From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Wed Mar 1 18:14:46 2000 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) id SAA17692 for britdisc-outgoing; Wed, 1 Mar 2000 18:13:06 GMT Received: from snowdrop.csv.warwick.ac.uk (snowdrop [137.205.192.31]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) with ESMTP id SAA17678 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Wed, 1 Mar 2000 18:13:03 GMT Received: from relay01.esat.net (relay01.esat.net [192.111.39.11]) by snowdrop.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id SAA00290 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Wed, 1 Mar 2000 18:13:03 GMT Received: from mailserver.sepro.ie (sepro.ie) [193.120.132.131] by relay01.esat.net with smtp id 12QDcM-0004Y6-00; Wed, 01 Mar 2000 18:13:02 +0000 Received: from sepro_peter [192.168.1.145] by sepro.ie [192.168.1.2] with SMTP (MDaemon.v2.7.SP3.R) for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Wed, 01 Mar 2000 18:11:44 +0000 From: "Peter Bennison" <pbennison@sepro.ie> To: "Britdisc" <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: RE: London League 2000 Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 18:12:11 -0000 Message-ID: <001501bf83a9$aa4fa040$9101a8c0@sepro_peter> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 In-Reply-To: <1DBF2E3701DFD211A65300902728A91B0104AA2E@baby.kbw.co.uk> X-MDaemon-Deliver-To: britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk Reply-To: pbennison@sepro.ie Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk > 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. If I understand you correctly, you're saying that many teams in NA summer leagues are hat teams. That's not quite true, depending on your definition of a hat team. Generally, players play with a league team on weeknights, and if they are interested in travelling, join a road team for tournament play on weekends. The three league teams I played with in the Ottawa summer league (pushing 200 teams now) had more or less the same player base for several seasons. I might add that the majority of players in the Ottawa league didn't play on travelling teams, because they had their fill of Ultimate in league play. This travelling to tournaments thing was new to me when I moved over here a few years ago. As you mentioned at the end of your mail, the discrepancies between skilled vs. unskilled teams is dealt with by having different divisions. True, if you were in div C on one night, you'd never play a div A or B team. However, if you whooped every team in your division, you'd be promoted the next season, no bother. Also, the Ottawa League had no restriction on how many teams you could play on, provided they were in different divisions. Some players would play in stronger and weaker divisions, just to spread the talent around. It would make end of season play a little complicated if both your teams made it to the finals, but what can you do. I was surprised that London (at least) didn't have a city league, and I am glad to see that one seems to be gelling. My word of advice, if I may be so bold, is to accept that there will be some blowouts in the early years of the league, since it is difficult to evenly match teams when there are so few of them. However, it will improve in time as the league grows. Then, of course, they'll be the problem of pitch space. Peter Bennison Pookas Dublin Ultimate ex - HammerTime - OCUA B div ex - RoadKill - Travelling OCUA ex - Cool Calvin Seven - OCUA B div ex - Wolves in Cheap Clothing - OCUA C div