A turn of events which was never really going to happen did in fact happen. Harrogate A and Rose Forgrove A tied for 10th and 11th places in the Woodhouse Cup – 11th place being a relegation place. The teams each finished with 7 match points, they each finished with 37½ game points, and the match between the two was drawn 4-4.

Had “board count” been built into Rule 11 (a) (1) then Rose Forgrove would have finished above Harrogate. As the Rules stand, Rule 11 (b) came into effect: “If the teams are still tied then the Principal Officers shall, after consultation with the affected C.M.s, decide on a suitable tie break.” As a Harrogate player, Competitions Controller Andrew Zigmond excluded himself from this process because of the conflict of interests.

The outcome was that a play-off match was fixed for Saturday 11/05/2019 to resolve the tie.