Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas. I hope everyone enjoys this holiday season. Don't eat too much! But if you do (which I know I will) then you can go and have a run and throw of the frisbee.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
FU Training Squad 2011
Fyshwick United have named their training squad for 2011. The Regionals, BCI and Nationals
teams to represent FU will be chosen from this squad. Thanks to everyone who tried out. Fyshwick is looking really strong this year.
teams to represent FU will be chosen from this squad. Thanks to everyone who tried out. Fyshwick is looking really strong this year.
Adam
AJ
Andy Sutton
Asher
Ben MH
Brett
Brevin
Callum Stewart
Dan MH
Erik
Gareth
AJ
Andy Sutton
Asher
Ben MH
Brett
Brevin
Callum Stewart
Dan MH
Erik
Gareth
Ian M
James L
James O
John Horan
Jonno
James O
John Horan
Jonno
Konrad
Lancey
Matt D
Max
Mikey H
Pete
Tom Bradman
Tom Walcott
Tom Watson
Waz
Cheers,
Jonno Pete and AJ: FU selectors.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
League Predictions
Ok so as Bags so graciously pointed out my league predictions were terrible. Lucky I am not
a betting man (and let that be a lesson to the rest of you).
Anyway here are the league ladders:
Congratulations to Revelation and King Truckers for winning div. 2 and 3 respectively. Also congratulations to Bags who correctly picked the winners. A big thanks to Nat and Liz and their helpers for such a great job organising Spring league.
I am looking forward to more bad predictions when Summer League starts up. In fact my money is on ANNUNAKI and The King Truckers.
a betting man (and let that be a lesson to the rest of you).
Anyway here are the league ladders:
| DIV 3 ladder | |||||||
| Pts | win | lose | draw | TOTAL Points | Ranking | ||
| Hot | The KingTruckers | 17 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Hot | The Brethren | 14 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Hot | Factory | -5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| Hot | Annunaki | -16 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Hot | Little Bananas | -11 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Hot | The Beige Team | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Pts | win | lose | draw | TOTAL Points | Ranking | ||
| Warm | Spin Doctors | 39 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 |
| Warm | Go Fetch | 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
| Warm | Dicky Knees | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| Warm | 11th Hour | -18 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Warm | TTHOT Kelly Gang | -8 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Warm | Damian Webb's Team | -26 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Pts | win | lose | draw | TOTAL Points | Ranking | ||
| Cool | Custard's Crew | 21 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Cool | Dynoshite | 9 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Cool | The Boffins | -9 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| Cool | The Umpires | -5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Cool | Team Team | -13 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Cool | The Samlets | -3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| DIV 2 Ladder | ||||||
| Pt diff | Win | Loss | Draw | Total points | Ranking' | |
| Revelation | 27 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 1 |
| The Muppets | 31 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 2 |
| Annunaki | 27 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 2 |
| The Punters | 13 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 4 |
| Very Mild Superpowers | -6 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 4 |
| Devolutionaries | -8 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 6 |
| Discotheque | -6 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 7 |
| Dam Beavers | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 7 |
| Discotheque 2 | -55 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Kick Ass | -24 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
Congratulations to Revelation and King Truckers for winning div. 2 and 3 respectively. Also congratulations to Bags who correctly picked the winners. A big thanks to Nat and Liz and their helpers for such a great job organising Spring league.
I am looking forward to more bad predictions when Summer League starts up. In fact my money is on ANNUNAKI and The King Truckers.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The latest from league
A long time ago, a wise man once said:
"AJ, you're dreaming.
In div 2 I reckon Revelation or the Muppets will take top spot. They've got a bunch of solid rookies and enough star power to overcome the other teams.
In div 3 I don't know what will happen, so I'm going to go with my gut and back the King Truckers. Sure, the Boffins and the Little Bananas may have the experience and the talent, but the Truckers have other, undisclosed things that make them good.
You read it here first."
That was on October 15th, in response to a totally spurious set of league predictions from AJ. And, two months later, my prediction was vindicated.
Admittedly, I vacillated a bit with my bet on Revelation and the Muppets, but I think that's redeemed because then they both made the Div 2 final, which was won handsomely by Revelation. In Div 3, true to form, the King Truckers finished the season with a win over the Bretheren to take the honors for the third season in a row.
I've seen a few games in both divisions this season and there have been a number of pretty exciting developments:
- League is huge. After splitting the time-slots for divisions 2 and 3 a few seasons back league has continued to grow and Div 3 is now filling the Dickson fields on it's own. We've got 20 teams in Div 3 and 12 in Div 2. Awesome
- Team fees. OK, so I know this isn't very exciting for most people, but introducing team fees has simplified one of the worst parts of league organising - rounding up hundreds of individual player fees. It means it's easier for new volunteers to get involved and it takes a load off our current volunteer stock. It's grouse.
- The standard. Div 3 looked heaps stronger this year than it has for a while. The same goes for Div 2. The successful teams in both divisions are using all of their players, making a bunch of passes with each possession and generally looking smoother than any other ACT league teams I can remember. It makes for more fun for everyone involved and gives more players a chance to contribute each point.
- Factory organising stuff. Everything seemed well organised, it sounds like the work was shared out among a few people so no-one got snowed under, and Factory got to raise some cash to offset the effects of Nat Blood's Creative Finance Explosion (TM).
League will take a break over the holidays and fire up again in January. The format is undecided because ACT Sportsgrounds are closing Dickson fields for some major renovations. Stay tuned and we'll get details up when they get sorted out.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
ACT bid for regionals
It's been a lean few years for major tournaments in the ACT. We hosted the Brisbane Canberra Iinvitational in early 2009, which had 8 mens teams and 4 womens teams, but before that the only really big tounrament we've held was Nationals in 2003. The ANU and SOMA have been really active lately, running hat tournaments and IVs, but there hasn't been anything on a national or regional scale for a while.
With this history it's pretty exciting that the ACT women's team, Factory, have put in an expression of interest to run Regionals in mid February. Apparently there have been a few bids for regionals from around NSW and the ACT, so let's hope the admin gods smile on us and let us run the tournament here. After all, we've got great fields. Last nationals, all four of the semi finalists in the Open division were from the Eastern Region, as well as 3 of the four women's semi finalists, so Regionals always features some quality play.
The Brisbane Canberra Invitational is also set to be held in Canberra in March (it switches between Brisbane and Canberra each year). This is Australia's only invitiational tournament and is set up to produce some great games.
If you're interested in helping out at either tournament let me know at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail dot com. We'll need volunteers to help with managing the tournaments, parties, food, billet and money as well as a horde of helpers to put up shade tents, collect scores, refill water containers, sort lunches and fill the jelly wrestling pit on the weekend themselves.
Even if you can't help out, make sure you come to the fields when the events are on and support the local teams. High level ultimate is great to watch and you can see where some of the best teams in Australia are headed. I'll post more details when I get them.
With this history it's pretty exciting that the ACT women's team, Factory, have put in an expression of interest to run Regionals in mid February. Apparently there have been a few bids for regionals from around NSW and the ACT, so let's hope the admin gods smile on us and let us run the tournament here. After all, we've got great fields. Last nationals, all four of the semi finalists in the Open division were from the Eastern Region, as well as 3 of the four women's semi finalists, so Regionals always features some quality play.
The Brisbane Canberra Invitational is also set to be held in Canberra in March (it switches between Brisbane and Canberra each year). This is Australia's only invitiational tournament and is set up to produce some great games.
If you're interested in helping out at either tournament let me know at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail dot com. We'll need volunteers to help with managing the tournaments, parties, food, billet and money as well as a horde of helpers to put up shade tents, collect scores, refill water containers, sort lunches and fill the jelly wrestling pit on the weekend themselves.
Even if you can't help out, make sure you come to the fields when the events are on and support the local teams. High level ultimate is great to watch and you can see where some of the best teams in Australia are headed. I'll post more details when I get them.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Fields are closed
After the wettest spring and most miserable summer I can remember in Canberra, ACT Sportsgrounds has finally bit the bullet and closed fields. This means no organised sport on the fields until next week.
Now I know that some of you will want to get out and throw or whatever, and might be thinking of flaunting the field closures. While I understand the urge to throw is a pretty deeply ingrained instinct in frisbee players around the world, this is the chance to practise your self control.
Frisbee players already have a bad reputation for using closed fields with ACT Sportsgrounds, and the rangers and staff from the Sportsgrounds office DO actually look at their fields pretty often. I know you're just having an informal throw, but you'll make life harder for the brave and hardworking administrators who'll go in to make the next field booking for your next league/tournament/training.
Besides, they do their best to keep fields open and it has rained a complete boatload. This doesn't happen very often so I'm sure we can all wait it out.
And finally, this is a good chance to do some of the other stuff that most players don't get around to often enough. No, I'm not talking about washing your socks or talking to your loved ones. I'm talking about doing some injury prevention and recovery stuff. A solid investment in this stuff now will pay dividends when the sun finally comes out.
Now I know that some of you will want to get out and throw or whatever, and might be thinking of flaunting the field closures. While I understand the urge to throw is a pretty deeply ingrained instinct in frisbee players around the world, this is the chance to practise your self control.
Frisbee players already have a bad reputation for using closed fields with ACT Sportsgrounds, and the rangers and staff from the Sportsgrounds office DO actually look at their fields pretty often. I know you're just having an informal throw, but you'll make life harder for the brave and hardworking administrators who'll go in to make the next field booking for your next league/tournament/training.
Besides, they do their best to keep fields open and it has rained a complete boatload. This doesn't happen very often so I'm sure we can all wait it out.
And finally, this is a good chance to do some of the other stuff that most players don't get around to often enough. No, I'm not talking about washing your socks or talking to your loved ones. I'm talking about doing some injury prevention and recovery stuff. A solid investment in this stuff now will pay dividends when the sun finally comes out.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Diskapital round-up
Last weekend the crazy weather in Canberra finally let up and we had a great sunny weekend for our annual hat tournament, Diskapital. Six teams were formed on the day with a mix of the usual suspects, a contingent of out-of-towners (including Sammy "Sweet Cheeks" Ogden, all the way from Adelaide, and Felix from Tasmania) and a bunch of new players and up-and-comers from within the ACT.
The standard of play on Saturday looked good, with all teams able to move the disc around pretty freely and everyone seemed able to contribute. The by final on Sunday, though, fatigue was starting to show with everyone slowing down a bit. In the end, the team that still had the legs to run hard pulled out a huge comeback victory to win the game. Unfortunately, I don't know the names of either of the teams, but basically the tall team beat the short team, but not by virtue of their height. I was much too busy listening to the Soma crew singing tight a capella versions of 90s dance anthems to really know what was happening on the field.
Congratulations and thanks to Soma for hosting the tournament. Everything looked really well organised and smoothly run and there seemed to be plenty of work put in to make the tournament a success. Each field even had its own shade tent. Nice. With good weather, a laid back atmosphere and great fields it was great weekend for all.
The standard of play on Saturday looked good, with all teams able to move the disc around pretty freely and everyone seemed able to contribute. The by final on Sunday, though, fatigue was starting to show with everyone slowing down a bit. In the end, the team that still had the legs to run hard pulled out a huge comeback victory to win the game. Unfortunately, I don't know the names of either of the teams, but basically the tall team beat the short team, but not by virtue of their height. I was much too busy listening to the Soma crew singing tight a capella versions of 90s dance anthems to really know what was happening on the field.
Congratulations and thanks to Soma for hosting the tournament. Everything looked really well organised and smoothly run and there seemed to be plenty of work put in to make the tournament a success. Each field even had its own shade tent. Nice. With good weather, a laid back atmosphere and great fields it was great weekend for all.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Diskapital is on this weekend
That's right, Canberra's premier hat tournament is on this weekend.
It's at Dickson, game on is at 11:00.
There's still time to register at http://www.afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=878.
Get out and play.
It's at Dickson, game on is at 11:00.
There's still time to register at http://www.afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=878.
Get out and play.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
ACTUA logo redesign competition!
Mission: To rebrand ACTUA into the 21st century.
Many of you may have seen our old logo on ACTUA disc floating around. ACTUA want to update the design.
Can you give us a modern logo?
ACTUA want to offer $300 to someone to come up with a design. The rules of this competition follow:
-The design (or variants of) should be able to be suitable to put on a webpage, on a disc, on a letterhead and on a shirt.
-There are no limit to the number of entries that an individual can submit
-Collaborative efforts are permitted
-Entries must be in by the deadline of 30 November 2010 and must be submitted in electronic format to thomasgabriel.watson@gmail.com
Tips for the entries:
-Have a look at the new AFDA logo. One possibility is for our logo to have a similar aesthetic.
- Alternatively, look at what other states have done and see if their concepts could inspire a unique ACT design. I have also linked the Tassy association site, which is widely regarded as the best logo currently around. Having something associated with the ACT isn't a bad idea but probably best to avoid parliament house or public service references.
-It is beneficial but not compulsory for designers to have experience with putting designs on to discs
The designs will be examined and a winner picked at the next ACTUA committee after 30 November 2010.
