Hi,

I side with Gemma here. I'm at Reading Uni and we've entered hardly any LL events, and the Ladder is still a success. One of the great things about the ladder is that a team can play as many or as few games as they want. They can play those games whenever they want. If Open teams want to organise a friendly against a student team, then it would be down to the student team to accept that challenge. I can't see that wrapping up these games in a ladder league structure (where there is no obligation to play all the teams) changes this flexibility. Therefore I can't see how letting open teams enter will detract from the LL, especially if we have a "best student team division" ( c.f. with the way of determining the winner of the white jersey in the Tour de France)

I'd also like to point that games can happen on weekday evenings (when there is enough light) as well as weekends.

On a separate point, there has been a Reading Summer League, and we've had 70 players turn up on a regular basis. However they have no intention of playing too seriously and playing in Nationals. Maybe a form of ladder league is the method to keep these players interested in social ultimate (in the same way that a village cricket league has maintains grass roots support, without actually creating any county standard cricketers).

Chris

Gemma Taylor wrote:

Hmm... I know I've officially left uni ultimate now, but here goes..

 

I'm still not sure why we're so precious about keeping the LL as a uni only event...
 

Open inclusion will not only serve to help the lower teams but the higher teams as well. How can it hurt to play against good opposition (and lets not assume that it has to be the open teams that will be the better sides).

 

For the higher teams, the south east is still the weakest region in the country by far - and no matter how many times we play inter league events against each other, we need the open teams to educate us on what to expect at nationals. Teams like Haze prove time and time again what constant competitive open ultimate can do for a uni team (EMO). The winter league is sometimes too competitve for uni teams to have a shot at the better south east teams. A set of one off LL days would give 1st teams some strong opposition to have a shot at, and give the likes of fire / clapham 2 someone to practise on. Imagine how good the south east region could be with regular competition from the likes of that?!

 

As for the lower teams, more games = more reason for players to stay. There are instances of players falling away from teams due to not wanting to travel to tournaments. If there's an open team on your doorstep, why not let the ladder league give your an arena to play in. The ladder league won't hinder the competiton of teams - it just gives us an alternative arena to play in, and introduces new players to competitve ultimate in a more conventional manner ( i.e. similar to other sports..).

 

Basically, I've been mulling this over ever since felix brought it up - and i'm still struggling to find a negative to open inclusion in the league. To be honest - the open leagues could do with a bit of structure to compete with - why not let a well organised uni ultimate give them a hand.

 

Gemma.
 

On 19/07/06, David Gate <d_p_gate@...> wrote:

think pugh ment to send this to the group and not just me.

---

From:  "pugh" <li51jp@...>
To:  "David Gate" < d_p_gate@...>
Subject:  Re: Ladder League's future
Date:  Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:21:49 -0000
>I would have to agree in principle with Shimmy.
>
>I don't think having more teams would necessarily increase the
>amount of competition and standard in the South East. It might even
>have the opposite effect in that the new teams may well get set up
>without the knowledge or drive behind them.
>
>If the point is trying to introduce Uni teams into the 'cut throat'
>world of Open Ultimate, I think there are better ways of doing this
>than just flooding a successful system with extra teams. I
>thoroughly enjoyed all the Ladder League events I went to last year,
>partly - I believe - due to the relaxed nature of an exclusively Uni
>event. This doesn't mean it wasn't competitive though.
>
>A possible solution would be to host a weekend event and invite a
>local open team along. Surrey is trying to organise another Fresher
>Fun Day where the Lucky Huckers share their knowledge and skills
>with freshers. Those that attended last years will remember playing
>alongside players from all the different teams - including the
>Huckers - at the end of the day. It would be very simple to host a
>Ladder League event in this manner where Uni teams would play Uni
>teams and then, at some point in the afternoon, get to take on a
>fully fledged Open team to try and gauge their ability/improvement.
>
>I think Ladder League is a successful and precious idea for
>UniUltimate and, If it ain't broke....?
>
>This turned out longer than I first hoped and if I'm speaking out of
>turn, I apologise.
>Not views of my team blah blah.
>
>pugh
>Surrey and Lucky 31
>
>
>
>
>

-- Chris Brierley Room: 2U07
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