Home Tournament 2001 Handbook

Greenford, Middlesex, England, 3rd November 2001

Where

Airports: London Heathrow (LHR), London Stansted (STN)
Pool: Gurnell Leisure Centre, Ruislip ("Ricelip") Road East, Greenford, Middlesex, London, W13 0AL. Tel. +44 (0)20 8998 3241.
Accommodation: Various.

What

Tournament: The second annual CTDC home underwater hockey tournament. Club teams from Italy, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland and Devon (England), plus two CTDC scratch teams and three regional scratch teams.
Party: Open to interpretation on this one. There will be an after-tournament buffet meal, but for a number of people it is their first time in London, so we have left it up to everyone to do what they want to do.

Contacts

	Martin Reed
	Home Tel.: Mobile Tel.: email:	+44 1494 434313 +44 7779 117880 martin@reedconsulting.com

Schedule

Travel details (in approximate chronological order of arrival in England)

LHR London Heathrow, UK; STN London Stanstead, UK; BLQ: Bologna; DUB: Dublin

All arrivals should aim to make their way to the pool.

Accommodation

???

Notes

• ???

Expenses

"Merchandise"

T-Shirts: We have ordered ?? shirts - ?? XL, ?? L and ?? M - which will be coming out with us. As usual, the colours and logo will reflect the country we are visiting, and also the theme of the tournament, and there will be the usual commemorative blurb on the back. Wear them, swap them, honour them, they're achieving cult status everywhere.

Tournament

Teams: 1 x Bologna (Italy), 1 x Dublin (Ireland), 1 x GOV (Netherlands), 1 x Kingsbridge (Devon, UK), 2 x CTDC scratch teams, 1 x Southern area scratch team, 1 x London area scratch team, 1 x Midlands area scratch team.
Pool: Indoor, two playing pitches, 16m long x 12m wide, 2m deep, large tiles
Puck: English Southport puck
Rules and regulations: Round robin and play offs following BOA rules with the following exceptions:
        1. Game duration: 13 minutes continuous play, with a 2-minute interval between games. If a team is not ready, the game starts and if after 3 minutes there are less than 3 players in the water, the team loses the game.
        2. Timekeeping: Since the pool is 30m long, it was decided to have 2.5m behind each goal to make a field length of 25m. Therefore substitutes have to remain and wait in the water, behind the lane for field delimitation (since it’s an outdoor pool it will also be warmer).

Referees: The organisers will be providing two chief referees who will be refereeing all games. Each team will be requested to provide a player as water referee for the game following each of their own games. A tentative schedule with the referees names will be written down at the captain meeting to avoid losing time during the tournament.

Caps: To reduce the risk of injuries, the organisers strongly recommend the use of water polo caps for all competitors.

Food and drink: Food (sandwiches and fruits) and drink (water, coca-cola and beer) will be available from the cafeteria at the pool. No glass is allowed in the pool area, and all food and drink must be consumed either in the cafeteria or in the spectators' gallery.

Further information: (Gurnell web site)

Local Information

Important Telephone Numbers
999 -- Police, reporting of accidents and criminal acts
??? -- Flight information: ??? Airport
??? -- Taxi
??? -- Bus information
??? -- Mastercard / Access / Eurocard
??? -- Visa
??? -- American Express

Car Rental Companies (at the airport)

//TO BE CONFIRMED//

Telephone calls
Telephone calls can be made from public phone boxes, most of which are operated by BT (British Telecom). BT street phones mostly take phonecards, which are sold in various denominations in multiples of £5 from most newsagents, though many now also take coins and credit cards.
Dial 0031 + tel. number without leading zero, to make an international call from the UK to the Netherlands.
Dial 0039 + tel. number without leading zero, to make an international call from the UK to Italy.
Dial 00353 + tel. number without leading zero, to make an international call from the UK to the Republic of Ireland.

Buses
Bus stops are red in colour and marked with the numbers of the buses that stop there. Tickets are bought on the buses, though drivers do not carry much change, and are rarely able to issue a ticket against a note larger than £10. Ticket inspectors frequently board the bus and being a foreigner is considered no excuse for avoiding a fine if you are caught without a ticket.

Currency
The currency is the Pound Sterling (£ or GBP). Current exchange rate is approximately as shown below:

Credit Cards
All major credit cards are accepted, including Mastercard, Visa, Cirrus, American Express and Diners Club. Eurocheques are also accepted, though not widely used

Working Hours
Banks: Mon-Fri: 09:30-17:00; Sat: 09:30-12:00
Major Post Offices: Mon-Sat: 09:00-17:30
Shops: Mon-Sat: 09:00-17:30; Sun variable, and generally only newsagents and some food shops

Tourist Attractions
City Centre: ???
Elsewhere (requires car): ???
Other: Fish n chips!

Tourist Information
Tourist Information offices can be found at airports and major rail stations, though the majority of staff are likely to speak only English.

Sales Tax
Nationals of countries outside the European Union are eligible for a refund of tax on the purchase of goods amounting to more than approximately GBP£ ???, which are taken out of the UK.

Navigation around London

London has its own underground rail system called "the tube", although the tube is no longer underground by the time it reaches Greenford.
Travel options around London are tube, bus, hire car or taxi, though taxis are prohibitively expensive for anything but short journeys, especially as the high density of traffic makes driving progress extremely slow.
London's road network is extremely complex. Maps of the area at various scales can be found at the end of this handbook, and more detailed maps can be purchased from most newsagents.
Taxi ranks can be found at airports, tube stations and in main town centres.
By tube from London Heathrow (LHR) to pool: ???
By tube from London Stansted (STN) to pool: ???

Other

Sport
Soccer: The swimming pool is situated ///

Languages
Generally, Queen's English; locally, Punjabi (only kidding!).

International Identifier (email & web addresses)
The international country identifier for the United Kingdom is "uk", so all email addresses and World Wide Web addresses end with ".uk", e.g. myname@company.co.uk and http://www.cheshamoctopush.co.uk.

Internet Resources

Maps

United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, showing London region

London Region

West London area, showing location of pool

Streetmap of Greenford area

London City Centre

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