Indoor regionals 4th & 5th November
What an awesome weekend! I’m going to attempt to remember as much as possible but I’m sure I’ll forget something!
We knew it was going to be a hard pool we were playing in and the first two games didn’t disappoint.After an epic struggle with the minibus I think we arrived at a sub-zero temperature hall with about 15minutes to spare for the first game. Surrey have always proved tricky but we’ve never been ripped to pieces by them. From what I can remember both teams ran hard but we just didn’t score the points. Score finished up 7-2. This one I think has to be put down to a team that hasn’t played a lot of indoors and wasn’t quite together as a team yet. Maybe if this game was later in the weekend things would have been different.
Next was the game against the eventual winners of the tournament, Sublime. Another slightly disappointing game really. Yes they were good, but we weren’t as bad as the score line suggested. Being on the end of a 12 – 0 bageling is never fun but I just don’t think we ever looked to threatening. They’re a team of big guys and they shut us down on O quite a lot. When we were on D they ran us ragged and their hammers and knives over the top were spot on every time. At the end of the day we were never going to win this one but a point or two would have been nice. I smelt a bit of a score coming on with a D in front of their end-zone but just as we were about to go for it the crushing sound of the hooter rang around the hall. Maybe next time!
So gone were the “it would be nice to win these games” games and onto the “we’ve got to win these games” games, and first of these was dD3. Disc Doctors are a talented team and their second and third teams were never going to be easy. But we made good work of this game. I don’t think we conceded many and we stayed ahead the whole game. I vaguely remember some good D but can’t remember which players it was from! More great hammers over the top and I think a deserved win. Sorry for the lack of detail but that one was very blurry!
Then onto the penultimate pool game, thrown 2. After losing to thrown 2 and the beginners tournament in Hyde park it was time to show them our first team skills.Excellent work on D in this game. We shut down their short cuts and their long cuts and stopped them from getting very far. Some smooth work on O kept the score line ticking over and ensured another comfortable win.
Lastly it was Holloway 2. I think there was potential for vastly underestimating this team. We went a few points ahead and then got a bit too relaxed, we dropped the disc a lot and just stopped scoring. They came back hard against us a scored a few points and really started to worry us. It still took us a few points to pick up our game but we did. Only with some great long points, some great grabs and some good teamwork towards the end of the game did we keep our lead and seal the victory.
So at the end of the pool game we’ve kept our seeding of 9th and its on to the crossover…Thrown 1.Absolutely brilliant game. I think the score always felt really close. Some great play from everyone I think. Some great long points and some great D.
Everyone really went out in this game hungry for the disc and the score. I think a few drops was the telling differences between the two sides. A great team effort. It was one of those games that you lose but you don’t really felt like you lost. We put up our best fight and that’s all we can ask for.
Then it was onto Sunday and our first match of the day was against Brunel 3. However before that we had the blow of losing Loz for that day of games. With probably the smallest squad we’ve taken to a competition this was potentially problematic.
Lots of talk about Brunel 3 was passed around before the match and underestimating them would have been a huge mistake. We came out hard as always and put on a few points. Small mention has to go to Theo in this game
for coming straight on having not played that weekend and nailing a few scores. They came back in it hard and scored a couple and looked like they could really contest. But then came the drops…from both sides. There were a couple of hugely long points and some how though we dropped less and took the long points, which is always a huge mental blow to a team that’s been running around but a sweeter victory for the team scoring. There were a couple of awesome endzone grabs in this game. Ant, twinkle-toes, Taylor couldn’t have been any closer to the line with some of his grabs. Theo got off the floor after falling over to chase a hammer that I’d prematurely thrown, Louise had a great finger-tips grab, Becca had some great short cuts
and the presence of mind to dump afterwards, as did Jero, who’s cuts and grabs improved all weekend. And how could I forget, just after shouting “where’s the d??”, a blonde Norwegian leap out of no where for the layout D. The game finished 6-2 to us, not really a reflection of how close some of the points were at times but an awesome victory for us which put us into the 9 – 10 play off against Sublime 2,
Sublime 2 was possibly the hardest game of the weekend. Playing such close seeds it was always going to be really. It was a very hard fought game. We came out strong (again) going two nil up in the first few minutes but then they started to shut down our long plays. Not entirely I might add as we did get off a few long hammers to players who were completely open, Theo and Dan come to mind in particular. But we also worked out short cuts around a lot better and got some great flow. Becca’s score from Duncan comes to mind for that one.
