Team England Site - reminder

[Purplegoo]

Unsubtle BUMP ahoy!

More or less a month on from my last update, and things are continuing to take shape over at http://teamengland.freeforums.org. We're discussing shirts (potentially for all that travel) and beginning to book hotel rooms for both Euro Bowl and EurOpen participants.

I'm at northern and southern events over the next month or two, so please don't hesitate to badger me for any further information I can help with. It was great to talk Vienna with some of you at the NAFC, I hope I helped wherever possible! Would be great to have one or two more to come join us for a Blood Bowling highlight.

[Purplegoo]

Greetings all!

It’s been a few weeks since I last checked in with a Eurobowl / EurOpen update, and this is the new news!

The price for the event has been set – 75 Euro for a weekend of nerding in beautiful Vienna, food included. Not too shabby. On a travellers front; we’re looking into what shirt we’ll all be wearing; if you’re coming to Vienna, you’re eligible for some form of 2013 shirt! Best you come over and vote on what it is going to look like, lest you get stuck in some horrible ‘great idea at the time’ effort!

Lastly, and most importantly, we’re discussing both the rules for 2013 and the future of the tournament. Who finalises the rules? Should there be a framework to work within? What are the goals of a Eurobowl ruleset – narrowing tiers? Keeping things simple? Even if 2013 is not the year for you, I’d really like as much opinion as possible. That way when you travel in 2014 and beyond, your voice has been heard and distilled into what the English think of the situation.

As ever, I am on call 24 / 7 (well, via PM at least) to answer any pressing questions you have. Realistically, we’re approaching the stage where flights might well exponentially increase in price, so it’s likely this will be my final update before the off (well – bar one more to list Twitter feeds / threads to follow on the weekend itself to see how we’re getting along). Less forum spam from me (hooray, huh?!), but conversation will continue in earnest on team England right up until the off.

Thanks!

Phil.

[Purplegoo]

Two weeks to go, and a final bumpy type update.

We're very close to the off now, and not only is http://teamengland.freeforums.org/ still your original one shop England info shop; we've also moved into social media! Throughout the tournament (internet permitting), we'll be keeping everyone back home updated on our progress using our new Twitter account: @TeamEnglandBB. Please give us a follow, and hopefully you'll get blow by blow updates of how the team is faring! We also hope to add the Twitter account to our arsenal in terms of keeping the community up to date with future captaincy elections, selection and the like.

Speaking of selection, for those that don't know the sad news, Don_Vito has had to pull out of the trip, and his place has been filled by none other than Stan Richardson, aka Winkle_Picka. Stan has been steadily amassing impressive scalps over the last couple of years, and although I'm gutted to lose Dave, I'm delighted Stan is going to be joining the team for the first time.

So, Joe, Jim, Paul, Dave, Geoff, Brendan, Stan and I will be doing our best to bring home the team bacon, and Wilzif, Indigo and Smurf are after EurOpen glory. We hope you'll be keeping up to date with how we get on, and we''ll see you on the other side!

[Hawk]

Unfortunately due to a new job it's not possible to go now to the open

Good luck guys!

[Purplegoo]

New job: yey! Not coming on BB holiday: boo.

There is always next year.

[Hawk]

New job: yey! Not coming on BB holiday: boo.

There is always next year.

Next years a deffo Phil, good luck and see you at Cam Dub

[Purplegoo]

Hi all.

Vienna 2013 is in the books, and a superb time was had by all. We will be reconvening with our European friends in Belgium next year, so mark your cards early and consider joining us for what should be an awesome Blood Bowling holiday (relatively) close to home!

In the aftermath of Vienna, there have been a couple of tweaks suggested regarding the timescale according to which the community elects a captain and (s)he selects his / her team. I encourage anyone who has any interest in joining the team either in 2014 or beyond to make a trip to teamengland.freeforums.org and make their voice heard via engaging in the debate and by voting in the threads that have popped up in that same ‘How should we decide on players / captain?’ section. Whether you’ve made the trip before or not, Team England belongs to the whole community, and the more that have their say, the better.

I doubt I will be tugging on your coat tails again until the time comes to elect our 2014 captain, so in the mean time, keep it Team England!

Phil.

[Purplegoo]

Hello all!

