OCN
15th October 1999

U13 / U 16 / U21 Championships
by Kevin Hyman

 

British National Octopush Championships U-16 and U-21 Match Report

The largest-ever Junior Octopush event was held at Crystal Palace on the 12th June 99. It attracted teams from all over the country: Orkney to Cornwall and from Norwich to Pembroke. The large numbers kept all three pitches in the Competition pool in use for 7 hours.

The competition was run with 3 initial groups, after the first round of playing all other teams in the group, two teams from each went up into the top group, next two to the middle group and remainder to the bottom. Now in their final groups, each team played another round robin to determine the champions. Also at about this halfway time the U-21 championships started. This meant careful planning and time control to keep a continuous stream of players and referees circulating. A major advantage of Crystal Palace is that the bottom is flat and so there was no need to equalise the direction of play. This meant that each game was played with no halftime, saving valuable minutes that would have been lost in changing ends.

There were a few minutes of panic when the contingents from Sheffield and Orkney had not arrived, but they appeared over the stands like the cavalry, just in time to save the day.

There were 16 U-16 teams all together, an increase on last year and very promising for an even bigger gathering next year. Despite the intense competition, the atmosphere was friendly and all the teams enjoyed themselves. The Under-16s was dominated by Guildford, who have set a new challenge for next year – the aim is not just to take a game from them, but even to score a single goal! Close on their heels came Orkney Vikings, losing only one match. Metrodome Barracudas, Totnes and Sheffield all had close matches, with Sheffield and Totnes having to have a tie-break for fourth and fifth places, while Rochdale Mantas came in sixth.

The Most Improved Team trophy was awarded to Pembroke. This was very close-run, with several teams eligible, and all teams showing a definite rise in standards. Alastair Skene, the previous year's organiser, stated that any of the top four teams would have beaten any of the previous winners. This augurs well for the Senior team in a few years time. There is even talk of an international championship next year, with South Africa and New Zealand interested.

The U-21 championship put another six teams into the pool. This was a hard fight between the two favourites: Sale and Solent A, with Sale and Solent neck and neck until the penultimate game. At this point they played each other: this was a game with lots of play around the gullies between two well-matched teams. Sale managed to get one goal ahead and held their lead to win and hence retain the title. Northampton and Thames were very evenly matched as well, coming third and fourth, whilst Guildford and Solent B battled it out for last place.

Thanks to everyone who turned up and supported the event, I look forward to seeing you next year. To any other potential teams out there, why not put a group together and join in next year.

 

Kevin Hyman
Junior Co-ordinator
email: junioryouth@britishoctopush.org


P.S. I was short of two pucks at the end of the tournament. Any team that suddenly seems to have more orange pucks than they thought they had, please let me know.


Below are some ideas to keep improving the tournament, please have a look and send me any comments.

Ideas for next year:

I am open to any ideas to help ensure that the competition keeps a steady growth, offers value for money and helps to develop the sport.

With the size of the U-16 gathering, I envisage that next year the U-21s will have to be run as a separate tournament. (maybe in the evening after the U16s?) This would also give the possibility of players entering both competitions.

The tournament was run in two phases, on the same lines as in previous years. [The first round is played with round robins to identify the strongest teams, which then play off in the "super league" for the title, while the weaker teams have a chance to play against each other. This means starting the competition with the teams seeded evenly across the groups (ideally two strong and two weak in each group)]

The ability of the top teams is really improving, and for the new teams this means not seeing much of the puck in the first round. Asking strong teams to "play down" does not help much, and of course a part of the advantage for weaker teams to play stronger ones is to learn new tactics and ideas.

As an alternative, if the teams graded themselves on entry into three divisions, say 6 in each and played 5 games each, then top three up and bottom 3 down, and play the three new teams in the division. This would give 8 games each in total so the teams would play a reasonable spread of abilities, but without the very strongest and weakest teams having to play each other. It will help if the groups are about the same size, but the promotion of three teams would give an excellent chance of sorting out any initial misplacing.

Please let me know your thoughts on this or any other ways of improving the experience for the Juniors.

The other problem with a Junior Competition is of getting enough referees in the water. We currently rely on volunteers from the teams. Paying for "professional" referees would add considerably to the cost. This year due to the large number of matches we had the B.O.A. Committee helping as well, but even so some matches had to start with only one water referee. I can understand that many teams travel a long distance and bringing extra people to referee adds to the logistics problems, so a big thank you to everyone who got in or helped with time keeping.

Any volunteers from the LONDON area adult clubs to help next year will be very welcome – it’s the future of your game you will be supporting.

Kevin Hyman

email: junioryouth@britishoctopush.org

 

British Octopush Association

Match Report on the 4th National U-13 Championship

The fourth Under-13 National Championships were held on 15th May at Sheffield, the same venue as last year. Sheffield is proving a popular venue, due to the ability to run two sessions in parallel in reasonably shallow water, and due to its central location.

This year we had 11 teams, down from last year’s 13, this was due short notice to a couple of clubs and one whose team had gone over age, but compensated for by three teams from Orkney.

Despite the slight reduction in number of teams, the pool was continuously full of players, and everyone enjoyed the match. It was won convincingly and deservedly by an unbeaten team from Orkney.

The match was organised into two groups; each team played all the others in their group once. The top three teams in each group went up, the rest down. Scores were taken as two points for a win, one for a draw, Goal difference was not used, in order to avoid the need to score continuously against weaker teams. To accommodate the large number of games, teams that had played each other in the first round did not meet again, but took the score from the first round. Teams going up included an injury-hit Farnham Bishops who had only got four players but still won enough to go up. In the best sporting traditions, Sheffield lent them a player, but the strain of not having any substitutes started to show in the second round, and they failed to score. The Huddersfield Sharks were also unable to record a victory in the second round, but carried enough points to put them fifth.

The battle for second to fourth places was a very tight one, with all three positions coming down to the final game. Sheffield Stingrays had finished all their games 5 points. Guildford Gremlins and Inverness Titans went into the last game with five each. Had they drawn, Stingrays would have been fourth and Gremlins and Titans would play on for the decisive Golden Gull for second and third place.

However, after some confusion about the final score, it was decided that Titans had won, to take second place.

Gremlins and Stingrays therefore had a 5-minute playoff for third place. Stingrays took an early lead, and despite a lot of play round the Stingrays goal from a tired Gremlins team, they could not get the equaliser and so Stingrays went third. There were trophies for all the teams and certificates for each player, so no-one went away empty-handed. The standard of play was very high, with excellent teamwork and individual puck skills. The general impression was that the quality of playing has improved again over last year. Coaching courses run by Clare Ash at Pembroke, Orkney and Guildford and local tournaments such as Orkney and Sheffield can only help contribute to this. It is vital to the future of the game that this encouragement continues. With the youngest player only just 9 years old, it may be a few years before they are playing for their country, but it is certain that we saw many of the future British Team at Sheffield.

The competition ran perfectly to time, a tribute to the teams for being ready to start each game as scheduled. Many thanks to: Chris Careless for organising the pool, Alastair Skene (the previous organiser) for his help, Gillian for keeping the records and everybody who refereed and all the parents and coaches who supported the event.

 

Pool 1 - Round 1      
Orkney Storms A 4 Pembroke Dragons 0
Batley Argonauts 2 Guildford Gremlins 2
Sheffield Stingrays A 5 Pembroke Dragons 1
Orkney Cyclones C 0 Guildford Gremlins 3
Batley Argonauts 4 Pembroke Dragons 0
Sheffield Stingrays A 0 Orkney Storms A 4
Orkney Cyclones C 2 Pembroke Dragons 2
Batley Argonauts 0 Orkney Storms A 4
Guildford Gremlins 2 Sheffield Stingrays A 1
Orkney Cyclones C 0 Batley Argonauts 4
Guildford Gremlins 1 Orkney Storms A 4

