Proposals

Unsatisfactory Junior Tournaments - Proposal from Alan Ransome to ETTA National Council July 2008

JUNIOR, CADET AND UNDER 14 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

This item is on the agenda for the July Council because the last 5 events for the above competitions have been unsatisfactory from an organisational perspective.

Please find attached Appendix A which gives details of the five events concerned.

I hope that Council will agree that to organise five consecutive sub-standard Junior, Cadet and Under 14 National Championships spanning 3 seasons is not acceptable. Our junior players, their parents and coaches have the right to expect that National Championships will be of a high standard in terms of organisation, planning and playing conditions and that they will give value for the investment both in time and finance that the players and their parents are contributing.

From memory the Junior National Championships have been running for approximately 40 years and it is only in recent years that they have proved to be so problematic. To bring these events back up to standard, I would like to make the following proposals:

1. As Richard Scruton said in his speech at the AGM, these events need to be player focused and planned to give value and quality to the participants. There is no sponsor now for these events so that in actual fact the paymasters are the players and their parents with their entry fees and of course these fees are only one of the costs that they have to meet to participate. I recognise that some of my proposals will cost more. This could be met from a larger entry or, if not, entry fees may need to rise to meet at least some of the extra cost.

2. The dates for the events need to be suitable. The Junior and Cadet Championships were played in December for many years. There is a gap in the Junior programme at present in December and that should be filled with the National Championships as soon as possible. The Under 14 Championships should be later in the season but should take place by mid April at the latest to avoid close proximity to the Cadet Masters.

3. The venue should be central and should be big enough for 24+ tables, possibly up to 30 if the size of the entry requires it. Until recently, there was a policy in the ETTA that all Junior National events would be played in a central location with Sheffield and Doncaster being the furthest North and Milton Keynes and Northampton being the furthest South. They should also be in the middle of the country and not at the extremes of East or West. The purpose of this is to avoid long travel distances for some of the players. Norwich, Reading and Crystal Palace are outside these boundaries and should not be used in future.

We are always able to find a venue of the right size for the Junior British League with up to 37 tables and this should be the same for the National Championships. Venues should have suitable playing conditions (lighting and floor), spectator seating, catering, car parking etc although this has not been a problem in the last two seasons for the Junior and Under 14 Championships. For the future, venues such as Sheffield EIS, Stoke and Wolverhampton immediately come to mind.

4. The format of the event and the schedule should provide value as well as, so far as possible, providing a climax with well staged finals.

A system of play providing a good setting and size of audience for the finals plus some recommendations with regard to scheduling are contained in Appendix B.

5. Umpires – To conduct a good tournament, qualified umpires are essential and need to be sufficient to meet the need and therefore I would recommend that the ratio of umpires to tables be increased from 1 table to 1.25 umpires to 1 table to 1.33 umpires. Discussions elsewhere have been considering breaks for umpires. My view is that there should be two breaks during the day – ¾ hour at lunchtime in 3 shifts and ½ hour during the late afternoon, where possible at the same time as the singles finals, but with a shift system to ensure continuity of the tournament. Singles finals are referred to in Appendix B.

6. The old principle of the referee checking all entries carefully prior to the draw should be followed and any doubtful information be followed up with the players or their parents so that they can be rectified before the draw. The completed draw should also be published well in advance and should appear in the programme and on the website. It should be checked carefully to avoid errors prior to publication.

7. For all National events, in addition to the draw being published on the website, there should be a preview of the tournament presented on the ETTA website 7 days before the tournament to increase interest in the event. At the event itself, Malcolm Macfarlane or a suitably qualified person should be part of the organising team to ensure that the results are going onto the website as quickly as possible and reports are being filed each day from the Championship. (The latter is beginning to happen now.)

8. We should have a much better balance within the calendar for National events and these should be spread throughout the season to avoid the intolerable pressure on the staff at Hastings at the end of the season.

9. A venue should be dressed with banners outside as well as inside with posters and with a suitable backdrop stand for photographs. This would create extra meaning and importance to the event for parents, spectators and other visitors to the venue.

