Yorkshire league 24/25 season

[MartinCarpenter]

So this all started off again yesterday.

York have meddled slightly with our set up this year, hopefully reducing the risk of entirely defaulting matches.

As a result - and against a pretty young Leeds team - I might even have been above the median age in a match. Not common and very pleasing.

We won 6-2 in the end - a nice change from endless 4.5 - 3.5 grinds! - although several of the Leeds players definitely played well. It'll be a real bin fight for relegation again I suspect.

Sheffield in two weeks.

[MartinCarpenter]

Fine wins for Sheffield (6.5) vs Ilkley and Hull A (7) vs their B team. A good win for a quite strong York B team vs Bradford A (5-3) and Harrogate (5.5) vs Rose Forgrove.

That Harrogate team was actually very good - a near identical team rating to Hull A, although Hull can likely strengthen.

Calderdale A to the top of the IMB (an earned 8-0 vs their own B team) where they're very likely to stay all season, having kept their team together. Slightly less obvious if Huddersfield will join them, but it has to be likely. They got a close 4.5 - 3.5 win over Wakefield.

[Stephen Westmoreland]

The position with Huddersfield is interesting. They are now getting surge in numbers and new players. The more we can blood into the Huddersfield and Calderdale Leagues, the better they will become to support the promotion push and stop the bouncing up and down from the Woodhouse. The region is starting to do well with Holmfirth getting stronger (not now unknown for a 1700 to be on board 5 or 6 locally) and Meltham and Denby Dale roaring in.

[MartinCarpenter]

Well, as the Woodhouse is, it's a 9 match season. Except that the matches vs Hull,York & Sheffield A are all slightly long shots to get a result, so going down with 3/9 was a bit like getting relegated after scoring 50% in a 6 game season. Which was frankly rather harsh.

West Yorkshire chess is clearly doing amazingly well, what you don't have is the sort of concentration of strength into one team like Sheffield & Hull do. (Perhaps also York a bit.). I can't even really quite think of a natural way it could happen. The towns are smaller and so dense.

The bigger problem is perhaps that the IMB still isn't quite strong enough to keep the promotion year fully interesting.

On a secondary note - go juniors! We've pinched York D's board 1 for the A&B teams, and they still turned over a very solid York C team, and not by a small margin either.

[Stephen Westmoreland]

You would have to take a combined District approach like Calderdale, Huddersfield and Wakefield Leagues together. Or get really ambitious and put in West Yorkshire teams!

[MartinCarpenter]

Once there's enough Meltham/Holmfirth players to get established in the IMB I guess that there's be a strong practical case for consolidating a bit so you can swap players up/down with Huddersfield. Much easier to run teams that way.

Combining Huddersfield and Calderdale would immediately get a Woodhouse challenge going, but that would feel a bit much! The B team would yo/yo anyway and it sounds like you'll get up there soon enough anyway, with all these juniors/new players.

[MartinCarpenter]

A very strong, unusually crazily wild (they're often quite grindy affairs) and hard fought 4-4 draw in York Vs Sheffield. Multiple black wins, they're often very rare.

Hull managed to beat York B but Harrogate have continued their early season rampage (a seriously solid team), and are in the joint lead.

A very strong Bradford team getting a very rare genuine 8-0 against Rose Forgrove, and the York juniors won again over in the IMB.

I'd probably now have Sheffield mild favourites for the season but good fun ahead

[MartinCarpenter]

Much better from Rose Forgrove this time, but they lost 4.5 - 3.5 to Hull. Sheffield beating Harrogate by a comfortable margin was a fine achievement, York won 6-2 at Ilkley to go level with Sheffield on GP. Everything very tight at the top.

York D continue to terrify people in the IMBrown, but went down 3.5 - 4.5 vs Huddersfield, who are struggling a bit to fully assert themselves but are likely to get promoted. Calderdale though seem set on trying to achieve a record game point total - 20.5 - 3.5 is a useful start!
(I'm fairly sure that neither York or Sheffield A ever reached a 7-1 seasonal average.).

York C defaulting a match is sad. Two more sets of matches in quick order now, so we'll find out!

[MartinCarpenter]

York continued our mini tour of the pleasant market towns of the West Riding We managed to turn in a fairly convincing performance to win 5.5 - 2.5. I was very impressed to see three Harrogate teams playing at once.

Hull did very well to beat a strong Leeds team 6-2, so that's ticking along nicely. The next two rounds with Hull vs Sheffield then York will be very important. Especially for Hull facing the epic journey to Sheffield - perhaps no longer quite the longest trip in the league with Settle playing!

As for relegation, Hull B have had most of their winnable fixtures and are up against it. The second spot could be almost anyone again.

[Stephen Westmoreland]

Holmfirth had an amazing 3-3 all boards draw result Vs Meltham. Considering there were some wild attacking games going on, it was quite an achievement.

[MartinCarpenter]

That's good going Sheffield A got a statement 6.5 win over a strong Bradford team, they're going to take some stopping again this year.

That actually leaves the table in game point terms quite amusingly packed:
Hull 22.5 (8 pts)
Sheffield - 22.5 (7 pts),
York 21.5 (7 pts)
York B, Bradford and Harrogate - all 17 (4 pts)
Ilkley 13 (4 pts)
RF 11.5 (2 pts)
Leeds, Hull B 9 (0 pts)

Meanwhile over in the IMB, Calderdale are up to 27 game points.

[MartinCarpenter]

Now I'm very seriously impressed. Not only did Hull get a team to and fro from Sheffield in this awful weather, but they managed a 4-4 draw having done so! Joe Varley really has been an absolute monster in the Woodhouse these past two seasons.

Which would have opened the door for York to sneak ahead at Xmas but we went down 4.5 - 3.5 to a good Bradford team. We've had a few people really struggling for form this year, not a surprise it eventually cost.

Still we'll get a good team over to Hull in February, and that'll be another huge match.

Harrogate won against Ilkley, so are looking quite good for Fourth.

Calderdale B put in a fine effort to draw against the juniors of York D. I can only apologise to Huddersfield about York C.

[Stephen Westmoreland]

It was a nice afternoon at Guppy's, with York teams facing Bradford, Calderdale and Holmfirth. I am still not sure how York would have also fitted in Huddersfield. We almost found out as Huddersfield turned up, after a communication error.

Some good games yesterday and York got their revenge today against the Holmfirth juniors in Hull.

[MartinCarpenter]

It was a nice afternoon at Guppy's, with York teams facing Bradford, Calderdale and Holmfirth. I am still not sure how York would have also fitted in Huddersfield. We almost found out as Huddersfield turned up, after a communication error.

We were only ever planning to have two matches in that main room, I know that Where the extra room is in Guppy's I'm not sure!

It's a really nice venue mind, we struggled to replace the RI for a little bit. I keep half expecting them to have knocked down the RI whenever I'm back but they're taking their time about it.

[Stephen Westmoreland]

We were in the classroom, at the back. I was going to stay after and have a few drinks but I had forgotten Guppy's is cash only.

I suppose if Huddersfield were playing, they would be by the bar. Or extra tables put outside the classroom? Nice day though and lovely warm fires lit!