My thoughts..

1. I think you should set tentative dates yourself and then let those
bidding object - if their objections are legitimate then consider moving no
more than 2 weekends away from the original scheduled date. You have just as
much idea about what tournaments are being scheduled as the NZFDA does -
i.e. there is no firm schedule at the moment - that's your job :)

I would like to see a serious (i.e. competitive) Open/Womens tournament
included in the calendar as well. I think earlier in the season would be
better.

Paul Northwood (paul@...) is the man to talk to about golf tournament
dates (can also check the NZFDA website tournaments page).

2. Agree in principal with your thoughts about this. My main concern
relating to the tour/open is the premise of the Open. I see little point
with us inviting international teams to the Open if it is not our premier
competition - we do not increase our chances to beat Australia (for example)
and I think it is just rude to expect them to play teams that have just been
thrown together for the event. I would prefer to see the Open as the Tour
Final as such but where (as suggested) all teams play each other rather then
a tiered system.

3. This to me means that we have all TDs (social & competitive) tournaments
in contact with the UPC to ensure no clashes of dates (i.e. an actual
coordinated calendar). Also liaising on issues relating to sanctioned
tournaments and any other issues TDs may have. We already have some
guidelines on running tournaments but to make these more available to TDs
and to make sure they cover everything (I am happy to work on these).
Basically so that all TDs know who the first point of contact is - then you
can delegate the queries or deal with them yourself.

My preliminary thoughts.
Cheers
Rachel

-----Original Message-----
From: Justin & Vicki Thirkell [mailto:vicki.justin@...]
Sent: Thursday, 9 May 2002 10:03 p.m.
To: upc-international@yahoogroups.com; upc@...
Subject: [upc] UPC tournaments - kicking things off


Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting the dialog started - hope you are still keen
to contribute to the UPC tournaments planning. I am new to this role of
coordinating the UPC tournaments portfolio and I haven't previously had any
part in the overseeing of tournaments but I do have some new ideas about the
way tournaments could be organised and structured that I hope will be of
interest to others.

So, in the interests of kicking things off quickly here are the 3 targets
(taken straight out of the UPC guidelines) that are supposed to be met:

The National Tournament Coordinator is responsible for
1) Ensuring that all events are distributed evenly and with minimal clashes
throughout the season
2) Maintaining the National competitive tournament system and reviewing and
adjusting anything as necessary.
3) Liaison with Tournament Directors at all level of tournaments


Here is how I plan to address these targets (please add your suggestions to
this forum):

1) Is it better to set tournament dates ourselves and then ask for bids to
host them or is it better to see who is interested first and then fit the
schedules around them? Or should I first ask the NZFDA list for what and
when tournaments are being planned?
Whatever the decision, I would like to start the process of
scheduling/asking for bids at the end of next week (17th May) so the
calendar is set well in advance. If there seems to be no consensus either
way then I will set a tournament calendar myself and ask for bids/wait for
complaints =>.
At least to start with, are there any other tournaments known of besides the
following;
Brass Monkey
Indoor Nationals
Star Wars
Taupo Hat
Tour 1
Tour 2
Tour 3
NZ Open
Nelson Beach
And who is the best person to contact from Disc Golf to check their
calendar?

2) My thoughts on the Tour/NZ Open:
The tour is great - provides a set of goals to work towards through the
summer, gives teams something to play for that extends beyond just one
weekend and makes sure major tournaments are held over different
geographical areas. I have two concerns -
a) Compared to a few years ago, the amount of game time in a weekend is
considerably less. What used to be a guaranteed 3 or 4 games x 1 1/2 to 2
hours is now 3 (or occasionally just 2) games x 1 1/4 hours. With the high
cost of travelling to and relative infrequency (compared to Europe, North
America) of tournaments in NZ, I think we should be aiming to provide a
couple of full days of games at each tour event. Certainly we could be
starting earlier (like game on at 9am - Aussie Nats) than we do and we (the
UPC) could be taking a more active interest in the draw to ensure a decent
number of games for all teams on both days. It may make the draw more
difficult but I think it would make tournament weekends more rewarding for
all the travel and training that is put in. Your thoughts?
b) There seem to be a higher proportion of one-sided games at tour event and
the NZ open than there have been in previous years. In addition, tour
results from last season seem to place most teams quite easily in either an
'upper' tier or a 'lower' tier. Though I have not have any time to work
further on this, I would like to pursue the possibility of a two-tier draw
for each tour event and a single tier draw for the NZ Open. This would mean
that for example, in a 8 team tour event weekend you could have 4 teams in
each tier who would play each of the other teams in their tier twice over
two days. Or in a 10 team tour event you could have a round robin within
your tier and then two playoff games. Points would be accumulated over the
tour as a whole and the winner would have the highest aggregate at the end
(just like the English Premier League). The NZ Open would then be exactly
that - open to everyone to have a go (just like the FA Cup). There are many
issues to sort through first but I think the idea has merit enough to
discuss further. More thoughts to come....

3) I guess this relates to having more input into tournament draws and
timetables to ensure lots of game time for all. Any more to it than this?


Enough from me - what are your thoughts?

Thanks

Justin


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