in board two and unaccountably declined to play 20 Nxd5 and 21 Bc4 on board three. With big positions achieved early on boards one and six, the Tigers were soon to breathe more easily.