Two Northern Counties were involved in the ECF County Championship quarter-finals on the 10th of May 2025, both in the Under-1850 championship. Greater Manchester met Middlesex at Syston & District Social Club, 36 High St, Syston, Leicester LE7 1GP, while Yorkshire met Kent at the Holiday Inn Peterborough West, Thorpe Wood, Peterborough PE3 6SG, both matches starting at 1.30 p.m. Another Under-1850 match being played on the same day was Lincolnshire v Suffolk in Peterbprough, which match was, perhaps unexpectedly, won 10-6 by Suffolk

Ratings given in the result table for a player are first that at 01/09/2024 (which defines rating eligibility), and second, in parentheses, that at 01/05/2025 (which determines board order). These suggested that the Gr Manchester v Middlesex match could go either way, but that Yorkshire were likely to beat Kent by about 10-6.

The first game to finish, as evidenced by the ECF League Management System, was that on board 13 in the Gr Manchester v Middlesex match, whereupon the GM board 13 started entering results live on LMS! Gr Manchester went two point down early on and their score at one stage was 2½‑4½, which improve slightly to 5½‑6½ but ended up as 7-9. Such live updating on LMS was evidently not possible for the other match, but controller Mark Murrell, who in the writer’s opinion does a splendid job, had the final result up in seemingly no time at all, and the result was as predicted by ratings (as it happens).

So, it’s commiserations to Greater Manchester and congratulations to Yorkshire, who meet Suffolk in the semi-finals on 7th (or 8th) of June.

			Greater Manchester	7‑9	Middlesex
1	B	1829 (1880)	Martin Pope (B)	½-½	Jack Sheard	1847 (1859)
2	W	1649 (1862)	Leo Cheung	0-1	Hubert Bates	1706 (1844)
3	B	1809 (1852)	Christopher Hodgson	½-½	Jonathan Kay	1842 (1839)
4	W	1828 (1831)	Chris Jardine	½-½	Russell Campbell	1779 (1828)
5	B	1843 (1822)	Jon I Lonsdale	½-½	Arthur Cann	1671 (1828)
6	W	1812 (1812)	Armand Catz	0-1	Laith Hayali	1833 (1825)
7	B	1846 (1810)	Ondrej Chalupa	0-1	Simon Healeas	1837 (1822)
8	W	1739 (1801)	Nathan Harvey‑Jones	0-1	Paul Kennelly	1768 (1817)
9	B	1706 (1777)	Ethan Parker	1-0	Peter Hazell	1710 (1807)
10	W	1700 (1749)	Andy Yang	1-0	Daniel Seaton	1712 (1768)
11	B	1755 (1736)	David Kierman	1-0	Vibhush Pusapadi	1737 (1756)
12	W	1685 (1724)	Jason Wildgoose	½-½	David J White	1776 (1753)
13	B	1688 (1714)	Michael J Norris	½-½	Shlok Parakh	1550 (1728)
14	W	1690 (1695)	Tyler Sweeney	0-1	Leon HJ Fincham	1725 (1702)
15	B	1658 (1661)	Mohammed Andeel	1-0	Simon Liebesny	1721 (1699)
16	W	1562 (1638)	Jon Coupe	0-1	Charlie Cooke	1611 (1649)
		1737 (1773)	< average ratings >			1739 (1783)

			Kent	6‑10	Yorkshire
1		1839 (1856)	Andrew H Heard	½-½	Isaac Fossey	1760 (1874)
2		1814 (1844)	Rudy Padovan	0-1	David A Patrick	1796 (1847)
3		1839 (1835)	Ian McAllan	½-½	Keith Thompson	1795 (1836)
4		1848 (1827)	Jerry Anstead	1-0	Peter F Mason	1842 (1819)
5		1794 (1810)	Robert E Lane	0-1	Steve Westmoreland	1823 (1816)
6		1768 (1755)	Neil Williams	0-1	Rupert W Jones	1797 (1800)
7		1681 (1668)	Andrew JW Dovey	½-½	John George	1758 (1798)
8		1703 (1655)	Chris PJ Bernard	½-½	Granville Boot	1813 (1792)
9		1624 (1636)	John R McKenna	0-1	David W Stephenson	1777 (1790)
10		1550 (1605)	Jagdev Panesar	0-1	Robert A Dean	1811 (1789)
11		1696 (1594)	Geoffrey L Bishop	0-1	Robin F Browne	1777 (1787)
12		1569 (1592)	James F McKenna	½-½	David Robinson	1853 (1764)
13		1598 (1564)	Chris D Brown	1-0	Seth Woozeer	1773 (1742)
14		1583 (1559)	Robert G Thompson	0-1	Gary Corcoran	1741 (1712)
15		1406 (1508)	Max Dinley	1-0	Dave Colledge	1713 (1708)
16		1385 (1486)	Michael Sargent	½-½	Nigel Redmond	1675 (1700)
		1669 (1675)	< average ratings >			1782 (1786)