From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Tue Feb 29 23:17:26 2000 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) id XAA13934 for britdisc-outgoing; Tue, 29 Feb 2000 23:13:04 GMT Received: from daffodil.csv.warwick.ac.uk (daffodil [137.205.192.30]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA13916 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Tue, 29 Feb 2000 23:12:59 GMT Received: from anchor-post-34.mail.demon.net (anchor-post-34.mail.demon.net [194.217.242.92]) by daffodil.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA19110 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Tue, 29 Feb 2000 23:12:58 GMT Received: from phidelta.demon.co.uk ([158.152.248.177]) by anchor-post-34.mail.demon.net with smtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 12Pvp1-000BdF-0Y for britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk; Tue, 29 Feb 2000 23:12:56 +0000 Message-ID: <TWLWtdAuqDv4EwTh@phidelta.demon.co.uk> Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 21:31:26 +0000 To: britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk From: Wayne Retter <druid#6@phidelta.demon.co.uk> Reply-To: Wayne Retter <wayne@phidelta.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: The Tour Format References: <200002291458.OAA09234@haymarket.ed.ac.uk> In-Reply-To: <200002291458.OAA09234@haymarket.ed.ac.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Turnpike Integrated Version 4.02 S <pjZRgFWDsQK5ViyP$l4rxVrb6a> Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk The Tour IS elitest. It IS designed to be that way - to develop and enhance the fitness, skills and teamwork of the top FEW (say 5) teams in the country. [and, assuming that those 5 teams provide the GB Open squad, improve their performances at EU/WUGC, too, getting us more spaces at EU/WUCC]* Yes, the other 3 in the "top 8" are there "to make up the numbers"! So, what's really happening here? A "Tour Event" is actually a whole load of small leagues, at one venue, in one weekend, with promotion/relegation between each one... Well, it would be, if there weren't so many team fluctuations! Hence Tour 1 is more a "Traditional/Open" tournament - everybody has a shot at the title if they win all their games, and then over the rest of the Tour we try to work into the "Peer Pool" structure gradually - kind of difficult in only 4 (or even 5) events! Especially difficult when finding a decent venue for more than 20 teams is rare, and every team below say, 12th is effectively "new" and "of unknown strength" each year as players move around. So, either we abandon the Tour format, or we revise it. Everybody seems to think that the Tour is a good thing, just not quite functioning properly, so abandoning it seems bad. The arguments about how to revise the Tour all involve some kind of split - students/non-students, topX/bottomY, etc. and all fall apart when we try not to be too focussed on one particular group... In theory, the tour should get so big that it's actually a full-blown league / regional / national system and there's Ultimate happening somewhere every day... How that development occurs though - is still open to debate! At the moment, there are enough ultimate clubs in London to hold a small tournament - but it's rare that any of them ever manage to meet up on the odd "free" weekend for a planned competitive scrimmage! (Some of the results may be predictable, but...) Wayne Retter *My apologies for not including Women, Mixed, Masters or Juniors here, but until there's enough regular club teams in any of these divisions to hold frequent tournaments/leagues, there's no focus on their development. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Wayne Retter at home: 01737-242109 wayne@phidelta.demon.co.uk mobile: 07970-903420 w.retter@england.com at work: 01737-273611