I saw the following last item in today's UKUA update. I read it, was shocked, and thought as always that I'd sit on the fence and watch all the other people on Britdisc stop grappling with the dog toy of Tourney Pricing, as instantaneously as it was taken up and move onto the next big thing.
But no-one's getting annoyed about this. Where is my entertainment? Is this due to the fact that no-one reads their member updates?? Anyway I find the news below truly shocking. I don't demand explanations, want to be critical of anyone, but just register my strong opposition to this (apparently it has been proposed, so this is not set in stone, please could this be confirmed!). I can see the importance of our top teams getting this high quality European opposition to further the upper level of Ultimate in the UK. I also realise that these same teams hate getting to the pitch side at 9:00am on Saturday to bagel a team of 11 players in 25 minutes. But Nationals is for more than the ultimate elite. In the B-tour it's the reward for winning your crossovers and getting that higher position, it's the final element which all your season of training is geared towards; the final ranking in the UK when pitted against the best. Nowhere else do we get the chance to play 2 games in the pool stage against A-tour opposition, and if you manage to hold you own even for the first half, it really spurs the whole team on looking into the next year and attaining that higher level. I don't think the importance of this is valued highly enough. If this is to go ahead, then please do not call the tournament Nationals. As I see it, Open Nationals 2007 will be cancelled due to this elite European Qualifying Event and this MUST be the official line of the UKUA! This is my only demand! Someone please tell me that the following member update was a joke, or explain to me how 25% less top level ultimate for the upper half of the B-tour can be good for the sport in this country! See the Post below. (I did check and it's definiely a bit early for an April fools!) ******************************************** 7. Nationals and EUCS You are hopefully aware that a new, annual European club competition started in 2006. EUCS [http://eucs.efdf.org/] is a really exciting concept - and extremely important in the struggle to bring European ultimate up to the level of North America. In 2007 there will be some changes to the way that our regions qualification works as our region has been extended to include teams from Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Consequently we have proposed that our Nationals be used as a one-off EUCR (Regional Qualification) tournament for the West region. Yes - this means that there will be teams from other countries at Nationals. It also means that it is likely only approx 12 UK Open teams will get in to the tournament! After the tournaments in 2007, there will - of course - be a review of whether this is the approach that we take in the longer term. However - it is possible we will need to plan 2008 before that point so contact us [http://www.ukultimate.com//contact] if you have strong feelings on the matter. No doubt there will be plenty of feedback on britdisc aswell! ******************************************** __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
