EASB National County Championship fixtures

[Tony Morgan]

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[Tony Morgan]

Could all County captains / representatives please make sure the EASB office have up to date contact details for you so they can be passed onto your opponents. You can email them to admin@easb.co.uk. Please could you make sure this is done in the next day or 2. Thanks

[Tony Morgan]

PLEASE NOTE THE SCORING FOR THE EASB NCC IS DIFFERENT THIS YEAR.
Scoring is :
2 points shall be awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw.
League position will be decided in order of the following importance.
a) Points Gained
b) Frame Difference
c) Matches won
d) Head to Head (aggregate score line if played over 2 matches).
Play off – please note this will only be used to decide the following: Winner / Runner up & 3rd place (any play off will be played at a neutral venue).
*Top 2 Counties from each group will progress into the quarter finals, then semi-finals & final.
* Group 1 & 2 A teams ONLY.
The B teams will just play group round robins & will NOT going into a semi final / final.

[castleclub]

I know quite a few ex-county players were excited to hear the EASB were re-running a national county competition. There was so much disappointment to find out they had decided on a 9 man team format.

Many years ago I was in a 4 man county team that progressed through to the national final, and I think each county could enter two or three teams of 4 men quite easily. To organise 9 people (18 really) to all have the same day free is obviously much much harder. The logistics of every player playing every player is also far more complicated. The venues tables are required for far longer too.

Every year we have a SE regional county event, generally 4 or 5 man teams and we have one or two sides from Surrey, Kent, East Sussex and West Sussex. None of these counties entered the EASB event this year or last. I think largely because none of these counties could guarantee getting a larger enough squad to guarantee a 9 man team.

[Tony Morgan]

I did look into changing the format into 4 man teams & each player would play 3 frames against their opponents. This would have increased participation but I think all it would have just become a 'glorified' normal club team league. It was discussed with others & the current format of an 8 man team was seen to be the best format for this championship. Team numbers are up by nearly 50% from last year so hopefully we are going in the right direction.
The teams you mentioned could have easily merged to together to form for an example East & West Sussex County team or even with a neighbouring county (providing they hadn't already exceeded their number of teams). Perhaps that's something for you & others to have a think of for next year. Clubs only need a minimum of 4 tables too. 8 would be ideal as this speeds up the day. Suffolk have entered a team from down South. So if more teams enter from the 4 regions. North, Midlands, South East & South West. Then it'll become regional first. Then the top team from the 4 regions will progress into the semi finals.

[Londonlad147]

From what I've heard it's not a lack of willing players that's the problem, but team captains to actually organise them.

[Tony Morgan]

From what I've heard it's not a lack of willing players that's the problem, but team captains to actually organise them.

Spot on Peter