This could be cause and effect. When I enquired of a Northants rep why that county didn't play county chess there any more, his personal opinion was that they couldn't get enough players because too many of their players played for Bedfordshire. So rather than helping Northants players to play county chess, this situation might actually be on the cause that prevents this county from participating at all.Kevin Williamson wrote:Graham plays in the Bedfordshire league for Milton Keynes, which is in Buckinghamshire. Northampton also play in the Beds league. Neither Bucks nor Northants currently have a team which play in their Union or ECF competitions, so by depriving these players of the opportunity of playing for Bedfordshire they are prevented from playing Union/ECF County chess all together.
It's all a matter of opinion of course and, as usual, there is unlikely to be consensus.