How did this tournament end up being such a shambles? How on earth did the venue meet the UKUA criteria? I've been to one-day hat tournaments that have better facilities than this.
*Bad Things about the tournament:* -No shelter -Lack of decent food (a single small burger van selling hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches, and fizzy drinks is not nutritious food) -The pavilion, don't get me started, that building barely qualifies as a pavilion. -The schedule, what happened there? It was only released on Friday, then Sunday morning we arrived and it had changed overnight, resulting in my team having to play five back-to-back games on Sunday. FIVE games with very little time to eat, apply sun-block, rest etc. -On Saturday we had a five hour gap between our two games, with some of the pitches not being used at all, why such a huge disparity? -Water, we played five consecutive games and the pitch-side water was not refilled once. We had to send a player to get water during one of our games! The pavilion was a twenty-minute round trip from the pitches we were playing on. -The lower seeded teams played forty-five minute games with a one point cap - something that barely resembles a proper game of ultimate. I think I've had longer and more intense games of hotbox, at least more so than our fifth game on Sunday which we entered stumbling onto the pitch sun burnt, dehydrated and malnourished. -Scoring - our pool ended in a tie, with BPF2 and United Flingdom disputing their final result. Did BPF2 score 9 or 11? Who knows, but it resulted in BPF2's side of events being taken, meaning they ended up finishing above us in the pool on points difference. I'm not disputing either team's honesty, but this is an absolutely ridiculous, unacceptable and preventable situation, which we obviously had not control over. The tournament did not provide score sheets, or manage the recording of scores in any conceivable way, other than us having to constantly report them, and the occasional man on a mountain bike visiting us. My team will now be awarded less points as a result of this, should we be? Who knows, and I highly doubt anything will be done to correct the situation. -First Aid - I heard one Trigger Happy player went to see the appointed first aid people after tearing a muscle. The first aid person advised the player to use ice. "can I have some ice, please?" asked the player, "no, we don't have any" was the helpful response. -So what was our money spent on? The only things I can think that £3375 were spent on are the Pavilion, pitches, pitch markings, cones, scoreboards, a gazebo, inept first-aid, and plastic water containers (some of which, once empty, blew away in the wind, and are probably now floating down the nearby river.) *Good Things about the tournament:* -Good soft pitches that were clearly marked. -It's reasonably scenic around that part of the country, isn't it. I really thought that after such fantastically organised events as Mixed Tour 3 and Mixed Nationals, things might've gotten better, but instead the open season has gotten underway with probably one of the most poorly organised tournaments I've played in, and easily the worst tour event I've seen in my four years of playing Ultimate. It really feels as though the B-tour has been shunned. Can we have an explanation, please? or a refund? Dan. __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
