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Early 2000s I would think. It only disappeared from the SCCU competition, rather it concentrated its efforts on fielding teams in the more local Chiltern competitions and in the 4NCL. In the 4NCL, the venues have never been that far from Oxford, Telford about the furthest.
Very few of our players play in 4NCL or would wish to given the cost of an overnight stay. Same for Cornwall of course. Any move to a weekend county tournament would see us drop out.Alan Walton wrote: ↑Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:21 amI am indeed Roger; it might make the event a bit more tolerable to team commuting longer distances, I also suspect the high majority of players will also compete in 4NCL anyway so the atmosphere will be similarRoger de Coverly wrote: ↑Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:10 amIn terms of competing for available weekends with summer Congresses, then no different. Are you not proposing though that weekends 2 and 3 will have matches on both the Saturday and Sunday? For teams with a longer distance to travel, that's going to involve an overnight stay making it a sort of summer 4NCL.Alan Walton wrote: ↑Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:14 amStill only need 3 weekends for this competition so again no different to the current ECF stages
Currently the ECF stages take up three weekends anyway so really no fundamental change; it looks like a simple way to refresh the current competition
I'd say that was true for in the sense intended for all seven WECU counties. In the WECU championship we're (Devon) the only side who've managed teams averaging above 180 in recent years - and when it comes to the national stages a few drop out which brings us back in line.Ian Thompson wrote: ↑Tue Apr 17, 2018 5:56 pmI'd be amazed if this claim was true for more than a very small number counties. You only need to look in the grading database for players who are listed as playing for their county chess associations to see it's not true for the larger counties, and that's before taking account of eligible players who haven't played for their county recently, which would probably show it's not true for most of the smaller counties either.Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑Tue Apr 17, 2018 5:34 pmIn WECU, EACU and the MCCU, the strongest team they can put out is eligible to play in the Minor.
John Reyes wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 10:30 amdo you think that there will be any amends raised at the meeting
Would you expect the bigger counties to use their second team as U 180, in which case their top boards would presumably get squashed flat, or bring in stronger players who wished to play in both, jettisoning the 160-170 group? Neither is ideal, and I hope Council would at least not approve any such proposal on the hoof, without further investigation.Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 11:00 amWhat it could do, if proposed, is to amalgamate the Minor Counties and U 180 under Minor Counties "average" rules. To satisfy players in larger counties who couldn't get into Open teams, allow a county to enter both the Open and Minor.
I was thinking National stages only with both the Open and Minor teams playing on the same day. If the Minor is structured as average U-180, that doesn't stop a guest celebrity or two playing on the top boards, if there are enough to go around once the Open team has made its pick.NickFaulks wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:51 pm[Would you expect the bigger counties to use their second team as U 180, in which case their top boards would presumably get squashed flat, or bring in stronger players who wished to play in both, jettisoning the 160-170 group?