News

19/10/08 - Northern Player of the Year 2008

Congratulations to Ted Beetham who topped the Player of the Year ranking list with 112 points from James Hart on 107 and last years winner Luke Howard on 102.
All 3 are Mistral members so perhaps our other clubs have some ground to make up.

12/10/08 - Northern Intra Regional

The Intra Regional was held at Bridlington with what would have been lovely weather for the middle of summer never mind the middle of October.

The final result saw the South & West Yorkshire squad improve on their last place in 2007 to win with 19 wins which was 1 more than the North West + East Yorkshire (18) and with North Yorkshire 1 further win back (17).
The level standard across the squads was highlighted by no teams winning less than 2 of their 6 games and only 1 team winning more than 4.

Full results are available on the results archive (the link is on the home page)

6/10/08 - Obituary

The Woodstock Club have informed us about the sad death of Bob Taylor.

Bob and his wife June have been very valued club members for many years.
They were regulars at Woodstock competitions and always played the pairs events under the team name Crowners.
I remember having many close games against them over the years as I'm sure do many other Northern members.

21/9/08 - Northern at the EPA Over 50's

There was a good turnout of Northern players to support the EPA bringing the over 50's event to the North (Doncaster) for the first time.
The entry was 30 pairs which included 21 Northern players.

There was fierce competition amongst several Northern pairs for the wooden spoon but Steve Rice and Sue Kirby decided to go for the big trophy instead.
The format was the swiss system which should have meant that their games got harder as the event progressed.
However Steve and Sue won their fourth game 13-1 and in the 5th game, which was in effect a final, they beat Sylvain Borsi and Martin Baker (currently the top ranked EPA player) 13-0.
This made them the only unbeaten team on the day and therefore worthy EPA over 50's champions.

13/9/08 - Results from the Inter Regionals

Northern continued the good run of recent years finishing 4th in Division 1.
The challenge squad also had reasonable results finishing 5th.

The highlights have to be Northern 7 (Tony , Alastair and Ray) who won 11 of their 12 games and had the 2nd best of all the results from Division 1 and the Juniors (Andy , Jack and Ben) who won 10 games which won them the division1 juniors title and it was also the 3rd best result from division 1

The divisional tables and the full scores for both Northern squads are now available on the Results Archive page.

12/9/08 - Notification of Northern AGM 2008

The Northern AGM will be held at Wetherby Sports Association on Saturday October 25th starting at 10.30.
All Northern members are eligible to attend and all voting is by individuals not by clubs.
This will be followed by a Northern Regional meeting at which only Northern officers and Northern clubs will be allowed to vote but all Northern players are welcome to attend.

Motions for the AGM may be put forward by any Northern registered club or Northern officer and must be received by the regional secretary at least 14 days prior to the meeting.

Nominations for any Northern officer position may be put forward by any Northern registered club.
Candidates may also be nominated by a minimum of three individual Northern members.
All nominations must be in writing and must be received by the regional secretary at least 14 days prior to the meeting.
The nomination must include the members signature consenting to the nomination and consenting to serve if elected.

Serving officers may stand for re-election without a new nomination being required.
Several officers are only re-standing due to the lack of nominations in recent years and would be happy for new members to stand for the committee.

Northern welcomes two more clubs.
Skellow Grange Working Mens Club (Near Doncaster)
Great Eccleston PC based at the Farmers Arms in Great Eccleston
Contact details are on the clubs page and the clubs map has also been updated.

Stewart Ainley has asked me to note a thank you to Pete Best who stepped in to run the event at short notice.

The new terrain (behind the village hall) will be officially opened on Sunday September 14th at 10.00.
The opening ceremony will be performed by Mr Robert Pilcher who together with the Spirit Group has been the main financial contributor.
The ceremony will be followed by the Fox memorial pairs.

Yet another tense qualifier series.
After 12 of the 15 rounds only 3 teams were assured of a top 8 finish and the 8th place was only decided (by a 13-11 win) in the final round.
Places in the challenge squad were also only decided by the final round.
For the 2nd year in a row the team that won the regional triples failed to make the top 8.
That seems to show we have strength in depth.
The teams finishing 13th and 14th may still get to Brean Sands if an EPA combined squad is needed to make up the division numbers this year.

20/5/08 - Northern Players at the EPA Triples Championship Qualifiers (Grand Prix)

Most Northern players have decided that the travelling involved in this series of events is too much for the events to be worthwhile.

Only Luke Howard and Richard Marston are taking part (as a 4 with Miles Gooda and Tom Hutchings from Chiltern).
After the 3 events they are in 12th place and so qualify for the top 16 event.

Unfortunately Yorkshire received their now customary beating by a dominant Leicester team.
No excuses due to holidays this year , the squad just didn't play well enough.

Squad results can be seen in the results archive for any masochistic Yorkshire players or sadistic Leicestershire players.

The regional singles will now be held on SATURDAY 20th September to avoid a clash with the EPA over 50's which is being held at Doncaster on the 21st September.

The terrain at Wetherby was due to host the Mistral PC vs Marches PC (Hereford) match in the 5th round qualifier of the European knockout for clubs on the 27th January. For some unknown reason they have transferred the match to Doncaster , perhaps they thought the coche would float.

2) & 3) - On the 23rd January 2008 ( I think the water level had dropped about 18 inches and is shown between 3 and 4 feet deep.)