134 matches have been played so far , which means we are just over quarter of the way through the season. Horfield, looking for this year's Championship, came up against a nasty surprise when Bath fielded their new star Simon Bibby. After three adjournments were settled the result was 4-2 to Bath. So Grendel A and Downend A currently stand on -2, and Horfield A on -3. In Division Two Bath University are gunning for a rare 100% performance - so far they have won their first five matches. But many teams have tried in the past and come unstuck at some point in the season. South Bristol B (in Division Five) also have a clean sheet, from four matches.
A couple of stunning runs early in the season: Tim Millard (Bath A, 3½/5), Tom Nitz (Bath University, 4½/5) and David Horton (Grendel E, 4/5) have all produced performances more than 40 points ahead of their published ratings. Alan Warne (Clifton C) has already managed ten games and leads the Alan Ashby competition with 8 points.
Bristol University have shot to the top of the default list, with 5 from their A team and 4 from the B team. But I am pleased to see that their C team has fielded six players for every match. The total so far is 27 defaults from 134 matches, which projects to 86 for the whole season. This would be a big improvement on last year but is still almost equivalent to each Board 6 missing out on two matches.
Division One is about the same strength as last year but all other divisions are a little weaker. However the gap between last year and this year is closing and I expect that by the end of the season the figures will look pretty much the same as last year.
364 players have so far competed in at least one match, compared to 498 by the end of last season. This means that 56 new players have come in during the last month - 35 of these belong to University teams who register late as they do not start until October. At this rate of influx of new players we can expect about another 100 by the end of the season which means we will be slightly down in numbers. Clubs are urged to do all they can to recruit new members and I will be happy to organise new events to cater for those new players who find themselves without the opportunity to play in League matches.
I am worried about the difficulty captains have getting League matches to start on time. It seems rare to have a match start at 7.30 and often the opposition have not even arrived by that time, so that the match itself does not start until 7.45 or even later. With three hour playing sessions in all but the bottom division this means that many players do not get home until well after 11 o'clock. This is of particular concern regarding juniors, whose parents may not allow them to play if they have to stay out so late. Away teams should try to ensure that they arrive at the venue around 7.20 to sort out the formalities, have a chat etc. before the match, and home teams should ensure that tables and equipment are set up by that time so that games can start promptly.
The next set of tables and individual performances will be sent to clubs on 28th November.
Jerry Humphreys
16 November 1998