You were invited to offer feedback on the 2008-9 season by filling in the "Feedback Sheet" on the back of the application form. Many of you did. There were also commments made throughout the year and all of this has been summarised below.

The number of teams in pool groups.
Sticking to deadlines more strictly than in previous years.
Getting the finals played before Easter.
The website; updated regularly, contact details, easy to email results etc.
The organisation of the competition.
Loads of games for the girls.
Playing local schools in the pool games so don't have to travel too far.

The standard of basketball.

No flexibility in the deadlines.
Too many games in the girls competitions.
The standard of refereeing. Not all are up to the same level.
Enter the competition to play schools out of the local area and then find the fixtures are against mainly local schools.
Play hard to win but as it is "schools" basketball there are basic standards of behaviour that should be regarded as a given.
Schools that drop out. Why enter and then not fulfil your fixtures?
Some schools are not flexible in arranging dates for fixtures.

Be kinder with deadlines as football takes priority for lots of students and fixtures for both overlap meaning deadlines are hard to meet.
Neutral referees in the earlier rounds.
Fixtures to be more widespread rather than playing your local schools, although local is easier for transport.
Playing finals before end of February.
Play more matches before Christmas (Nov and Dec).
Girls competition either one big league or two pools with semis.
Contact details for referees.

IN RESPONSE:
There are three areas that generate the most feedback year on year: deadlines, refereeing and travel.
Deadlines: The problem with overunning the deadlines for pool games is that the knockout rounds then get played later and later which means clashes occur with cricket and athletics. Also, it drags the competition out for the schools that do meet the deadlines. With a stricter approach this year (in 08/09) the finals were played much earlier and many positive comments were made with respect to this. The under 14 competition winners will qualify for English Schools this year and the deadline for that is fixed to February 2010 with no flexibility built in. The same could well be true of the under 15, 16 and 16 Girls competitions from next season too.
Referees: If you are unsure about refereeing then there are plenty of refs about who can officiate your games for you (Email and request a list of refs). It's much easier to coach if the distraction of having to referee is taken away.
Travel: As this is a county competition then some travelling outside of the local area will be inevitable. Trying to strike a balance in setting pool fixtures between playing local (play them all the time) schools and those further away (more travellling but at least it's a different team) is a difficult task but there is always more feedback supporting some travel rather than staying local.
And a request...how about some match reports, team photos, action shots and videos getting sent in to the website.