Coaches say 'I'll be back!'
- Jock Wright
- Aug 24, 2025
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 25, 2025
Home Nations II - An opportunity to reflect and improve for the years ahead
When you run big events there is always an opportunity to reflect, learn and improve for the future. There are always some rough edges that can be smoothed off, but equally it’s an opportune moment to take stock of the great experience delivered and celebrate the good stuff too.
Like last year, after the inaugural Home Nations we conducted an anonymous survey of attending coaches, maintaining the same questions to highlight areas of progress. The organising team are committed to transparency so coaches can see what we’re working on to deliver the best tournament experience possible.
We had one hundred and seven coaches give us feedback achieving a decent response rate of 43%. So let’s start with the headlines…
The Good
When asked to rate their overall tournament experience out of a score of five, with one being not very good and five being very good we’re pleased to say coaches rated The Home Nations II an excellent 4.6 out of 5 stars.
Considering the venue, Loughborough Student’s Union, as a place to host a Blood Bowl tournament coaches thought highly of their surroundings with an attentive venue team helping to deliver a score of 4.4 out of 5.
Providing lunch, almost a thankless task with any large audience, was seen as a key area for improvement from the inaugural Home Nations. I’m pleased to say that Simon, the chef, and his team, moved from serving a cold buffet last year to delivering two hot lunches and breakfast rolls on Sunday morning, as requested by attending coaches.
This meant the rating for lunch had a marked increase from 3.1 to 3.8 out of 5 in its second year and is something we’re very proud of delivering as a team.
This from a coach captures some of the sentiment:
“Overall I thought it was the best organised tournament I’ve attended. The pre-event comms and promo was next level, the gifts in the Open were great, the venue is class with drinks coming to the table and loads of space to spill out into the wider Students Union…”
How many Arnie fans do we have out there?
When coaches were asked if they planned to attend Home Nations III in July 2026 the response rate was incredible:
“95% of coaches said I’ll be back!”
This was a similar level from the first year, maintaining a high level of enjoyment, and for those that couldn’t make Home Nations III had cited diary clashes with the 2026 dates being trailed long in advance.
Home Nations III Increasing the capacity a little, but not at the cost of a quality experience
Not only do we have a sense from the survey that coaches are keen to come back, but we have it on good authority from speaking with individual captains, who attended this year, that they are preparing to bring back more teams than they had this year.
The competition is only going to get more intense between the leagues across the country and national squads jockeying for bragging rights in the lead up to Eurobowl. This means that Home Nations III is going to be one hot ticket!
That’s why I'm delighted to report we’re increasing the capacity of the Open to sixty teams for 2026 up from fifty-four entrants this year.
Whilst we could probably squeeze more in and the apparent demand for places is expected to be high we as tournament organisers don’t want to compromise on a quality event experience - bigger isn’t always better.
So it means if you’re planning to attend Home Nations III then your captains will have to be organised when registration opens on Sunday 7 September at 11am (UK) sharp!
This is the kind of feedback we'll strive for year-on-year,
“Awesome venue, space fine, chairs sturdy, table service drinks, cheap drinks, swag for attendees, hot sauce delicious, feels like the tourney has its own identity while still being eurobowl-centric, extremely well run and organized…”
Areas for improvement for next year
The survey, as hoped for, threw some light on areas that we can work on to enhance the overall experience. The broad themes for improvement:
Communication
Website being up-to-date
Signage for lunch and room locations
The lunch queue
Scheduling of the rounds
The sound system for announcements
The length of prize giving ceremony
Communication
In the first instance all of the tournament information was documented using Google Docs and sign-posted on the NAF website. However in the 21st Century, when a website is offered, it’s not unreasonable that coaches will come to rely on that as a reference point for the event.
Unfortunately this year the site was displaying old information, more as a consequence of my lack of web skills to be able to update the site in a timely fashion. However I’m pleased to say I’ve learned new skills, and built a funky new website (thanks to Unforgiven for getting us started on the old site), which you’re reading this blog on.
