Sorry to hear there were problems at the competition. We weren't aware of this as our daughter was in the under 9s which were finished by 1.30ish with no big waits.
Jane
Sorry to hear there were problems at the competition. We weren't aware of this as our daughter was in the under 9s which were finished by 1.30ish with no big waits.
Jane
Agree venue good but huge time delays and some iffy referring marred the day, we witnessed incorrect addition of points in the poules and and a wrong decision at 14:14 in the DE , which was challenged by the fencer but rebuffed. Overall not a great experience.
From my understanding there were some issues with referees through the day and I'll be asking James to do some things going forward about that.Originally Posted by Scrabble
The lessons learnt so far is:
- Reduce the numbers (smaller U9/U11/U13).
- Start U15/U13 in the morning (as they go into DE this frees space for the U9/U11)
- There was an over-reliance on IT - we let it run the comp rather than us and that created a bottleneck which isn't the way it should be.
- Referees - we had a handful of complaints on the day - I'll be looking into that as a specific issue and that won't be public, I don't think its fair to critique someone's presiding after the fact without a video to point to. Holding refereeing exams was well-intentioned but better suited to a county event really.
- We'll be doing some thinking about where the PA system was sited - it was making me jump every time it got used when I was standing nearby so that'll need to have some more space around it - alternatively we'll have to move it to the balcony which will reduce the space for kit there.
I suspect the net effect of this may be that we swing too far the other way next year if people are happy to accept that we will be learning from this. That gives us the safety net and we can then refine as opposed to alter the day wholesale.
I'd like to thank Jon and his team for putting on this event.
Anyone who saw them on the day will know how tirelessly they worked throughout the day, especially towards the end when they tried their best to ensure everything finished the way it should have.
It's the shame the event ended the way it did as it had the potential to be a great event, and I'm sure that, with a few small changes, next years will be.
My fencers, despite the delays, enjoyed the day, as did I, apart from missing out on getting a bacon butty and we're looking forward to coming back next year.
Robert
I would also like to thank the organisers, and hopefully this year will be a learning experience for next year. A couple of thoughts:
Rather than reduce the numbers for some ages, it may be better to run fewer age groups in total?
The u11 boys DE was confused as the fights to get down to the last 32 took place at the same time as the L32 fights that could take place creating a bottleneck later on ( there was a wait of an hour and a half between the L32 and L16 fights).
The PA was good, although difficult to hear clearly on the balcony behind the glass.
The refereeing was generally fine - differences of opinion are inevitable. In common with many competitions different referees had different levels of tolerance before giving yellow cards - some unnecessarily strict, others bizarrely lenient.
I hope this helps.
wow, that was close.
you almost came across as a bitter individual whose offspring didn't outperform your own failures...
Wanted to say a massive well done and thank you, unfortunately not to the organisers but to Mrs Grizz for making sure that the athletes are put first.
She has, off her own back, arranged for the U15 boys to finish the competition on Saturday at the Newham LPJS. She has done this to make sure that the boys do not feel abandoned and can get the appropriate ranking points to ensure that the EF rankings are correct and fair for selection for Paris (the U13 boys had finished and could have had an unfair advantage). Also want to say thanks to Linda at Newham and Rodney and Ray at EF for helping to make this happen.
Jed
Much as I love taking the credit for other people's work, in this case it all belongs to Mrs Grizz and Linda & the Newham team.
Have just seen the email that went to the people affected, and it seems like the parents and fencers have also been incredibly co-operative and understanding, so credit to them too.
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