British Foosball Association
Hey guys, sorry for the lateness of this month’s blog. A currently inescapable fact of the BFA is that we, as a committee, are a voluntary organisation. We all ( well, we’ll give the recent post-grads a little more time to join the rest of us ;) ) have full time jobs, and lives, but we do try to give what time we have to do everything we need to. We do occasionally have most of us together, like at Isha, where we can have a bit of a get together in person rather than just over the committee forum. There was one photo taken of the last one, for anyone interested - http://bit.ly/qkm3vz. But anyway, I started a new job a few weeks ago, so have have needed to put all of my energy into that recently. Unlike the last job I can’t just doss about with frivolous blog writing during the day ;).
But just squeezing this in before the end of the month has meant that there is now plenty to talk about.
First off, as I’m sure many of you have seen already, the next upcoming tournament is the Barrels Open (http://bit.ly/oALwFN). This has had some more committee involvement than usual, due to the fact that it is going to be a no-snake or pin shot tournament. This means the tournament will not be using full ITSF rules, something that our policy documents for tournaments wanting BFA ranking status are set up for. Now there are many very good reasons for these, but we felt that changes should be made to allow a level of ranking for tournaments such as this upcoming Barrels event. After all, the BFA should always be supporting UK foos. When organisers put the time and effort into an event like this then it should be supported by the BFA. It’s a 1 day event with very low entry fees allowed by heavy sponsorship. The tournament will have a very different feel than most that you will see, with 90% + of people shooting the snake shot, so to experience this I really do encourage everyone to head down for it. Plus you’ll get to meet Geoff Brice, who can only be described as a legend of the game here. Chances are you started playing because of him, even if not through direct reasons.
Talking of supporting UK foos, further policy documentation changes have been made to make the UK ranking list more about performances in UK tournaments. Details of these can be seen in our policy documentation section on the main site.
Right now the UK players should be arriving in Austria for the Garlando WCS. Just thought I’d quickly wish them all of the best in both the individual, and national, competitions. This is the 1st time in while we have sent this strong a team to a WCS, and no doubt they’ll do us proud.
We have also been contacted by the charity Kick! where future joint events may well happen. I think this would be something good for us to do, all good that can be brought about from our game should be pursued. In the meantime, here is a brief info statement from Kick!;
“Kick! is a fun football fundraising event for players of all ages and abilities. It’s all about holding your own football event orlearning new skills and having fun to raise money for CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people.
Registration is open for this year’s campaign with groups and clubs being encouraged to sign-up to hold an event – it can be anything as long as it involves a ball. Why not hold a pound to play tournament or hold a collection at an existing foosball event? Perfect your snake shot while helping make a difference to the lives of children and young people with cancer.
It’s easy to register and get involved – just visit www.clicsargent.org.uk/kick or call 08451 20 22 32
For Twitter:
Let’s get all foosballers involved in @CLIC_Sargent Kick! and raise funds for children and young people with cancer across the country.
For Facebook:
Join us and 130,000 young footballers and foosballers across the UK in supporting CLIC Sargent’s fun football fundraiser Kick! Sign up and raise vital funds for children and young people with cancer. Register now for your free pack! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kick/221447684549956 ”
Until next month,
Joe.
