Div 1 National Club Championships

[caoimhe]

There will be an Open Division Canoe Polo Competition held next Saturday in Blessington Adventure Centre as part of a weekend festival.

It will be a one day event and will incorporate the Div 1 qualification for the European Club Championships in Liverpool on September 18/19th.

Only players and teams who did not enter Div 2, 3, 4 etc in the Club Championships in Kilcock in July are eligible for the National Club Championships Division 1.

However all players and teams are welcome to participate as it is an open competition, but only eligible club teams will be ranked in the final results.

The best placed mens club team and best placed womens club team will be eligible to represent Ireland at the European Club Championships. Players ICU numbers will be checked to ensure all team members are registered members of the same club.

This competition is being run as part of a weekend festival in Blessington, so even if you're not competing, there will be lots to see and do.

The entry form is attached. Please email me your entry by thursday evening, 9pm. It is vital that we receive your entry form by then so that we can ensure your team is eligible. Teams not eligible must also return their entry forms by this time. Timetables will be given out on Saturday morning.

Cheques (no cash) to cover entry fee will be accepted on Saturday morning before the start of the competition.

More information will be posted here during the week, including start time, directions, etc.

Please contact me or Cathal Gorman if you have any questions.

[niall]

Is this not a bit short of notice? Four and a half days notice is not really enough!

[atbarber]

Niall

The event venue had to wait to be finalised. Most of the Div 1 players have been aware that this event was happening as there was no Div 1 event running in Kilcock in July.

This is the first time Blessington are running an event and they have even gone and got a set of floating goals made up for the event.

Good luck to Blessington in organising this event.

Adrian

[conor]

Adrian,
I have to agree with Niall, a few days notice not enough for a competition. You say that most Div 1 players knew about this but as Caoimhe says it is open for all players not just Div 1 teams. I had heard a rumor at the start of Audust that there may be a second comp in Aug in addition to the Cork Cup, nobody was able to say when or where. Nobody is going to hold off on alternative plans for a w/e just in case there was another comp.
If players / teams knew that this may be happening in advance they could plan for it.
Even if the venue wasn't finalised it could still be advertised as a comp with an alternative being used if Blessington was unavailable. I sure there are many teams that would like to support this comp but many will not know that it was on. I know the venue had to be comfirmed but no tentitive dates were even being suggested.
I know is it very difficult to arrange a new comp at a previously unused venue and I wish the best of luck to the organisers and I will be trying to see if I can get a team together for it.

Regards

Conor

[caoimhe]

Thanks Conor,

I hope this will satisfactorily deal with the points raised.

Allowing for the fact that some people may not of heard until this week, i also hope next Saturday's competition will be a success. At the start of the season a competition calendar was put together by the NCPC and forwarded to canoepolo.ie webmaster which was advertised as follows:

Dates are as follow :

Belfast: March 27/28 (4 aside)
Limerick: 24-25 April
Carrick-on-Shannon: 5-6 June
Kilcock: July 10/11 (TBC)
Cork: August 14/15 (TBC)
Kilcock: August 21/22 (Junior, TBC)

Obviously this post could have caused some confusion due to the word 'junior'. None of the other competition dates specify what categories are to be catered for and very often it depends on entries. We had however envisaged that the end of August would be ideal for a junior competition. I presume this is why that word was added in. Unfortunately this calendar wasn't updated.

Originally we hoped to have a one day senior (Div 1 Nat. Club Championship) and a one day junior competition. Unfortunately due to events outside the committee's control, the junior competition will not happen but following the Div 2, 3 and Junior National Club Championships in July we will now have the Div 1 National Club Championships as planned and as announced in Kilcock in July.

It is due to a recent history of poor entries to Div 1 that we have decided to open up the entry to all teams so that we have an enjoyable event.

I personally did not feel it was appropriate to put up an entry form advertising a competition on "Saturday or Sunday in Blessington or Kilcock". Cathal only got confirmation on Monday that Blessington would have floating goals in time.





Blessington are eager to promote canoe polo at the centre and have been running polo sessions there every wednesday evening throughout the summer. They will have a brand new set of floating goals for the competition next Saturday. Hopefully we all will have a very enjoyable day.


Hope to see as many as possible there,

Caoimhe

[caoimhe]

Sean Downes, orgainser of the Div 2, 3 & 4 club competition in Kilcock will post the final results of the competition here. Any club team not included in the official results is eligible to compete for the title of Div 1 National Club Champions.

[niall]

I wouldn't really bother as I don't think I can get a club team together without any time to organise. Sorry we can't be there to support a new venue though.

[TheMasterG]

The timetable for tomorrow is attached and there's a map below with a link to find the venue. It is taking place in the Leisure centre in Blessington, just get to the village and it's signposted from there :)

First game begins at 10:00am, be there for 09:30am at the latest ;)

Link to interactive map! (http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=-725000&Y=6995000&gride=&gridn=&scale=200000&coordsys=mercator&db=&lang=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&localinfosel=&local=&kw=&srec=0&mapsize=big&db=&rt=)

http://mc.multimap.com/cs/beu041//M-2/Y27/M-2900Y27980S200W700H400.gif

[TheMasterG]

Thanks to all for a great day in Blesso, some great games were played and the venue and new floating goals worked out nicely :thumbup: We should be seeing a National League event here next year all going well.

1) WildWater Kayak Club A
2) WildWater Kayak Club B
3) Bazaar
4) Banba

WWKCA and Banba are now eligible to play in the European Club Championships next month in Liverpool as Men's and Women's National Club Champions respectively.

Photos from the event to follow....

[Sean Mc]

Well done to the all on organising this one, a great venue and hopefully there'll be a full national event there next year.
Some of ye may remember this thread from last year http://www.canoepolo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2123, well the committee did do something, the rest is up to us, the players

[GrainneOK]

"well the committee did do something"

I am confused - what did they do?

Its great to see a new event venue for polo, but correct me if Im wrong, I thought this event was organised by Blessington as part of a festival?

Also the credit for polo returning to the Cork venue after 4 years is due to hard work by Niall and Phoenix, UCC and CIT clubs.

Anyway,looking forward to an action packed polo calender next season:)

See ye at Irish Open!

[atbarber]

Folks

The AGM will give you an idea as how the committee have furthered the development of canoe polo in Ireland. We will be able to answer your questions at that time.

May I remind people that this is OUR sport and it takes more than one committee to develop the sport. It is up to all paddlers to work to improve our sport and to help the committee to achieve goals.

Sandycove, Cork, Blessington, Naas, Kilcullan and Kilcock have all helped to develop the sport in our country and I think we should not be asking what has been doen but what can we do for the sport.

Lets come to the AGM with your suggestions. Motions should be submitted beforehand.

This is our sport lets try to improve it around the country and keep our atheletes up at a high standard in the sport.

Adrian Barber