-Tom Watson
Many of you may have seen our old logo on ACTUA disc floating around. ACTUA want to update the design.
Can you give us a modern logo?
ACTUA want to offer $300 to someone to come up with a design. The rules of this competition follow:
-The design (or variants of) should be able to be suitable to put on a webpage, on a disc, on a letterhead and on a shirt.
-There are no limit to the number of entries that an individual can submit
-Collaborative efforts are permitted
-Entries must be in by the deadline of 30 November 2010 and must be submitted in electronic format to thomasgabriel.watson@gmail.com
Tips for the entries:
-Have a look at the new AFDA logo. One possibility is for our logo to have a similar aesthetic.
- Alternatively, look at what other states have done and see if their concepts could inspire a unique ACT design. I have also linked the Tassy association site, which is widely regarded as the best logo currently around. Having something associated with the ACT isn't a bad idea but probably best to avoid parliament house or public service references.
-It is beneficial but not compulsory for designers to have experience with putting designs on to discs
The designs will be examined and a winner picked at the next ACTUA committee after 30 November 2010.
-Tom Watson
Monday, November 8, 2010
The Canberra Ultimate Blog would like to apologise to
Chris Warris.
Sorry Chris.
(And sorry to Roger, whose photo I've slightly stolen. Am I allowed to do this? I can take it down if there's a problem. You should check out Roger's photos, he's got lots and they're grouse.)
You see, Blogger now gives statistics on pageviews for each post of a blog, and (in a really depressing way) the most commonly viewed post for this blog is the one from 2008 about the 2012 Dingos, the national men's team. In it, ACTUA graciously decided to save the AFDA the heartache associated with picking the team by doing it for them in an arbitraty and inexplicable way. However, looking back at this post to see just who was selected for one of the highest frisbee honours in the country, I noticed that we left off one man who would definitely be in any team ACTUA ever picked to represent the nation, Chris Warris.
We at the Canberra Ultimate Blog sincerely hope that Chris doesn't now dislike us because we left his name off the list, especially when there are so many other fine reasons to dislike us. It would be a shame to pass all of them over just because of a crazy mistake.
Anyway, this is a fine opportunity to educate the good people of the ACT about Chris Warris, and in doing so recall a fine era in the history of our fair city.
Chris Warris has been a stalwart of Australian representative teams for ages. He's played on the Dingos a bunch of times (and even been Vice Captain or something respectable like that), played Clubs with King Brown (an old-school men's club), Pie Wagon and Deathstar and even got the call up for Doughboy, a mysterious team of mostly Australian ex-pats who go to tournaments like the Kiamana Klassic each year in Hawaii. He also earned a well deserved gold medal at nationals with Newcastle's I-Beam earlier this year. It's a great track record.
But in amongst the glory, people overlook some of Chris Warris' real acheivements, like winning back-to-back league finals with Homebrand back in 2003 in Canberra, and leading the ACTion Men (second worst team name ever after Team Happy) to an earthshattering quarter final finish at nationals in Canberra in 2003 (back when the ACT used to host really big tournaments, when Jason De Roy lived here - he now lives in Queensland, guess which state is hosting the big tournaments now). He also hosted one of the last great house parties of the Canberra frisbee scene, with the stated aim of finishing all the alcohol in the house before he left town. I walked home at 3:00 wearing none of my own clothes and as I closed the front door I heard Pete Liddicoat say "Hey, I've found a bottle of wine." Good times.
So, we at the Canberra Ultimate Blog salute you Chris. Your plucky, reliable handling, enormous workrate, deft skills and unwavering committment are something for us all to aspire to. You'd definitely be on the 2012 Dingos if we were picking the team. Which we aren't. But you'll probably still be on the team anyway, because it's just good sense.
Sorry Chris.
(And sorry to Roger, whose photo I've slightly stolen. Am I allowed to do this? I can take it down if there's a problem. You should check out Roger's photos, he's got lots and they're grouse.)
You see, Blogger now gives statistics on pageviews for each post of a blog, and (in a really depressing way) the most commonly viewed post for this blog is the one from 2008 about the 2012 Dingos, the national men's team. In it, ACTUA graciously decided to save the AFDA the heartache associated with picking the team by doing it for them in an arbitraty and inexplicable way. However, looking back at this post to see just who was selected for one of the highest frisbee honours in the country, I noticed that we left off one man who would definitely be in any team ACTUA ever picked to represent the nation, Chris Warris.
We at the Canberra Ultimate Blog sincerely hope that Chris doesn't now dislike us because we left his name off the list, especially when there are so many other fine reasons to dislike us. It would be a shame to pass all of them over just because of a crazy mistake.
Anyway, this is a fine opportunity to educate the good people of the ACT about Chris Warris, and in doing so recall a fine era in the history of our fair city.
Chris Warris has been a stalwart of Australian representative teams for ages. He's played on the Dingos a bunch of times (and even been Vice Captain or something respectable like that), played Clubs with King Brown (an old-school men's club), Pie Wagon and Deathstar and even got the call up for Doughboy, a mysterious team of mostly Australian ex-pats who go to tournaments like the Kiamana Klassic each year in Hawaii. He also earned a well deserved gold medal at nationals with Newcastle's I-Beam earlier this year. It's a great track record.
But in amongst the glory, people overlook some of Chris Warris' real acheivements, like winning back-to-back league finals with Homebrand back in 2003 in Canberra, and leading the ACTion Men (second worst team name ever after Team Happy) to an earthshattering quarter final finish at nationals in Canberra in 2003 (back when the ACT used to host really big tournaments, when Jason De Roy lived here - he now lives in Queensland, guess which state is hosting the big tournaments now). He also hosted one of the last great house parties of the Canberra frisbee scene, with the stated aim of finishing all the alcohol in the house before he left town. I walked home at 3:00 wearing none of my own clothes and as I closed the front door I heard Pete Liddicoat say "Hey, I've found a bottle of wine." Good times.
So, we at the Canberra Ultimate Blog salute you Chris. Your plucky, reliable handling, enormous workrate, deft skills and unwavering committment are something for us all to aspire to. You'd definitely be on the 2012 Dingos if we were picking the team. Which we aren't. But you'll probably still be on the team anyway, because it's just good sense.
Heaven smiles on the women's hat
As everyone in Canberra knows, everything is better on the North side of Lake Burley Griffin. As you drive/ride/run over Commonwealth Avenue bridge heading North in the evening you can look to the sun setting behind Black Mountain to the West and the clouds over the Brindabellas lighting up and know that life is getting better with every metre you travel. Heading South over the very same bridge at the very same time all you can see are the austere buildings of the Parliamentary Triangle and every metre you go brings you closer to Tuggeranong and damnation.
Anyway, you don't have to take my word for it. On Saturday, while it poured with rain that slowly leached the joy from the Southerners already bleak lives in Woden and the Deep South, it was dry (albeit a little cloudy) on the Northside for the inaugural women's hat. Hosted by local women's club, Factory, the event was well attended with a number of new players stepping up to play. I saw a few points from the final, where it looked like a bunch of athletic new recruits were duking it out for control of the middle of the field. A great start to the season for Factory and a great way to introduce local players to Women's Ultimate.
This weekend also marked the start of Fyshwick United's strangely named "Noodle Sessions". These are a way for players to meet in small groups and run drills that have been preset by the team's coaches, aimed at improving footwork and throwing. Early reports coming in suggest that the first Noodle Session was well attended and got people thinking about some new approaches to skills training. These sessions are mandatory for anyone thinking of trying out for the men's team next year but they're open to anyone attending Thursday night training who just wants to get some extra practise in. Send me an email at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail got com if you're interested in more info.
Also good, and thus likely to be found on the Northside, is Diskapital. Soma are using this to raise some funds to offset some costs for some of their uni student members so sign up on the AFDA website (www.afda.com) and come out for a great weeked of hat ultimate. The party is already looking like being a somewhat epic affair...
Anyway, you don't have to take my word for it. On Saturday, while it poured with rain that slowly leached the joy from the Southerners already bleak lives in Woden and the Deep South, it was dry (albeit a little cloudy) on the Northside for the inaugural women's hat. Hosted by local women's club, Factory, the event was well attended with a number of new players stepping up to play. I saw a few points from the final, where it looked like a bunch of athletic new recruits were duking it out for control of the middle of the field. A great start to the season for Factory and a great way to introduce local players to Women's Ultimate.
This weekend also marked the start of Fyshwick United's strangely named "Noodle Sessions". These are a way for players to meet in small groups and run drills that have been preset by the team's coaches, aimed at improving footwork and throwing. Early reports coming in suggest that the first Noodle Session was well attended and got people thinking about some new approaches to skills training. These sessions are mandatory for anyone thinking of trying out for the men's team next year but they're open to anyone attending Thursday night training who just wants to get some extra practise in. Send me an email at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail got com if you're interested in more info.
Also good, and thus likely to be found on the Northside, is Diskapital. Soma are using this to raise some funds to offset some costs for some of their uni student members so sign up on the AFDA website (www.afda.com) and come out for a great weeked of hat ultimate. The party is already looking like being a somewhat epic affair...
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Training starts tomorrow
Training for Fyshwick United the (ACT men's team) starts tomorrow. It's at O'Connor playing fields (off Pedder St, near All Bar Nun) and will run from 6:30 to 9:00 every Thursday night. Get there at 6:15 to give yourself time to cleat up and talk smack. Training is open to all comers and new players are most welcome.
The team is looking forward to a new season with a bunch of new faces. It's looking like another great season with Pete Hemphill, Jonno Holmes and Andrew Jackson running the show. This is great chance to get coaching from some of the best players and coaches in the country, and they're keen to give new players an opportunity to train and improve. There's also some momentum gathering to send two men's teams to nationals this year, so this is the time to show up and get involved.
The lads will be heading to the conveniently located All Bar Nun after training for some serious debriefing.
For those ladies feeling left out by the FU bromance about to take place, Factory (the ACT women's team) is running it's reputedly awesome beginner's clinics on Thursday night at O'Connor as well. Not only are these devoid of smelly boys, they finish earlier so you can get dinner at the pub. The sessions kick of at 5:45 for a 6:00 start. Rumour has it that this week will even include a game at the end of the session. If you want to kick arse like the Factory div 3 team, this is way to do it.
THERE'S ALSO THE WOMEN'S HAT ON SATURDAY. CHECK WWW.FACTORYULTIMATE.COM FOR MORE INFO.
The team is looking forward to a new season with a bunch of new faces. It's looking like another great season with Pete Hemphill, Jonno Holmes and Andrew Jackson running the show. This is great chance to get coaching from some of the best players and coaches in the country, and they're keen to give new players an opportunity to train and improve. There's also some momentum gathering to send two men's teams to nationals this year, so this is the time to show up and get involved.
The lads will be heading to the conveniently located All Bar Nun after training for some serious debriefing.
For those ladies feeling left out by the FU bromance about to take place, Factory (the ACT women's team) is running it's reputedly awesome beginner's clinics on Thursday night at O'Connor as well. Not only are these devoid of smelly boys, they finish earlier so you can get dinner at the pub. The sessions kick of at 5:45 for a 6:00 start. Rumour has it that this week will even include a game at the end of the session. If you want to kick arse like the Factory div 3 team, this is way to do it.
THERE'S ALSO THE WOMEN'S HAT ON SATURDAY. CHECK WWW.FACTORYULTIMATE.COM FOR MORE INFO.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Holy crap it is raining a lot
If you're like me and you grew up in Canberra, you might be wondering what all that stuff coming out of the sky is. Lukily, I've been bushwalking in both New Zealand and Tasmania, so I am well acquainted with this phenomenon and am here to enlighten you. The stuff coming out of the sky is water - the very same stuff that comes out of the tap, and when it comes out of the sky it's called rain.
The good news is that rain makes the fields green and lush. In fact, rain is great because ACT Sportsgrounds have been really struggling to keep fields open in the ACT because of the drought and a few good seasons should really help them out. They've done an awesome job of keeping things going for so long so they deserve our thanks.
The bad news is that with enough rain sportsgrounds will be closed temporarily. Anyone who's seen the effect of some serious footwork drills on a wet pitch will know why. In the ACT, field closures are announced before 8:30 in the morning on weekdays, so often fields will be open even if it's rained a heap during the day but has been dry in the days before. I can't really remember when it last rained this much in Canberra but usually ACT Sportsgrounds and pretty good about keeping fields open in wet weather. To find out if fields are open call the field closure hotline on 6207 5957. A friendly automated voice will tell you what's going in no time. Don't call Canberra Connect or the sportsgrounds office, where a weary voice may well break down into tears at their millionth phone call about field closures for the day.
As for frisbee stuff, you can rest assured that if the fields are open, games are on. We play (and indeed have played) rain, hail, shine or earthquake. The only thing that stops games are nearby lightning and perhaps complete nuclear annihilation. Playing frisbee in the rain is one of life's great joys and as Australians it's something of a nationalistic duty to get out and enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime chance to get rained on in that national capital.
The good news is that rain makes the fields green and lush. In fact, rain is great because ACT Sportsgrounds have been really struggling to keep fields open in the ACT because of the drought and a few good seasons should really help them out. They've done an awesome job of keeping things going for so long so they deserve our thanks.
The bad news is that with enough rain sportsgrounds will be closed temporarily. Anyone who's seen the effect of some serious footwork drills on a wet pitch will know why. In the ACT, field closures are announced before 8:30 in the morning on weekdays, so often fields will be open even if it's rained a heap during the day but has been dry in the days before. I can't really remember when it last rained this much in Canberra but usually ACT Sportsgrounds and pretty good about keeping fields open in wet weather. To find out if fields are open call the field closure hotline on 6207 5957. A friendly automated voice will tell you what's going in no time. Don't call Canberra Connect or the sportsgrounds office, where a weary voice may well break down into tears at their millionth phone call about field closures for the day.
As for frisbee stuff, you can rest assured that if the fields are open, games are on. We play (and indeed have played) rain, hail, shine or earthquake. The only thing that stops games are nearby lightning and perhaps complete nuclear annihilation. Playing frisbee in the rain is one of life's great joys and as Australians it's something of a nationalistic duty to get out and enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime chance to get rained on in that national capital.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Canberra Women's Hat
Are you a woman?
Do you like having fun?
Do you find ultimate frisbee fun?
If you answered yes to all of the questions above (or really just yes to the first question) you should play in the Canberra Women's Hat next Saturday the 6th of November. Local women's team Factory are running the event and are bringing in several carloads of players from Sydney to beef out the event. It's being held at Downer Playing fields (not for from Dickson fields, on the corner of Melba and Bonython street in Downer) and costs $15 if you pay in advance (see www.factoryultimate.com for details).
Register at the AFDA website (you'll need to log in or sign up for an AFDA number) or the factory website.
A hat tournament is one where players register individually and the teams are put together randomly on the day. They're heaps of fun and a good chance to play with some new people.
This spring weather is great, so get out and enjoy it.
Do you like having fun?
Do you find ultimate frisbee fun?
If you answered yes to all of the questions above (or really just yes to the first question) you should play in the Canberra Women's Hat next Saturday the 6th of November. Local women's team Factory are running the event and are bringing in several carloads of players from Sydney to beef out the event. It's being held at Downer Playing fields (not for from Dickson fields, on the corner of Melba and Bonython street in Downer) and costs $15 if you pay in advance (see www.factoryultimate.com for details).
Register at the AFDA website (you'll need to log in or sign up for an AFDA number) or the factory website.
A hat tournament is one where players register individually and the teams are put together randomly on the day. They're heaps of fun and a good chance to play with some new people.
This spring weather is great, so get out and enjoy it.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Mixed Nationals - the shotgun effect
Bathurst pulled out all the stops for Mixed Nationals last weekend. There was sunshine, rain, lightning, partying, two rival bikie clubs in town at once and bogans driving around the Mt Panorama circuit on the wrong side of the road.
The last games of the tournament were cancelled for many teams because lightening disrupted play on Saturday afternoon. That made the placings a bit confusing since most teams didn't play off for their final bracket.
I'm expecting an update from the SOMA crew on their weekend so I'll leave it to them to tell their own stories. The rest of the ACT took something of a shotgun-style approach to the weekend, scattering themselves across a number of teams and finishing up the tournament anywhere from 1st to 25th. Keah Molomby won the tournament with a largely Sydney based team, Jericho Turnpike Bandits. Jonno Holmes brought home silver with MCMLXXX (a team whose members were all born in 1980). Adam Mortimer came in 7th/8th with SMURF from Adelaide. Next up were the kids from Team Happy (worst team name ever) who came in 9th/10th. Long-time-Canberran-but-now-living-on-the-South Coast Jane Andrew finished up with the Mix Masters in 11th/12th and SOMA rounded out the ACT contingent in 25th.
Despite some crazy weather and a small earthquake on Friday it was a great weekend for all concerned. Thanks go to Hills Ultimate for hosting the tournament. These guys are a well oiled administrative machine who consistently run great tournaments in a range of locations. Congratulations and thanks for another fine national event.
As for that meeting about the national mixed team, it sounds like the AFDA is moving towards a better planned version of their current system. They're going to try to set up a head coach and leadership group for the team much earlier than they've done in the past and give themselves more time to make selections and build a team. With luck they'll be able to build on the strong performances by mixed club teams in Prague and put together a medal winning outfit for 2012.
The last games of the tournament were cancelled for many teams because lightening disrupted play on Saturday afternoon. That made the placings a bit confusing since most teams didn't play off for their final bracket.
I'm expecting an update from the SOMA crew on their weekend so I'll leave it to them to tell their own stories. The rest of the ACT took something of a shotgun-style approach to the weekend, scattering themselves across a number of teams and finishing up the tournament anywhere from 1st to 25th. Keah Molomby won the tournament with a largely Sydney based team, Jericho Turnpike Bandits. Jonno Holmes brought home silver with MCMLXXX (a team whose members were all born in 1980). Adam Mortimer came in 7th/8th with SMURF from Adelaide. Next up were the kids from Team Happy (worst team name ever) who came in 9th/10th. Long-time-Canberran-but-now-living-on-the-South Coast Jane Andrew finished up with the Mix Masters in 11th/12th and SOMA rounded out the ACT contingent in 25th.
Despite some crazy weather and a small earthquake on Friday it was a great weekend for all concerned. Thanks go to Hills Ultimate for hosting the tournament. These guys are a well oiled administrative machine who consistently run great tournaments in a range of locations. Congratulations and thanks for another fine national event.
As for that meeting about the national mixed team, it sounds like the AFDA is moving towards a better planned version of their current system. They're going to try to set up a head coach and leadership group for the team much earlier than they've done in the past and give themselves more time to make selections and build a team. With luck they'll be able to build on the strong performances by mixed club teams in Prague and put together a medal winning outfit for 2012.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The future is mixed
Hello avid reader. If you're going to mixed nationals you'll have received the message below from Piers Truter about the Australian mixed team. If not, have a quick peruse through the email below. In case you're wondering, Piers is the director of the AFDA High Performance program and has put a monumental amount of work over the last few years into Australia's elite and international level teams. It's a tough gig - everyone who's anyone has got an opinion on what they want done but they don't necessarily want or have the time to get involved to make that happen, so they try to live vicariously through Piers. Regardless of whether you agree with the approach of the high performance program over the last few years, you have to respect the people who actually get out there and get things done rather than just being theoretical geniuses after league at the pub.
Here's Piers' email:
"Hi there,
Apologies for the lateness of this message.
There is a meeting on Friday of Mixed nationals (this Friday) for all people interested in the Australian Mixed Team for 2012.
On the table is discussing how to bring more focus to the development of this team into the 2012 World Ultimate Championships, rather than making it a poor cousin of the Open and Women's teams. There have been a few ideas floated on how to do this including;
1) The winning team of 2011 Australian Mixed Ultimate Championships winning the right to represent Australia.
2) Selecting the 2012 Mixed ultimate team in 2011 and this team competing at 2011 AMUC as a team for development.
The aim of the meeting is to explore options, gain opinions and to improve the process of selection and team formation for the 2012 campaign.
If you have a good idea or opinion - please come along to the meeting. You will find information on time and venue at the tournament.
I hope to see you there.
Piers Truter
Dir HP
AFDA"
Because I'm a frisbee nerd who loves punishment, I'll be going to this meeting at mixed nats. If you've got any good ideas or opinions and you won't be able to make it along you can pass them on to me and I'll try to get them to the movers and shakers in the room (if I can work out who they are). Both of these options would be pretty radical departures from the approaches of old but they could pay big dividends at the World Championships in 2012. Post a comment or email me at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail dot com if you want me to be your singing telegram.
Here's Piers' email:
"Hi there,
Apologies for the lateness of this message.
There is a meeting on Friday of Mixed nationals (this Friday) for all people interested in the Australian Mixed Team for 2012.
On the table is discussing how to bring more focus to the development of this team into the 2012 World Ultimate Championships, rather than making it a poor cousin of the Open and Women's teams. There have been a few ideas floated on how to do this including;
1) The winning team of 2011 Australian Mixed Ultimate Championships winning the right to represent Australia.
2) Selecting the 2012 Mixed ultimate team in 2011 and this team competing at 2011 AMUC as a team for development.
The aim of the meeting is to explore options, gain opinions and to improve the process of selection and team formation for the 2012 campaign.
If you have a good idea or opinion - please come along to the meeting. You will find information on time and venue at the tournament.
I hope to see you there.
Piers Truter
Dir HP
AFDA"
Because I'm a frisbee nerd who loves punishment, I'll be going to this meeting at mixed nats. If you've got any good ideas or opinions and you won't be able to make it along you can pass them on to me and I'll try to get them to the movers and shakers in the room (if I can work out who they are). Both of these options would be pretty radical departures from the approaches of old but they could pay big dividends at the World Championships in 2012. Post a comment or email me at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail dot com if you want me to be your singing telegram.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
DisKapital is open for registration!
Hey all
Registration for Canberra's Hat tournament, DisKapital is open.
If you have not heard of Hat tournaments before, I will quickly explain. Hat tournaments require the players to pick their level of experience and sign up as individuals. Once all registrations are in, the players are all divided up on to teams with an even mix of rookies, experienced players and pros. Hats are a lot of fun and a great opportunity to play with a wide range of people from across Australia and Canberra.
http://afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1543
Registration for Canberra's Hat tournament, DisKapital is open.
If you have not heard of Hat tournaments before, I will quickly explain. Hat tournaments require the players to pick their level of experience and sign up as individuals. Once all registrations are in, the players are all divided up on to teams with an even mix of rookies, experienced players and pros. Hats are a lot of fun and a great opportunity to play with a wide range of people from across Australia and Canberra.
http://afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1543
Friday, October 15, 2010
You should get out more
If you want to get a snapshot of ultimate in Australia, have a look at the registration calendar for the Australian Flying Disc Association (you'll need to log in to the website). There's something ultimate related on somewhere in the country just about every weekend and most weekdays. There are coaching courses, admin conferences, clinics, training, leagues and tournaments. There's much more to ultimate in Australia than the weekly league game that makes up frisbee for so many of us. And while it's great that so many people can enjoy ultimate as a casual and accessible team sport, it's worth keeping in mind that we're more than just a bunch of wierdos chasing a frisbee around once a week - we're wierdos with a website and a calendar.
Anyway, the story of this post is that it wasn't always that way. In 2003 I played just about every tournament I could get to (I was even part of a road-trip to Halibut in Brisbane for a weekend) which came in at something like 15 weekends of ultimate. Now, if you played everything within driving distance (i.e. Brisbane) you'd play 40-odd weekends of ultimate a year. And you'd be broke, tired and ridiculously fit.
Back in the day I could always rely on a regular posse of Canberra tournament goers to rustle up a team, some transport and some billets and I could just tag along with them to distant places and tournaments*. These days, however, the players who would normally make up that tournament posse are too busy training for club-level tournaments to get to other events. It's fine for them (and me, since I'm guilty of this) but it's a shame for all the folks who don't get a chance to get dragged along to some random tournament somewhere strange like Albury and get hooked on playing ultimate during the day.
That's why it's so great that new clubs are getting a foothold in Canberra. Clubs like Soma and Anunaki have a real development focus and have been going to a bunch of smaller tournaments around Canberra during the year. With the usual summer crop of hat tournaments coming up, hopefully some of the players driving these clubs get along to some of the great tournaments around the place. And hopefully you go with them. Because tournament ultimate is fun. You meet heaps of great people, get to play heaps of great ultimate, and go to heaps of great parties.
So have a look at the calendar yourself, find yourself a weekend where you're not writing ministerials about prohibited seeds or bleaching the fungus out of your socks, fill up a car with friends and go to one of the many tournaments coming up. It's cheap, suprisingly easy and much better than whatever else you were going to do. Besides, that fungus in your socks will just grow back.
* I do mean "rely". I once literally forgot to go to a selection camp for Worlds, and that's the old fashioned kind of literally. From then on there was always someone delegated to collect me from my house and take me to tournaments. Thanks Adam Mortimer.
Anyway, the story of this post is that it wasn't always that way. In 2003 I played just about every tournament I could get to (I was even part of a road-trip to Halibut in Brisbane for a weekend) which came in at something like 15 weekends of ultimate. Now, if you played everything within driving distance (i.e. Brisbane) you'd play 40-odd weekends of ultimate a year. And you'd be broke, tired and ridiculously fit.
Back in the day I could always rely on a regular posse of Canberra tournament goers to rustle up a team, some transport and some billets and I could just tag along with them to distant places and tournaments*. These days, however, the players who would normally make up that tournament posse are too busy training for club-level tournaments to get to other events. It's fine for them (and me, since I'm guilty of this) but it's a shame for all the folks who don't get a chance to get dragged along to some random tournament somewhere strange like Albury and get hooked on playing ultimate during the day.