Alan Ransome

APPENDIX A

National Under 14, Under 13, Under 12 and Under 11 Championships in Norwich – 31 May/1 June 2008

This was probably the poorest value tournament for the players and parents that the Association has ever promoted. A decision was taken to cancel the doubles event and to allow only one player to qualify from each singles group. As a result of this there were a large number of withdrawals from players who decided that the trip was not worthwhile and there were other players who competed in the preliminary groups at 9.00 am on Saturday morning, had only one match and were finished and ready to go home again at 9.45 am.

Throughout the day the majority of the tables were without a match and the large group of umpires who were present spent most of their time in the umpires enclosure rather than officiating.

Several problems were created by errors in the programme, one of which listed times of matches being scheduled for 9.00 am when the group should have been 11.00 am. This meant that players were arriving 2 hours earlier than necessary to participate.

In my view doubles are important, not to the same degree as singles, but nevertheless are valuable because:

a) Medals at important international events can be won in doubles competitions, an example being the recent European Youth Championships

b) Doubles are played in some team event formats and can decide the matches

c) The doubles are the events which raises the most revenue for the organisers.

Junior and Cadet National Championships in Reading – 3 / 4 May 2008

This tournament was unsatisfactory because:

a) The entry checking process was flawed. Two entries from TTK Greenhouse were rejected by the referee because of insufficient information. They were not followed up by the referee or the organising committee and these 2 players were not entered in the draw. The failure to communicate with the person coordinating the TTK Greenhouse entries was unacceptable. As a result TTK Greenhouse decided to withdraw all 12 entries.

There was also a complication with an entry for the cadet girls doubles where one of the players had failed to put the name of their partner on the form whilst the player’s partner had completed it correctly. Again this was not followed up by the referee or Organising Committee and the pair, who would have been a top seeded pair, was left out of the event.

My understanding is that it has been the long standing procedure when there are genuine errors and mistakes on entry forms of the kind described above that the referee or organising committee follow them up with the players before the draw to establish validity to avoid uncomfortable circumstances such as described above.

b) The draw for all of the singles events had to be re-drawn because of confusion between what was included in the entry form and the what was understood by the referee. The form stated that 2 players would qualify from each group. The referee’s published draw only had one qualifier per group which meant that the singles draw for the knock-out rounds had to be re-drawn and the time schedule re-published.

c) Racket testing – there was a great deal of embarrassment at the tournament when the regulations issued by the Management Committee were first of all enforced when a player failed the test and the player was disqualified from the tournament. Then when a second player failed the test for the same reason, the player who was a top seed, was disqualified but after protest was re-instated. A third player who failed the test was just allowed to continue.

The glue testing procedures from the ITTF have been subject to error ever since their introduction. However, it was quite clear to anyone who had followed the racket testing in the Junior International scene in the weeks leading up to Reading that these problems were likely to occur as very similar problems had happened with the same players at the Hungarian Junior Open and the World Schools Championships and could have been avoided if a different policy had been decided.

d) As a result of the problems with the draw, the finals were played late to only a quarter full hall.

National Under 14 Championships at Norwich – 2007

Without going into too much detail, this tournament ran very late on the Saturday evening which was regarded by all as being unsatisfactory and created significant difficulties with the umpires.

National Junior and Cadet Competition at Doncaster – 2007

The latter stages and finals were scheduled for a 3rd day (Bank Holiday Monday) on the basis of attracting more spectators for the best matches. The spectators failed to materialise and cost many parents and coaches a further overnight stay which ran into thousands of pounds. Several youngsters played just one match on the Monday. It also incurred extra costs for the ETTA for umpires and officials accommodation and meals. It was recognised afterwards that this was not a good idea and was dropped for 2008.

National Under 14, Under 13 and Under 12 Championships at Crystal Palace – June 2006

This venue was entirely unsatisfactory due to the hot and humid conditions in the playing hall, which was effectively a greenhouse in the middle of June. Additionally with sunlight streaming through large windows on one side of the hall at predicted times on both Saturday and Sunday, play was disrupted on many tables. The tournament was further disrupted by the swimming gala on the other side of the hall with music and regular announcements for the swimmers at such a level that it was difficult to have a conversation, let alone play. Only the experience and skill of the referee ensured that play was completed within reasonable limits on both days.

