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From: "HUGHES, Chris" <CHughes@chelt.ac.uk>
To: Britdisc <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>,
Merrick
<merrick.cardew@g4tech.co.uk>
Subject: Nationals - TD's View
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:29:00 -0000
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Precedence: bulk
Well here it is; the round up of the weekend;
Most people seem to know the outcome so I'll take you through the whole
thing from start to finish.
The tournament took place in Cheltenham, on the 14th and 15th, using
three large pitches, on two sites within close walking distance of each
other. It was my intention right from the outset to make all the teams
move around, rather than just molly-coddle the top seeds. The format was
4 pools of six, moving to three 8 team knockouts. Games were 23 minutes
long or first to 13 points.
Pool A Pool B Pool C Pool D
1. UTI 2. Druids 3. Shrub 4. Chevron
6. Ow! 1 5. Punks 8. Red 7. Sorcerers 1
11. Zebedees 12. Sneeeky's 9. Bears 10. Discult
16. Skunks 15. Janitors 14. Village 13. Whiplash.
17.Bradford 18. Mohawks 19. Mud Culture 20. Blue Arse Flies
22. Sorcerers 2 21. Lurkers 24. Ow! 2 23. Jedi
The tournament got off to a chaotic start as my plans for getting
photocopies of the information went 'Pete Tong', and was left with 3
copies of the schedule, thanks to all those teams who calmly noted their
first game and waited for the back-up plan to kick in. In the mean time
the first games started in earnest. The initial games in the pools went
according to seeds, except the Lurkers beating the Mohawks 10 - 5; a
result some other teams ignored at their peril. However the Sorcerers
seemed to make the game against Whiplash look too easy; an indication of
things to come perhaps.
The second round of games again seemed to go according to plan. The
notable exceptions being Blue Arse Flies victory over Discult, a
testament perhaps that whilst Merrick may not have been fit, that he was
at least back on pitch. And whilst Mud Culture may not have beaten the
Bears, they certainly gave them a shock in a 9 - 8 game. Meanwhile the
Lurkers were still issuing notice of their intent by pushing Punks to a
9 - 7 game.
The third round of games held the interest a bit more. Blue Arse Flies'
long awaited grudge match against Whiplash ended in an eight all draw;
justice? Chevron only just held on to an 8 - 7 win against Sorcerers, a
game Jeff later described as 'too close'. Then little Alex (Hollywood
II) made some money, he'll be upset he wasn't there to collect. At
Eastbourne he bet Wayne Retter £20, and £2 per point difference, that
Punks would beat Druids at nationals; everyone within earshot laughed!!.
Punks pulled out an impressive display, capitalising on every Druid
mistake to win 10 - 7. Although I think it's fair to say that the game
would have been closer had Si Weeks been shorter. After the game he
thanked the Druids for two years of outdoor play and teaching him to
jump and read a disc (Nice way to pay us back!!). So the Druids left the
pitch to barely muted sniggering from the UTI boys, who promptly joined
us in the humility room, after Ow! trampled all over their egos, beating
them 8 - 5. So much for my seedings!!
The fourth set of games followed closely to expectations, although UTI
still appeared a bit rocky, letting 17 seeds, Bradford, take them to a
12 - 8 game. And Lurkers again appeared not to realise that they were
seeded 21 and should be losing all their games, as they beat the
Janitors 10 - 6. You would think some one would notice this.
In the final sets of games the Druids finally picked up on what everyone
had missed, the Lurkers were here to play, and going quite well.
However, they did only notice this halfway through the game at 7 - 3
down. An intense game, punctuated by a number of calls, disputed
stalls-outs, but also played with great spirit by both teams as through
all this they managed to stay civil to each other (although the druids
shouted at each other as per usual). Lurkers finally beat the clock,
frantic defense and a discussion to level the game at the hooter for a
10 - 10 draw. The game was, according to the Lurkers, 'one the druids
will want to forget, but we will sing about over beer for a long time!'
Shame the audience consisted of only six people.
So by Saturday night there had been a bit of a shuffle, with the end of
day pools being;
Pool A Pool B Pool C Pool D
1. Ow! 2. Punks 3. Shrub 4. Chevron
6. UTI 5. Druids 8. Red 7. Sorcerers 1
11. Bradford 12. Sneeeky's 9. Bears 10. Blue Arse Flies
16. Skunks 15. Lurkers 14. Mud Culture 13. Whiplash.
17. Zebedees 18. Janitors 19. Ow1 2 20. Discult
22. Sorcerers 2 21. Mohawks 24. Village 23. Jedi
The Bears had done remarkably well to hold their 9 seed position,
bearing in mind they stepped in for the withdrawn Chevron 2 at only a
weeks notice. So onto the party!! Merrick was late (no, surely not!!),
bearing in mind he was in the band this was important - so the piss was
taken. Music played, people drank (some more than others), fun was had.
