I agree with much of Brummie's email however only on one aspect do I wish to go on record here as I have yet to come up with a constructive alternative. When I do I will suggest it to the powers that be.
I have turned down numerous venues in and around where I live in North West Kent / South East London because parking at the venue being wholy inadequate which is what was found at Chiswick. I was under the impresion that adequate parking was a requirement for a UKU tournament. Whilst I enjoy tournaments being near my residence I think that all players should be able to freely park in a viable space without humping heavy kit bags 10 mins or more just to get to the first pitch without then adding the 10 piutches if you played at the far end of the fields. Was the UKU aware of just how limited the parking was? If not I think that bid suppliers should need to be more transparent. Having said that it was great to see someone new running a tournament and I hope this inspires others and the TD and his team are not discouraged by this or any other feedback they may receive. Finally the above is not intended as a dig at anyone because, unlike Brummie, I am certain I could not do a better job for UK ultimate than is currently being done by all at UKU. Till next tour Jo 2009/6/8 Sion Scone <[email protected]> > Some are aimed at the TDs, some at the schedule / format writers, some > at the competition committee. Personally I always try to raise issues > because without feedback how can things be improved? However I > believe that since a lot of concerns, complaints etc fall on deaf > ears, people just don't bother and put up with things they really > shouldn't. Hence I'm making this public in the hope that some people > get in touch with me to tell me they agree / disagree with what I have > to say below. So here we go... feel free to add your voice if you > agree (or disagree, maybe my experiences were exceptional). > > 1 - If the format for Tour 1 is so open, what was the point in Tour 0? > Tour 0 as a seeding tournament might work in principle, but if you > divvy into North/South then you create a new problem that needs fixing > at Tour 1. Tour 0 should never have happened - what a waste of > effort. > > 2 - Its commonly said that the "big teams" shouldn't have to play at > Tour 0 because its "a waste of their time". For the second year in a > row, one of the teams that didn't need to go to Tour 0 dropped a > significant number of places (for whatever reason). My point is that > perhaps it should be considered that those "big clubs" aren't as > stable as people assume, and that other teams are closing the gap. > Throw in things like Fire having evenly split squads and things become > less predictable still. Basically, if we're going to have a seeding > tournament then every team needs to be there. > > 3 - Who wrote that schedule, and who approved that venue? Why were > some teams playing first and last game on Saturday? With a 9am start > and a 7.30pm finish, add in warmup / warmdown time and we were on the > fields for 12 hours. That's a ridiculously long time. Luckily it > didn't rain too much and it wasn't freezing cold; but it could have > been. There was ZERO shelter and the only facilities I saw were > portaloos. There was inadequate parking which resulted in a lot of > people getting parking fines. The pitches weren't even close to flat, > the first one we played on had craters, not potholes. > > 4 - I was continuously hunting for pitch water. Every single game. > Thankfully (!!!) we had an injured player with us who could act as > water boy and get the organisers to bring water to the fields for us. > No pitch water is unacceptable in my eyes, particularly given the heat > on Sunday. > > 5 - Our first game on Sunday got moved and *nobody* bothered to tell > us. We only found out when there were three teams trying to warmup on > the same pitch... I understand that if something goes wrong and a > pitch becomes unusable then the schedule might need to be altered, but > the TDs *have* to take responsibility to notify the teams concerned. > Not to do so is simply unprofessional. > > 6 - I understand that some of the problems with scheduling were > related to the large number of teams on a small number of fields. The > simplest solution to this would be to hold the women's and open events > at different venues... was this considered? > > 7 - Some of the teams playing this weekend basically have been working > towards that tournament for months. Is there any reason we were left > so long to know the format (not the schedule but the tournament > format, i.e. who plays who)? For the geeks out there who like to plan > ahead, this information is useful! Besides, what if there'd been an > obvious problem with the format? There were a lot of discussions at > the weekend regarding the format, but because it was only released on > Friday afternoon there was no time to make changes if they were > needed. Most people's opinion was to then not bother complaining... > but not mine :-) > > I will point out that I thought it was good there was food available > and there were medics on site (who seemed pretty busy from what I > saw). Props for that. > > If this is seriously the best that the UKU can do then I suggest a > coup. And before anyone says "well you do better" or similar: > firstly, I'm willing to try. Secondly, remember that not only did you > pay £180 entry fee per team for this event, but every single person > who wanted to play has to register with the UKU and pay £27.50 (unless > you're eligible for a discount) as well. That means that the people > who get this money (TDs and UKU) are accountable, and we have the > right to complain. Do you really think that you get value for money? > > Don't accept second best for UK Ultimate! Lets keep pushing the standards > up. > > Brummie > > __________________________________________________ > BritDisc mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc > Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed > __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed
