Impressions of Dartford

[D7's]

Originally posted by Tom Tom
On the Marshalling side of things,

I will apologise for all my mistakes of the day.
It was my first tournament that I marshalled (as was for Joe with me on field 2 (severe) and the other guys had a few tourneys under there belt)

I know people will say it was your first tourney, It showed. I am sure it did but it opened my eyes to the other side of things. How many players have hand on there hearts marshalled a tourney?
I had a few years of site marshalling (not the same by a long shot i know).

When you have no marshalls for the tourney as was the case up till the day. Its people like myself who dont mind stepping and just doing it otherwise the teams would not get to play.

I know the argument I will be slated for here, Yea but if you aint good enough dont bother doing it.

How am I meant to gain experience with out just getting in there.

With our field (severe) it was a tough job because we had to try to keep up with the other fields but as Colin said we had to blow up half the bunkers after every game.

You would do one bunker and then the other 3 or 4 bunkers people asked you to do, you think you are done and the team would be like,

Marshall I asked you to do that one.....

I did. Its just gone down again,

This meant we did not get to wipe half the bunkers down as well as you as a player would like which then make it hard for you to try to tell a guy its not a hit, its from the bunker. I had a guy from WolfPac covered in orange paint because he played tight and just got orange on his left side. I watched closely and when he got hit he weant but it was hard to tell the other team he was clean really.

I believe each team who plays a tourney regularly should miss one leg to marshall and then people like myself who turn up to help with numbers just strengthen a field with a team already on it. So you start with 7 and just get 4/5 others making it a better run field.

I am truly sorry for any mistakes I made be it bad calls or just too indisisive (sp?) when I should be stronger. This is experience. When you play you arent a pro the first time you do, but you get that by training and getting tourney experience.

I feel its the same with marshalling.

I would like to Thank all the teams for there patience and thanks to Colin for cathcing the guy with goggles.

Its tough work and I appreciate more now what Cr@p marshalls put up with.

My girlfriend asked me when I got in, what other sport do the judges take more punishment than the players?

I have bruises on bruises which is fine, it goes with the job but I have ones that I never have when I play.

I am glad people did have a good time and for the final time I am sorry for those who feel like they were cheated on field 2 for whatever reason.

But until we can get more people to marshall than play every event you wont get teams marshalling you will get the odd guy who needs the cash, team cant play that event or a friend of the organisor.

Please constructive critism is good, I want to learn to be better, but dont just say ohh yea you were *&^% because you called me out when that was no way a hit, (I know thats not what Colin is saying so this is not a direct reply to him but just in general)

These things happen but without experience I wont know what to change.

Dave would like to thank all the people that marshalled on Sunday without you we would have cancelled the day. Apologises for the extra grief marshals had on Field 2. All marshals make bad calls occasionally (even experienced ones) in every sport not just paintball. Don't loose sleep over it. Thanks again, its never going to be an easy job. To all the players offerring to marshal in June please do not cancel at last moment.

Rekka

 

[Stan]

LJ is right no one has moaned but on the day you feel like you are about to be hung, drawn and quarterd.

Will you marshal again?

 

[L J]

i have marshalled 3 tournaments, and will certainly marshall again as long as my team isnt playing. but after coming first, i guess we are playing again.

 

[Tris]

Severe Field

Originally posted by sub
Thank you for your constructive criticism although I don't think the grass length comes under this catagory. We, of course are aware of the problems with marshals some worst than others we are working on ways to over come this but it is never going to be perfect. The size of the fields are in line with PA Rule Book. The Severe field was sponsored and had we had known before hand that it was going to keep deflating, would not have accepted it. The netting was supplied by Campaign and is used to its full length. This is not a Millenium event, this is the first Dartford 7's tournament run by Dave with Keiron and Liz doing a brilliant job with the divisions and registration area, things can only improve.

Just off the phone to Jon Payne, the aforementioned Severe field was/is a prototype and this was made clear to the organisers of the D7 event. The field was trailed at the Elsham branch of JCS for a month and the problems mentioned above were reported back to the original manufacturer of this product. A field was required for the event and one was supplied FOC.