That's why it's so great that new clubs are getting a foothold in Canberra. Clubs like Soma and Anunaki have a real development focus and have been going to a bunch of smaller tournaments around Canberra during the year. With the usual summer crop of hat tournaments coming up, hopefully some of the players driving these clubs get along to some of the great tournaments around the place. And hopefully you go with them. Because tournament ultimate is fun. You meet heaps of great people, get to play heaps of great ultimate, and go to heaps of great parties.
So have a look at the calendar yourself, find yourself a weekend where you're not writing ministerials about prohibited seeds or bleaching the fungus out of your socks, fill up a car with friends and go to one of the many tournaments coming up. It's cheap, suprisingly easy and much better than whatever else you were going to do. Besides, that fungus in your socks will just grow back.
* I do mean "rely". I once literally forgot to go to a selection camp for Worlds, and that's the old fashioned kind of literally. From then on there was always someone delegated to collect me from my house and take me to tournaments. Thanks Adam Mortimer.
League Predictions
Ok, so it is the start of league. Time to make some predictions. I can't remember if I was terribly wrong or on the right track with my Autumn league predictions. I did get Discotheque as div. 2 winners right.
With Discotheque now splitting their talent across 2 teams and with a whole lot of talent back at league, div. 2 is wide open. My prediction is the following:
1) The Punters
2) Kick Ass
3) The Muppetts
4) Annunaki
5-10) Revelation, Very Mild Superpowers, Discotheque, Discotheque 2, Dam Beavers, Devolutianaries
In div. 3 I am predicting:
1) The Boffins
2) King Truckers
3) Little Bananas
4) Go Fetch
5) Spin Doctors
6) fACTory Girls
7-18) Annunaki, The Samlets, 11th Hour, The Kelly Gang, The Brethren, Dynoshite, Dickey Knees, Team Team, The Beige Team, The Umpires, Damien Webb's Team, Custards Crew
I'm probably going to be way off. There is too many teams in div.3 which is great to see ACT ultimate growing, it just makes tipping difficult!
With Discotheque now splitting their talent across 2 teams and with a whole lot of talent back at league, div. 2 is wide open. My prediction is the following:
1) The Punters
2) Kick Ass
3) The Muppetts
4) Annunaki
5-10) Revelation, Very Mild Superpowers, Discotheque, Discotheque 2, Dam Beavers, Devolutianaries
In div. 3 I am predicting:
1) The Boffins
2) King Truckers
3) Little Bananas
4) Go Fetch
5) Spin Doctors
6) fACTory Girls
7-18) Annunaki, The Samlets, 11th Hour, The Kelly Gang, The Brethren, Dynoshite, Dickey Knees, Team Team, The Beige Team, The Umpires, Damien Webb's Team, Custards Crew
I'm probably going to be way off. There is too many teams in div.3 which is great to see ACT ultimate growing, it just makes tipping difficult!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
You want more?
By now the buzz of league after so long without ultimate will have hit the system like smack to the veins. So you're probably wondering where else you can get a frisbee fix in the coming weeks.
If league isn't enough for you, Spring and Summer bring a bunch of great opportunities for ultimate. Here are a few of the offerings on offer.
Diskapital is the ACT's annual hat tournament and has a fine tradition of great ultimate and good times. Years ago it used to be the second biggest hat tournament in Australia (after the Melbourne Hat) and was a great way to see and play with some of the real superstars of the Australian scene. A hat tournament is one where the teams are randomly selected (but roughly balanced for ability) before the first game. They're usually more relaxed than club-level tournaments and are a great way to meet new people, learn new skills and generally have a ball.
This year Diskapital is in November, which should make for milder conditions and less competition for weekend time (January is already full of tournaments). The dates haven't been announced yet because we don't have fields, but once we do rego information etc. will go up here.
If you're looking for something with a more sustained buzz than a hat tournament the two ACT single gender clubs, Fyshwick United and Factory and firing up their season. Factory are already running beginners clinics on Thursday nights at O'Connor and Fyshwick United start training in early November (also on Thursday nights). Both clubs look set to have a great season and given the absence of certain well-known fun-haters from their rosters this should be a great time to get on board. Check out Factory's website (www.factoryultimate.com) for more information on their campaign and watch this space or email me at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail dot com for more information on Fyshwick United's upcoming season.
If league isn't enough for you, Spring and Summer bring a bunch of great opportunities for ultimate. Here are a few of the offerings on offer.
Diskapital is the ACT's annual hat tournament and has a fine tradition of great ultimate and good times. Years ago it used to be the second biggest hat tournament in Australia (after the Melbourne Hat) and was a great way to see and play with some of the real superstars of the Australian scene. A hat tournament is one where the teams are randomly selected (but roughly balanced for ability) before the first game. They're usually more relaxed than club-level tournaments and are a great way to meet new people, learn new skills and generally have a ball.
This year Diskapital is in November, which should make for milder conditions and less competition for weekend time (January is already full of tournaments). The dates haven't been announced yet because we don't have fields, but once we do rego information etc. will go up here.
If you're looking for something with a more sustained buzz than a hat tournament the two ACT single gender clubs, Fyshwick United and Factory and firing up their season. Factory are already running beginners clinics on Thursday nights at O'Connor and Fyshwick United start training in early November (also on Thursday nights). Both clubs look set to have a great season and given the absence of certain well-known fun-haters from their rosters this should be a great time to get on board. Check out Factory's website (www.factoryultimate.com) for more information on their campaign and watch this space or email me at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail dot com for more information on Fyshwick United's upcoming season.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
League is on!
Finally, after much waiting and considerable fields wrangling, Spring League has started in the ACT. Both divisions fired off tonight at Dickson on a slightly chilly but otherwise lovely Spring evening. I only caught the very end of Div 3 but there seemed to be positively hordes of players and a bunch of new teams and faces. I hear that Factory (the ACT women's team) has entered a team into Div 3 and notched up their first win tonight, scraping home by a point in a close scrap. A nice start to the season following their first beginner's clinic last week, which was apparently a raging success.
In Div 2 it was great to see a bunch of club level ultimate players return to the fields for local competition. These guys and girls have been tied up in serious training for national and international tournaments over the last two years and haven't been able to play so it's great to see them back mixing it up at league. One of the great things about ultimate that doesn't happen in most sports is that you can play with some of the world's best players on your league team. I saw Anunaki beat Discotheque (the one with JJ), The Punters beat the other Discotheque (with all the other Matthews-Hunters), Soma (who have some other name but they're all wearing Soma shirts) took down The Devolutionaries, the Dam Beavers lost by a point to Kick Ass (where James OReilly laid out on D - seriously!), and Revelation played The Muppets and someone won.
The season's looking great. I'll see if we can get some updates from some kind of organiser-types in the know, because it's all too big for me to keep track of. Have fun out there.
In Div 2 it was great to see a bunch of club level ultimate players return to the fields for local competition. These guys and girls have been tied up in serious training for national and international tournaments over the last two years and haven't been able to play so it's great to see them back mixing it up at league. One of the great things about ultimate that doesn't happen in most sports is that you can play with some of the world's best players on your league team. I saw Anunaki beat Discotheque (the one with JJ), The Punters beat the other Discotheque (with all the other Matthews-Hunters), Soma (who have some other name but they're all wearing Soma shirts) took down The Devolutionaries, the Dam Beavers lost by a point to Kick Ass (where James OReilly laid out on D - seriously!), and Revelation played The Muppets and someone won.
The season's looking great. I'll see if we can get some updates from some kind of organiser-types in the know, because it's all too big for me to keep track of. Have fun out there.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
How to get ultimate on television
The dream of every truly committed frisbee kid is to get ultimate on TV. Sure, we all like to say it'll never happen and some of us even go so far as to claim to hope that it never does, but people just say those things so they can live with the disappointment of turning on the TV and seeing Bert Newton on 20-to-1.
Well, perhaps there may be light at the end of the tunnel for the ultimate on TV hopefuls. I've watched a tiny quantity of the Commonwealth Games and two things have become clear to me:
1) Australian TV channels will show any sport that Australia excels in (unless it's a women's team sport) no matter how boring it is.
2) Swimming is the worst spectator sport in the world. You know it's true.
So if we want ultimate to get on TV, all we need to do is become awesome at it. It would help if the UK and New Zealand got pretty good too, without ever being a position to beat us. Imagine it, we'd be beating the US, the UK and the Kiwis. That's about as good as it gets in the sporting universe.
Once we've convinced commercial television to show our international games it should be easy to make the switch to televising domestic competition. After all, if only Australians compete, we win every time.
If you do actually want to watch ultimate on a screen have a look at the world games footage on Youtube. Some of the stuff that was shot by proper camera-people (rather than schmucks in the crowd) is pretty cool.
Well, perhaps there may be light at the end of the tunnel for the ultimate on TV hopefuls. I've watched a tiny quantity of the Commonwealth Games and two things have become clear to me:
1) Australian TV channels will show any sport that Australia excels in (unless it's a women's team sport) no matter how boring it is.
2) Swimming is the worst spectator sport in the world. You know it's true.
So if we want ultimate to get on TV, all we need to do is become awesome at it. It would help if the UK and New Zealand got pretty good too, without ever being a position to beat us. Imagine it, we'd be beating the US, the UK and the Kiwis. That's about as good as it gets in the sporting universe.
Once we've convinced commercial television to show our international games it should be easy to make the switch to televising domestic competition. After all, if only Australians compete, we win every time.
If you do actually want to watch ultimate on a screen have a look at the world games footage on Youtube. Some of the stuff that was shot by proper camera-people (rather than schmucks in the crowd) is pretty cool.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Have you seen
this?
It's the website for the ACT women's team, Factory. You should go to their beginner's clinics (if you're a woman) so that you can get into their password area. They've got throwing videos and all kinds of cool stuff.
They're running beginner's clinics for women from the 7th of October for six weeks. It's covering a bunch of important skills for league players and budding tournament goers. These guys have a pretty smart program set out and are looking forward to running a great campaign this year for new players. If you want to brush up your skills or meet some new frisbee-women-friend-folk this is your big chance.
If I could run and was a woman I would go. That's a pretty big endorsement.
It's the website for the ACT women's team, Factory. You should go to their beginner's clinics (if you're a woman) so that you can get into their password area. They've got throwing videos and all kinds of cool stuff.
They're running beginner's clinics for women from the 7th of October for six weeks. It's covering a bunch of important skills for league players and budding tournament goers. These guys have a pretty smart program set out and are looking forward to running a great campaign this year for new players. If you want to brush up your skills or meet some new frisbee-women-friend-folk this is your big chance.
If I could run and was a woman I would go. That's a pretty big endorsement.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Unigames is over
Just in case you were wondering, Unigames ended on Friday. In the top division Monash University (from Melbourne) won the final, edging out Sydney University in a close game (final score 11-9) and University of Western Australian beat Newcastle University for bronze. The ANU had a tough tournament, coming in 9th after losing all their games. I don't know what happened in the bottom division because I'm a shameless elitist, but you can look it up.
The ANU has done a great job of bringing new players into their club and getting people to a bunch of local tournaments. This is exciting stuff and represents a real shift away from the way things were done when I was there*. It's also stupendously expensive playing tournaments in Perth which thinned out their roster a bit.
The local rumour mill is suggesting that some ANU players might organise the annual Canberra hat tournament institution, Diskapital in November some time. If so, they'll get to keep some of the profits to help cover their tournament costs for other events during the year so get signed up and come along. We're currently waiting for fields so details and rego and all that stuff should be out soon.
* For those who are interested, the ANU used to just rely on people who were already playing ultimate signing up to study there and recruit a few players around the edges to fill in the gaps. While this strategy worked for a while it's great to see the club actually recruiting new players and trying to build a fun atmosphere for new players to improve and meet people and all that good stuff. It's what a uni club should be.
The ANU has done a great job of bringing new players into their club and getting people to a bunch of local tournaments. This is exciting stuff and represents a real shift away from the way things were done when I was there*. It's also stupendously expensive playing tournaments in Perth which thinned out their roster a bit.
The local rumour mill is suggesting that some ANU players might organise the annual Canberra hat tournament institution, Diskapital in November some time. If so, they'll get to keep some of the profits to help cover their tournament costs for other events during the year so get signed up and come along. We're currently waiting for fields so details and rego and all that stuff should be out soon.
* For those who are interested, the ANU used to just rely on people who were already playing ultimate signing up to study there and recruit a few players around the edges to fill in the gaps. While this strategy worked for a while it's great to see the club actually recruiting new players and trying to build a fun atmosphere for new players to improve and meet people and all that good stuff. It's what a uni club should be.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Unigames scores
The ANU are halfway through their round-robin, with five games down and three to go before the head into placing games. It's been a fairly "slow" start for the team, they've lost all their games. However, there are a few chances left to notch up a win and even if they don't I'm sure Brett Massey has won the roller-skate limbo. Scores and all that jazz can be found here.
