03-12-2012, 09:46 PM
The Welsh report David links to in the preceding post covers a lot of things I was going to say. I won't repeat them here, I'll just make some more general comments.
The selectors' decision to strengthen the Scottish U16 team by promoting Murad from the U12s and Lennart from the U14s clearly worked in getting us close to winning the U16 tournament - the North were a bit lucky to draw with us, even though they outgraded the Scots on every board.
But the good results for our U16 team came at the cost of two heavy defeats for our U12 team. I'll leave others to consider whether It's Scotland or Wales who are following the best course when deciding if anyone should play above their age group.
At any rate, the fact that of this year's Scottish U16 team only Daniel will be too old to play in next year's Liverpool Quadrangular (and that Murad will be eligible for another four years, and Lennart for another two years) suggests that we could be in real contention to win that event in the next couple of years.
Our U14 team scored well on the middle boards particularly, and in the end it was just unfortunate that Wales are so strong in that age group - the Wales-Scotland match was a lot closer than the 7-3 scoreline suggests, and also closer than you might predict from the grading differences:
Bd Scot Welsh
1 1530 1911
2 1514 1804
3 1498 1764
4 1464 1675
5 1398 1578
6 1312 1642
7 1257 1480
8 1244 1294
9 978 1402
10 1014 1267
(I know some people question the accuracy of Welsh grades, but they are not imaginary; and I have chosen to compare live Scottish grades with published Welsh grades to reduce the differences - but still most of the differences remain quite substantial.)
Our inexperienced U12 team was always going to struggle in this tournament, so nobody should be disappointed by the final score. The players have gained valuable experience, and we will see benefits in the future.
Away from the playing hall, everybody seems to have been happy with the way the weekend went - but I hope players, parents and coaches will post their thoughts here themselves (or express them privately to CS officials if they prefer to do that).
The selectors' decision to strengthen the Scottish U16 team by promoting Murad from the U12s and Lennart from the U14s clearly worked in getting us close to winning the U16 tournament - the North were a bit lucky to draw with us, even though they outgraded the Scots on every board.
But the good results for our U16 team came at the cost of two heavy defeats for our U12 team. I'll leave others to consider whether It's Scotland or Wales who are following the best course when deciding if anyone should play above their age group.
At any rate, the fact that of this year's Scottish U16 team only Daniel will be too old to play in next year's Liverpool Quadrangular (and that Murad will be eligible for another four years, and Lennart for another two years) suggests that we could be in real contention to win that event in the next couple of years.
Our U14 team scored well on the middle boards particularly, and in the end it was just unfortunate that Wales are so strong in that age group - the Wales-Scotland match was a lot closer than the 7-3 scoreline suggests, and also closer than you might predict from the grading differences:
Bd Scot Welsh
1 1530 1911
2 1514 1804
3 1498 1764
4 1464 1675
5 1398 1578
6 1312 1642
7 1257 1480
8 1244 1294
9 978 1402
10 1014 1267
(I know some people question the accuracy of Welsh grades, but they are not imaginary; and I have chosen to compare live Scottish grades with published Welsh grades to reduce the differences - but still most of the differences remain quite substantial.)
Our inexperienced U12 team was always going to struggle in this tournament, so nobody should be disappointed by the final score. The players have gained valuable experience, and we will see benefits in the future.
Away from the playing hall, everybody seems to have been happy with the way the weekend went - but I hope players, parents and coaches will post their thoughts here themselves (or express them privately to CS officials if they prefer to do that).