Many of you have participated in past Inter-Regional tournaments and are familiar with some of the complex organisational arrangements needed to make such a national weekend happen.
In recent years, we have successfully held the tournament at the Pontins Pakefield Holiday Centre on the East Coast. Pakefield’s large on-site accommodation facilities easily exceeded our needs.
But this year things changed. Pakefield closed to visitors, forcing us to look elsewhere. After careful review of the options with our longstanding accommodation provider, Isle of Wight Tours, we selected Pontins Sand Bay Holiday Village at Weston Super Mare to host the 2025 Inter Regionals. Significantly smaller than Pakefield but, based on attendance levels at previous events, a venue that seemed more than capable of meeting our needs.
Then three trends emerged to confound our planning and to rue our lack of a crystal ball!
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- First, and for the first time ever, all our nineteen Regions decided to participate. That was really positive news – a no less than a 20% uplift in uptake for our premier club competition!
- Second, far more people than before opted for single room accommodation which, as most will readily appreciate, is always in short supply at such budget venues.
- Third, some Regions reacted very slowly to our requests for attendance details, which did not facilitate efficient resource allocation.
I’m sure all those wanting to attend will readily understand that taken together, these issues created insurmountable problems for our service company, Isle of Wight Tours, who are tasked with arranging our accommodation with the host venue.
The inevitable outcome is that some participants are having to be accommodated off site this weekend; indeed, many of our host Region’s players are staying at home and travelling in each day for the tournament. This is obviously not ideal but those with long memories will recall that it’s not dissimilar from our years at Hayling Island, where we made use of two separate locations combined with local players staying at home.
I very much hope that these difficulties will not impact on the enjoyment of this major event, which is all about the Championship and Challenge Tournaments and the opportunity of socialising with players from other Regions. And finally, I wish all of those attending a safe journey and an enjoyable weekend of competitive action!
Colin Roper
President