In other news, two mixed teams from the ACT are gearing up for Mixed Nationals, Team Happy and Soma. Soma have been training for months on Sunday afternoons and feature a pretty exciting roster with lots of new faces. Team Happy feature the same sad, tired, grumpy old hacks that have been grinding away at national tournaments for years, and Kelly Kidman and Andrew Lance, Canberra's very own ultimate glamour couple. Regular ACT mixed club Kaboom are taking a rehab break after World Clubs so it's great to see two teams stepping up to represent Canberra later in October.
Stay tuned for more Unigames details (if we get any) and some largely fabricated mixed nationals hype.
And remember to register for Spring League. It's the best league of the year, and it's rained heaps so the fields will be in top condition. Don't miss out!
In other news, two mixed teams from the ACT are gearing up for Mixed Nationals, Team Happy and Soma. Soma have been training for months on Sunday afternoons and feature a pretty exciting roster with lots of new faces. Team Happy feature the same sad, tired, grumpy old hacks that have been grinding away at national tournaments for years, and Kelly Kidman and Andrew Lance, Canberra's very own ultimate glamour couple. Regular ACT mixed club Kaboom are taking a rehab break after World Clubs so it's great to see two teams stepping up to represent Canberra later in October.
Stay tuned for more Unigames details (if we get any) and some largely fabricated mixed nationals hype.
And remember to register for Spring League. It's the best league of the year, and it's rained heaps so the fields will be in top condition. Don't miss out!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Unigames is on!
Anunaki (the ANU team) is duking it out in Perth this week at Unigames. The tournament runs until the end of the week. They're in the top division (of two) with 8 other teams from around Australia. This is one of the biggest frisbee tournament of the year and is held alongside a bunch of other university sports so the parties are epic.
Have a look at forcesideline.com to get updates on how the games are going. They're posting regular updates on the whole tournament and although most of the people posting are frisbee insiders and there are heaps of in-jokes for the uni crowd there's some useful stuff in the mix.
If I get any word on how the team's going I'll post it up here. I doubt, however, that the team will have much time to tell us about their exploits. If you hear anything post a comment.
Have a look at forcesideline.com to get updates on how the games are going. They're posting regular updates on the whole tournament and although most of the people posting are frisbee insiders and there are heaps of in-jokes for the uni crowd there's some useful stuff in the mix.
If I get any word on how the team's going I'll post it up here. I doubt, however, that the team will have much time to tell us about their exploits. If you hear anything post a comment.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Did you know...
Did you know that as an AFDA member you've covered by the AFDA's member compassionate fund?
The Australian Flying Disc Association, the peak body for Ultimate in Australia (they do bunch of stuff with Disc Golf and some of the other individual events too) provides two kinds of insurancy-type things for members. One is public liability insurance in case that game of "who can throw the highest" you were playing on a runway at Canberra Airport goes horribly wrong*. The other is a member compassionate fund that helps out players who have encountered financial hardship paying for frisbee related injury bills. So if you're a poor student or a lowly APS 1 or whatever and you need your face reconstructed after a you let the slightly overenthusiastic new guy on your league team pull the AFDA can, at its discretion, help you out with some of your medical costs.
Of course, the absolute worst person in the whole world to rely on for this kind of official important information is me, so check the details out for yourselves here. I can only guarantee that everything I've written in this post will be wrong in some way.
One really important thing is that all of the people involved in the claims process (and there are a couple) want you to contact them within 30 days of getting injured, so if you tear and ACL or badly break an ankle or accidentally set yourself on fire at the end-of-season BBQ use your new enforced down time to fill in their forms and send them off.
Oh - and by the way, AFDA membership lasts for 12 months after your last fee-paying event. You pay a few cents to the AFDA each night of league or every tournament you attend so you're membership is probably current from the last league game you played (unless you're scamming your way in and paying for free - in which case Anthony Perry is permitted by law to drive over you in a snow-plow).
* Actually, that might not be covered because it's unlikely to be an official ACT Ultimate Association sanctioned event. It's also a bad idea. Everybody knows that Leon Smith throws the highest.
The Australian Flying Disc Association, the peak body for Ultimate in Australia (they do bunch of stuff with Disc Golf and some of the other individual events too) provides two kinds of insurancy-type things for members. One is public liability insurance in case that game of "who can throw the highest" you were playing on a runway at Canberra Airport goes horribly wrong*. The other is a member compassionate fund that helps out players who have encountered financial hardship paying for frisbee related injury bills. So if you're a poor student or a lowly APS 1 or whatever and you need your face reconstructed after a you let the slightly overenthusiastic new guy on your league team pull the AFDA can, at its discretion, help you out with some of your medical costs.
Of course, the absolute worst person in the whole world to rely on for this kind of official important information is me, so check the details out for yourselves here. I can only guarantee that everything I've written in this post will be wrong in some way.
One really important thing is that all of the people involved in the claims process (and there are a couple) want you to contact them within 30 days of getting injured, so if you tear and ACL or badly break an ankle or accidentally set yourself on fire at the end-of-season BBQ use your new enforced down time to fill in their forms and send them off.
Oh - and by the way, AFDA membership lasts for 12 months after your last fee-paying event. You pay a few cents to the AFDA each night of league or every tournament you attend so you're membership is probably current from the last league game you played (unless you're scamming your way in and paying for free - in which case Anthony Perry is permitted by law to drive over you in a snow-plow).
* Actually, that might not be covered because it's unlikely to be an official ACT Ultimate Association sanctioned event. It's also a bad idea. Everybody knows that Leon Smith throws the highest.
Spring league details released!
As promised, the details for Spring league..........
The ACTUA Spring Social Ultimate League is scheduled to start on Tuesday 12th October at the Dickson Playing Fields. Although it been expected that we would not be able to use the Dickson Playing Fields, the scheduled work on the irrigation system has been delayed to an unknown date. ACT Sportsgrounds have advised us that we will be given one months notice before we need to vacate. We are hopeful that we will be able to complete most if not all of our league at Dickson. At this stage it is anticipated that our league will finish on Tuesday 14th December but it may finish early. It is also possible that we could move some games to an alternate location (e.g. we have O’Connor booked as a contingency) but there is no single venue big enough for our Division 3 league.
The consequence of the delay in upgrading the irrigation system is that our summer league (starting 25th January) will not be at Dickson.
Social Division 3
Division 3 will commence at 6.35 and games will finish at 7.40pm.
Social Division 2
Division 2 will be at 8.00pm and games will finish at 9.15pm. Teams that have previously played in Division 2 will not be permitted to play in the earlier timeslot.
Division 2 players who cannot play in the later time slot may register in Division 3 as individual players without a team and we will endeavour to find you a team to play on.
League Organiser
The league will be organised by the fACTory Girls (ACT Women’s Ultimate Team) led by Natalie Blood natalieblood@gmail.com .
League Registration Site
Div 2
http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1524
Div 3
http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1525
Cost
The Committee has decided to trial team fees which will be payable in advance. The fee is $300.
We also recognise that some players will not have a team and may need to register as individuals. We will endeavour to find you a team. If we are successful you will be advised when to pay your league fee which will be $25. Payment will be required before the league commences. These steps should avoid the hassle of having to chase fees.
Registration Process
Teams
The team captain applies to register a team to Natalie or myself. You must supply a team name and your AFDA number.
If there is room we will create a team registration site. You have 3 working days to pay the $300 team payment. If payment is not received the team will be removed from the registration site.
Teams will be expected to have a minimum of 6 male and 4 female players (the ideal team size is 7m / 5f). If you require assistance in obtaining a few players please contact the league organiser as we may be able to allocate players from the list of people who register as individuals.
Individuals
Register your name on the website in the individual players without a team section. This does not guarantee you entry into the league.
You must not register with a specific team unless you have the agreement of the team captain. If a captain doesn’t know you, you will be removed from the registration list.
The league organiser may look at allocating you to teams that do not have a full complement of players or elect to create a new team. If we elect to create a new team we will advise you by e-mail and you will have 3 working days to pay the individual player fee of $25.
Registration Close
The registration site will close on Friday 8th October (or earlier if we reach our full complement of teams or individual players).
Be wise and register early.
The ACTUA Spring Social Ultimate League is scheduled to start on Tuesday 12th October at the Dickson Playing Fields. Although it been expected that we would not be able to use the Dickson Playing Fields, the scheduled work on the irrigation system has been delayed to an unknown date. ACT Sportsgrounds have advised us that we will be given one months notice before we need to vacate. We are hopeful that we will be able to complete most if not all of our league at Dickson. At this stage it is anticipated that our league will finish on Tuesday 14th December but it may finish early. It is also possible that we could move some games to an alternate location (e.g. we have O’Connor booked as a contingency) but there is no single venue big enough for our Division 3 league.
The consequence of the delay in upgrading the irrigation system is that our summer league (starting 25th January) will not be at Dickson.
Social Division 3
Division 3 will commence at 6.35 and games will finish at 7.40pm.
Social Division 2
Division 2 will be at 8.00pm and games will finish at 9.15pm. Teams that have previously played in Division 2 will not be permitted to play in the earlier timeslot.
Division 2 players who cannot play in the later time slot may register in Division 3 as individual players without a team and we will endeavour to find you a team to play on.
League Organiser
The league will be organised by the fACTory Girls (ACT Women’s Ultimate Team) led by Natalie Blood natalieblood@gmail.com .
League Registration Site
Div 2
http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1524
Div 3
http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1525
Cost
The Committee has decided to trial team fees which will be payable in advance. The fee is $300.
We also recognise that some players will not have a team and may need to register as individuals. We will endeavour to find you a team. If we are successful you will be advised when to pay your league fee which will be $25. Payment will be required before the league commences. These steps should avoid the hassle of having to chase fees.
Registration Process
Teams
The team captain applies to register a team to Natalie or myself. You must supply a team name and your AFDA number.
If there is room we will create a team registration site. You have 3 working days to pay the $300 team payment. If payment is not received the team will be removed from the registration site.
Teams will be expected to have a minimum of 6 male and 4 female players (the ideal team size is 7m / 5f). If you require assistance in obtaining a few players please contact the league organiser as we may be able to allocate players from the list of people who register as individuals.
Individuals
Register your name on the website in the individual players without a team section. This does not guarantee you entry into the league.
You must not register with a specific team unless you have the agreement of the team captain. If a captain doesn’t know you, you will be removed from the registration list.
The league organiser may look at allocating you to teams that do not have a full complement of players or elect to create a new team. If we elect to create a new team we will advise you by e-mail and you will have 3 working days to pay the individual player fee of $25.
Registration Close
The registration site will close on Friday 8th October (or earlier if we reach our full complement of teams or individual players).
Be wise and register early.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Spring League 2010
Hello all
ACT sports grounds are upgrading the sprinkler system at Dickson ovals over the next few months.
This means that Spring league will be moved to another set of fields in the inner-north.
ACTUA is still working out the fine detail of exactly how this will be done. It is likely that Spring league will start in mid to late October for this year.
Everything should be sorted out within the next two weeks.
-Tom Watson, ACTUA president.
ACT sports grounds are upgrading the sprinkler system at Dickson ovals over the next few months.
This means that Spring league will be moved to another set of fields in the inner-north.
ACTUA is still working out the fine detail of exactly how this will be done. It is likely that Spring league will start in mid to late October for this year.
Everything should be sorted out within the next two weeks.
-Tom Watson, ACTUA president.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Anunaki update
While most of us were rugged up in our houses avoiding the bitter winds of the last few weeks, a few brave souls have been out training on Monday nights. In fact, tonight is the last training session before the ANU unigames team Anunaki board their flights to Perth.
The ANU has been steadily building a strong club culture and have had great success recruiting and enthusing new players this year. They even do things that aren't related to ultimate, like have movie nights. I still can't get over that. It's awesome to have not one but two ACT clubs (the other one is Soma) working hard to develop new players and give new people their first taste of tournament ultimate. Anunaki has been hit pretty hard by costs this year. Unigames is in Perth, so players need to be able to fork out a couple of hundred bucks for flights before they even think about dubious ultimate and unimpeachable partying. And of course, they're all students, so a few hundred bucks is about ONE MILLION DOLLARS in public servant money.
So if you see Brett Massey or his hardy band of ragamuffins give them your support, ask how things went, or better yet, buy them a sandwich or something.
Have fun out West, kids!
The ANU has been steadily building a strong club culture and have had great success recruiting and enthusing new players this year. They even do things that aren't related to ultimate, like have movie nights. I still can't get over that. It's awesome to have not one but two ACT clubs (the other one is Soma) working hard to develop new players and give new people their first taste of tournament ultimate. Anunaki has been hit pretty hard by costs this year. Unigames is in Perth, so players need to be able to fork out a couple of hundred bucks for flights before they even think about dubious ultimate and unimpeachable partying. And of course, they're all students, so a few hundred bucks is about ONE MILLION DOLLARS in public servant money.
So if you see Brett Massey or his hardy band of ragamuffins give them your support, ask how things went, or better yet, buy them a sandwich or something.
Have fun out West, kids!
