A More Competitive Club
In 2018-19, the offer for university recreational players below the BUCS team competition level, will include two competitions aimed at different standards of players who do not currently compete in the BUCS tennis competitions. This will consist of the existing University Team Challenge competition, branded as ‘Recreational’ and a new additional competition called ‘University FAST4 Development League’, aimed at introducing more competitive opportunities to universities’ advanced development level players, who are not currently involved in BUCS tennis but have a demand for opportunity to represent their university in competitive inter-varsity competition.
This is part of the university systems long term plan to; increase and maintain participation in tennis, get more players involved in higher level competition and create a more efficient pathway into the BUCS teams. For those that trial for one of our eight BUCS teams and are unsuccesfull at the first attempt this is a great alternative and will act as a platform into gaining your spot the following semester/year. Anyone that is active within the development side of the club will be looked upon favourably for BUCS.
We will also be releasing our box leagues and ladders via 'Playwaze' in the upcoming weeks, please see the following post to find out about registration and how it relates to the Development Teams. In short, this new online system will allow more intnernal competition and will allow us to introduce promotion and relegation club ladders, come up with an efficient ranking system and track player participation and committment.
Match Format for Fast4
A fixture shall comprise of two doubles matches and four singles matches, a replication of the BUCS tennis fixture format. Each individual rubber shall be worth two points for a win, zero for a loss. Total points available per fixture is twelve (2 x 6 rubbers). The team with the most rubber points shall win the match (or draw if six rubber points each). A team is made up of a minimum of four players but a team may bring more than this allocation up to a maximum of eight players in a match squad. Note that to compete you must be BTM registered and affiliated with your University.
With the success of the Team Challenge events in the past this has potential to be a great event, so don't miss out. If anyone has any questions about this event, or would like more information on how players are selected, don't hesitate to get intouch with someone in the club and we'll get back to you as quickly as we can.