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Re: New Grading System

In message <001101c0b87d$9fd91240$05040403@bobbley>, Rob Mason
<rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
>2) The more contests that are counted the better - I suggest 2 grading
>contests
>   per year over 2 years instead of 1 grading contest a year over 3 years. I
>think
>   this would give a better indication of a bands "form" while also
>smoothing out "chance"
>   results.

When would these be held? March/April and September/October? That
wouldn't please, for example, my former band at the University of
Warwick (Midlands 2nd section), which is restricted by term dates. The
current area comes towards the end of term, which is okay, but they'd
have the same problem with the new area as they did with the National
Finals when they/we qualified in 1998 and 2000 - nowhere to rehearse,
and no people to rehearse with. We entered both on a week's intensive
rehearsal, and didn't do as well as we could have in either of them.
Any other bands organised around educational institutions would likely
have a similar problem. How about Alliance Brass, L&SC 1st section
champions 2001, and made up of London music students? Some of them live
abroad outside term time!
You could perhaps try holding the extra area in late November/early
December to catch the end of the autumn term, but then I suspect you'd
again lose at least the Warwick band entirely - it's just not reasonable
to ask them to give over their only two effective term's rehearsals
(only one a week is possible - ten weeks in a term, and large numbers of
new players need to be integrated into the band every year. The third
term is never any good, as it is filled with exams) to rehearsing one
area piece per term. If I were still there, I certainly wouldn't want to
enter both - and therefore wouldn't want to enter either, as we would be
penalised for dropping one.

>
>3) National finals to be sped and the formation of a nation-wide
>superleague
>   which takes place on the same weekend as the areas and has promotion and
>relegation
>   to the areas championship section. (it is a bit unfeasible for lower
>section or indeed any
>   bands to fork out 5 or 6 grand to get to the national finals).

That would take some of the bite out of it for lower section bands,
though; and successful Championship bands travelling all over the
country twice a year? We (Kidlington Concert Brass - qualified this
year) wouldn't particularly enjoy affording that, and I suspect that
very few bands (if any) could afford it easily.
Also, how would the system of promotion/relegation to the superleague
work? Suppose two bands are relegated in a given year - who replaces
them? The best bands from their respective areas? But then some areas
would stagnate; for example Yorkshire probably wouldn't have bands
relegated from the superleague too often - two bands would consolidate
every year, while the rest of the area would have no hope of advancement
any time soon. You could try to promote the best from around the
country, but how would you do that? You'd need a nationwide contest at a
lower level to do it fairly, which simply places the problem at another
remove. At least the current system avoids these difficulties.

Dave

p.s. How does the FA work promotion to/relegation from the Vauxhall
Conference?

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