Unfortunately our tiredness started to show and we dropped a couple of discs and couldn’t quite keep up with their running. They put a few points past us and despite some heroic scores we never caught up again. I think they finished 2 ahead but what a game. Such an effort from everyone, we couldn’t have asked for any more as a team.
So that was it, we finished 10th. Not bad compared to last years results of second from bottom. I think we should all be very proud of the weekend and our play. I think we all have improved as players and really started to show how we can play and what positions as individuals we want on the pitch.
Can’t wait for the next tournament!
written by Jim
Portsmouth Indoors 21st & 22nd Ocrober
On the weekend of the 21st/22nd October the Roehampton Ultimate Frisbee team (RUF), consisting of eleven hardened athletes in the peak of their physical condition (along with a beer belly or two thrown in for good measure), took off to Portsmouth to compete in their first indoor tournament of the season. On the first day they played some of the best teams in southern England including Skunks (Southampton Uni), Sublime (Portsmouth Uni), and MFS (Southsea) and the score lines somewhat reflected the standard of competition. Perhaps the chips and burgers (and the odd pint) consumed between games would have been better replaces with a nice apple or muesli bar but sod paying 80p for a bit of fruit! Those of the team who actually thought ahead and brought their own tub of pasta (Louise) were promptly and very sternly reprimanded by the authorities and thus forced to endure some deep-fried nourishment along with the rest of us. Anyway, whilst the day’s tally read played 6, lost 6, the team did score more points as the day went on, from 0 in the first game to 1, then 3, then 3 again, then 4, and 5 in the last game. Highlights of the playing include Max’s amazing one-handed catches and Theo’s superb end-zone grabs, prior to diving for a catch, head-butting the floor, and nearly killing himself!
So with the running around out of the way it was on to the weekend’s ‘other’ main event – drinking. While Sublime (the host-team) controversially decided on a nice, quiet team meal at Happy Eater, the other teams gathered for a mammoth session down the local. RUF then, led by our host’s flatmates, then paid a visit to V-Bar, who accommodated us with £1 shots and a half-decent dj. The dancing was…well…good (Theo), bad (Jim), and downright ugly (Frank – get some moves man!) Needless to say a fun time was had by all (even if one team member, who understandably wishes to remain anonymous, woke up with a Haribo key stuck up his backside!)
Fast-forward about 5 hours and it’s time to play some more ultimate. Joy! After a slow start (scoring just 1 point) the team gradually sweated out the alcohol and again improved in the next two games, scoring 5, then 6 points, both in very narrow defeats. Then came the last game, against Fish 2. Playing purely for the pride of not finishing last the team put on a master class, with Max going on a scoring spree late in the game and the team scoring 8 times. At last success was RUF’s and it did indeed taste sweet, unlike that Haribo key. Sitting with all the other teams for the presentation ceremony the team found out they had won something else too – the Spirit Award (as voted for by all twelve teams and awarded to the team with the best spirit)! The presentation of a beautifully decorated cake also meant the team now had some munch for the ride home! Hurrah!
All in all a fantastic weekend. The whole team of Ant, Becca, Chizel, Claire, Frank, Jim, Louise, Loz, Max, Shelly, and Theo all put in 100% and had a great time. Huge thanks to Sublime for hosting the weekend, to Thrown for providing Max with his nickname (syphilis), and to Chizel’s gran for leaving her purse on the table enabling him to nick a tenner to get down and join us!
Up the RUF!
written by Loz
