4NCL Congress, 10-12 September 2021

 After the success of their previous event two months ago, the 4NCL ran another weekend congress in the same venue this weekend just gone, and this one did even better: a total of 170 people entered across three sections.

With more than 50 people in each section, there was a danger that there would be multiple winners on 100% in a section, but this was averted; in fact, none of the sections had a winner get to 5 out of 5.

The Open section was won by two players who'd done well at the Northumbria Masters last month, Brandon Clarke and Roland Bezuidenhuit, with 4½/5. There was a six-way tie for third place on 4.

The Major section also had shared winners, being won by Oscar Idle and Joe Varley, who both scored 4½, with a three-way tie for third place on 4. The Minor section, however, had an outright winner: Evan Lewis, after taking a bye in round 1, won all four of his remaining games to win the tournament.

Brendan O'Gorman, one of the competitors in the Major and one of the country's most active players, took some time over the course of the event to take some excellent photographs of it. They can be found here.






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