Hey BD, Thanks to Pugh from Lucky Huckers and the typically excellent prompt contributions of the south east uni ultimate community, you can scroll down to see the results from A & B Tour 2. If there are any errors (don't think there will be more than 1 or 2) then mail BD back with corrections as this might turn out to be the definitive list - sorry I don't have the womens results as yet.
On a different note, here's a question I'd be interested (and think it'd be constructive) to hear feedback on. Now that we're approaching the final Tour of the season, how do people feel the split tour format worked compared to the alternating format?
From my point of view, inside Brighton Ultimate and the Mohawks (a
classic geo city club+uni team, the likes of which I hope and expect to see grow substantially in the near future), the split tour has been excellent. Every uni and non-uni woman in the club had the opportunity (and has been strongly encouraged) to play four top notch Mixed events - we even went to the effort of recruiting women from a nearby new university team to bolster our numbers and ensure two teams to each event. True, there was a risk we would only be able to field one team and would have to leave behind some of the newer male players (though we never had to), but the motivation to get the women playing clearly worked, and many had the opportunity to play, who, in an alternating season, would not have. All of the guys in the Mohawks got to play in each event during term time, and the really eager ones could then play in the Open tour if they could travel from home. It worked out perfectly for us, and you might say we're lucky because we have the ladies, but we worked hard to recruit & keep them playing - and a Tour structure which encourages such motivated recruitment is never a bad thing. Especially for the university women - normally they would get to go to one, maybe two Mixed tours, IF there was space for them. It provides a good stepping stone before the Womens Tour, and having a strong connection to a geo club who really want/need them to play for them is a massive boost, and exactly what I believe is needed at the moment to get more university women recruited into the sport, as well as strengthening club & uni ultimate bonds. The women players are then far more likely to go on to play Womens Tour during the summer after a season of Mixed. Focus - for those of us who play everything we can, I loved the continuity of the rivalries and individual matchups - all the teams were fresh in our mind and had a pretty similar squad to the one we played three weeks earlier, so it was more like a story panning out than some mismash of games, wins, losses, and placings... It must be harder for new players to really get a feel for the scene if things alternate so. If however they are introduced to Tour as a Mixed event then they immediately know what's going on and realise the importance of female players (or, for the female players, the importance of their involvement) in the sport, and at the 2006 freshers fair will concentrate loads more on their recruitment. Which is a great thing! There are plenty of other positives I could reel off but I feel I've already given my fair share of opinion - for example I think teams are more prepared and organised for the Womens Tour if they play a season of Mixed before it, there's no defecit for the open-focused guys because they can either used mixed as a warmup or concentrate on training & playing friendly / ladder league matches, and teams like IF now exist to raise the level of all the players involved and provide great finals to watch. When the split tour was announced, there were questions as to whether it would encourage as many new players into the sport. At the time, Jaimie said: "I think the split season wll help introduce those [new] players. They can play three Mixed Tours before they play in the Open Tour, so the Mixed Tour becomes more of an obvious stepping stone. In addition, an influx of (male) open tour specialist cannot happen without a similar number of women also joining. Therefore it will encourage teams to get out there and recruit more women, fantastic!" Also Barry chipped in: "The Tour (Open, Mixed and Women's) are not the only tournaments we have. In fact (I hope) that reducing the Tours to 3 events will encourage more events like Glastonbury and Nottingham AND more local events and leagues for teams and players of all standards." Now the season is almost over, do you think Jaimie and Barry were right with their predictions? Maybe I'm biased because I've hosted a non-Tour tournament, recruited a handful of women players, and started a league, but I would say... yes. How about you? Felix A TOUR 2 PLACINGS: 1. Clapham Ultimate 2. Fire of London 1 3. Fusion 4. LeedsLeedsLeeds 5. EMO 6. Fire of London 2 7. Discuits 8. Chevron Action Flash 9. Brighton Ultimate 10. Paddy Murphy 11. Mild Mannered Janitors 12. Bristol Plastic Factory 13. Blue Arse Flies 14. Devon 15. Sheffield Steal 16. Sublime B TOUR 2 PLACINGS: 1: Strange Blue 2: Ltd Release 3: ABH A 4: GB Juniors 5: Wizards 6: Seamus Murphy 7: Flyght Club 8: Brighton Ultimate 2 9: The Brown 10: Abstract 11: Trigger Happy 12: UCL 13: York 14: Boogie Knights 15: EMO 2 16: Lords of the Ring 17: Schnell Ja 18: BPF 2 19: Mustard 20: Curve 21: Lucky Huckers 22: Discuits 2 23: Disqualified 24: Sheffield Steal 2 25: ABH B 26: Devon 2 27: Flyght Club 2 28: MkUltimate __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
