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From: Mark Jefferson <Mark.Jj@btinternet.com>
Subject: The Tour debate.
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 97 20:42:10 +0100 ( + )
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	Hi All!

	Thank you to everyone who responded to my concerns 
about the tour expressed in a message to Britdisc posted Mon. 8th.  
Having digested some very intelligent points I hope I can clarify my 
own position and explain a few misunderstandings.
	I probably never will be happy with everything that 
happens in Ultimate but will always be happy with most things.  After 
reading messages, particularly from the Ultim-8 committee, I may be 
no happier with the actual issue at hand but it has made me stop and 
think a little more about what I am actually asking for.  Thanks to 
messages from people like Si Hill and Andy Cotgreave I've now got a 
much better picture of what actually happens behind the scenes so 
to speak.  I think greater openness would help here - both so that 
people know what's going on, but more importantly so that people 
like myself get a more accurate view of the sheer volume of work the 
BUF undertakes.
	But back to the tour.  I think the responses I received 
personally, as well as those posted to Britdisc can be, generally, 
divided into two groups - those who support the tour strongly, and 
those who have reservations.  I was not surprised to see that the 
supporters were largely people who benefited from the tour whilst the 
more cautious amongst us were the ones who seem to suffer.  The 
rhetoric of my last message apparently confused what I was saying,  
so I shall be crystal clear now: I do not want an end to the tour.  I 
understand and support the benefits it has for the country's top 
teams.  They deserve the right to play in whatever environment they 
believe best suits them.  But I think that for those players to tell me 
this is the way forward for the British game is naive.  I am not talking 
now, and indeed never was, about the improvement of a "team" or 
player.  I am talking about improving standards of Ultimate throughout 
the UK.  Students, (including school teams) ARE, I insist, where the 
strength of Ultimate lies.  I heard it said many times when I competed 
in county athletics that the success of the nation in five or ten years 
time could be gauged at club championships, county events, the 
Milk Cup.....  The tour is damn good training for those attending world 
events and I agree with Wayne Davey that the tour should decide 
who goes to International competitions, but this is most certainly NOT 
a strategy for development.  That is what I took issue with, and I'm 
sorry if my over-emotional scribblings made this unclear.
	What I object to when it comes down to it is the 
short-sightedness of Ultim-8: fantastically good for today's top teams 
but bugger all use to those which will replace them in five or ten 
years time.  I wrote the initial message because I felt that while 
Shotgun, Catch, Druids etc (forgive me for using your names) were 
playing (arguably) the best Ultimate of their lives there was a bloody 
great big hole in the National game where - for want of a better 
collective noun - students should have been.  I wrote the message 
because, I felt, the shadow of the tour - a great achievement in itself 
- was masking this hole.  I felt, and still feel, that the tour will, in time, 
damage the British game if it is not accompanied by an equally 
successful strategy to raise standards in upcoming players.  
	I began this with a acknowledgement of the dedication of 
BUF officers - particularly, for the purposes of this message, those on 
the Ultim-8 committee.  It has only been in the last couple of days, as 
the debate unfolded on Britdisc, that I have come to fully 
comprehend the size of the task I am demanding, and for this 
oversight, I owe an apology.  I for one have my own hills to climb and 
could not afford the time to attempt anything of this size right now, 
and I know very few people do.  I owe an apology to the Ultim-8 
committee if what I said appeared to belittle the work you have, and 
continue to do.  But even though I now appear rather hypocritical, 
demanding more work in one breath, and flatly disassociating myself 
from that work in another, I still feel it needed to be said.  I hope this 
time that the message is clearly understood, and I hope the debate 
continues.  One day this sport will be massive, so we should make 
use of its intimacy while we can.  I know more than a few football 
fans who would kill to be having this discussion with the FA.
	Thank you, (again) for getting this far.  I look forward to 
reading more opinions.

	Mark Jefferson, Whiplash.