Tuesday, December 20, 2011

FU Training Squad 2012

Fyshwick recently held 4 weeks of very competitive tryouts.

I am pleased to announce the Fyshwick Training Squad for 2012:

Adam Mortimer
Alex Leech
Andrew Allen
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Lance
Andrew Sutton
Asher Gentle
Brevin Balfrey-Boyd
Calum Stewart
Cameron Maxwell
Chris Stephens
Dane Robbins
Erik Jan Lindeboom
Gareth Beyers
Ian McKerracher
Ira Deveson
James Ley
Jesse Wallace
Jonno Holmes
Konrad Wallace
Matt Dowle
Mikey Hatfield
Nicholas Harris
Pete Hemphill
Simon Wansink
Thomas Walcott
Thomas Watson
Warwick Shepherd

FU selectors: AJ, Jonno and Asher

Are you a man? Do you play frisbee? Then Real Mitchell needs YOU!

Real Mitchell FC is Canberra's newest Mens ultimate frisbee team.

We have two goals: development and fun. Our brother club Fyshwick United will look to win first division nationals in 2012. Our sights are set on winning the more relaxed second division nationals.

Are you a:
- league player looking to step up to club ultimate?
- young gun looking to develop your game and play for Fyshwick in future seasons?
- experienced player, who wants to play fun club level ultimate, but can't train multiple times a week?
- player trying out for Fyshwick, but who would still like to play Mens ultimate if you don't make their squad?

Then Real Mitchell is for you.

We'll start training early next year (1 night a week) and will look to head to some great tourneys, culminating in Division 2 Nationals in Melbourne in mid-April.

Awesome! I'm interested. What do I do next? Send Brett (brettdavidmassey@gmail.com) an email NOW. We'll make sure you're in the loop when we start our campaign next year.

Craig, Phil and Brett
Real Mitchell FC

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Mens Development - Invite all your friends

The Canberra men's team Fyshwick United is running 4 development sessions starting Thursday 24 Nov (moved back one week to finish mens league which was postponed due to weather). Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come...so long as your a guy. Don't worry if your a girl, Factory have something for you (see below).

Fyshwick training will look to develop the basic skills that every ultimate player should have so whether your a beginner or an advanced player there will be something for you. If your interested in playing for Fyshwick next year, you should come along as well, as these sessions will be used to select a training squad for next year.

Training starts at 6.30 (cleats on at 6.15) and will go for a couple of hours, problably followed by a trip to the pub.

For more information see www.fyshwickunited.com

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Factory Beginners' Clinics 2011!




FACTORY BEGINNER'S CLINICS: Thursday October 20- Thursday November 24, 5.45 for 6.00-7.00, O'Connor playing fields.
http://www.factoryultimate.com/beginners-clinic.html

Beginners' Clinics are back this year! After the overwhelming success of the clinics last year, Factory has decided to run another set of 6 clinics, leading into the rest of our glorious season. Though the clinics are aimed at Beginners, there's plenty for everyone to learn, so if you came along to last year's clincis, or if you play Frisbee in league, or if you have never heard of Frisbee but would like to give it a go, please go to the website and sign up!

Also, please invite your friends to come along. Last year we had around 40 lovely ladies at the clinics. I think this year we can hit retirement age (the big 65!- that's what retirment age is now, right?). Impossible? If everyone invites 2 friends, we'll be well over 65. So think, who are your 2 friends going to be?

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Canberra's Fyshwick United Men's Spring League




dates20th October - 6th November, 2011
venueO'Connor Oval @ O'Connor ACT 6:30-8:00pm
formatFast Games, Fun Teams, Drinks Afterwards
cost20 AUD
includes Best game w best CBR guys, and lowest $$

This is a men's league for all experience levels as long as you want to run hard and have fun. Check out: https://sites.google.com/site/canberraultimatemensleague/

First, join AFDA: http://www.afda.com/editmember.php?action=add - This is FREE and essential!!!

Then, if you have been recruited by a particular captain, make sure that Captain adds you to their team -- it's worth a follow up email.