For those that don’t know, I was lucky enough to be re-elected Team England captain for the 2014 Eurobowl towards the end of December, so I thought I’d pop in nice and early in the year and bend your collective ears about the 2014 event; explaining why you should be considering a Blood Bowling holiday, and to give you a few details.

Our hosts this year will be Belgium. The tournament will be held in Ostend across the weekend of the 8th / 9th November in a rather fine looking hotel. The organising committee have released some information on rules and location in this thread, but suffice as to say things are looking fantastic. A number of Brits (including me) have been attending the Brass Bowl in Ostend for years now, and the menu of food, drink and gaming is an annual highlight. When you put the Eurobowl and EurOpen on top of that, we’re guaranteed fun!

If you’re English, you will find all of the details regarding the event at our homepage, teamengland.freeforums.org. As the year progresses, you will find details on travel routes, prices, roster thoughts, etc, etc. as well as notes from other tournaments we’ve attended and other BB chat. I encourage you to sign up, even if you feel Belgium isn’t for you.

Belgium 2014 will comprise of two tournaments, the Eurobowl and the EurOpen. The Eurobowl is an eight man national team tournament for which I will be selecting our side in May. For details on selection criteria and exact timelines (as well as where to sign up as interested), please visit Team England! I hope to have more coaches that are interested than I know what to do with; the more sign-ups, the more options, the better the team! We are defending champions this year, so the chance to be the first England team to complete back to back triumphs is a pretty hot ticket.

The most exciting news this year is the restructuring of the EurOpen tournament. In Belgium, teams of three will fight it out for the prize, rather than the tournament being an individual stare-down. I think this is a tremendous move, and it’ll really add to the flavour of the event. There is a chance here for leagues to send representative sides, for friends to travel together and play together and for yet more national glory! Our hosts have guaranteed that everyone who attends will get a team, but if you’d like to find other Englishmen to partner with, again, teamengland.freeforums.org is the place to get those conversations started!

I think the planets have really aligned for this event this year. The organisation promises to be fantastic. The EurOpen has received a lovely boost, the location is really accessible and relatively inexpensive for English travelers, and the beer will be brilliant. If you’ve had the Euros on your radar for a few years but never gotten around to it, I suggest that you’ll never have a better time to get involved. Once you’ve done it once, you’ll be hooked!

I hope to see you all at the TE website in the near future, either signing up or just poking around! If you have any questions or if there is anything I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to hassle me!

Thanks,

Phil / Goo.

[Leipziger]

Definitely up for this. Love the Belgians (if not their game )! Roll on EB/EO

[littlejonnyfrostbite]

I'd be up for it this year if only to double up with a trip to the Westvleteren monastery to claim so of their elusive brews.

EurOpen obviously unless there is a catastrophic event which wipes out 90% of England's BB coaches.

[littlejonnyfrostbite]

Westvleteren Abbey is 50km from Ostend...I'm in!

[Purplegoo]

Great news, Tet. Get thee to teamengland.freeforums.org!

[Purplegoo]

Time for an unsubtle BUMP!

How are things? Are you deep into the planning of your November Blood Bowling visit to Belgium? Discussing your potential three man EurOpen sides? Considering throwing your hat into the team England ring?

You’ll be amazed how quickly the year whips by. I encourage everyone to put their hands up now (I’ll bet we can double that number of interested coaches by selection) and to start thinking about how to approach Ostend. As ever, teamengland.freeforums.org is there for you to organise your Eurobowl / EurOpen, and I am available to answer any questions or help wherever I can.

All mens Ostend!

[Purplegoo]

We have news!

Please have a look here and here for all of the information you will need to budget and plan your trip to Ostend!

We're two months out from selection now, and conversation is increasing around rosters, skills and the like over at teamengland.freeforums.org. I urge you to come and join us, or at least come snoop to see what we think and what rosters might end up at a tournament near you soon.

As always, I'd love as many fine English coaches to throw their hats into the selection ring as possible. Please don't think TE isn't for you, let me do the selecting, that's my job!

Please, as ever, get in touch with any questions or anything I can help with.

[Pipey]

Sounds good €230 (£190) for three nights accommodation, all food, tournament entry - pretty awesome.

I'm in for Eurobowl or EurOpen.