After a not so wonderful day of Britdisc emails I would like to put my case across and explain exactly what went on in the run-up to, and during, this weekend. This is actually a very long email but an explanation has been demanded so I have provided a full and frank one. I've tried to be as objective as possible & the last thing I want is to get into a mass flurry of Britdisc emails.
SOME BACKGROUND: This was my first time as a TD for an outdoor tournament and in particular the Tour. We did organise a University Ladder League event this year that consisted of us & 3 other teams. We publicised the event heavily, booked a top venue & tried to get students to come down & watch. Sadly (and, in light of this weekend, perhaps typically) 1 of the opposition teams dropped out the day before, 1 didn't show up at all & the other team's minibus broke down about 10 miles away!! My last experience of a Tour event was doing the finances the last time we hosted (18/19th May 2002) and over £1000 was raised for a charity of Kev Lowe's choosing. This time the profits will go towards setting up a much needed club bank account for Devon Ultimate and in particular towards supporting the school kids in our team who of course have no income. I'm not in this for the money. In fact I've spent so long on this event that I'd have done better for Devon if I'd not hosted & spent the time working in Tescos! It would have been easier & less stressful to have just donated the money to Devon myself (ala last year!) but one of the reasons behind hosting was to raise the profile of Ultimate in Exeter & get some local people involved. Anyone who knows me or has tried to talk to me in the last month or so will know that I put a lot of time into this & have put my work on hold for the last 2 weeks. I am absolutely gutted that things didn't turn out as well as I had planned & today's emails have added to that sense or misery. Anyway enough of the sob stories. This is what happened...... WHAT HAPPENED: I was very keen to make sure the event was well organised and as such I spent a lot of time and effort setting things up. Looking about now my entire desk & office is covered with details for Tour, lists of teams for camping etc. I tried to keep in regular contact with the teams that had signed up to provide them with information which I presented in a way I thought everyone could access at www.exetertour.co.uk I spent an obscene amount of time on this site (& I was pleased to receive praise from a fellow, & more experienced, TD about it.) The only thing missing it would seem was the schedule. I firmly believe that if I'd had it a week in advance of the event & all teams had shown up that things would have gone smoothly. THE SCHEDULE: I didn't receive the schedule for the event until late Thursday & I telephoned the DoC (Hannah Easter) right away to talk about the lack of last 16 crossover matches. We talked and couldn't see anywhere that they could be fitted in with 90min games without people playing more than 6 games in a weekend - which is not acceptable for H&S reasons if nothing else. The background here I'm told is that after Tours 1&2 last year people in the B Tour complained that they were paying the same price as their A Tour counterparts but getting shorter games so for Tour 4 the UKUA ran the B Tour with full length matches. It worked and people seemed supportive so that was carried on. However there is a fundamental problem here because the seedings for Tour 4 were based on an event that was held a few weeks before and not a year before (as the rules state that Tour seeding is based on Nationals). Additionally there were only 16 teams at Tour 4B. All this led to an impossible situation. I feel for teams like Abstract & Lucky Huckers that perhaps could have seen themselves finishing higher up in the standings. [Aside: we need to resolve this as an association & I'm pleased to see that suggestions are already appearing. Thanks to Boston & Possom and I see that Benji has been considering this on his long minibus ride back to Scotland!] The reason the schedule was late reaching me was owing to the following process: 1* When the entry deadline passed I informed Hannah that I had 26 teams. 2* Shortly after the deadline 2 teams dropped out because they couldn't get the numbers so I informed Hannah that we had 24 teams. 3* Then I was contacted by 3 other teams who said they had sent cheques, couldn't see their teams on the list and wondered if they'd been lost in the post. They asked if they could re-send and I said yes. I then informed Hannah that we now had 27 teams which made her unhappy as it's a horrible number! 4* Then during the last week, and unbeknownst to me I might add, Hannah was contacted by one of the teams (Discuits 2) to say that they may be pulling out so she started working on an additional 26 team format. She didn't want to send me either to publicise until she knew exactly how many teams we needed - I guess so as not to confuse me & the teams. 5* She was then given the go ahead by Discuits and sent me the 27 team format on Thursday This was an unfortunate set of events really and I'd like to think not entirely my fault. Perhaps with point 3* above I was too nice/naive and should have disallowed those 3 from entering. But we would then have not had Boogie Knights, Flyght Club 2 or Seamus Murphy at the Tour which would have been a shame - particularly as the latter are a new team. Also I know that at least one of them had sent a cheque before the deadline because funnily enough a 2nd cheque arrived from Flyght Club 2 and the postmark was weeks old. Surely it would have been harsh to make them miss out? Also with point 4* Hannah could have said to Discuits 'are you in or out' and made a decision to cut them on the spot but then we wouldn't have had our 6th seed. So the schedule didn't arrive until Friday & then it was too late to change very much or for me to have any input. However I looked through it and changed a couple of games so that at no point would both myself and Jam (our 2nd team captain & co-TD) would be playing and the TD HQ unmanned. This is an important point. It is possible to run a tournament & play as long as there are two of you who are playing for different teams. Batchelor & Edwards do it in Bristol, Si played with Janitors at this weekend and ran T1 A, Hannah runs the Mansfield Tour & plays for Leeds, at Tour 4 last year Dave played with Bristol 2. Also yes i may be Devon captain but I'm not the only captain and my co-captain (James Palmer) was perfectly capable of looking after the team for the Tour. Anyway back to the story... When I got up at 06:30 on Saturday I already had a text from the Mustard captain to say that unfortunately his team were not able to compete and that a few of them were picking up with Sheffield Steal 2. So we changed things round at the captains meeting and I moved a team across from one of the bigger pools. It turned out that the effects of going from 27 to 26 teams meant that a round-robin of 3 at the bottom