From: "rjdesai" <theraj@supaman.com>
Reply-To: "rjdesai" <theraj@supaman.com>
To: <student-ultimate@egroups.com>, <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Subject: Midland's Student Qualifier: GBH Decision
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 21:08:47 -0800

Hi All,
As Captain of GBH - I'd like to get the first word in on the decision not to 
allow GBH to qualify for nationals.
The decision was made just prior to the final (GBH v. Ow! 1) due to one (of 
nine) of my players being classified as not sufficiently 'full time' a 
student to be elligible to take part thus disqualifying the entire team from 
nationals.
This we feel is a totally unfair decision for numerous reasons.
Firstly, the player in question is a beginner of this academic term and 
played (in our key games) a maximum of a couple of points . He therefore 
made no difference what so ever to us qualifying.
Secondly,  this issue was raised only once we had displaced Bears 1 (Sunday 
morning), thereby preventing them from qualifying, and beaten Mwnci See 1, 
for a place in the final, if it had been raised earlier we would of course 
have removed our "part time" student (which would have made no difference to 
the result) immediately  and we would have been elligible to qualify. We 
felt the issue was raised not on grounds of fairness, as any team playing us 
would have seen the player in question was there more to watch then to play, 
but because we displaced a team which was expected to win.
We attended the tournament with the best of intentions and I can testify my 
players played with a lot of enthusiam and spirit. This decision goes no way 
to reciprocating this.
I understand the need to have a fixed rule but I can see no justification, 
in a specific case as this, for a decision to go against what is clearly the 
right and fair thing to do.
This is GBH s first and probably last year of student Ultimate. We trained 
hard and that paid of in Loughborough but unreasonable decisions such as 
this are what demoralise new teams and in no way help the development of the 
sport.
I think further discussion of this issue is in order before a decision is 
made.
Also, in future when new teams such as our own enter clarification should be 
given on such points and should not have to be especially sought since as 
shown here; how were we supposed to know a part time student is not a 
student in the eyes of student ulitimate? - the onus should be on those in 
the game to help new sides not for them to disqualify them on an obscure 
technicality as here.
I hope the decision will be reversed in light of this.
Yours,

Raj
GBH / GB Junior

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