Does the additional entrants mean we will be starting 11 handed?
Yes, I'm sorry to say, it will. "Sorry"? I explain thus.
I personally don't agree with, or like, 11 to a table, & it's one of the things I want to see an end of. But these things are never that straightforward, & we faced an extraordinary demand for seats on Saturday evening. So we made a snap decision, "OK, whats the lesser of two evils, turning away another 40 players who were aching to play, stick to our guns & say nope, 10 to a table it is, sorry, we are sold out?", or, "well, this is difficult, but these guys wanna play badly, let's make an exception & go 11 to a table". We decided on the latter.
It was my decision, & my decision alone, so if I got it wrong, so be it, but sometimes one has to compromise for the greater good, & that was the course of action I decided upon. My position as Chairman will be voted on in August, & I need to make decisions which I think are for the greater good of the Members. The Members will decide, at the right time, if I am doing a good job on their behalf, or not, & decisons like this one will be in their minds.
In point of fact, without going into the details of our deal with Grosvenor, the more runners we get, the more money it costs APAT, so the decison was not money-driven, it was Member-driven.
Where will we put 20 Tables? I must say, Irene & Sean at Grosvenor Cardiff have been absolutely marvellous in working with us to help make this a great weekend. Irene has suggested we use 20 Tables, being 12 in the Main Arena, & 4 + 4, (or 5+3) in the Bar Area & Restaurant Area. The Final will be in the Bar Area, so we can accommodate the Railers, of whom we get a great number in APAT Events.
So there you have it, warts & all. It ill be "cosy" for the first 2 or 3 levels, but as players bust out, we will immediately revert to 10 to a table.
Not ideal, we know, but with demand so high, I felt we needed to look at this as an exceptional case. A little discomfort for the first 2 or 3 hours seems a small price to pay to allow 40 extra members to play the Event. In Season Two, we will resolve this in a number of ways, but there is not much we can do about it in Season One, so we just need to get on with it.
We will, as usual, do everything we can to make it a very special weekend for the APAT members, many of whom are making their Live "debut". I am utterly confident we will achieve that goal, as I think we we did in Birmingham & Newcastle. The APAT Team will work hard to make sure everyone has a grand time. The APAT guarantee!
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