4NCL 2024-25 Division Two

[Neil Graham]

Play states today (Nov 23rd) at Daventry. This thread is opened to discuss Division Two.

[Mick Norris]

Table

The Audible Checks and Warks 1 on 100%

[Nick Burrows]

With the final 3 rounds to go, all the teams apart from Warwickshire 2 still have a chance of either promotion or relegation.

Current Table.

Greater Woodpushers or The Audible Checks will need an excellent final weekend to displace one of the current top 3.

At the bottom, barring a repeat of Anglian Avengers 3 win trick from last season, it looks like Iceni 1 and White Rose 2 will be relegated.

Cambridge 1, The Ads, SchachAttack and Crowthorne will be hoping to avoid sitting in 9th place when the music stops. The Ads Vs Crowthorne in Rd 9 is a key match.

[Mick Norris]

With 3 up and 4 down, staying in Div 2 is harder than not

As we have Celtic Tigers on 14, Oxford 1 on 13 and Warks 1 on 12, they look likely to go up; the Audible Checks on 10, though, have played the top 4, so it's not beyond them to finish in a promotion place

Warks 2 are on 1 point and look down; WR2 and Iceni are on 4, so the winner of their round 9 match might avoid going down

As always at the final weekend, it depends on who strengthens, and who has poor player availability (exams possibly being a factor)

[Nick Burrows]

WR2 and Iceni are on 4, so the winner of their round 9 match might avoid going down

It's likely 8th place will finish on 9 points, which means these 2 teams would need at least 5/6 points to have a chance.

[Nick Burrows]

Similar to last season when Anglian Avengers were unlucky to be relegated following a perfect final weekend, the same thing happened to White Rose 2 - 3/3 wins yet relegated on game points.
Cambridge 1 were also relegated on game points. After a strong start to the season, they lost 4 out of their last 5 matches. Have they ever been in Div 3?

Congratulations to Warwickshire, Celtic Tigers and Oxford (who pipped The Audible Checks to the final promotion spot.)

[Ian Thompson]

It's likely 8th place will finish on 9 points, which means these 2 teams would need at least 5/6 points to have a chance.

10 points as it turned out.

Similar to last season when Anglian Avengers were unlucky to be relegated following a perfect final weekend, the same thing happened to White Rose 2 - 3/3 wins yet relegated on game points.
Cambridge 1 were also relegated on game points.

It's tough when 10/22 isn't enough to avoid relegation (and a relief when it is).

[Nick Burrows]

The margins between division allocation are indeed slim! 1/2 a game point for the 2nd season running.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I cannot recall any previous season in any division where only two teams scored less than 10/22; it is quite extraordinary, even allowing for the inflationary effect of two teams losing virtually all their matches.

That it should happen in the present division two, of all places, provokes a further smile. The division is already anomalous enough in having four teams relegated. Of course I understand why, and am not advocating for any other arrangement, but I wonder whether there is any other league in any sport which relegated one third of its competitors. (Although it would be very funny if football did anything of the sort; perhaps we would then see double the numbers of sackings of managers).

[IM Jack Rudd]

The UEFA Nations League could potentially do so - indeed, should the playoffs all go in favour of the lower-division team one season, that would see all of League B either promoted or relegated.