November 13th Mixed Pairs

[David.G]

New Date for Mixed Pairs is NOVEMBER 13th at Post Office Club Reading

[BB Warrior]

Sadly..... but as I had already expected.... ::)

Aug 20, 2011 15:29:22 GMT BB Warrior said:

It is therefore very unlikely (due to work and other commitments) that we will be able to play if the competition is re-arranged for later this year...... and, even if it is, is it worth her booking another day of holiday..... or will it be cancelled again? ::) >:(

..... we will be unable to make the new date.... :'(

Sept 3, 2011 13:36:29 GMT David.G said:

New Date for Mixed Pairs is NOVEMBER 13th at Post Office Club Reading

....due to family commitments that weekend. :-X

Sept 3, 2011 13:36:29 GMT David.G said:

New Date for Mixed Pairs is NOVEMBER 13th at Post Office Club Reading

Have added the above date to the Forum calendar.

Is there a proviso with this, Dave, ie. "will only take place if there is a sufficient entry ?" Otherwise you're back to square one, and you've even lost a pair. ::)
What would be considered a worthwhile lineup ?  A dozen pairs? :-/

[bigtj]

Probably going to be inter league match Sussex that Sunday, we are awaiting fixtures but if that is the case could be a problem for Sussex

[Chris]

Hi Dave

We won't be able to make the mixed pairs this weekend.

Came home from Jersy to no heating which is temporarily fixed and some things being done Saturday... therefore have to shop Sunday.

Regards
Chris

[SirKT]

Always thought this was going to be a dodgy weekend. We won`t be available either.
Hopefully there will be sufficient entries to run it :)

In an attempt to be helpful (not cynical) this was the lineup for Sun 21st August which was cancelled.

Jenny & Stuart Florey
Jackie Peckham & Curt Driver
Lorraine Hall & Jim Greensted
Pauline Withey & Mark Trafford
Colleen Park & Dave Ingram - subject to proviso of knowing quickly whether competition is on !
Nicki & Sean Stratford
Hayley & Kevin Tunstall
Sue Atkins & Dave Tooke

Chris & Chrissie Newson
Ros Appleby & Lewis Stratford


Those in red are unavailable this time around.
Those in yellow confirm their availablity

(At the time of asking, none of the six pairs remaining had confirmed for the later date.)
With just five days to go, and to be fair to all concerned, a decision needs to be made soon as to whether or not the competition will be run this year.

[bobhall]

no mama hall and jim greenstead but adding to it is lady ros and lewis stratford my offer was not good enough  ;D ;D ;D ;D

[milhouse]

Pauline and I are still intending on attending.

I seem to remember that Curt Driver could not make it this week, but not 100% sure, i am sure he will confirm.

[curtd]

I'm unable to make this weekend as am working .

Curt

[BB Warrior]

Strangely enough.... Colleen has been given the day off on Sunday without asking for it..... :o

So, apart from having to make arrangements for children and dogs etc, we would be available to play.... but there is no point in me making those arrangements if the competition will then be cancelled (again) at the last minute.... the combined cost of dog minders and two 120 mile round trips to Kent to take children to their mums does not come cheap and once these are booked we have to pay for them regardless of whether the competition goes ahead or not.... as we did last time. >:( :-X

Perhaps somebody could therefore advise ASAP. ;)

Bump !

[milhouse]

I have been in constant touch with Dave over the past few days regarding this competition and after many, many phonecalls to various people, there are only 8 confirmed entries, so it has been decided to cancel this event again :(
Dave has no internet access at the moment, so he will not be able to pick up anything that is said on here.  If there are any queries or concerns, please direct them to me via pm and i will pick up with Dave.

Cheers
Mark

[Colemanator]

Play it at Bournemouth in the evenings?

Nov 11, 2011 13:52:04 GMT Colemanator said:

Play it at Bournemouth in the evenings?

That is actually quite a good idea, as judging by this year there would have been 16 ladies present.

Ian is known to have good ideas from time to time!!

[Chris]

Sounds like an excellent idea to me

[BB Warrior]

Nov 11, 2011 14:13:27 GMT tommo III said:

Nov 11, 2011 13:52:04 GMT Colemanator said:

Play it at Bournemouth in the evenings?

That is actually quite a good idea, as judging by this year there would have been 16 ladies present.