Monday, August 30, 2010
ACT Mixed Nationals teams
Hello Everyone
If you want to take up one of the ACT mixed nationals team spots for the 2010 competition, please ensure that you get in touch with someone from the ACTUA committee before this weekend (4th and 5th of September).
We just have to ensure that there are no undeclared teams that are thinking of popping up out of nowhere.
Leaving a comment on this blog with contact details will suffice.
-Thomas Watson
If you want to take up one of the ACT mixed nationals team spots for the 2010 competition, please ensure that you get in touch with someone from the ACTUA committee before this weekend (4th and 5th of September).
We just have to ensure that there are no undeclared teams that are thinking of popping up out of nowhere.
Leaving a comment on this blog with contact details will suffice.
-Thomas Watson
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Under 19s World Champs games LIVE at 4:30
Hello avid readers,
The Australian tilt for the under 19s World Champsionships starts today in Heilbronn, Germany. Luckily for all of us, Ballarat blog maestro Simon Talbot is at the fields providing live updates through his forcesideline website. At under 23s Simon was using Twitter but apparently in the last couple of minutes of his comentary on the nailbiting Women's final, which Australia won, Twitter decided he was a spammer and blocked his account. Now he's updating directly to his website, which is nifty because I find Twitter new and intimidating.
So, at 4:30 this afternoon (that's the 3rd of August) Terra, the Australian under 19s women's team, take on Sweden. Sweden have traditionally been a strong European frisbee nation but things are always a bit mixed up in the youth divisions so this should be an interesting game to keep track of. Head here for live updates from 4:30. It's almost as good as being there with a bag over your head and having someone tell you what's going on. For those of you on mobile devices he's also updating on Twitter and Facebook but not as often. You'll have to look at Simon's website to work out how to do that because I'm technologically illiterate.
The Australian tilt for the under 19s World Champsionships starts today in Heilbronn, Germany. Luckily for all of us, Ballarat blog maestro Simon Talbot is at the fields providing live updates through his forcesideline website. At under 23s Simon was using Twitter but apparently in the last couple of minutes of his comentary on the nailbiting Women's final, which Australia won, Twitter decided he was a spammer and blocked his account. Now he's updating directly to his website, which is nifty because I find Twitter new and intimidating.
So, at 4:30 this afternoon (that's the 3rd of August) Terra, the Australian under 19s women's team, take on Sweden. Sweden have traditionally been a strong European frisbee nation but things are always a bit mixed up in the youth divisions so this should be an interesting game to keep track of. Head here for live updates from 4:30. It's almost as good as being there with a bag over your head and having someone tell you what's going on. For those of you on mobile devices he's also updating on Twitter and Facebook but not as often. You'll have to look at Simon's website to work out how to do that because I'm technologically illiterate.
Monday, July 26, 2010
More young but not that young action
Under 23s has wrapped up in Florence, Italy. It was a very successful tournament for the women's team, the Stingrays, who won the whole thing and are now Under 23 World Champions. Grouse! Apparently they bested Japan in the final in a game that went down to 15-all, universe point. Canberra's very own Misch Phillips pulled down the final goal to give the Australians victory. Nice work ladies.
The lads had a disappointing loss in their quarter final but showed their class to win all their remaining games and come in fifth. It's tough to keep fighting in the 5-8 bracket and it's a credit to the team that they stayed focused and won their games, including a win over Great Britain that would have been pretty sweet. All the twitter updates indicate that Andrew "AJ" Jackson was a real weapon for the Goannas on offense which, given his performance on Canberran teams, is no suprise.
So there you have it. The Stingrays are Under 23 World Champions.
Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of international ultimate. In a week or so the Under 19s World Championships start in Heilbronn, Germany. The ACT is represented in the Open Division by Ben Matthews-Hunter, of the local Matthews-Hunter frisbee dynasty. It's really exciting to have an up-and-coming defensive handler in the squad and we're all keen to see how the Aussie teams go. Hopefully I'll be a bit more organised about getting updates out too. Except if you've read this blog in any detail you'll know that such promises are usually followed by months of silence. At least this time I'm being honest with you. When I talk about long silences. Anyway, I'll try.
The lads had a disappointing loss in their quarter final but showed their class to win all their remaining games and come in fifth. It's tough to keep fighting in the 5-8 bracket and it's a credit to the team that they stayed focused and won their games, including a win over Great Britain that would have been pretty sweet. All the twitter updates indicate that Andrew "AJ" Jackson was a real weapon for the Goannas on offense which, given his performance on Canberran teams, is no suprise.
So there you have it. The Stingrays are Under 23 World Champions.
Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of international ultimate. In a week or so the Under 19s World Championships start in Heilbronn, Germany. The ACT is represented in the Open Division by Ben Matthews-Hunter, of the local Matthews-Hunter frisbee dynasty. It's really exciting to have an up-and-coming defensive handler in the squad and we're all keen to see how the Aussie teams go. Hopefully I'll be a bit more organised about getting updates out too. Except if you've read this blog in any detail you'll know that such promises are usually followed by months of silence. At least this time I'm being honest with you. When I talk about long silences. Anyway, I'll try.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Under 23s
The first two days of games are over for the two under 23s teams. In the open division the Goannas have had 2 wins and 1 loss. The beat Italy first up 17-3, then lost to Canada 14-12, then beat Sweden 17-8. Apparently local heartthrob AJ caught a Callahan goal in the last game. (I'm not sure what the rules are in league at the moment, but in international tournaments if a player catches the frisbee in their scoring endzone that's a goal, even if they were on defense. A Callahan is just such a goal, where you're playing D all the way down in your opponent's endzone and manage to catch an intercept. It's considered a pretty awesome thing to do.)
As for the women's divison, the Stingrays won their first two games 17-0 against Germany and Ireland, which is a great way to start the tourney. In their last game they went down 17-15 to Japan.
Simon Talbot who runs the www.forcesideline.com website is putting blow by blow accounts up on Twitter. Check out his website for details.
As for the women's divison, the Stingrays won their first two games 17-0 against Germany and Ireland, which is a great way to start the tourney. In their last game they went down 17-15 to Japan.
Simon Talbot who runs the www.forcesideline.com website is putting blow by blow accounts up on Twitter. Check out his website for details.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Under 23s starts today
In the latest installment of international frisbee, the Under 23 World Championships starts today in Florence, Italy. Canberra is represented in the Open division by Andrew "AJ" Jackson. We're also sort-of represented in the Women's division by pseudo-local Michelle "Misch" Phillips.
Good luck to AJ and Misch and the rest of their teams at Under 23s. I'll post some scores up once they come in or you can keep an eye on the scores website: http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teams
Good luck to AJ and Misch and the rest of their teams at Under 23s. I'll post some scores up once they come in or you can keep an eye on the scores website: http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teams
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Final day wrap-up
OK, I've missed a few days and left you all hanging. Sorry, I've been a bit distracted. Here's the update for the last day's play.
On Friday morning Kaboom squared off against the original first seed Axis of C'vill from the states. We'd been chafing to play some Americans for a while and this game was our big chance. I'm not actually sure what happened unfortunately because I had to go to hospital to get my knee checked out. Mica came too to translate so the team was down 2 handlers. Apparently we were scrappy in the first half and went down 9-3 before stepping up in the second half and bringing the score back to 17-13 or something like that. Again, we got a bunch of the disc and our offense needed to convert. The team did well to stay motivated and fight hard after the dissapointment of the day before.
In the afternoon Mica and I rejoined the team for our final game for the 11th/12th playoff. We played Canada's Chaos again and it was clear from the start that we wanted the game more. We were willing to tough it out and be patient to score, we played for each other on O and D and within no time we were pummeling the hapless Canucks. They lacked the heart to run with us and we're willing to play for each other so late in the tournament. It was awesome to see Kaboom still working for each other and playing as a team in the last game and it was a performance we were all proud of. We shortened the game to a 15 point cap and won something like 15-9.
With a final record of 9 wins and 2 losses we had a bunch of good results. It's a shame that our record only took us as far as 11th but we played as a team and showed we were totally capable of mixing it with the best teams in the world. Pie Wagon and Smurf made it through to the quarters then played off for 5th and 6th (Newwie got up) so it was a really strong performance from the Australian teams in general.
As for the knee, I've torn my ACL and there's some bone or cartelidge floating around in the joint. I'm working with my insurance company to come back to Canberra to get surgery so I can on with my rehab and get back to business soon.
I want to say a huge thanks to Kaboom for all their work over the last 2 years. It's been a huge effort from everyone involved and I hope we built a club they're all proud of. It's been a real priveledge to coach and work with everyone and we've all improved heaps through the process. Good luck with the rest of your travels and I'll see most of you back in Canberra soon.
And if you ever wanted to know what the inside of a badly swollen knee looks like, just go to a Czech hospital. It looks like this:
On Friday morning Kaboom squared off against the original first seed Axis of C'vill from the states. We'd been chafing to play some Americans for a while and this game was our big chance. I'm not actually sure what happened unfortunately because I had to go to hospital to get my knee checked out. Mica came too to translate so the team was down 2 handlers. Apparently we were scrappy in the first half and went down 9-3 before stepping up in the second half and bringing the score back to 17-13 or something like that. Again, we got a bunch of the disc and our offense needed to convert. The team did well to stay motivated and fight hard after the dissapointment of the day before.
In the afternoon Mica and I rejoined the team for our final game for the 11th/12th playoff. We played Canada's Chaos again and it was clear from the start that we wanted the game more. We were willing to tough it out and be patient to score, we played for each other on O and D and within no time we were pummeling the hapless Canucks. They lacked the heart to run with us and we're willing to play for each other so late in the tournament. It was awesome to see Kaboom still working for each other and playing as a team in the last game and it was a performance we were all proud of. We shortened the game to a 15 point cap and won something like 15-9.
With a final record of 9 wins and 2 losses we had a bunch of good results. It's a shame that our record only took us as far as 11th but we played as a team and showed we were totally capable of mixing it with the best teams in the world. Pie Wagon and Smurf made it through to the quarters then played off for 5th and 6th (Newwie got up) so it was a really strong performance from the Australian teams in general.
As for the knee, I've torn my ACL and there's some bone or cartelidge floating around in the joint. I'm working with my insurance company to come back to Canberra to get surgery so I can on with my rehab and get back to business soon.
I want to say a huge thanks to Kaboom for all their work over the last 2 years. It's been a huge effort from everyone involved and I hope we built a club they're all proud of. It's been a real priveledge to coach and work with everyone and we've all improved heaps through the process. Good luck with the rest of your travels and I'll see most of you back in Canberra soon.
And if you ever wanted to know what the inside of a badly swollen knee looks like, just go to a Czech hospital. It looks like this:
Friday, July 9, 2010
What a day!
OK let's start at the beginning: Pre-quarter against Upsadaisy from Austria. Kaboom are nervous before the game and it shows- a quiet warm-up and dramatically reduced shenanigans in the corridors of the palatial Hotel Slavia.
Early in the game, Kaboom struggle with Upsadaisy's long game. They huck to contests over and over and come down with a lot of the disc. We try a few different defenses before finally getting some purchase in match force backhand. By this stage we're down a couple of breaks. Our offense is nervous - our handlers are squirreling around and we're throwing to some bad options. When we do patiently work the disc in it's clear that Upsadaisy have no answer to patience and quick movement but their skill in the air sees them win just about all the contested discs. Despite time-outs, a stupid team pointing and dancing game and a bunch of solid points Kaboom can't settle and we're not converting our offenses. By now we're regularly winningthte disc on D. We've got them pinned down in a backhand force and we're winning back our breaks but without reliable offense we can't quite close the gap.
Time cap goes and we score to make it 12-10 game to 14. They call a time-out and we're feeling good-we've won from here before. This proves not to be our day as Upsadaisy score their O and we trade out the last points to lose 14-11. We're prety gutted at missing out on the quarter finals but we're resolved to keep playing hard.
The next game sees us face off against Jeremy Codhand from the UK. Before the game we bring it in during a slightly unconvincing warm-up. We decide that we want to be proud of this game, our intensity lifts and we take the field. Codhand get up a break early against stome scrappy offense from Kaboom. A few points later, Kaboom are about to score when a defener lays out, gets a great block and lands on John's left knee. He goes down screaming and is out for the game.
In John's absence Kaboom lift and by the time he's got ice on his knee and collected his wits the team is pulling ahead. They continue to trade and break throughout the end of the first half and through the second. Our offense is patient and calm again and Ian, Asher, Mica Riss and Jes are holding our structure together. Codhand also find that they can't stop our quick movement and sensible option taking and we pull away to win something like 17-11.
Tomorrow we play 2 games, with the goal of finishing 9th. We're looking forward to some solid games against great opposition, starting with American team Axis of C'Ville, who were in fact the #1 seed and undefeated until they also suffered a loss in their pre-quarter game.
And now, to bed.
OK let's start at the beginning: Pre-quarter against Upsadaisy from Austria. Kaboom are nervous before the game and it shows- a quiet warm-up and dramatically reduced shenanigans in the corridors of the palatial Hotel Slavia.
