National Club Championship

The format of the National Club Championship has changed this year. It will now be a 4 round Swiss competition played over a weekend at a hotel in High Wycombe. As a result of this Fenton have decided not to enter a team this year. We can't expect people to give up a whole weekend to play in the event. In addition to this it is not viable to travel from Stoke-On-Trent to High Wycombe on two successive days and the cost of overnight accommodation would be prohibitive. I'm sure that other clubs even further away than us will be having the same thoughts. Quite how the ECF expected this revised format to generate more interest is beyond me - it is more likely to generate even less. It will come as no surprise that there was no consultation with grass roots club before this change was made. Yet another example of the ECF being out of touch with the membership they purport to represent.