Dear Teams thank you for your support and if your not playing this time my applogies

[Liz]

Don't forget guys that the type of venue that Sparklie is using doesn't come exactly cheap. If she'd spent a fortune on the first event for a bigger venue and then only 20 teams turned up her losses would be immense. Initially there were only under 30 teams who showed interest before the date was set for this one, so you can't really blame her for only getting an appropriately sized place to put it on.

 

[go-one]

Think about it guys, (and girls), Sparklies gone out on a limb here and critisism before the event's even happened just is't due. End of last season Temple was lucky to get 10 -15 teams down so you've got to understand the 'start small' philosphy. At least this way there will be other rounds for the rest of you to get in on the action.

The south has needed this shot in the arm for years, you can't blame Sparklie for giving what we need !!!!

"Always leave them wanting more !!!!" (Sure some bloke said that once !)

 

[gaff]

hold on guys (and girls)

who is exactly criticising anyone. the only moan, dig, bad feeling or what ever that i have read in this thread is mine against my team for not getting the deposit in on time!

if Sparklie can start a paintball phenomenon then she needs a throne not a thorny crown!!

i think the suggestion that the events have the same amount of fields each time is a legitimate, honest and articulate observation. and as with all observations, especially those posted on forums, you either agree and implement or you ignore! you definately do not take them personally!

i am gutted to not be playing ths weekend at the M25, but i also want to see the event become the biggest thing in the UK, cos its all good for paintball. we need a platform to hone our skills and become more competitive for when we play the rest of the world in the milleniums!

good luck sparklie and all those taking part!

 

[SPARKLIE CHICK]

Thank you all for your feed back.

I said intially I was ony expecting 20 teams, bearing in mind midlands masters is also running this weekend, its a new event and a lot of teams have posted on their forums along the lines of wait till shes done the first one if its "any" good we'll give it a go. This is fair comment I don't blame any one who thought this way after all its an unknow quanity.

When planning the series quality was always very important yes I could have run 9 teams per divition it would have been far easier to work out divitions with storm playing. But then all the teams would have suffered. I have not spent the last year getting teams trained and qualified to marshal, devoting days looking at venues only to find 1 suitable one out of 5 or 6 to spoil the events by over streaching the facilties.

Bricket wood is a brilliant venue for loction ie 20 mins or less from a national air port, the m25 and m1 and less than 30 miles from london. The Travel logde, Pub and Train station are all minuets away, these are all things I was looking for in a venue. As well as showers toilets and good parking, nice flat level playing surfaces ect.

I hope we can use bricket wood again next year but it will be a 32 team venue one of our venues is 9 hecacres huge so really big feilds and lots of space they all have diffrent plus and minus points and that was intentional.

By next year I will have a better idea which legs get the best attendance so I can plan accordingly. Who can blame me for wanting to use one of the best venues I have found for the debute event.

So yes the next venue can easliy take 60 teams but if the teams want this and some were to stage bearing in mind marquees get booked up very quickly I need every one to not only say yes we want to play but to send deposits.


I would still be happy if only 20 teams were playing I would love to be able to accomdate all the teams who wanted to play but 3 days notice is not enough time to organise this type of event . I was lucky we managed to get a bigger marquee and more tables at the last minuet this time.

I have commited 2 years of my life to this series, I belive in it and now it's a reality.

I hope you all enjoy your selfs I shall be off line now till sunday night

See you all there good luck to every one playing and a huge thanks must be said to trevor, paul, geoff, donnie, jevves and especially Liz for her nagging skills I appreciate them and all your help.

 

[Phil Warr]

Well done Sparklie

Firstly great job Sparklie. Although I wasn't there, the feed back from teams seems to have been very positive.
It is not easy getting a tournie series of the ground and there can be many pitfalls along the way, as well as a hell of a lot of hard work. Being the first leg there's no way to be sure what the take up from the teams will be, you could have 50+ teams express an interest but when it comes down to it only have 20 or so actually confirm to play so there was no way that anyone could expect Sparklie to provide a venue to accomadate a large number of teams (at a high cost to her) untill see can see the actual entry to the series. As the series becomes established she will be able to judge the entry and pick the venues with a clear idea of the entry for that event.
Keep up the good work Sparklie.