It's because lots of them drop chess when they leave primary schools.Steve Rooney wrote:Is the timing of the Megafinals the reason for fewer secondary age entrants, or is it because lots of them drop chess when they leave primary?Alex Holowczak wrote:Is there any reason why these things are still organised for May (and/or to clash with the 4NCL)? I gather that you usually have a choice of any time in April or May, so why do people put them in May? I can't think of a reason why they couldn't all be held in April, thus older players don't have so much of a problem with exams being close by.Neill Cooper wrote:There were more than 26 teenagers as quite a few of the 22 U13s are now 13! Many teenagers don't play because the Megafinals are too close to important public exams. In total 46 qualified from Wilson's School but only 21 played, with a lower proportion of years 10 to 13 (7 out of 20 playing).
I remember when I ran UKCC at the school stages, and then had the job of chasing people up to enter Megafinals. (This was only 3 years ago!) A lot of them said they weren't going to enter because they had exams. Even if the children wanted to play, parents would bar some from doing so because they'd rather they concentrated on the exams. I'm not convinced this was purely down to the date - one major Grammar school didn't enter at all - but I think it had some part to play.
I guarantee that if you asked the older players at the Megafinals whether they would prefer it to be held in early April rather than early May, you'd get a near-unanimous response for the early April option. At least, I did when I conducted the experiment last year. And remember those are the ones who've turned up despite the impending exams.
To prove the point; I think it was last year's Worcestershire Megafinal when that experiment was conducted, and the U18s had a lot more players in it because it was held in the middle of April. The day after the Council Meeting, in fact. It was held on the Sunday just gone this year, and people commented on the lack of Under 18s playing in it.