Or if you are a new player and without a team then email one of the captains and ask them to roster you by providing your AFDA number to them and a little bit about yourself:

Team 1 AJ/Konrad: konrad_wallace@hotmail.com

Team 2 Tom/Asher: ashergentle@hotmail.com

Team 3 Jonno/Dan: danmathunt@hotmail.com

Team 4 Gareth/Mikey: gareth.beyers@gmail.com or mikey_h22@hotmail.com

As a last resort, you could post your info here and you might get picked up: https://sites.google.com/site/canberraultimatemensleague/home/get-recruited-find-players

Other questions, email the commissioner: ultam8 AT gmail DOT com

To email all of the captains at once:
konrad_wallace@hotmail.com, ashergentle@hotmail.com, danmathunt@hotmail.com, mikey_h22@hotmail.com, gareth.beyers@gmail.com, andrew99.46@hotmail.com, mrfrisbee@gmail.com

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Spring League

The Canberra Ultimate Spring Social Ultimate League is scheduled to start on Tuesday 11th October at the Dickson Playing Fields. The league will run for 10 weeks finishing on 13th December.


Divisions 2 & 3 will commence at 6.35 and games will finish at 7.40pm. Division 1 games will begin shortly thereafter.

League Registration Site

Div 1

http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1850

Div 2

http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1851

Div 3

http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1852

Cost

The cost to enter a whole team in Spring League will be $350.

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 $30. Payment will be required before the league commences. These steps should avoid the hassle of having to chase fees.

Registration Process

Teams

Team captains who want to register a team can send a request to me. You must supply three things. They are:

- the division you would like to register in,
- your 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 $350 team payment. If payment is not received the team will be removed from the registration site.

Teams will be required 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. The league organiser also has the right to add individual players to any team.

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 $30.

Registration Close

The registration site will close on Friday 7th October (or earlier if we reach our full complement of teams or individual players).

Be wise and register early.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Come and Try Ultimate September Sessions

Factory Ultimate and Fyshwick United have joined forces to bring you the September Come & Try Ultimate days. Every Friday lunchtime this September free introductory sessions to Ultimate Frisbee will be held in Canberra's centre.

From 12.15-1.15 every Friday lunchtime, FREE
9th Sept Glebe Park, Civic
16th Sept Rose Gardens, Barton
23rd Sept Glebe Park, Civic
30th Sept Rose Gardens, Barton

This is the beginning of what promises to be an exciting and eventful season for both clubs so be sure to get on board!

For more details, check out www.factoryultimate.com/come--try.html

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Winter Outdoor Frisbee League (WOFL)

ACTUA is organising a very short Sunday winter league for 4 weeks from this Sunday 21 August through to 11 September.

The league will be held at Downer fields (Melba St) from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. There will be only one division, basically like Div 2 in our normal leagues (ie you can play zone). You'll get 2 shorter games each afternoon.

Registration cost is $170 per team and $17 for an individual. To pay electronically you can transfer funds to:

Account Name: ACT Ultimate
BSB Number: 801009
Account Number: 309871
Reference: Your name (so we know who it is from)


For those of you who can't make the Sunday league, never fear, Spring league is just around the corner - starting in early October, Tuesday nights at Dickson.

Cheers

Liz (ACTUA President)

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

ANU2 come 5th in pool, to play off for 9th tomorrow

After checking the results of the games, I discovered ANU2's glorious victory by two points against CSU2 actually puts them on top of a three way tie! Since ANU2 beat CSU2 by 2 points, and only lost to Sydney Uni Cumberland by 1, they are at +1 in a three-way tie, whereas CSU2 lost by 2 points to ANU2 and won by 2 points against Cumberland, putting them at 0, and Cumberland's 1 point win against ANU2 combined with a 2-point loss to CSU2 puts them at -1! Congratulations to ANU2! This just proves how incredibly valuable those upwind points are not only in tight games, but across the whole of the tournament!

They will now be playing off for 9th place against UTS2 at 12.00, rather than for 11th place as I said earlier.

ANU into Semis at EUGs

Canberra, true to form, has pulled out the very worst possible weather this week in order to welcome all our interstate visitors to their nation's capital. However, despite the 65 km/ hr winds, 13 brave University teams have struggled on, eager to bring home the EUGs championship medals.