After a lot of effort, the landlord persuaded people to go home; a large
number decided that this was not an option, and endeavoured to find
some-else who would feed them beer. Most succeded, and this was
occasionally obvious on Sunday morning.
Sunday started with a bump, or more of a whimper in the case of Village
whose victory occured due to the fact that Zebedees found their
expensive hotel beds too comfortable. But here the games got tighter.
The set up for the quater finals was good. First, Red against Ow!. Ow!
appeared to make hard work of it but eventually secured the game12 -10.
Punks built on their victory over Druids by losing to the increasingly
confident Sorcerers, 7 - 10. Shrub provided a show against UTI, but
unfortunately despite Lee's spectacular efforts, and all the throws to
him the rest could make, UTI finished 9 - 6 ahead. Druids squeezed
through the toughest quarter-final against Chevron by 1 point, 8 - 7.
The inability to shutdown Jeff and the rest of the team refusing to stop
running, forced the Druids to play a zone and slow the game down. It
worked, they scored, and held on until the siren to win.
Punks continued their descent, matched only by Village's, as Discult
continued to climb. Leaving Druids to play Ow!, followed by UTI against
Sorcerers. Normal service was resumed by both the pre-tournament
favorites. Ow! were reduced to safe passes across the back as Druids
prevented anything from going forwards, whilst the Sorcerers couldn't
hold onto their fast play that had served tham so well during the rest
of the tournament. The expected final was back on, even if both teams
had taken the scenic route to get there.
Lurkers had failed to capitalise on their Saturday play, and lost to
Sneeeky's as the positions started to fill. Punks lost out to Red,
Chevron beat Shrub, and Ow! beat Sorcerers, all by a single point each
time. The standard of English indoor Ultimate seems to be improving, the
standard of Scottish Ultimate appears to be going ballistic, maybe
Hadrian had right idea after all.
The positon finals were as follows;
Division C - Ow! 2 ran out winners against Discult (rumour has it that
it was a tight game, but I appear to have no result for that so I likely
to be wrong)
Division B - the return match between Blue Arse Flies and Whiplash. This
time time Blue Arse win to pick up the Division B trophy (again I seem
to have no results??)
Championship Final - Druids v UTI. The Druids started off well and
seemed to have the upper hand pulling to a 2 - 0 lead. UTI then pulled a
point back, 2 - 1, then Druids pulled ahead again, 3 - 1. This was the
pattern for the rest of the game. There was lots of very intense
offense, and the defence by both teams was tight, generating a few
turnovers but the disc always returned to the team that recieved to keep
the score moving along as per usual. The first break came at 12 - 11;
Druids lost possession, and for the first time in the game UTI didn't
return the favour and eventually, after a travel call, put the game
level after the buzzer had gone. So now the cap of two; the pressure got
to both teams a bit, with a number of turnovers, but UTI had the
patience and the defense to put the game away 14 - 12.
The Final Positions;
1. UTI Champions
2. Druids Runners Up
3. Ow!
4. Sorcerers 1
5. Cheron AF
6. Shrub
7. Red
8. Punks
9. Blue Arse Flies Division B Winners
10 Whiplash Division B Runners Up
11. Bradford
12. Bears
13. Mud Culture
14. Skunks
15. Sneeekys
16. Lurkers
17. Ow! 2 Division C Winners
18. Discult Division C Runners Up
19. Village
20. Jedi Children
21. Janitors
22. Mohawks
23. Sorcerers 2
24. Zebedees
Sprit of the Game: Sorcerers
MVP: Rik Shipley / Dave Trovell
The presentation was punctuated by lots of cheesy handshakes for the
camera, attempted sexual harrasement of Merrick, and the loss of the
spirit and MVP trophies that Manuel had returned to the coffee bar.
Thanks need to be made to the Blue Arse Flies for assisting in the
running of the tournament, Cheltenham Rec Centre for providing a good
site, C&G CHE for the same, Northlands Youth Arts Centre for the
accomodation, and all those other ultimate players that were cornered
into helping at some stage or another. Cassidy's for the party, and
'Jigsaw' for the music. Thanks also to all the regional TD's and Wayne
Davey for organisng the Indoor season.
Chris Hughes