Early in the game, Kaboom struggle with Upsadaisy's long game. They huck to contests over and over and come down with a lot of the disc. We try a few different defenses before finally getting some purchase in match force backhand. By this stage we're down a couple of breaks. Our offense is nervous - our handlers are squirreling around and we're throwing to some bad options. When we do patiently work the disc in it's clear that Upsadaisy have no answer to patience and quick movement but their skill in the air sees them win just about all the contested discs. Despite time-outs, a stupid team pointing and dancing game and a bunch of solid points Kaboom can't settle and we're not converting our offenses. By now we're regularly winningthte disc on D. We've got them pinned down in a backhand force and we're winning back our breaks but without reliable offense we can't quite close the gap.
Time cap goes and we score to make it 12-10 game to 14. They call a time-out and we're feeling good-we've won from here before. This proves not to be our day as Upsadaisy score their O and we trade out the last points to lose 14-11. We're prety gutted at missing out on the quarter finals but we're resolved to keep playing hard.
The next game sees us face off against Jeremy Codhand from the UK. Before the game we bring it in during a slightly unconvincing warm-up. We decide that we want to be proud of this game, our intensity lifts and we take the field. Codhand get up a break early against stome scrappy offense from Kaboom. A few points later, Kaboom are about to score when a defener lays out, gets a great block and lands on John's left knee. He goes down screaming and is out for the game.
In John's absence Kaboom lift and by the time he's got ice on his knee and collected his wits the team is pulling ahead. They continue to trade and break throughout the end of the first half and through the second. Our offense is patient and calm again and Ian, Asher, Mica Riss and Jes are holding our structure together. Codhand also find that they can't stop our quick movement and sensible option taking and we pull away to win something like 17-11.
Tomorrow we play 2 games, with the goal of finishing 9th. We're looking forward to some solid games against great opposition, starting with American team Axis of C'Ville, who were in fact the #1 seed and undefeated until they also suffered a loss in their pre-quarter game.
And now, to bed.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
We win more games
Just a quck post because I'm very tired and I want to put some high numbers into our personal wellbeing scoring tomorrow morning, which means a good night's sleep and low fatigue.
Today we played Frizzly Bears who despite their terrible team name were pretty decent at ultimate. Because of the rain yesterday the game formats changed a bit and we won 15-9 in a fairly convincing display. They had one handler who was very difficult to stop so we just stopped everybody else and threw enough different defensive looks at them to keep them off their game.
We also had the number 1 Canadian seed Chaos. They got a break right at the start but we settled in to go up a couple of breaks before half. Time cap went and they scored to make it 10-9 game to 12 (with us leading). We scored, they scored twice and we scored another universe point goal to win and take the notional fourth seed run into the elimination rounds. We played well and they made a bunch of terrible calls so it was really satisfying to beat them. We're now the highest seeded team not from the USA and if all goes well in the next few games we'll improve on that. We've got a round of 16 game against Upsadaisy from Austria tomorrow at 10:45 which should be a corker.
I'll get some more detail up on how we're travelling tomorrow some time.
Today we played Frizzly Bears who despite their terrible team name were pretty decent at ultimate. Because of the rain yesterday the game formats changed a bit and we won 15-9 in a fairly convincing display. They had one handler who was very difficult to stop so we just stopped everybody else and threw enough different defensive looks at them to keep them off their game.
We also had the number 1 Canadian seed Chaos. They got a break right at the start but we settled in to go up a couple of breaks before half. Time cap went and they scored to make it 10-9 game to 12 (with us leading). We scored, they scored twice and we scored another universe point goal to win and take the notional fourth seed run into the elimination rounds. We played well and they made a bunch of terrible calls so it was really satisfying to beat them. We're now the highest seeded team not from the USA and if all goes well in the next few games we'll improve on that. We've got a round of 16 game against Upsadaisy from Austria tomorrow at 10:45 which should be a corker.
I'll get some more detail up on how we're travelling tomorrow some time.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
WUCC Day 3
Just one game today. We played Columbia's Team 2600 at 8:30. It was another close affair with 2600 really suprising us with their intensity and physicality on D. We got up a couple early on and managed to hold a break or two for most of the game with 2600 breathing down our necks. Their poachy D really rattled our offense and a bit of extra wind took the edge off our execution. Eventually we scored after time cap to make it 14-11 game to 16. Some poor option taking and a few mix-ups in our deep defense saw Columbia creep ever closer until eventually they tied it up at 15 all. They pulled to us and we hucked it away only to get the disc back near their endzone and score. We win. Yay!! It was a little disappointing to see our offense lose shape and our decision making go off the boil but it's a pretty nice luxury to be able to be disappointed about a win so I suppose it's not so bad. Everyone's ready to lift tomorrow and get back to business with the disc in our hands.
Tomorrow we play Frizzly Bears who seem to be something of a mystery. They regularly lose to Sugar Mix but game teams like Pie Wagon much more trouble than the Stuttgarters during their pre-tour. Apparently they run heaps of offense through one very dynamic handler, so hopefully we have the antidote to that.
After that we've got Chaos, the number one Canadian seed and fourth seed overall. They seem very aggressive deep and are happy to give the disc up and try to win it back on D. If our offense fires again it's a great opportunity to take our first North American scalp. We'll have scalped a team from all the continents represented at WUCC if that happens.
Both games have been shortened to 80 minutes to squeeze more games into tomorrow's schedule. We had a little bit more rain today and lots of the fields got closed so the tournament organisers are keen to fit the cancelled games in tomorrow. Games are to 15 rather than 17. We're over at Strahov tomorrow as well, so we'll be playing on great pitches in crazy old crumbling soviet stadiums. It should be a great spot for some hard running ulty.
As it is we're five wins from five games and we're basically guaranteed a round-of-16 spot and a top 16 finish. More wins tomorrow will give us a slightly easier path through the finals.
I've also added honorary Canberran Misch Phillips to this blog for the duration of the tournament so she can tell you about some of the events happening off field. Stay tuned for the tragic tale of "Big Tom and the Sink" and the tale the whole family will love, "60 Euros each for Team Monkeys".
Pokrok Kaboom
Tomorrow we play Frizzly Bears who seem to be something of a mystery. They regularly lose to Sugar Mix but game teams like Pie Wagon much more trouble than the Stuttgarters during their pre-tour. Apparently they run heaps of offense through one very dynamic handler, so hopefully we have the antidote to that.
After that we've got Chaos, the number one Canadian seed and fourth seed overall. They seem very aggressive deep and are happy to give the disc up and try to win it back on D. If our offense fires again it's a great opportunity to take our first North American scalp. We'll have scalped a team from all the continents represented at WUCC if that happens.
Both games have been shortened to 80 minutes to squeeze more games into tomorrow's schedule. We had a little bit more rain today and lots of the fields got closed so the tournament organisers are keen to fit the cancelled games in tomorrow. Games are to 15 rather than 17. We're over at Strahov tomorrow as well, so we'll be playing on great pitches in crazy old crumbling soviet stadiums. It should be a great spot for some hard running ulty.
As it is we're five wins from five games and we're basically guaranteed a round-of-16 spot and a top 16 finish. More wins tomorrow will give us a slightly easier path through the finals.
I've also added honorary Canberran Misch Phillips to this blog for the duration of the tournament so she can tell you about some of the events happening off field. Stay tuned for the tragic tale of "Big Tom and the Sink" and the tale the whole family will love, "60 Euros each for Team Monkeys".
Pokrok Kaboom
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Photos?
Have a look at Pete's blog:
http://www.gdayeh.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=2610
There are a few pics from day 2. Notable mentions: Page 7, bottom row, second from the left - Misch skying Tinsel. Page 9, middle photo - Tom's "Rank it!" goal.
Have I mentioned that more scores have come up? Have a look at Max's 6 assist streak.
http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=gameplay&Game=1477
We're in Pool M now, with Chaos (Canada #1), Frizzly Bears (Germany #2) and Team 2600 (Columbia #1) to play. Tomorrow is one game at 8:30am against Team 2600.
http://www.gdayeh.com/wpg2?g2_
There are a few pics from day 2. Notable mentions: Page 7, bottom row, second from the left - Misch skying Tinsel. Page 9, middle photo - Tom's "Rank it!" goal.
Have I mentioned that more scores have come up? Have a look at Max's 6 assist streak.
http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=gameplay&Game=1477
We're in Pool M now, with Chaos (Canada #1), Frizzly Bears (Germany #2) and Team 2600 (Columbia #1) to play. Tomorrow is one game at 8:30am against Team 2600.
Kaboom play offense. Good offense.
Yes faithful readers it was only a matter of time until Kaboom stepped up their offensive completion rate. We all knew that some unlucky team was going to come up against us in that fateful game where we just didn't give the disc back and that hearts were going to be broken. Well today our friends from Sugar Mix who so kindly hosted us in Stuttgart were subject to a Kaboom offense that was precise, patient and in control. The result? We beat the second seed in our pool 17-9, which is a more punishing scoreline than for our game against the fourth seed, Ah Ouh Puc.
Before our game against Belgium's XLR8Rs this morning we set the task of controlling our structure and improving our option taking. After a warm-up that was distrupted by lightning passing over we took some crucial steps in the right direction with our handlers staying in position and holding our play together. We closed the game out a comfortable 17-6.
As we warmed down we caught the last few minutes of Sugar Mix against Squal. Sugar Mix were up 13-11 after time-cap, making it game to 15. We initially cheered for Sugar Mix (since they billeted us) but the terrible spirit of one of their players (#10, whom we later nicknamed "Tinsel") soon had us supporting Squal, who had been spirited and fair all the way through our epic universe point win against them the day before. A bunch of dubious calls and fouls helped Sugar Mix edge the Japanese out in their second universe point loss, which is crazy because literally EVERYONE else on Sugar Mix seems lovely. By the time we came to play them we were out for justice.
First point - statement of intent: We pull, chase hard, earn the disc in midfield and punch in a quick goal. We pull again, they huck to a contest and score. They pull and play zone - it took them to victory against Squal. We crush it. There's too much space in the middle for our active handlers and poppers. We pull again, they score on another contested huck. We score another clean offense. Mica gets a run-through block on Tinsel (#10) who's already given us the disc and we score. Adam gets a great block on a swing pass and we break again to go 5-2 up. We trade and they break back once to get to 8-6 before we break them again and take half 9-6. Their offense is clearly rattled. They're playing a bunch of iso-ish offense with their big male targets in the middle of the field. They're struggling to hit those targets and when they do our women have their downfield receivers covered. The pressure is clearly showing with a bunch of execution errors and bad options from Sugar Mix. We on the other hand are clinical. We've had maybe 3 turnovers in the first half and two of those are in the same point. They can't cover our cutters or stop our disc movement in match and their zone is too spread out.
In the second half our investment in team defense and clinical offense pays off. We're on O after half and we score, then break again. Some trading takes us to 14-8. They don't have a lot of answers and are struggling with consistent pressure. The score on of their offense points after our D line gives up the disc against their zone several times and we take the score to 16-9. We rest our guns and come down in match with a forehand force. They work the disc up the forced sideline before spraying a shot out of the field and we come up on O. The disc moves to the middle of the field, Erin Wallis makes a great break side cut which draws Tom Walcott's player. With his player running towards the break side and the thrower Tom goes where an unmarked 6 foot 7 receiver goes naturally: Deep. His cry of "Rank it" makes James Ley on the sideline smile and John hucks it deep for a goal reminiscent of a different team and a different time. That said, he does have the presence of mind to make it a footrace between Big Tom and the unfortunate girl who switched onto him so he's still allowed to be a techincal handler. Tom scores, we go nuts again and everybody's happy that Kaboom's offense has finally turned up in Prague. Except Tinsel, who's proven he's all about decoration.
The other day Max and Hebs were an a queue behind some of the players from Mental Floss Tycoons. With a surfeit of international experience and a bunch of world titles under their belts the Tossers just had a nasty scare coming from behind against Pie Wagon to win 17-15. With Max and Hebs flying under the "all the good players are North American" radar they were privvy to the candid fears of some of the greats of the mixed division. "If those guys [Pie Wagon] were the third Australian team, we'd hate to play the first Australian team." It's nice to see that Australian teams don't always have to match up against North American teams as the intimidated little guys. Thanks Pie Wagon.
In other exciting news, Adelaide mixed team Smurf knocked off ONYX, the Canadian third seed, to top their pool. Congrats to Smurf for taking the first North America scalp for the Aussies in the mixed division. Let's hope it's the first of many.
Keep sending through your good wishes, it's awesome to know the home fires are still burning.
Before our game against Belgium's XLR8Rs this morning we set the task of controlling our structure and improving our option taking. After a warm-up that was distrupted by lightning passing over we took some crucial steps in the right direction with our handlers staying in position and holding our play together. We closed the game out a comfortable 17-6.