After beating Sydney Uni 11-8 in their first tight game yesterday afternoon, ANU1 suffered its first loss this morning against Newcastle Uni. This leaves the top seeds of Pool B locked in a 3-way tie, with Sydney Uni, Newcastle Uni, and ANU1 each with 4 wins and 1 loss. However, since Sydney Uni beat Newcaslte something like 13-3, points differential puts Sydney top of the pool, with ANU second and Newcastle unfortunately having to fight it out for 5th.

Tomorrow will see these teams matching up with the top 3 of the other pool, which, assuming the further pool play goes as predicted, will be Macquarie on top, UNSW second and UTS third.

This puts Macquarie versus ANU1 in Semi1 and Sydney Uni versus UNSW in Semi2 at 10.30 on Thursday morning. The winners of these two semis will play off for gold at 3.00, and the losers will play off for bronze on the field next door, also at 3.00. There is even a small possibility that the wind speed will drop below 40 km/ hr in the afternoon!!!! (but we're not counting on it)

On the other end of the draw, ANU2 has also been playing a bunch of tight games, including a glorious victory against CSU2 on Monday afternoon and a very tight 1-point defeat against Sydney Uni Cumberland yesterday morning. They are likely to place 6th in their pool, which leads them to the 11/12 playoff, likely against the third Canberra team in the tournament, CIT, at 12.00 tomorrow afternoon.

The semis, finals and 11/12 playoff will be played on the University of Canberra fields, which, coincidentally are also the windiest fields in Canberra, tomorrow (Thursday) at the times mentioned above, so if you are passing by, stop and give us a cheer!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Eastern University Games comes to Canberra

Eastern Unviersity Games is the third in the Trifecta of amazing Tournaments that Canberra has been lucky enough to host this year (BCI and Eastern Regionals being the other two). EUGs starts next Monday, July 4 and runs through to the finals on Thursday, July 7.

Along with all the rugby, judo, badmington, chess, etc, etc, this year 13 University Ultimate Frisbee teams get to duke it out over 4 days of play in the beautiful Canberra winter weather on- wait for it- 2 fields . Thanks AUS! Oh well, maybe the presence of 13 teams in such a small space will either a) warm the surrounding area slightly b) provide a wind shelter or c) both. It'll certainly be cosy!

For the first time ever, the ANU is sending 2 teams to EUGs, which is a pretty exciting development for the club. It's hard to say which is more exciting: the star-studded lineup that the ANU has for the Annunaki 1 team, or the team of raw potential that will be taking the field- many for their first ever tournament- as Annunaki 2.

Unfortunately, we don't have a complete draw at the moment, so we are unable to provide you all with times that you can come and join the hordes on the sideline, so we'll try to keep you posted on results and schedule throughout the Touranment. At this stage we can say that Annunaki 1 is in a pool of 6 with USyd1, Newcastle Uni, CSU Bathurst, CIT, and UTS2, whereas Annunaki 2 is in a pool of 7 with UTS 1, Macquarie Uni, UNSW, Sydney Uni Cumberland, USyd 2, and CSU Bathurst 2. Teams play a complete round robin, then go straight into either semis or playoff games so in order to advance in the tournament, teams must place in the top 2 of their pool.

We'll keep you posted with times and updates. Keep Thursday at 3.30 sacred- hopefully you'll be able to spend it watching Annunaki1 in the final!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

League final results and Dingoes in Canberra

Darwin's Finches won div 3, and the Balaclavas took out a baffling and controversial victory in Div 2 (both teams lost track of the score and the time cap hooter, and the rules for ending games all at once). Congratulations to both teams who will now be sporting their winter snuggies with pride in shopping malls around the nation's capital.

We need a league organiser for Winter. Basically, if you're willing to run something, ACTUA will accept whatever format you propose - outdoor, indoor, daytime, nighttime - it's up to you. Get in touch (who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail dot com) if you're keen to contribute.

