Seasonal report (old and new)
The seasons of the various leagues are not synchronised, but placings for the 2021 County Championship open league have been settled and fixtures for 2020 published. So it's a good time to provide a summary.
County Championship 2021
As you can see, we finished ninth out of ten clubs in Division 1 of the open league. We were one of four teams to finish on six points, but we were last of those four owing to our head-to-head record. This means that we have been relegated, and will play the 2022 season in Division 2. Our first fixture will be open for registration shortly and will begin in December. There will be nine fixtures, one per month till July, except two in March.
Division 2 might suit us better. As one of the smaller teams, the 10-board minimum in Division 1 often did not work in our favour. The minimum in Division 2 is eight boards, so we might have more even match ups. This does of course mean that our lower-ranked players might get fewer games in the open leagues, which brings me to . . .
U1600 League 2021
As new entrants to this competition, we began the season in Division 4B. With two matches against our closest competitors yet to be completed, we hold a very slim lead at the top of the table. A top-two finish will lead to promotion for the next season. The board minimums will go up if we're promoted, which will mean more opportunities for U1600 players.
U1200 Championship 2021
This was a new competition this year, so the structure was not a straight league: rather, teams were divided into four groups for the first round, with the winners of each group progressing to a final group. We topped group A with five wins out of five, and so qualified for the final group. A slight shame is that, by doing so well in the first group, some of our players pushed their ratings high enough to disqualify them from playing in the final group. This has been a problem for many teams in the U1200 competition, and it might be that the limit is raised to (e.g.) 1300 next season. Anyway, the final group has only just got going; we have one match in progress and one open for registration. All U1200 players are encouraged to sign up and help bring us a home a trophy!
That's all the news that's fit to print. Good luck in your games, and do feel free to suggest membership of the club to any suitable players. So long as they don't also play for another team in the league, any link or relation to the northern counties is sufficient qualification.