would become a round-robin or 2 i.e. a single game! This was not acceptable as Brixton & Sheffield Steal 2 would have been done before breakfast. I sent a text to Hannah who of course was in Birmingham playing for Leeds & hence unable to send me another schedule. We then considered having a bottom 10 in 2 pools which would have meant more, shorter games. So the lower teams were asked (by Kev & Jam) if they would like that & many said that would be preferable as the longer games were over too quickly. So Kev scribbled down a rough schedule & after I'd finished packing up stuff & tidying away all the rubbish and eaten my curry (about 10pm) I went straight to my office & worked for hours to fit the schedule to the pitches. I also printed off new schedules for all teams including some A4 sheets detailing the changes to each competition. I was finished and in bed by 3am. On Sunday things got a little bit hairy as with the different game lengths & start times we no longer had the situation that either Jam or I would be in the tent for which I apologise. I also spent much more time cycling up and down the pitches finding out results which got me fit with such a massive headwind. However I did take time out from playing to do some things & in fact I missed the start of the final because I was doing a water run (I believe I filled up Abstract, Lucky Huckers & Sublime bottles) and then finding out the shield result & telling Bristol & Schnell about spirit votes & such the like. So that was the story of the scheduling & my playing. Next up some other issues: WATER BOTTLES I arranged with Kev Lowe & Stato for the GB Juniors (U19s & U17s) to refill bottles and each Junior filled 2 bottles a day I'm told. However it seems that I overestimated the size of the bottles and badly underestimated to amount of time it takes 2 thirsty teams to consume one of them. Hands up this was an error on my part - my inexperience showing. I tried to do some filling later - running along with two full water bottles is great for the shoulders! - but it was a little late in the day it seems so you have my apologies for this. CATERING What can I say here? When I booked Lenny I told him specifically that we'd have 300-400 hungry sportsmen & women down there. I also told him that many of them may be vegetarian and that I'd like him to provide a healthy option of salad & filled baguettes. It seems that he ran out of veggie stuff & that their weren't many healthy options. I am sorry about this but I also feel that I have been let down. 1ST AID I was very clear that I wanted good 1st Aid cover (some of you may recall my posting about it some weeks back?) and so I booked 1st Response who came highly recommended by our Rugby guys. It seems again that I was let down as I hear tales of no ice packs. This annoys me a lot as I had a medikit in the van with 4 ice packs and I specifically asked them if they wanted to use them & they said that they were fine for ice. Since you ask Dan they cost over £700! So if your nan & her wheelbarrow are free in future then be sure to give me her number & I'll pass it on to our Rugby team..... TIES IN POOLS After getting all results in I waited until I was home and everything was packed up before considering the final pool places. Being new to the TD game I consulted the online UKUA Open Tour rules to see what I was supposed to do. Sadly this was none too clear & I couldn't find anything on the UKUA site to say anything either way so I went for points difference in the 1st instance. I didn't break the Open Tour rules as per http://www.ukultimate.com/open/tour_rules.aspx which say nothing beyond "Each team will play round-robin pool games to determine their ranking within their pool." If this is not what is usually done & have broken precedent then I apologise again. I certainly didn't do it out of spite as I like the Huckers & think them a good team. I feel that with a last 16 game that both they & the Juniors would've made the top 8. TROPHIES When I sent the team contacts the bulk of the details I said that I had a Plate prize (probably 17th). This was because I thought that after the pool games the tour would be split into a top 16 & a bottom 11 - remember I ordered these many weeks ago before I saw the schedule. Apologies to Abstract if you feel hard done by. If you like I can send you a trophy Benji? If it makes you happy? I've emailed the glass place & asked it they've still got the template set up & whether the can ship north of the border. CAMPSITE When I booked the site they told me that the key for the toilets would be in the box with the front gate. When it turned out not to be I rang the warden & couldn't get through. It seems he was away for the weekend. It seems that Scraggy was right when he said "scouts are always useless!" because I couldn't get hold of anyone. THE VENUE Duckes Meadows is a known Tour venue and has been used many times (most recently in 98 & 2002) for UKUA events. We also used to run the Exeter Hat there in the summer. Granted that the pavilion is not the most attractive building but it is functional and there is a lot of changing & showering space. There are many better venues on the circuit & yes I would rather play at Eastbourne or Birmingham even if the pitches there are much harder & a lot tireder. However Duckes is not too dissimilar to the venue we use in Mansfield. There were many people at the event who remember the Exeter Tour as a good thing and many people said to me that they thought it was a shame that we didn't do more there. In fact at Beachfest someone said to me that they almost wished that they were playing in the B Tour just to be down at Duckes again! ---------------------------- So to wrap up the above is just some of the workings behind the "shambles" that was Tour 1B. Despite some negative comments today there were many people who came and thanked me for a "terrific weekend" so I don't feel that i failed too much. In particular the 4 new teams all enjoyed themselves & the Irish plan to cross the sea again for as many Tour events as they can make. Also all the freshers from our club that were playing are singing the praises of the Tour and now all the ground staff & 1st aid staff consider us to be a serious game. Most people had fun which - at the end of the day - is what I set out to achieve so in that sense I'm happy. However I am incredibly gutted to be getting such a bad press over the issues detailed above when I put so much into the event & feel that many of them were beyond my control. Ed PS If you've bothered to read this far then thank you. I hope you don't judge me too harshly and nobody throws rocks at me when I turn up for Tour 2. PPS Thanks to those of you who have emailed to say that you enjoyed the event and/or you thought I did as much as I could do in a difficult situation. PPPS I've now spent the entire evening composing this mail & I'm off home to find some food. -- Regards, ______________ Ed Blockley Devon #4 07974 977313 __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
