English Chess Forum

I assume that sooner or later someone will have something to say about Division Two considering the 11 page thread (so far) on Division Three (North).

So I've opened a thread for Division Two - possibly someone can open a Division One thread as well?

That did strike me I know many more of the people in Div3N/1, so Div 2 slightly passed me by.

I was thinking that Geoff Chandler - where is he these days? - must be loving all this attention to the third and fourth divisions at the expense of the top two divisions! Unfortunately the 4NCL seems to have difficulties in finding people to write regular detailed reports, even just on division one, on the website.

As one can see just from the crosstable, in both pools, division two is setting new levels of closeness. Anyone can beat anyone is just as true as ever.

In pool A two of the likely top teams, Guildford 3 and Warwickshire Select, are in the bottom half. In the case of Guildford 3 this is so not surprising; a much understrength side met a reasonably representative Barbican Youth, but Warwickshire's opening loss to Celtic Tigers was a genuine surprise (in so far as anything is a surprise in this division). Kings Head drew an entertaining match with Barbican Youth; this was the only draw, and these are the only undefeated teams already. At this stage, any of the top seven teams could reasonably expect to proceed to the promotion pool, and only in the case of the reprieved but apparently unstrengthened MK Phoenix does this look very unlikely.

In pool B, it is a somewhat stronger side, BCM Dragons, which finds itself on zero points. It is perhaps unlikely that they will make up the ground to reach the promotion pool, but not wholly implausible. Virtually every match here seems to have been decided by 4.5-3.5, which is indeed the situation of the pool leaders, KJCA who won both matches by that score, including against the luckless BCM. To my eyes, Anglian Avengers and ADs look the most reliable sides, and they played out an early draw, but a default on the Sunday cost ADs dear - albeit that they didn't win a single game against the newly promoted Downend and Fishponds anyway. Cambridge 2 continue to look stronger than their ratings.

So the three demoted sides - Hackney, ADs and Warwickshire - have each lost a match already, and the three newly promoted sides - Celtic Tigers, North East England, Downend and Fishponds, have already won one each. This no longer comes as the slightest surprise.

(One member of Sussex Martlets told me how surprisingly easy they found the second division last year, having played in it for the first time. The first division so far looks like being another story. It would not surprise me if they also find the second division tougher than they remember it to be on their return next season).

2 good wins this weekend for NE England in Pool B - they are looking well placed

table

Pool A looks a lot tighter
table

Ironically I'm spending more time considering the relegation implications of Division 2 than of either of the Divisions that I actually have teams participating in given that the number of promotion places available from Division 4 is dependent on the geographic preferences of the teams relegated from Div 2! My current reading is that if the teams presently occupying the spots all go down, they will all elect for Div 3 S which means that there will be 2 promotion spots available from Div 4. Any thoughts on whether this is accurate?

Sigh, I became a lawyer specifically to avoid this sort of mathematical/geographical logic!

Matthew Parry wrote:My current reading is that if the teams presently occupying the spots all go down, they will all elect for Div 3 S which means that there will be 2 promotion spots available from Div 4. Any thoughts on whether this is accurate?

I believe that to be the case. You might bear in mind that the venues for 2016-17 have been unofficially released and as a consequence, there may be Midlands based teams who will elect to move sideways to Div 3 N.

The Div 2 Demotion pool is
Guildford 3
The AD's
CSC Dragons [1]
Warwickshire Select 1
MK Phoenix 1
Cambridge University 2
Hackney 1
Brown Jack Witney

Whatever the finishing order, it is difficult to any of these electing for Div 3 N.

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Matthew Parry wrote:My current reading is that if the teams presently occupying the spots all go down, they will all elect for Div 3 S which means that there will be 2 promotion spots available from Div 4. Any thoughts on whether this is accurate?

I believe that to be the case. You might bear in mind that the venues for 2016-17 have been unofficially released and as a consequence, there may be Midlands based teams who will elect to move sideways to Div 3 N.

The Div 2 Demotion pool is
Guildford 3
The AD's
CSC Dragons [1]
Warwickshire Select 1
MK Phoenix 1
Cambridge University 2
Hackney 1
Brown Jack Witney

Whatever the finishing order, it is difficult to any of these electing for Div 3 N.

Maybe Warwickshire 1 and Warwickshire 2 will swap places