[BD] Tour 0

[Chris]

Okay folks, now I have seen a bit of discussion on this here are my further
thoughts.
Maybe I am just a know-nothing newbie, but I haven't seen anything on the
UKUA site since I joined for last years tour saying "Foreign teams who XXXX
considers 'elite' will be allowed to join the A tour and bump 1 team as a
result".
Paddy Murphy are a red herring in this discussion, as evidenced by their
participation in all tours last year and tour 0 this year; they play and pay
their way all along the line.
I don't necessarily think that we should have an earlier cut-off date for
foreign teams wishing to enter Tour events, just a better and more open
method of seeding them into either A or B tour.
As to the (hopefully passed) delights of blatant mis-matches between
potential A tour teams and firm B tour teams, I well remember my first tour
match last year, which was against Fire 2 and lasted all of 30 minutes.
Whilst someone who had been playing tour events for longer might have gained
from the experience, I beg to doubt so; as so blatant a mis-match isn't
really going to teach anything except 'bugger, that 20 year old is faster
than me at 40-something! or That guy who has been playing for XX years is
better than me in my first season!'
Whilst I appreciate Vito's comment about Tour being set up to improve the
standard of Ultimate in the UK, let's not forget, doing this doesn't just
mean providing different opposition for the top teams (surely this is what
the European Championship is about), but developing teams throughout the
sport. As for "The tour was designed to improve the standard of the top 8
teams in the UK, with the hopeful benefit to other UK teams, but the
priority was quite openly elitist. " surely this is the way to stifle the
sport at the grass roots rather than encourage it? Not every region has
enough teams who can manage to play Ladder League games to bring them along
in the way suggested.
I think Paul's idea of foreign teams turning up for just 1 event scoring no
points and the consequent 'shuffling' of lower teams is a good one.
Andrew points out that 'Interestingly the rules do talk about making A
events after Tour 1A into
18 team events if a foreign team or teams were to be included, rather
than taking a promotion spot away.'
Maybe this should be the way to go, especially as the team in question are
'not 100%'
That's it now, run out of steam/sobriety!
Cheers
Santa
{(-:)>