Dartford 7s - verdict and results?

[Gadget]

An excellent tournament - think I speak for everyone on the team when I say that.

Fields were ok, although a little on the small side - saw quite few games where both teams lost 3+ players on the break.

Only areas which I thought could be improved upon were catering (needs a decent burger van on site) and toilets - is it possible to get running water onto the site tho?

Good organisation + marshalling - only delay we had was on field 2 which ran behind by about 4 games at one point.

But overall it was great, thanks to the organisers + marshalls.

Now I hate it when people suck up to companies they're sponsored by, but after a couple of months of playing with some awful paint, playing today with the green/white Celtic that LPS helped us out with was a revelation, it was absolutely brilliant. Not a single break/chop/dodgy ball all day and it made a nice change to open a bag of paint and not to find the contents coated in dust, dirt, floor sweepings.

Unfortunately had to leave straight after our last game, so does anyone know the results? Looking like Severe Holland were walking Div2 (and well deserved it, very friendly bunch of blokes too).

Had one game where I received some seriously late additional love after calling myself out, but other than that all the teams in Div2 were great opponents to play.

See you all at the next one.

 

[WingNut]

All in all a good day.

I think that, although this was the first event, people are going to slate it alittle regarding certain things....

BEFORE we all do this, why not post Constructive Critacism, instead of us all moaning about this bit and that bit.


IMO, the AIR was a little to be desired at the begiing of the day. Seemed to be OK during the afternoon, but what a knightmare in the morning.

Definately second you on the Catering side of things but it did seem to go OK in the end.

Didn't notice it so much on field 1 & 3 but field two was just not having the bunkers wiped down after each game. In one of our games, three of our players were eliminated with orange 'paint' on them by the marshals. We were playing against UK Marshals 1 at the time who confirmed at the end that they were shooting only pink and blue filled paint........ WTF????

Like I said before, all in all a good day and hopefully these minor points (and whatever follows) will be addressed by the organisers in time for the next event.

 

[Ambush Paintball]

Congratulations on the first one guys!
We were at Dartford today in a non-playing capacity - we sponsor Quake and a lot of the teams playing today use our training facilities - so our view is from a slightly different angle.
From information we were given by a variety of people, it would appear the organisers were let down in a few ways - the marquee not arriving, the caterers deciding not to show (do they know the potential profit they missed out on??? - 300 people ready to mug each other for a cup of tea and a bacon buttie!!).
Luckily the weather held, so the missing marquee wasn't a major issue for this one - but what could the guys do with no notice given?
Marshalling seemed to be extremely good in some areas - a couple of very good calls on field 3, fairly strong on field 1 but field 2 seemed to lack experience but was being held together well by Kane(?). Well, they now all have a bit more experience and I am sure they will feel more able to cope with you 'orrible lot next time. Perhaps it would help if spectators left the marshals to get on with their jobs?? More than one guilty party on that one.
All in all, a good day - and I have a feeling they will get better!
Keep up the good work, guys.

 

[Jon S]

Aside from the previously mentioned food and air, I would say that the ground was lumpy in places, especially with tractor tracks at the corners of some of the fields. Having said that, it was firm and dry and much different to the flood plain picture I had in my head.

If I could have made one change overall, though, it would be the addition of a dedicated chrono-station, as some of my team and I had to use our own handhelds out in the carpark which wasn't ideal. It felt a bit tight, not really knowing for sure what you were running at before the entering the field, where the only official chronos were.

Overall, though, I found it to be a great event and can't wait to see how the series carrys on.

 

[Gadget]

Yeah I think the rain gods smiled on us - hate to think what it would've been like with some rain!

Agree on the chrony thing - having one available for setting guns up off the fields would be good.....although to be fair the marshalls were very accomodating and allowed plenty of time for people to dial their markers in at the start of games (good job too as I went over 340, 346, 340 before the first game.....twist, twist, twist)

 

[A.B]

Great tournie- perfect location and i agree the 'flood plains' weren't quite as floody as i'd imagined.

On constructive critisism side of things

* Chrono tent/range seperate to the fields
(although there was leniancy given to players on field to adjust their markers, it's not the time to discover your gat won't turn down)

* Some form of overhead protection (although i believe this was not there due to being let down by a supplier)

* PA system?

* Food (again i believe this was another let down)

* Netting in some areas (entrances to field) didn't actually cover the entrance.

That said i think this series has the potential to be a real cracker, it's brand new and i think Kieren, liz, Dave and all the marshalls provided a top tournament for the first leg.

Again like to say thankyou to our sponsers Jim and Christine at Ambush Paintball, Sub 7 and portfield peugoet. And also to all the teams we clashed with,

Wolf Pac - we will beat you one day

I know Quake will be back (scribble scribble cheques being written)

Laters A.B

 

[Twisty]

Overall great tournament, cheers to Jiggy, Liz the Marshalls and all the teams we played in div3.
Also shoutouts to Residue dogs for yet another interesting grudge match and also to team Velocity on an excellent result on a first tournament outing.
Cheers all, look forward to mixing it up next month.
T

 

[Bash]

Well, what can i say that hasn't been said?!
Team Velocity had a great first tournament with few hic-ups and we all look foreward to the next one!!

However it would be nice to see more than 2 tents next time (both Velocity's!!).

Thanks to everyone involved with this event and thanks to the peep's from Quake for the support, well played today.

See you all soon.

 

[Gurney]

For a first crack at a Tourney I thoguht Dave and the crew did a good job.
Few gripes which im sure they know they need to sort.
1. Need a marquee for a staging area (heard rumours they had arranged one but it did`nt turn up)
2.Netting needs to be higher, maybe its me being anal about safety but I think the netting should have been alot higher
3. Chrono zone, we really need a place to chrono before a game, so we dont have to panic whilst on field, and if we are gonna have a dedicated zone can we please have 3 or more Chronos else we get huge queues
4. Toilets, there was about 350 ballers + sponsors + fans/families, I think the 3 or 4 toilets were inadequate, can we have a few more next time please.

Apart from that the tourney was a blast and I had a great day, thanks to my homies on Breathe for leting me hook up with them.

And thanks to all the teams we played, you were all superb sports. And Uk Blaze a great result for their first 7 man

Looking forward to the next leg

 

[Sharla_Bounce]

You know what despite any of the gripes that anyone has......here are the good points.....

The teams didn’t have really long breaks between games and they weren’t rushed off their feet either to get to the next one....this meant you actually had the opportunity to watch some other games.

The marshals remained friendly and enthusiastic for the entire day, despite all the abuse they got off players and spectators.

Despite the catering not showing...the organisers did their best to get something sorted so that people were fed and watered.

No marquees and chronos meant teams had to actually try and work together to get it all sorted and it didn’t turn out bad.

And best of all was the fact that it was within close proximity for most teams and the fact that it didn’t run until that late meant everyone could be home at a reasonable time on a sunday night.

So in my opinion it was a pretty good tourney, one that will stand out from last years M25's and not because of its bad points, and if that was the first it only means that we can really look forward to the rest in this series because all the problems will be looked at and gradually ironed out.

Lets face it people...there is always going to be someone complaining about something....isn’t that the way of the paintballer....