Hmmmm.... not so sure about that myself, after playing all day most people seem to enjoy having their meal, a few drinks and relaxing during the evenings at Bournemouth with the quiz and karaoke taking place. :-/

More likely I suspect that the Mixed Pairs will again be combined with other competitions (Over 60's and Under 25's - as few players from either of those usually play in the Mixed Pairs as well) to ensure that there are sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile to open the Club. 8-)

Let's hope that next year there will be sufficient support to run all of the AEBBA Competitions, I know how much hard work that Dave (and others) put in behind the scenes for the benefit of us all throughout the year. ;D ;D

Something radically different needs to happen to make this competition 'sexy' again.
With respect, Dave, I don't think just shuffling the dates around is going to double the numbers willing to enter.

One thing's for sure, it will need to be discussed at the AEBBA AGM.

[milhouse]

It's something different to run it at Bournemouth, but who would run it? You can't expect Dave to run the main competition all day and then do the mixed pairs in the evening?  Plus you have the problem with playing on the same table as you may have already done earlier in the day or you may be playing the following day.
Yes, it will need to be discussed at the AGM, probably with the same half a dozen people who usually bother to turn up  :-/
Mixing it with another competition will probably be the best idea, it may not increase the numbers, but at least it will be played. As there were so few numbers for the under 25's, over 50's, 60's then this would make most sense to combine with.

[Chris]

Let's think about this. We can't get the mixed Pairs in at this time of year.

So we either say this is a no go ...............or try and see where it can fit in.

The most logical is the Bournemouth Pairs as the most Ladies are there.

If Dave did not not want to run it I could as could others who would.

I think we have to move forward as Jersey did or stop the competition.

It won't work with the others combinations as suggested for us personally as we both play over 50@s and some play both which puts too much pressure on the organisers.

Chris

[Chris]

Looking at how Jersey is run and the amount of mixed pairs I am sure a good 2 hour break could be put in for food timing with the Queens serving times.

[bigtj]

We were chewing this over yesterday and one suggestion made is why not play it on the Friday evening, I know there is the factor of people playing a table they will play in the doubles, but as many seem keen to play this competition it is worth trying to play on Bournemouth weeekend. If on the Friday we either took it down to the semi finals or final, then surely the latter stages could be played on either Saturday or Sunday.

Agree Dave cannot be expected to run this, but sure there are others that would do so, if we said run after dinner that would give people time to arrive and usually there is maybe the disco on the Friday evening, so would not take people away from the entertainment.

[BB Warrior]

Not wishing to be provocative here..... but what about the people who may wish to enter the Mixed Doubles as an individual "one-day competition" but who are unable (for work, financial or other reasons) to attend the whole weekend at Bournemouth or may not wish to enter the Main Pairs Competition anyway... ::)

The last time the Mixed Pairs was played in 2010, there were 12 pairs in the competition.... of those 24 players, exactly half of them played at Bournemouth this year with 3 pairs completely missing and 6 individual players not being there with their partners from the Mixed Pairs playing with somebody else at Bournemouth.

I don't know why those players didn't attend Bournemouth this year.... although it was possibly for the reasons that I suggested above.... however, since it is very unlikely that people would travel down to Bournemouth just to play in an evening competition if they didn't want to stay for the weekend, is it right that players who have previously supported the competition should now be effectively "excluded" from playing in the future?  

Personally, I think that a better solution may be to consider the suggestion made a few months ago when the first date was cancelled to host it in Surrey and continue to run it as an independent one-day competition.... it is likely that there would be more entries there, possibly some Ranking Points could be included to try to encourage players from other areas to turn up as well. ;)

[SirKT]

A lot of good points here. I also agree with TJ & Chrissie about the Bournemouth weekend. We discussed it quite a bit yesterday and it seems the logical solution.
I do not think that adding it to other competition days is the answer. It would certainly give the organisers a headache, especially if people want to play in the Over 50`s or Under 25`s as well as the Mixed Pairs. Any other competitions are to heavily supported to add something else to the day.
The numbers for Bournemouth were down this year and it could boost the entries for that as well.
I say lets give it a try ;)

Should be a good discussion at the AGM ;D

[Ros]

Nov 13, 2011 10:21:37 GMT BB Warrior said:

Not wishing to be provocative here..... but what about the people who may wish to enter the Mixed Doubles as an individual "one-day competition" but who are unable (for work, financial or other reasons) to attend the whole weekend at Bournemouth or may not wish to enter the Main Pairs Competition anyway... ::)

The last time the Mixed Pairs was played in 2010, there were 12 pairs in the competition.... of those 24 players, exactly half of them played at Bournemouth this year with 3 pairs completely missing and 6 individual players not being there with their partners from the Mixed Pairs playing with somebody else at Bournemouth.