As we warmed down we caught the last few minutes of Sugar Mix against Squal. Sugar Mix were up 13-11 after time-cap, making it game to 15. We initially cheered for Sugar Mix (since they billeted us) but the terrible spirit of one of their players (#10, whom we later nicknamed "Tinsel") soon had us supporting Squal, who had been spirited and fair all the way through our epic universe point win against them the day before. A bunch of dubious calls and fouls helped Sugar Mix edge the Japanese out in their second universe point loss, which is crazy because literally EVERYONE else on Sugar Mix seems lovely. By the time we came to play them we were out for justice.
First point - statement of intent: We pull, chase hard, earn the disc in midfield and punch in a quick goal. We pull again, they huck to a contest and score. They pull and play zone - it took them to victory against Squal. We crush it. There's too much space in the middle for our active handlers and poppers. We pull again, they score on another contested huck. We score another clean offense. Mica gets a run-through block on Tinsel (#10) who's already given us the disc and we score. Adam gets a great block on a swing pass and we break again to go 5-2 up. We trade and they break back once to get to 8-6 before we break them again and take half 9-6. Their offense is clearly rattled. They're playing a bunch of iso-ish offense with their big male targets in the middle of the field. They're struggling to hit those targets and when they do our women have their downfield receivers covered. The pressure is clearly showing with a bunch of execution errors and bad options from Sugar Mix. We on the other hand are clinical. We've had maybe 3 turnovers in the first half and two of those are in the same point. They can't cover our cutters or stop our disc movement in match and their zone is too spread out.
In the second half our investment in team defense and clinical offense pays off. We're on O after half and we score, then break again. Some trading takes us to 14-8. They don't have a lot of answers and are struggling with consistent pressure. The score on of their offense points after our D line gives up the disc against their zone several times and we take the score to 16-9. We rest our guns and come down in match with a forehand force. They work the disc up the forced sideline before spraying a shot out of the field and we come up on O. The disc moves to the middle of the field, Erin Wallis makes a great break side cut which draws Tom Walcott's player. With his player running towards the break side and the thrower Tom goes where an unmarked 6 foot 7 receiver goes naturally: Deep. His cry of "Rank it" makes James Ley on the sideline smile and John hucks it deep for a goal reminiscent of a different team and a different time. That said, he does have the presence of mind to make it a footrace between Big Tom and the unfortunate girl who switched onto him so he's still allowed to be a techincal handler. Tom scores, we go nuts again and everybody's happy that Kaboom's offense has finally turned up in Prague. Except Tinsel, who's proven he's all about decoration.
The other day Max and Hebs were an a queue behind some of the players from Mental Floss Tycoons. With a surfeit of international experience and a bunch of world titles under their belts the Tossers just had a nasty scare coming from behind against Pie Wagon to win 17-15. With Max and Hebs flying under the "all the good players are North American" radar they were privvy to the candid fears of some of the greats of the mixed division. "If those guys [Pie Wagon] were the third Australian team, we'd hate to play the first Australian team." It's nice to see that Australian teams don't always have to match up against North American teams as the intimidated little guys. Thanks Pie Wagon.
In other exciting news, Adelaide mixed team Smurf knocked off ONYX, the Canadian third seed, to top their pool. Congrats to Smurf for taking the first North America scalp for the Aussies in the mixed division. Let's hope it's the first of many.
Keep sending through your good wishes, it's awesome to know the home fires are still burning.
Monday, July 5, 2010
WUCC day 1
This morning at 8:30 Kaboom finally took to the field at the World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague. Day 1 proved to be something of an epic for us as we fight for the top spot in our pool. Placing first in our initial pool of 5 teams gives us a great position in the next phase of the tournament and close to guarantees a spot in the round of 16 later in the week. At 8:30 we faced off against Ah Ouh Puc, a French team captained by two Canberrans who have been based in Paris for the last few years (and recently returned to the bright lights and clean air of the Australian capitol) and also starring one-time Canberran Cyril Cayla. Kaboom rested some of their top players and started slow, with Ah Ouh Puc taking the first two points. Kaboom fired up to trade to 3-1 down before going on a 5 point run. The French scored twice to keep it close but Kaboom responded with three more goals before half and two after to go to 11-5. Ah Ouh Puc scored a few here and there and Kaboom ran out winners at 17-10. As usual, Kaboom led the way with stifling defense and clinical execution around the disc. In a hilarious typographic error, Kaboom technical handler John Horan was attributed 6 assists for the game. In an equally baffling result, Gareth Beyers scored once and assisted once without ever stepping onto the field.
No doubt you're all wondering where the epic bit comes in. Sure, a 17-10 win from a scratchy start is OK, but where's the glory we've come to associate with Canberra teams? Well, dear reader, let me tell you about game 2.
12:30. Kaboom vs. Squal, Japanese second seeds. We're missing Gareth, Myall and Riss.
Kaboom seems to be struggling with the heat and look flat in their warm-up. It shows on the field with Kaboom giving up 3 soft turnovers to go down 4-0 to Squal who haven't made a turnover. Simple execution errors and over-generous defensive cushioning cause some of the Kaboom cheer squad to give up on their heroes in the bright yellow shirts.
WRONG. Kaboom finally score on offense with a paradigm shifting Heather Tolley layout goal and we come out in zone to stop the precise Japanese deep game. Two quick defensive breaks see Kaboom draw close at 4-3 down. The cheer squad rethink their early despondancy. Squal and Kaboom trade, first 1 each, then 2 each to bring the score to 7-6 Squal. The wierd half-time cap rule means half is at 8. Kaboom are losing control of their defense in zone and have gone back to trusty match, this time forcing forehand.
Squal take half 8-6 and Kaboom hit back straight after to make it 8-7. Our defense is stifling now, we're jamming up the open side on offense and winning the contests deep. Tom Watson comes down with a bunch of the disc on D, Heather Tolley makes her player look slow, Laina has stepped up her physicality and stopped her defender from shoving her. Defensively we're in control, but our offense still needs to score.
They score again and we score and break to level up the game at 10-10. Squal have been playing 4 women on offense all game but our women are beating theirs on D and getting free on O. They score and break to go to 12-10. We trade and time-cap goes and they score to make it 13-11, game to 15. By now we're getting heaps of the disc. Offense is still sketchy though - unfamiliar D, heat and fatigue are sending a bunch of shots stray and people are anxious to score in a hurry. We stack our D line, win the disc and punch in a goal. Matt Dowle is a nightmare for the Japanese, pulling out some trademark Dowle Family Magic to get a bunch of blocks on the increasingly pressured Japanese long game. We grind out another goal to level things at 13 all. Squall settle and work in an impressively clinical offense to edge closer to victory, 14-13. Kaboom send out another strong line, win the disc and score. It's universe point, 14 all, we're on D. Matt lands a great pull in the corner of the field. Japan swing and huck it deep. They make a tough catch just outside the endzone and throw a certain goal that Laina Hall snaffles with a great block in a very compact piece of defense. We go nuts. Matt informs us all that the huck was a travel, the disc goes back. We stop going nuts. Great pressure around the disc leads to another turn in a stronger position as the Japanese throw a dodgy hammer to a wrong-footed receiver. He falls down, Max gets it and the poor Japanese guy has to leave the field with cramps. Misch Phillips runs deep and the huck goes up but it's too floaty and Misch is soon surrounded with defenders. Something bad (but not majorly bad) happens and she leaves the field with another injury sub. Erin Wallis comes on to keep up our running on D. Again, we grind it out against the Japanese horizontal stack. Our women are dominant in the back field and our one boy in the cutting lanes is working to help cover on deeps and still bid on the unders. The sideline is going nuts again. Again we win the D. The disc swings to Adam who launches a huge hammer to Matt but it's out of bounds and Matt can't keep it infield. Back to D. Again, huge pressure pays off when a throw to one of the Japanese women is overcooked and she drops it. Our third offense is gritty and patient - there's heaps of traffic around the cutters and the handlers continue to recycle and swing. Moving the disc laterally is easy but cuts upfield are hard. Finally, we swing across the endzone to Matt who hits Max running to the forehand front corner. Max catches the final goal and we go really really nuts. Tom and Adam make out on the field (seriously) and we win 15-14 in 125 minutes. Many of us have lost 1.5 to 2 kilos of fluid in the second game and all of us are pumped about a big win and awesome fight back. We've never been behind like that before so it's exciting to know we can punch in goals when it counts. That Kaboom defense just keeps winning the disc.
Tomorrow we play XLR8Rs and Sugar Mix. Check out http://scores.wucc2010.com to stay abreast of developments (I don't think they're live, but then that's probably a good thing because if they were Pete Hemphill would be up all night keeping the baby awake). Spirits are high in the Kaboom camp and we're looking forward to more tough games tomorrow. Once our offense synchs up we're going to be criminally good.
P.S. If you do see Pete Hemphill, say something nice. Poor guy.
No doubt you're all wondering where the epic bit comes in. Sure, a 17-10 win from a scratchy start is OK, but where's the glory we've come to associate with Canberra teams? Well, dear reader, let me tell you about game 2.
12:30. Kaboom vs. Squal, Japanese second seeds. We're missing Gareth, Myall and Riss.
Kaboom seems to be struggling with the heat and look flat in their warm-up. It shows on the field with Kaboom giving up 3 soft turnovers to go down 4-0 to Squal who haven't made a turnover. Simple execution errors and over-generous defensive cushioning cause some of the Kaboom cheer squad to give up on their heroes in the bright yellow shirts.
WRONG. Kaboom finally score on offense with a paradigm shifting Heather Tolley layout goal and we come out in zone to stop the precise Japanese deep game. Two quick defensive breaks see Kaboom draw close at 4-3 down. The cheer squad rethink their early despondancy. Squal and Kaboom trade, first 1 each, then 2 each to bring the score to 7-6 Squal. The wierd half-time cap rule means half is at 8. Kaboom are losing control of their defense in zone and have gone back to trusty match, this time forcing forehand.
Squal take half 8-6 and Kaboom hit back straight after to make it 8-7. Our defense is stifling now, we're jamming up the open side on offense and winning the contests deep. Tom Watson comes down with a bunch of the disc on D, Heather Tolley makes her player look slow, Laina has stepped up her physicality and stopped her defender from shoving her. Defensively we're in control, but our offense still needs to score.
They score again and we score and break to level up the game at 10-10. Squal have been playing 4 women on offense all game but our women are beating theirs on D and getting free on O. They score and break to go to 12-10. We trade and time-cap goes and they score to make it 13-11, game to 15. By now we're getting heaps of the disc. Offense is still sketchy though - unfamiliar D, heat and fatigue are sending a bunch of shots stray and people are anxious to score in a hurry. We stack our D line, win the disc and punch in a goal. Matt Dowle is a nightmare for the Japanese, pulling out some trademark Dowle Family Magic to get a bunch of blocks on the increasingly pressured Japanese long game. We grind out another goal to level things at 13 all. Squall settle and work in an impressively clinical offense to edge closer to victory, 14-13. Kaboom send out another strong line, win the disc and score. It's universe point, 14 all, we're on D. Matt lands a great pull in the corner of the field. Japan swing and huck it deep. They make a tough catch just outside the endzone and throw a certain goal that Laina Hall snaffles with a great block in a very compact piece of defense. We go nuts. Matt informs us all that the huck was a travel, the disc goes back. We stop going nuts. Great pressure around the disc leads to another turn in a stronger position as the Japanese throw a dodgy hammer to a wrong-footed receiver. He falls down, Max gets it and the poor Japanese guy has to leave the field with cramps. Misch Phillips runs deep and the huck goes up but it's too floaty and Misch is soon surrounded with defenders. Something bad (but not majorly bad) happens and she leaves the field with another injury sub. Erin Wallis comes on to keep up our running on D. Again, we grind it out against the Japanese horizontal stack. Our women are dominant in the back field and our one boy in the cutting lanes is working to help cover on deeps and still bid on the unders. The sideline is going nuts again. Again we win the D. The disc swings to Adam who launches a huge hammer to Matt but it's out of bounds and Matt can't keep it infield. Back to D. Again, huge pressure pays off when a throw to one of the Japanese women is overcooked and she drops it. Our third offense is gritty and patient - there's heaps of traffic around the cutters and the handlers continue to recycle and swing. Moving the disc laterally is easy but cuts upfield are hard. Finally, we swing across the endzone to Matt who hits Max running to the forehand front corner. Max catches the final goal and we go really really nuts. Tom and Adam make out on the field (seriously) and we win 15-14 in 125 minutes. Many of us have lost 1.5 to 2 kilos of fluid in the second game and all of us are pumped about a big win and awesome fight back. We've never been behind like that before so it's exciting to know we can punch in goals when it counts. That Kaboom defense just keeps winning the disc.
Tomorrow we play XLR8Rs and Sugar Mix. Check out http://scores.wucc2010.com to stay abreast of developments (I don't think they're live, but then that's probably a good thing because if they were Pete Hemphill would be up all night keeping the baby awake). Spirits are high in the Kaboom camp and we're looking forward to more tough games tomorrow. Once our offense synchs up we're going to be criminally good.
P.S. If you do see Pete Hemphill, say something nice. Poor guy.
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