Yes, I've had my eye on this situation for a while now (for obvious reasons!). And I can see why Rhys and colleagues would have an interest too. It is an anomaly of the Pool system; and by no means the first time it's appeared. Brown Jack suffered rough justice a few seasons back; Oxford too, iirc.Rhys Cumming wrote:the precarious situation of The ADs in pool A is interesting, since they have beaten most of the 'good teams' and lost to the 'bad teams'....If The ADs go into the top pool, they will take with them 5/6 matchpoints and presumably have a very good chance of going up
But it may sort itself out. Pool B is settled with one round to go; and it looks far the stronger. So the ADs will need to play well if they make Pool C. And we know SM can play well.
As for Alan's point about a widening gap, I think there is room for a discussion about this. Our one experience of Div 1 has convinced us, were it needed, that the gap between 'good amateur' and 'pro' is vast - too vast to be closed competitively. Some weekends are a write-off. We're still receiving therapy for a [3 - 13] thrashing a year ago. SWD beat that this weekend, getting hammered [1 - 14]. Not fun