Yorkshire league 25/26 season

[MartinCarpenter]

Off again Back into fairly familiar patterns from last season with Hull, Sheffield and York A winning comfortably and two very close fights (4.5 - 3.5).

Hull (8-0 away vs Bradford? Cooper on board 5 is the sort of terrifying thing York did a decade or two back ) and Sheffield were very impressive. York A a bit less - we'd somehow got caught out by the start and both captains were missing. Good match though, and the huge mass of juniors/students was great to see.

Everyone else? Well, 8 board team grades of 15579, 15393, 15354, 15654, 15455 and 15556 - and York B will be roughly there normally - suggest that anyone making confident predictions about mid table vs relegation would be remarkably foolish! A lot more 4.5 - 3.5 results seem probable.

The difference to the top teams is ~1000 aggregate grade over 8 boards. Which is enough to make a win in any given match likely, but not to lock down 7/7. So some fun ahead.

Huddersfield very likely to go up from the IMB, I suppose. Not sure who else, Forgrove? Or even Holmfirth? Or....

[Stephen Westmoreland]

If I can keep my top boards turning up, then Holmfirth have a shout! Looking forwards to the Huddersfield match, even though we play each other continually in the Huddersfield League and combine for the Calderdale. Speaking of which, our friends at Calderdale next.

[MartinCarpenter]

That'll be fun to watch then I always find matches against people I know well a bit weird. This last B team match was a bit easier with all the juniors/students.

It'll certainly cut down on travel for West Yorkshire teams if you manage to keep Calderdale up and get Holmfirth and Huddersfield promoted!

[MartinCarpenter]

4-4 for Holmfirth vs Calderdale B it seems, but only Huddersfield have gone 2/2 in the IMB so who knows who the second promoted team might be.

Great win for a slightly outrated(!) Hull vs Harrogate. Very solid win for a much stronger York A over Calderdale. I presume Sheffield will join us on 2/2.

Nice win for Doncaster over Leeds, making the lower table quite interesting. Ilkley seem to have slightly mislayed their habit of winning matches 4.5 - 3.5, drawing this time. 0.5/2 from 7.5 game points is unlucky!

[Stephen Westmoreland]

Nice to bump into York's Aaron, Paul and Dan at Heath.

It was close, with three of the Holmfirth boards losing good advantages. It feels like an inter club match against Calderdale and we know each other very well with our respective leagues mixing.

[MartinCarpenter]

Well, the main result that round was Doncaster drawing Vs a very strong York A team. They earned it too after going 2-0 down quite quickly.

Not a shock really, there's a lot of very decent teams about at the moment.

Sheffield scraped a win vs a strong Leeds, Hull march on.

Might be hard work to keep York B up for yet another year - it's been absolutely ages since they were last in the IMBrown but with all the teams (except in West Yorkshire!) quite consolidated it isn't easy.

[MartinCarpenter]

Continuing to be a very tight league - 5.5 wins for York and Hull, a variety of 4.5 results elsewhere.
(Sheffield presumably won vs Ilkley, not reported yet.).

Huddersfield surely due to join the W Yorkshire mob up in the Woodhouse, it looks absurdly open for the 2nd place spot with no one else above 5/8 match points. No risk of York D going up at least but they might get to settle for snacking on a potentially relegated York B next season

[Stephen Westmoreland]

York D were unfortunate at ours on Saturday. Losing both top boards, is always a tough ask. Huddersfield are definite favourites.

I keep having to transport that blasted heavy trophy from AGMs to either Huddersfield or Calderdale! Can they not win something lighter?!

[Andrew Zigmond]

(Sheffield presumably won vs Ilkley, not reported yet.).

This match was postponed (a new date has not yet been agreed hence no update to LMS).

[MartinCarpenter]

Ah, OK. York will get to enjoy being second for a few weeks then

As for the trophies I've always wondered if they wouldn't be better in local museums somewhere with something more practical given out each year. I'm sure it's been discussed!

[Andrew Zigmond]

Ah, OK. York will get to enjoy being second for a few weeks then

As for the trophies I've always wondered if they wouldn't be better in local museums somewhere with something more practical given out each year. I'm sure it's been discussed!

Never discussed at all Martin and you're the first person to ever suggest it. I'm assuming you'll be awaiting the 2026 AGM date eagerly so you can actually attend for once!

[Stephen Westmoreland]

My post was tongue in cheek on the Trophies. As I hold the Silver Rook (Holmfirth) and Hardcastle Shield (me), I may as well collect the I.M. Brown (with Calderdale) once the winner is confirmed and get them all updated ahead of the AGM. I have control of the YCA account anyway.

We are doing Treasurer death by PowerPoint at the AGM by the way. Lots of charts! I may Power BI it too. All totally needless and superfluous.

[MartinCarpenter]

Some catching up going on the last two weeks. Hull have continued their trampling ways of recent seasons, to sit on a very fine 5/5.

York B look to be in some trouble - although they have played the top 3, leaving all four of their remaining fixtures are winnable. We might keep them up yet Calderdale, Leeds and just maybe Ilkley are also in a bit of trouble - they've all got 3/4 winnable fixture.
(Essentially as the league is right now 3 teams are 80%+ favourites for each 'normal' match, all the other matches are very close to 50/50.).

Sheffield seem to be facing a horrible fixture log jam.

[MartinCarpenter]

4 matches, including 2 5-3 wins for York and Hull and two 4-4 draws. Bradford vs Leeds was roughly as expected, and Harrogate drawing with Sheffield isn't a vast surprise with how strong Harrogate have got.

We're still not quite sure how we keep winning our recent matches against them.

Calderdale - York B next week, it'll be a long way to safety for the loser although hope will remain if Leeds and Ilkley stay around 3 match points.

Huddersfield are making quite sure they don't mess up promotion again in the IMBrown Forgrove modest favourites to join them perhaps, that's very tight.

[MartinCarpenter]

Well York B managed to keep some tension in it by drawing (apparently even blowing a potential win!) against a really very strong Calderdale A team.

Relegation could be a huge bun fight, I'm not even quite sure if even Doncaster are totally safe.