From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Sun Oct 27 11:38:46 1996 Received: from thistle.csv.warwick.ac.uk by clover.csv.warwick.ac.uk with ESMTP id LAA11313; Sun, 27 Oct 1996 11:38:06 GMT Received: by thistle.csv.warwick.ac.uk id TAA19452; Thu, 24 Oct 1996 19:02:58 +0100 (BST) Received: from safety.worldcom.com by thistle.csv.warwick.ac.uk with ESMTP id TAA19423; Thu, 24 Oct 1996 19:01:08 +0100 (BST) Received: (from smtp@localhost) by safety.worldcom.com (8.7.1/8.6.9) id MAA10643 for <BRITDISC@CSV.WARWICK.AC.UK>; Thu, 24 Oct 1996 12:53:50 -0500 (CDT) Received: from worldcom-57.worldcom.com(198.64.193.208) by safety.worldcom.com via smap (V1.3) id sma010517; Thu Oct 24 12:53:19 1996 Received: by worldcom-57.worldcom.com (IBM OS/2 SENDMAIL VERSION 1.3.14/3.3) id AA8928; Thu, 24 Oct 96 12:51:54 -0500 Message-Id: <9610241751.AA8928@worldcom-57.worldcom.com> Received: from WorldCom with "Lotus Notes Mail Gateway for SMTP" id C9EE4B89BD5A1170862563CD0062111E; Thu, 24 Oct 96 12:51:54 To: BRITDISC <BRITDISC@csv.warwick.ac.uk> From: Ian Stebbing <Ian_Stebbing@gb.coopers.com> Date: 24 Oct 96 18:28:03 Subject: Qualifying, Formats etc. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain Sender: owner-britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Status: RO **************************************** This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed and is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability (including in negligence) for the consequences for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this E-mail message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone. Please also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this E-mail message is strictly prohibited. **************************************** This debate seems to be raging again about whether the top teams should have to compete at regional qualifiers. As a member of one of the so called elite teams I personally feel that we should qualify. The benefit is two fold 1) Those teams who will qualify anyway can take a more relaxed attitude, everyone can see what standard they need to reach and can learn from those teams. 2) If a teams standard drops or picks up rapidly (i.e. UTI reaching the level they have in under a year who would certainly not have pre-qualified on previous results because they didn't exist to have them or STAN who failed to qualify for the National Indoor Finals 1 year having had a top 4 finish the year before) they will still be placed in the correct overall position in the most important tournament of the year. If the top teams do not wish to play many one-sided games they can organise top teams tournaments or go abroad to play in higher average level tournaments the rest of the year. This was a criticism aimed at Hombres/Shotgun some time ago because they turned up to very few British tournaments one year. On reflection it must have been very boring for them never to get competition at home and why should they "waste" their time on something they were not going to enjoy. It was up to the rest of British Ultimate to try and raise itself to give them a game. As for tournament formats and game lengths these will forever be a problem. For the top teams who wish to compete outside the UK, playing short games (1 hour or 13 points) damages their ability to play in the larger European or World tournaments where formats require large squads playing games to 21 or 2 hours+. Short games can also often lead to dissatisfying and premature conclusions to highly competitive games. Alternatively if you are winning or losing a game 13-0 there is probably little point continuing to 21-0. Games which are expected to be tight or where the result is of great importance (i.e. the Headrush vs Monks semi-final) should be of an appropriate length. This year at National Finals I think we will achieve this. Given that it is the qualifiers for World Clubs, playing games of a similar length to those at World Clubs is the most appropriate method of selecting the teams. Ian Stebbing Druids.