APPENDIX B

The system of play for the singles in all these events should be to start with groups of 3 or 4 with 2 qualifying for the knock out rounds. There should be reasonable breaks between the matches in the knock out rounds.

Boys and Girls doubles events should take place in the Junior and Cadet events and mixed doubles for the Juniors. At the Under 14 Championships there should be doubles at Under 14 and Under 13 level but not at Under 12 and Under 11. All doubles should be straight knock out.

The start time for both of these competitions should be 9.00 am with the latest finish time set at 8.00 pm for Saturday and 6.30 pm for Sunday.

To create good singles finals with a worthwhile audience, the following order of play should be followed:

Junior Day (Saturday)
Boys & Girls Groups
Mixed Doubles Rounds 1 and 2
Singles Round 1 to Finals
Mixed Doubles Round 3 to Finals
Boys & Girls Doubles Round 1 to Finals
(Round 1 starting at the same time as Round 3 of the Mixed Doubles)

Cadet Day (Sunday)
Boys & Girls Groups
Singles Round 1 to Finals
Boys & Girls Doubles Round 1 to Finals

Under 14/Under 12 Day (Saturday) Under 12 Groups Under 12 Singles Round 1 to Finals Under 14 Groups Under 14 Singles Round 1 to Finals Under 14 Boys & Girls Doubles - Round 1 to Finals

Under 13/Under 11 Day (Sunday) Under 11 Groups Under 11 Singles Round 1 to Finals Under 13 Groups Under 13 Singles Round 1 to Finals Under 13 Boys & Girls Doubles - Round 1 to Finals

The Saturday should always have the most matches as a later finish is more acceptable.

Playing the singles right through to the final is following the same principles as used for the Butterfly Grand Prix.

There would be no play during the Boys and Girls Singles finals. Both matches would be played at the same time, followed by the presentations.

This would also mean that all of the participants playing in the doubles would remain at the venue until after the singles finals were played. This is good for the players who reach the final and also good for the rest of the players to be able to enjoy watching the finals. Unfortunately the doubles finals would be played with only a small audience but doubles, whilst important, are not the main event.

For the Cadet events on the Sunday, these principles would be followed except there are no mixed doubles.

With the Under 14 Championship, play should start at 9.00 am with the Under 12 events played right through to the finals, the finals taking place during the umpires lunch break. The Under 14 events should be played then right through to the finals, with the finals being played during the second umpires break, followed by the Under 14 doubles.

The Sunday pattern should be similar, starting with the Under 11 through to the finals followed by the Under 13 through to the finals and then the Under 13 doubles.

Adequate time should be provided in the schedule for the Under 14 players on the Saturday and the Under 13 players on the Sunday to have suitable practice beforehand. This should not be a problem as the Under 12 and Under 11 events would be running down on the number of tables that are required at the last 16 and quarter final stages that would give the Under 14 players the opportunity to have suitable practice. As the Under 12 and Under 11 players are less likely to make significant progress in the doubles this schedule would mean that they would start early but finish earlier whilst the Under 14 players would have the luxury of starting later but would finish later.

Update :

The criticisms that I have made about the running of the Junior and Cadet National Championships and the Under 14 National Championships have been accepted as valid by the ETTA Marketing Committee who have promised to look at all of the criticisms and see what they can do to put them right. 

The Marketing Department had the opportunity to start on the improvements this season by moving the National Junior Championships from the bottleneck at the end of the season into December but they declined to do so.  A 2 month gap now exists between the Stockton-on-Tees 4 Star in November and the East Midlands 4 Star in January whilst we have the National Junior and Cadet Championships, the National Under 14 Championships, the National Schools Individual Championships, the Cadet Masters and the Junior Masters all running within a few weeks of each other across the time when youngsters are preparing for and taking exams.  Promises have been made for improvement.  Whether I am elected or not, let’s hope that this happens.