terry hunt said:
Pardon my ignorance but who exactly are the UK Allstars ?
A lot of people, is the answer
There is an organising committee of 6
David Grant
Gareth Hubback
(these two founded the event 9 years ago)
Steve Baker
Kes Smith
Geraint Walters
Myself
Then there are the 8 teams, all of 17 players each, representing one of the 8 Charities we support on any given year. We rotate 2 to be local to the hosting venue, so this year we 'added' Ty Hafan and Wales air Ambulance. These are also the two charities supported by Ice Arena Wales.
These players each campaign on social media and to their friends to raise sponsorship for their chosen charity when they play in the tournament.
Then we have corporate partners, sponsors, and a lot of folk who volunteer everything from being cakes, to selling raffle tickets, to DJ'ing etc. (Our DJ is the Manchester Phoenix guy Marvin. Legend).
Photographers, video people, rink staff, everyone is technically an Allstar in our eyes.
We (they!) play 12-7pm Saturday and 12-8pm Sunday, finishing with the placement games (5/6, 3/4 etc) and then the final,
The games are 18 minute 'rolling clock' (no stoppages for goals or anything) and we sound a buzzer every 90 seconds to signify an automatic shift change. The Captains assess their players' ability level and the best players are on 1st line, then second, then third. We do this for two reasons:
1) The underlying principle of the weekend - other than Charity of course - is that ANYONE, any ability, can play.
2) We then match the lines. First line starts, buzzer, second line, etc etc. So should someone like me who skates like a camel make it out there, I wouldn't be facing one of the former EPL or ENL guys we have. It works pretty well.
We have a launch and auction on the Friday, on the Saturday we hit the town and party, and on the Sunday it's a nice relaxed post-tourney affair with anyone still around.
Finally, all 8 Charities are represented by their own people, with each having a merchandise or games stall, as will Cross Check clothing who work with us each year also.
Hope that's not too long-winded, but there's a lot that goes into the weekend and we're all incredibly proud of our fundraisers and volunteers.
Especially as we just smashed through £87,000 for this year, beating last year's record by £1k. On our way to £100k we hope.
Hope you can make it to all or part of the event. It's a great vibe.