And finally, the Australian Open team, the Dingoes, will be training in Canberra this weekend. If you've ever wanted what ultimate looks like when it's played by the best male ultimate players in Australia, this is your chance. The training camp runs over Saturday and Sunday at Hughes 1 playing field (on Webster street in Hughes). If you're even remotely interested in the existence of ultimate outside of league, this is a great chance to see it first hand.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

League Finals

After seven weeks of gruelling competition, the finals of Autumn League are on tomorrow night! In a shameful admission of blog failure, I have no idea who's playing in the final of Div 3. Regardless of who actually plays you should hang around and watch the game. The standard of this league has been really high and the final is likely to be a good game to watch and heckle.

In Div 2, the Balaclavas take on Shazam. The Balaclavas have some superstars in their line-up and plenty of new talent and depth. Against this star-studded line-up, Shazam are looking like total underdogs. Also, many of Shazam's players are out of town and thus cannot play. To compound the risk of forfeits, the Balaclavas only have two players registered.

Despite the possible absence of players, I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that this might be one of the highest quality league games of any league in Australia. I'm then going to qualify that by saying that both teams are also capable of plumbing the very depths of awfulness. But, returning to the limb, I think this game will see moments from both teams that wouldn't look out of place at the international level. With a number of players from each team involved in the All Australian camp two weekends ago, expect fireworks when the Div 2 final starts this Wednesday.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

All Australian Camp

The selection process for the Australian National Teams is underway. The next World Championships is in August next year (the venue hasn't been announced yet) and the top players from around the nation are vying for the chance to represent Australia when the tournament arrives.

Club level ultimate in Canberra has changed a lot since the last selection process for Worlds in 2008. We've seen a huge improvement in the calibre of our club teams at nationals and Canberra clubs have travelled and competed internationally with the best in the world. It's really exciting to see this development has paid off in the number of players from the ACT who attended All Australia training camp last weekend.

The All Australia camp gives the selectors for the Open (the Dingos), Womens (the Firetails), and Mixed teams (the Barramundis) a chance to see the 60 best men and 60 best women duke it out without the advantages or impediments of their normal club teams. From this initial camp, 30-something men and 30-something women will be drafted into the Open and Women's squads, and once those teams have narrowed down their rosters a bit the Mixed team will announce its training squad.

The players from the ACT who attended the All Australian camp were:

Matthew Dowle
Asher Gentle
Jonathan Holmes
Andrew Jackson
James Ley
Adam Mortimer
Warwick Shepherd
Thomas Watson
Max Wheeler
Mica Hartley
Keah Molomby
Vickie Saye
Lucy Stevenson
Heather Tolly
Erin Wallis

Special mention should also go to Pete Hemphill, who has been given the opportunity to coach the Dingos. This is great recognition for the excellent work Pete has done over the last few years with FU and Kaboom.

Congratulations to everyone who was selected for the AA camp and good luck with the rest of the campaigns.

Stay tuned for more details on the process, including the chance to see some of Australia's finest playing and training in Canberra.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Interested in Playing More Ultimate? Play SOMA!

Hey Canberra Ultimate players!

Are you interested in playing more ultimate on a fun, social team? Would you like to keep developing your Ultimate skills, play in weekend tournaments, and get involved in a welcoming club that organises events inside and outside of frisbee? Then we want you for Soma!

The Soma mixed club started last year and took a group of players from a range of experience levels to various tournaments around Australia on our way to Australia Mixed Nationals, where we played some competitive fun ultimate, and totally won the party.

We’re about to start a new season, with a new group of players and some of the old mob. Soma is a development team, we welcome keen players of all levels of experience to come along and train with us and see some tournament ultimate. The club will aim to get a competitive team to Mixed Nationals in Melbourne in October, seeing a few other tournaments on the way.

Training sessions will be held on Saturday afternoons each week, starting next weekend. Details for introductory sessions are:

Saturday 21 May, Saturday 28 May and Saturday 4 June.

Fellows Oval, ANU (Fellows Road, Acton)

3 – 5 pm

We’ll be there from 2:30, feel free to come around a bit earlier for a throw around.

If you’re interested but can’t make Saturday afternoons please drop us an email.

We look forward to a challenging, productive and fun season with you all!