I’m also happy to report that we’ve committed to the server and hosting costs for three years and the Home Nations III event information is already correctly listed throughout the site so that coaches can have confidence in referencing the website for questions they might have, including our brand new FAQ section.
A small thing, but signage to indicate what lunch options were available and where tables were based, upstairs or down, is something we’ve agreed with the venue to use to highlight key information.
The Lunch Queue
Growing from 120 coaches to 268 meant the logistics of feeding people was undoubtedly the trickiest challenge of the weekend. This was recognised by both the organising team and Simon, the chef. So things we’re going to bring into place for next year:
Saturday, the lunch period will increase from 45 minutes to an hour to give us some more time.
Sunday, the round times for the Bowl and the Open will be staggered, which will give us a 90-minute lunch window, and in reality with those that finish matches early as much as a two hour window in practice.
Pre-event communication to coaches reminding and encouraging them, that if they finish their match early, to go for lunch. Unfortunately we were counting on coaches to go for lunch in a more staggered manner, but folks were having a grand old time catching up.
Menu choices; this year folks liked the burger options, but it really slowed up the serving time as the staff had to create them. So whilst we and the venue are committed to offering a meal choice the chef will be prioritising easy to serve food to minimise queue snags
Scheduling of the rounds
In the first year as TO I tried to build in some flex where I could when it comes to managing round times and I tried to carry that over into this year. However it turns out when you have c. 270 coaches clear messaging and consistency are what’s key so that people know where they stand. So a few things for next year:
All rounds will consistently have a ‘dice down’ approach when the round time ends. This is so it’s fair for everyone, there is no ambiguity and keeps the event schedule moving along nicely.
We’ve tweaked the schedule to be more generous, with increased lunch times and breaks, as mentioned above, to minimise the sense of feeling ‘rushed’. You can see the new schedule here.
The Bowl with five rounds compared to the Open is being offset on Sunday morning to enable the staggered lunch time.
We’ll still maintain the principle of finishing sharp on Sunday so folks can set off home.
Sound system and announcements
There were a few comments on the repetition of announcements and the volume of announcements. The repetition was as a result of the speakers upstairs dropping out because the Venue Manager, who was not au fait with the sound board, had to cover for the ‘sound guy’ who’d called in sick on Sunday. Their lack of experience with the sound board meant we were also slightly delayed in our start too that day.
A few things we’re putting in place with the venue to improve:
Sound check on Friday to make sure the volume of the mic is an appropriate level.
The Venue Manager rota’d for the weekend will be experienced with the sound system in case they have to act as a redundancy to the dedicated tech person not being on-site for whatever reason.
The length of prize giving
It was noted that the prize giving was longer than was desirable with coaches keen to get on the road. Hands up entirely my fault!
A few things that we’re going to put in place to make sure we get a speedy wrap and coaches can get on their way:
As TO, one of the most critical junctures of the weekend is working out who’s won what. It just so happens this coincides with people who’d like to leave before the closing awards to come and say thanks and cheerio. As much as that’s appreciated, we’re going to limit access to me at this key point by any participating coach so I can concentrate and resolve the results quickly.
More involvement from the organising team. Rather than trying to do everything from the stage with one person - the events team are going to take on different roles, reading the results, handing out awards etc. So we can get through the ceremonies without delay.
Keep the announcements to just the prizes rather than sign-posting and shouting out for all the other amazing tourneys in the calendar.
There are of course other areas that will be worked on, but we’re confident that ultimately there are no show stoppers to a fun weekend. Certainly the fact that feedback on the event experience was overwhelmingly positive and 95% of coaches are ready for the next installment means we’re confident that The Home Nations III is going to be a ‘must-attend’ event next year.
I’ll leave you with this feedback from a coach from this year's event:
“Brilliant atmosphere and location with a very well run tournament. Absolute role model of how tournaments should be run in all aspects…”
Don’t want to miss out on The Home Nations III - reminder tickets go live on Sunday 7 September at 11am (UK) via
Comments