So, the 2006 UKUA sanctioned Mixed, Open and Womens seasons are now
officially complete. Despite a year in which there have been more players,
in greater numbers of teams, exhibiting an overall improved level of play
than ever before, it would appear that a major 'highlight' of the year on
Britdisc have been the complaints over last-minute provision of Open Tour
and Nationals schedules, and then the demands that these schedules place
upon the participants.
As someone that has historically been involved in tournament organisation, I
am aware that writing a schedule can be a tricky task for a tournament
organiser. Generally, given that the TD knows how many fields and how much
playing time they have available, the factor that causes most problems is
the number of teams attending, and trying to concoct a format that works for
that number without straying too far from the guidelines.
It seems to me that the organisers have been unable to write/publish the
schedules in a timely manner because, for each event, there have been
several teams who have been either indecisive about whether to enter, or
poorly organised when it comes to sending their money/entry. It also seems
to me that, for whatever reasons, the organisers have been willing to wait
as long as possible for those additional entries.
2007 B Tour
To aid in the scheduling, I would propose that the current B division be
restricted to specific numbers of teams (multiples of 4), with prewritten
formats and schedules. e.g. If there are 23 teams entered on the closing
date (4 weeks before the event, according to the Tour Rules), one week be
allowed to find a 24th team to use a 24 team schedule, or the tournament is
restricted to a 20 team format/schedule.
It seems to me that it ought to be possible to write these schedules (it
they haven't already been written and stored somewhere?), for various
numbers of pitches, over the winter, so that they are instantly available to
chose/publish when the tournament entry closing date ?
2007 Open Nationals
It seems to me that, since the format of Nationals was moved to a 32 team
knockout a few years back, we've possibly never had 32 teams attend
Nationals!?! This obviously leads to the inevitable (but probably not
unwelcome) byes in the schedule for the top teams on Saturday mornings, but
more unfortunately, leads to byes later in the schedule, when the games
would have perhaps been more meaningful.
I would suggest that the format of Nationals be reconsidered - I heard an
interesting proposal over the weekend, involving 2 divisions of 16 in 'open'
(rather than 'peer') pools, over 3 days, with crossovers between the
divisions, but I forget exactly...
As announced in the June 2006 UKUA Member Update, the provisional calendar
for 2007 is on the UKU website (in an Excel spreadsheet).
It looks like this:
Mar 03+04
10+11
17+18 Sat - Skills Day
24+25
Apr *07+08* Paganello @ Rimini Beach
14+15 UKUA Tournament
21+22
28+29 UKUA Tournament
May 05+06* Tom's Tournoi @ Brugges
12+13
19+20 UKUA Tournament
26+27* Harbour Ultimate @ Rotterdam
Jun 02+03 UKUA Tournament
09+10 Sat - Skills Day
16+17 UKUA Tournament
23+24
30+01
Jul 07+08 UKUA Tournament
14+15
21+22
28+29 EFDF EUC2007
Aug 04+05 EFDF EUC2007
11+12
18+19 UKUA Tournament
25+26*
Sep 01+02 UKUA Tournament
08+09
15+16
22+23
Oct 01+02
07+08 Sat - Skills Day
14+15
21+22
28+30
Note that I have added the UK Bank Holidays as *
---
Wayne Retter
wayne[dot]wrecker[at]ntlworld[dot]com
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