Saturday, 21 February 2015

Suffolk Cup & Plate

Rob Sanders has made the draw for the matches in the Suffolk Cup and Plate competition, which has now reached the semi-final stage.   Rob would like all the games to be played on the same evening but there are the usual constraints on that wish, not the least of which is that there are three Ipswich teams drawn at home and that would probably cause venue congestion at the Ipswich club.

Fortunately the draw has resulted in home teams that all play on a Tuesday evening.   With Manningtree and Bury playing on Wednesday and Thursday evenings it would have been more difficult to arrange to play all on one evening had they been drawn at home.

It is not surprising that the Cup teams are all from Division 1 of the Suffolk League while the Plate contains Division 2 and 3 teams.   Equally unsurprising is the strong Ipswich representation, given that the three Division 1 Bury St Edmunds teams could not fit the Cup and Plate competition into their very crowded fixture lists.

Cup Semi-Finals

Ipswich A v Manningtree
Ipswich C v Ipswich B

Plate Semi-Finals

Felixstowe v Saxmundham
Ipswich F v Bury D


2 comments:

  1. Ian Wallis22 February 2015 at 12:21

    Ipswich can host three matches on the same night but no more than that.
    Therefore the question is on which Tuesday does the Ipswich club have a night free of fixtures?
    The only one in March is the 24th, however Saxmundham A are due to play Ipswich D in Saxmundham that night. from Ipswich's point of view that would be feasible as Ipswich D are not involved in the draw. However Saxmundham are and as some Saxmundham A team players have played in the Saxmundham cup team. Would they be able to field another team in Felixstowe on the same night?
    The next free Ipswich night is 7 April, immediately after Easter, however I believe that is when The Norfolk and Suffolk cup have been scheduled between Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds.
    The first free Tuesday from now, where there isn't any clash of fixtures would not be until 21 April when all leagues matches should have been finished.
    Would all the teams involved be able to accommodate this date and if so to would it leave sufficient time to be able to fit in the finals afterwards?
    If the answer is 'No; to any of the questions above then it will not be practical to have all the semifinal matches played on the same night.

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    1. David Green22 February 2015 at 21:37

      Hello All,
      Thankyou Ian for this analysis of Ipswich venue availability. I told Rob that there was not a snowball's chance of playing all 4 fixtures on the same night but I would ask Ipswich if they could manage to host their three home matches simultaneously.

      Sadly I have been proved to be right.

      I do not think we can wait much beyond Mid-March to start playing the Cup and Plate fixtures so they will have to be played piecemeal as and when they can be slotted into the league committments of the participating teams.

      Regartds
      David Green

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