2012 National Stages

[John McKenna]

On reading the above U-100 result my first thought was - whitewash, then I read the dreaded word 'default'.
Time to try a match over the internet? (With one ECF arbiter in each county's match room, to ensure fair play, 12-board teams in the lower sections of the competition could be offered it as an experimental option.)

[Andrew Bak]

A preview of Yorkshire's upcoming matches.

Sadly I can't shed any light on the U100's withdrawal. The Northern Megafinal is taking place on Saturday 9th, and I gather that the U100 team was primarily juniors, so this clash might have been the reason, but that is just pure speculation on my part.

[Matthew Turner]

A preview of Yorkshire's upcoming matches.

Sadly I can't shed any light on the U100's withdrawal. The Northern Megafinal is taking place on Saturday 9th, and I gather that the U100 team was primarily juniors, so this clash might have been the reason, but that is just pure speculation on my part.

i don't think you are right on your speculation there because the Giga-Finals are in July. However, Sat 9th June is the end of half-term and will probably be coming up to exams for many juniors.

[Neill Cooper]

North Yorkshire Megafinal is Sat 9th June. That is a month after many southern megafinals, but the day before the South Yorks Megafinal.

[Matthew Turner]

I stand corrected. That seems very odd, because there will not be much time to get Giga-Final invites out.

[Alex Holowczak]

I can confirm that the reason for the default is the clash with the North Yorkshire Megafinal.

[John McKenna]

Some things remain "beyond the wit of Man" then.

[Alex Holowczak]

Some things remain "beyond the wit of Man" then.

Remembering that the dates for the Final Stages have been set since 1st November, it would have been very easy for Yorkshire to work out the dates of the Under 100 Semi Final, and choose a different date for their Megafinal. This was a relatively trivial thing to either (a) Check before arranging the Megafinal (b) Check when you've been asked to accept the nomination.

Because of this, I haven't waived the £50 default fine.

[Ian Kingston]

Some things remain "beyond the wit of Man" then.

Remembering that the dates for the Final Stages have been set since 1st November, it would have been very easy for Yorkshire to work out the dates of the Under 100 Semi Final, and choose a different date for their Megafinal. This was a relatively trivial thing to either (a) Check before arranging the Megafinal (b) Check when you've been asked to accept the nomination.

Because of this, I haven't waived the £50 default fine.

I don't know what the situation is in Yorkshire, but it's not always the case that the county association has anything to do with organising the local Megafinal. Communication between the association and the local UKCC organiser may not be all that one would desire, particularly if the issue of a clash hasn't arisen previously.

This default (along with the other six so far) does highlight the relative lack of importance that players give to the county championships these days. It's fortunate that the draw for Euro 2012 (made on 2 December) didn't give England a game on 9 June, otherwise there might have been bigger problems.

[Peter Shaw]

I'm not exactly sure what these fines are supposed to achieve. If it is to reduce the number of defaults, it clearly isn't working!

[Sean Hewitt]

I'm not exactly sure what these fines are supposed to achieve. If it is to reduce the number of defaults, it clearly isn't working!

Maybe not, though this is the first year they apper to have been applied so they would not yet act as a detterent.

I would have thought that, in the knowledge that counties are now being fined for defaults, there might be some effort in future years to ensure that they can raise a team before accepting a nomination for the final stages.

It must be galling for teams that missed out on the final stages to see teams defaulting when they could have played instead.

[Mick Norris]

Good luck to all travelling today in what are, here and elsewhere, not the weather conditions you would want for a June semi final

[Sean Hewitt]

Good luck to all travelling today in what are, here and elsewhere, not the weather conditions you would want for a June semi final

Thanks. Milton Keynes awaits. Does that make me one of the bussed in 'stars' that DP is always banging on about?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Good luck to all travelling today in what are, here and elsewhere, not the weather conditions you would want for a June semi final

Some of those lucky enough to be drawn at home have less distance to travel than others...

[benedgell]

Fingers crossed for Somerset against Middlesex. Our match captain is standing down at the end of this run and hes done great work over the last few seasons, so hopefully he can go out with a bang (and yes I'm aware of the hypocrisy of me wishing Somerset sucess on a forum rather then actually playing for Somerset and helping them achieve it, but there we are)