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From: Roger Thomson <roger.thomson@oyster.co.uk>
To: "'Ziants, Wayne'" <WZiants@spencerstuart.com>,
        "'Wayne Retter'"
	 <wayne@phidelta.demon.co.uk>,
        britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk
Cc: londonleague@onelist.com
Subject: RE: London League 2000
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 13:34:26 -0000 
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Wayne Retter wrote:
>At the moment, there are enough ultimate clubs in London to hold a small
>tournament - but it's rare that any of them ever manage to meet up on
>the odd "free" weekend for a planned competitive scrimmage! (Some of the
>results may be predictable, but...)

I think that's changing as the top teams recognise the value of playing
against teams of a similar ability in a competitive setting. This very
weekend Dough, UTI and maybe London Catch players are playing each other in
a pre-season warm-up.

Wayne Ziants wrote:
>Let us hope then that all those Ultimate clubs in London - whether Top 8,
>Womens or Students - are prepared to participate in this year's London
>League.  The presently vague plan is to start as soon as (non-floodlit)
>evening games become practical, on one or two evenings a week through the
>summer.  One popular idea is to make it a Co-ed competition, but nothing
has
>been settled on yet.  
>Top organising bloke Paul Hurt will surely have more to add....
>If Montreal can have 40 teams in a league, surely London's 8 million can
>raise 8 teams  :-)

One of the problems is that a regular league involves alot of travel and
time. The teams in London are of wildly varying ability and this means alot
of the league games would involve a mis-match - and for both the stronger
and weaker teams are perceived as a waste by many of the players. The summer
leagues in Canada and the US are an entirely different proposition - a large
proportion of them are hat teams, and those that aren't tend to be better
matchups because of the kind of team that enters or because structurally
that is more likely in a larger pool of teams.

Events like the Regent's Park one-day tournies appeal far more because
playing one or two weaker teams is part of the whole day and all teams get a
good workout, some close and some not-so-close games and a social gathering.


I can see Doughboy, for example, playing in that kind of event, but can't
necessarily see us committing to play in a League with regular fixtures and
travel if 75% of the games we would win 15-1. That might be different if the
format were different and offered more competitive games through peer pools
and promotion and demotion. A UTI player's perspective would be interesting
at this point....

Cheers ears,

PieBoy.