I don't know why those players didn't attend Bournemouth this year.... although it was possibly for the reasons that I suggested above.... however, since it is very unlikely that people would travel down to Bournemouth just to play in an evening competition if they didn't want to stay for the weekend, is it right that players who have previously supported the competition should now be effectively "excluded" from playing in the future?  

Personally, I think that a better solution may be to consider the suggestion made a few months ago when the first date was cancelled to host it in Surrey and continue to run it as an independent one-day competition.... it is likely that there would be more entries there, possibly some Ranking Points could be included to try to encourage players from other areas to turn up as well. ;)

Dave - you took the words right out of my mouth:

Is it right that a competition that is supposed to be an Open should become conditional on entering another quite expensive and time consuming tournament that also requires a (probably different) partner to be able to enter?

I've only been to Bournemouth once (several years ago) and while I enjoyed it and may well go again sometime, I'm not likely to go just so that I can enter the mixed pairs. It's too far to go to 'commute' for an evening competition too.

Although on the plus side for Bournemouth, it would probably be easier to find people willing to enter this competition if they are there already. I stand by my previous comments on another thread - it's not the ladies that are apathetic about this competition, it's the men.

I also agree on the ranking points - is this the only Open competition that does not attract ranking points? What is the reasoning behind that? As today is the last day for proposed rule changes to be submitted for the AGM, shall we email this as a proposal?

Nov 13, 2011 11:05:45 GMT Ros said:

is this the only Open competition that does not attract ranking points? What is the reasoning behind that? As today is the last day for proposed rule changes to be submitted for the AGM, shall we email this as a proposal?

Hi Ros,
There is a Ranking Committee which was formed in 2007/08, chaired by Nigel, and much work went into overhauling the existing structure with care taken to make the new system as fair as possible.

There is an ongoing arrangement to review the points allocations on an annual basis. However, such seems to be the general acceptance of the points originally arrived at, that only a couple have tweaks have since been found necessary (basically, inclusion of the new Surrey and Guernsey Opens.)

In a case like this, where several people have commented that the National Mixed Doubles should be included as a ranking event, to encourage entry, it might be an opportune moment for another 'tweak'.

Certainly gets my vote.
tommo  

[NigelS]

As tommo says the ranking commitee reviews the system every year and a couple of tweaks have been made.

We rejected the mixed pairs originally as a ranking event. I think we have to be careful in that ranking points should not be awarded just to encourage entry to competitions. Ranking points should be only awarded if the competition is deemed appropriate to be a ranking event. We could start awarding points for over 50s, 60s and under 25s to 'encourage entry' but they are clearly not appropriate events for ranking purposes and in my opinion neither is the mixed pairs. However it doesn't mean it is not an important event on our calender and I hope we can get entries in future to ensure it takes place.

I would suggest though bringing it to the table at the AGM will allow me to take those views to the ranking commitee in January, and if there is a strong or not will to make the Mixed Pairs a ranking event at the AGM, this will have a big factor in the commitee's decision.

[Ros]

Nov 13, 2011 16:02:09 GMT NigelS said:

As tommo says the ranking commitee reviews the system every year and a couple of tweaks have been made.

We rejected the mixed pairs originally as a ranking event. I think we have to be careful in that ranking points should not be awarded just to encourage entry to competitions. Ranking points should be only awarded if the competition is deemed appropriate to be a ranking event. We could start awarding points for over 50s, 60s and under 25s to 'encourage entry' but they are clearly not appropriate events for ranking purposes and in my opinion neither is the mixed pairs. However it doesn't mean it is not an important event on our calender and I hope we can get entries in future to ensure it takes place.

I would suggest though bringing it to the table at the AGM will allow me to take those views to the ranking commitee in January, and if there is a strong or not will to make the Mixed Pairs a ranking event at the AGM, this will have a big factor in the commitee's decision.

There is a vital difference between the over 50s/60s/under 25s and the Mixed Pairs - the Mixed Pairs is an Open event, any pair of the appropriate gender can enter, whereas the others are restricted by age and therefore not Open events.

How does it get brought to the table at the AGM? Should I try to email Dave Alder? (I think I read earlier on this thread that he doesn't have internet access at the moment)

So your saying you have to travel all the way to bournemouth for the mixed doubles . What if you don't want to play in the main pairs?