I have got to say that people who whinge, moan and constantly make constructive criticism statements using paintball forums really burn my ass. I think Dave, Kieran and Liz would appreciate to be supported with action rather than about with bellyaches on the internet. They are doing a brilliant job of running a competitive series in SE London. Credit where credit is due.

 

[marshallmathers]

So far the only people I agree with so far is Broken Arrow and Tris!

Like Tris said the Severe field was/ is a PROTOTYPE (does everyone understand this!) and it doesn't help the fact that as the field was being set out persons involved were ripping the bunkers as they were hitting the pegs into the ground (O they forgot to mention that bit did they?). Once the Severe send their new field what are people going to moan about then??????

Look this is a good tournament and as Broken Arrow said the only one in the south, so why don't we just put our hands together for everyone involved in running it! and Keep up the good work..............

 

[D6]

Originally posted by marshallmathers

Look this is a good tournament and as Broken Arrow said the only one in the south...

What about the SWPL?

I think D7's is extremely well run- gets my vote everytime

Think the thread was started with an aim to improve the series- not to condemn it.

 

[jinx76]

like tris and marshall said

look guys speaking from experience and i now have quite a bit of it at marshalling(on sub bench with team i marshall s2k4 and p.a. league) all that can be said is constructive or not it does put a downer on the event and if you have criticism then make it privatley to the organisers as talking about it on ere does no one any good if you wanna criticise then like said do it direct because this seems to happen with all the domestic tourney's uk wide there is always someone saying something say it in private for goodness sake please.

tom i feel for you bud i remember the first tourney i marshalled down at temple all those years ago and i know how much stick you get so dont be down heartened mate chin up like u said it is like playing.Practice and confidence are key in my opinion oh and knowledge of the rules being used of course.

these are just my views and not those of my team or sponsors.

dave if you are willing to pay am sure a lot of the p.a. refs may well be willing to come down to ref the next event you should get in touch with hatt's or russell(rulebook)smith

regards

 

[Half-Pint]

whats really funny is....

the only people moaning, are the people who are moaning about moaners, who actually arent moaning.... work it out they're just giving advice on how they would become more satisfied customers....

the D7s are awesome... great set up, location, layout... i actually love the field size/shape...

the only thing letting it down...
it isnt even the quality of the marshalling... its the lack of marshalls... you really need 10 a field...

anyone can be told to marshall sternly/softly... ya deya deya de

i personally would like to see the strictness of the millennium mirrrored here...

i was involved in one controversial game on sunday, i wont give details, but anyway... what i believe it comes down to, is understaffing.... if i was in the wrong then i'll accept it, but the fact is i wasnt told anything... cos there werent enough marshalls on field to see the incident... i had to pursue the issue on field... then to have the decision reversed after being told we had won FOUR times really pissed me off... you just cant let that happen...

bad calls happen, whatever, i accept...
but not making a call.... that shouldnt happen...

i hope if/when campaign marshall a leg, we get our whole team on one field, and we do it properly... i know its not the millennium, but i'd like to see some millennium strictness...

Hp

 

[The Mighty Dwarf]

Hi all,

my own suggestions ,

1, provide some shields on the fields and if need be some body armour, we all know what is its like to be hit once but getting hit all day is a real pain...

2, put another 2 marshalls on the fields this way each the marshalls are not over worked trying to cover large areas , this would hopefully stop some of the bad calls.

3 , ask the teams playing what colour paint they are using again this would stop elimanation calls , only will work if all team are using one colour and the other a different. As this hapened on field 2 one player was pulled for a pink mark on his hopper when both teams were shooting yellow and green paint!

4 , Pay the marshalls there worth as £50 is not a lot for the work involved and putting the wage up will get those more experianced marshalls on the field .

5. Is there a training school for marshalls , I know all the PA guys had to sit an exam .

 

[ericostani]

if you pay the marshalls more, i will consider it next time for sure.

maybe the fields could be more 7 man ish, with snakes, and center pieces n' stuff talk to colin, he will make uber fields happen.

s'all good. and was well impressed actually, the staging and netting etc. was quality.
respect.