Northern Regionals Report

For anyone who otherwise missed it, here's the gin from TD EB

Hello players!

Well what a week it's been! It was only last weekend that Northern Regionals was held at JF O'Grady park in Fairfield - with great attendance from the major playing centres in Queensland/Northern NSW. Whilst the weather provided us all with some challenging playing conditions, it was great to see all teams putting in the hard yards and playing some exciting, competitive ultimate!

The finals rankings for the Open competition are as follows:
1. Firestorm
2. Slamtown Flatball Club
3. Townsvillains
4. UQ Ultimate Lovers
5. Brisbane Barbarians.

As a result of this fantastic participation in the Open division, the Northern region has been allocated two slots for Nationals this year!! Congratulations to Firestorm and Slamtown Flatball Club for their invitation to participate in Nationals 2010, we know you will represent us well in Adelaide and do us proud!

In the Womens division, given that there was only one women's team vying for the Northern Womens's slot at Nationals, this year's competition was held as a hat tournament. This was open to all women in Queensland and a great day was had by all involved, with some evenly matched and competitive games. Congratulations to Black Betty who are also heading to Adelaide, representing the Northern women at Nationals! We are hoping that womens ultimate in Queensland will continue to grow so that we may soon be able to send two womens teams to Nationals.

Thanks to all who volunteered on the weekend, including TOC members Molly, Peta, Tati and Adilia, the Black Betty girls who came early to help set up each day, and to all the boys who helped us set up/down the tents and water coolers each day. It is the volunteer effort that really helps a tournament run smoothly on the day, and I really appreciate all of you who offered your help during the weekend! We look forward to another great year of ultimate in Queensland, and hope you will continue to be involved in the many leagues and tournaments that will be happening across the state this year!

Finally, the TOC have a couple of comments on the tournament that we would like to share with you all. As most of you would be aware, Black Betty ran Regionals this year as a fundraising exercise for their 2010 Nationals campaign. Unfortunately, the tournament has actually run at a loss, due to circumstances both on behalf of the TOC and the players. We feel it is important to let you know that this happened so it can be avoided in the future.

One problem we had was players registering to play but not turning up. A tournament’s final budget (particularly one this small) is largely determined by the number of players registered to play, which is why closing dates for items such as team and player registration are set. This means that if players register but don’t show up it instantly put the tournament organisers on the back foot in terms of their budgeting. If you register for a tournament and then for whatever reason are unable to play, please remove yourself from the AFDA rego page for that tournament as soon as possible.

Another problem was players registering to play two days and only playing (and thus paying) for one. The reason tournaments organisers offer the option to play only one day is that we realise people are often unable to commit to both days due to other commitments. Again, however, it is important for tournament organisers to know this prior to the start of the tournament.

Please bear these things in mind for future tournaments you may play - it will help your tournament organisers provide you with a better tournament.

Once again, the TOC would like to thank all of you for attending Northern Regionals, and wish good luck to those heading to Nationals. We certainly enjoyed playing host to Queensland and Northern NSW ultimate players and we hope that you enjoyed your weekend too!

Regards,
Emma - on behalf of the 2010 Northern Regionals TOC
(Emma, Molly, Tati, Peta and Adilia.)