 

Pool 2 - Round 1      
Sheffield Stingrays A 5 Orkney Cyclones C 0
Orkney Gales B 5 Sheffield Stingrays B 1
Farnham Bishops 0 Huddersfield Sharks 5
Inverness Titans 9 Orkney Gales B 0
Farnham Bishops 3 Sheffield Stingrays B 0
Inverness Titans 2 Huddersfield Sharks 1
Farnham Bishops 3 Orkney Gales B 0
Inverness Titans 10 Sheffield Stingrays B 0
Huddersfield Sharks 8 Orkney Gales B 0
Inverness Titans 8 Farnham Bishops 0
Huddersfield Sharks 7 Sheffield Stingrays B 0
-   -  
Orkney Cyclones C 0 Orkney Storms A 3

 

 

Group 1 Points  
Batley Argonauts 5 Up
Guildford Gremlins 7 Up
Orkney Cyclones C 1  
Orkney Storms A 10 Up
Pembroke Dragons 1  
Sheffield Stingrays A 6  
Group 2    
Farnham Bishops 4 Up
Huddersfield Sharks 6 Up
Inverness Titans 8 Up
Orkney Gales B 2  
Sheffield Stingrays B 0  

 

Pool 1 - 2nd Round      
Sheffield Stingrays A 6 Farnham Bishops 0
Orkney Storms A 6 Inverness Titans 1
Sheffield Stingrays A 3 Huddersfield Sharks 1
Guildford Gremlins 6 Farnham Bishops 0
Orkney Storms A 6 Huddersfield Sharks 0
Sheffield Stingrays A 1 Inverness Titans 1
Orkney Storms A 9 Farnham Bishops 0
Guildford Gremlins 1 Inverness Titans 2

 

Pool 2 - 2nd Round      
Guildford Gremlins 1 Huddersfield Sharks 1
Pembroke Dragons 8 Orkney Gales B 0
Batley Argonauts 7 Sheffield Stingrays B 0
Orkney Cyclones C 2 Orkney Gales B 3
Pembroke Dragons 9 Sheffield Stingrays B 0
Batley Argonauts 8 Orkney Gales B 0
Orkney Cyclones C 8 Sheffield Stingrays B 0
       
Tiebreakers 0   1

 

2nd Round

Group X

Points Final Place
Orkney Storms A 10 1
Guildford Gremlins 5 4
Sheffield Stingrays A 5+ 3
Inverness Titans 7 2
Huddersfield Sharks 3 5
Farnham Bishops 0 6
Group Y    
Batley Argonauts 8 1
Orkney Cyclones C 3 4
Pembroke Dragons 5 2
Orkney Gales B 4 3
Sheffield Stingrays B 0 5

 

Lessons for next year:

Better correlation of databases - several teams had not registered with the B.O.A., and I could not get an electronic database from Alastair. I have now got my own, which is based on the B.O.A. list.

Better publicity - the B.O.A. newsletter went out just before the competitions with saying "TBA" against the competitions. This was not the case: several of the committee did know the dates, but I did not know whom to inform.

Budget - I tried to keep the prices low, but budgeted on slightly larger numbers and without V.A.T. on the pool hire. Last year a profit was returned, but I found out that this was due to undercharging by one of the pools.

Next year the prices will have to go up, or we will have to get sponsorship or the B.O.A. will subsidise the events.

It is very expensive for small clubs (e.g. schools) to join in, as they have to pay £60 for B.O.A. membership on top of the competition fee. For most such teams, this makes it an expensive event. If we want to encourage teams to enter, then maybe some B.O.A. fee reduction would be a good way, maybe the same £10 for affiliated junior clubs.

Trophies – this was organised by Tony, I had no visibility of the cost or design. I was asked one week before the tourney when I needed them for, and had to collect them on the way up – not much margin for error. Need to plan ahead: maybe have a regular supply of standard B.O.A. trophies?

 

By Kevin Hyman
email: junioryouth@britishoctopush.org

 

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