NSWCA Scrap Big Events

By now NSWCA members would have already received their latest mailout from their state association. Mine includes the usual ads, a membership form, as well as a list of tournaments for 2008. That list has a couple of interesting omissions which I hadn't noticed until the now councilman Peter Parr, who won the position of Publicity Officer in last November's AGM, mentioned it to me yesterday.

Look closely at your list and you'll notice that the main City of Sydney (not the rapid CoS which will be held on 5 April) and the NSW Championships are missing! After last year's twin disasters when both events resulted in only dismal attendances - with the state championships, especially, being quite farcical - I wouldn't be surprised if Council now moves to dump these tournaments completely. However, my understanding is that the state championship might still be held as a round-robin but without the usual supporting events. So perhaps the NSWCA is just taking their time to determine how best to run these events. Well, here's hoping anyway.

Of course there is one big reason to remove two costly events from the calendar: save money.

I'm sure some folks out there will immediately want to point the finger of blame if, indeed, the main CoS and the state championship will hit the scrap heap. But who should we blame? Players who no longer bother, and some who actually sign-up to play but never turn up? Or the organisers?