4NCL - The Four Nations League - www.4ncl.co.uk/pre2010

4NCL Newsletter

26/09/02

Welcome to the new season!

The recent Board meeting made various decisions regarding the League and I have outlined them below. I particularly draw your attention to the split weekend situation which could cause problems for Captains.

Please contact me or Richard Furness if you have any questions.

Best wishes,
Paul Littlewood (4NCL Chairman)

Transfers

The Board authorised the following transfers of players who were included in Qualification Weekend squads but whose teams did not qualify and in most cases the players did not play :-

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Kathy Griffiths	Metropolitan to North West Eagles
Matthew Broomfield	Guildford to Perceptron Youth
Sarah Hegarty	Guildford to Mindsportsltd.com
Paul Dupre	Guildford to Hilsmark Kingfisher
Sabrina Chevannes	Slough to Warwickshire Select
Simon Buckley	White Rose to Bristol
Karl Mah	White Rose to ADs
John Pigott	Poisoned Pawns to Kings Head

Conversion of a BCF Grade to a FIDE equivalent

The League will use the new BCF Conversion formula which applies to grades below 216 and is :- BCF grade x 5 + 1250. A conversion table extending from BCF 250 to BCF 100 appears on the website.

Seeding of Teams in Division 1

Seedings were based mainly on the finishing positions last season but varied slightly in the light of significant changes in the strength of some squads. Seedings were :- 1 Wood Green 1, 2 Guildford-ADC 1, 3 The ADs 1, 4 Barbican 4NCL 1, 5 Wood Green 2, 6 Bristol 1. The purpose of seeding is to ensure that the matches between the teams expected to be the strongest are spread throughout every weekend of the season with three such matches in the final round when the top two seeds meet.

Fixtures

These can be found on the website.

Division 4

Division 4 will be a ten-round event coinciding with rounds 1-10 of Divisions 1, 2 & 3. The eight teams will initially play a seven-round all-play-all and then:

(a) the top four teams will move into Division 4A and play return matches against the other three teams in 4A

(b) the bottom four teams will move into Division 4B and play return matches against the other three teams in 4B.

In both cases results from rounds 1 to 7 will be carried forward. The top two teams in Division 4A will be promoted to Division 3 for the following season.

Hotels

We have again negotiated cheap rates at the West Bromwich Moat House and the Telford Moat House (see website) so could I please ask Captains to make use of the rooms there if at all possible.

This will help the League for two reasons:

1/ We receive a commission for each room used.

2/ We obtain free use of the playing areas because the hotel expects to get a decent number of chess-playing guests on the Saturday night.

(I note that the take-up at the West Bromwich for the first weekend on the 9th + 10th November has not been good so please make every effort to book rooms there.)

Rule Changes

The updated rules can be found on the website. Rule changes other than simple clarification of wordings are underlined.

Team Registration Lists

These will be placed on the website as soon as possible after the October ratings have been issued.

Team Selection on the Split Weekends (November and May)

Your attention is drawn to the guidelines which are posted on the website. Any queries should be directed to Richard Furness (4NCL Chief Arbiter) but you should note that Richard will be at the Monarch Assurance International in the Isle of Man from 26th September to 7th October.

These guidelines are designed to help Captains who have difficulties with team selection due to non-availability of players. However we ask each Captain to make every attempt to fulfil his team requirements as he would normally expect to do if the weekends were not split. He should only use the contingency facility in exceptional circumstances.

Awards

Last season’s captains will be invited to cast their votes in two categories, namely “Manager of the Season” and “Game of the Season”. The League’s Chief Arbiter Richard Furness will be circulating details of the voting procedure in early October.