Cheers,

Soma Leadership Team

Friday, May 6, 2011

Congratulations Erik jan Lindeboon

For those who are unaware. AFDA has a new "Volunteer of the Month" program which recognizes the efforts of Ultimate players across Australia. As far as I am aware, no ACT player has been award since it was establishsed around two years ago, so huge congratulations go to Erik, Canberra's very own water boy and very first Canberra "AFDA Volunteer of the Month". To bad we didn't get someone nominated earlier, I think previous Volunteers were awarded $50 Rebel Sport vouchers, so that they could buy, like, a pair of sports socks! (note, this is not a dig at afda, I think the vouchers are/ were great and wouldn't turn my nose up at one, I'm just depressed after attempting- and failing-to buy a new pair of skins. Why is it that when you put the word "sport" in front of something, it automatically costs like 10 times as much?)

I quote from the afda trashtalk article, which I assume is quoting from whoever nomiated Erik:

"Erik Lindeboom took time off his PhD to come and support Fyshwick United and Factory Ultimate run regionals and BCI. Erik worked tirelessly over both weekends to ensure that fields always had water, that shade tents were put up and put down and all the other tasks that the TDs gave him. He also billeted a number of interstate travelers. While doing all that he still managed to find time to support Fyshwick in his great get-up including Fyshwick shirt, cape and hat."

You can check out the full write-up on http://www.afda.com/trashtalk/showarticle.php?articleid=843

I have to say, refilling my water bottle at both of the touraments became a one of each day's highlights: I could look forward to a hilariously mis-spelt, gramatically incorrect, but very touching message advising players to drink up, play hard, and call a certain mobile number for refills (and good times).

Thanks for your efforts Erik, I've got your number on speed-dial now.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Bashionals and league predictions

Congratulations to Conquer or Quit who finished 3rd at Bashionals on the weekend. They also took out spirit and Konrad Wallace won MVP. So sounds like they had a good tournament.

So Autumn league is about to start. Once again I will make some suspect predictions. I don't know what happened in summer league but I suspect I was wrong.

Div. 2: Having said all that I am very confident in saying that Shazam will take out div. 2 this comp. With Annunaki a clear second (no bias here). Expect 'Jonno's team' to struggle with only 1 player registered so far.

Div. 3: Again the sheer number of teams in div. 3 makes predictions difficult. I am going to pick 99 Luftballons and Annunaki to fight it out for the title, with Go Fetch and King Truckers fighting it out for 3rd and 4th.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Bashionals this weekend

Believe it or not, this seemly quiet weekend is actually a really important moment for club level frisbee in Australia. Several years ago, a set of regional qualification tournaments were set up to trim down the number of teams attending nationals to a maximum of 16 in each division (things had been getting very big and unwieldy, especially in the open division, before that). For some open teams, the new regional tournaments have become the end of their season. If they didn't qualify for nationals, there were no more tournaments for them for the year.

This weekend, a new national tournament is being run for the teams that didn't make it to nationals. As with all these things, in its first year it's a pretty small and low key affair. But hopefully as more players come into club level ultimate and competition for nationals spaces becomes fiercer, this tournament will give an increasing number of teams a great goal for their season. After several years on the drawing board, Bashionals has come to life. Hopefully, from here it will just get bigger and better.

This year the ACT will be represented at Bashionals by Conquer or Quit. I had the great pleasure of joining in for a few of their drills last night and they're a really exciting team to be flying the flag for Canberra. I'm sure they'll have a great time in Melbourne and it will be really interesting to see how they go. Hopefully some kind of twitter-hashtagy thing will pop up to keep us all posted on their progress. This is real low-fi ultimate - no fancy shirts, sports medicated diet plans or business class flights here (a bunch of the guys are driving to Melbourne for the weekend). If ever you've wanted to get involved in tournaments teams like this are an awesome way to get hooked.

Good luck boys! Hopefully we'll get a write-up from someone when they get back (hint hint).

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Autumn League and Pickup

After a few months spent in exile at Kaleen, Autumn League is back at the home of Ultimate in the ACT, Dickson fields. That means more space, more teams, more convenient beer and fewer mosquitoes. Autumn league is the pinnacle of the ACT frisbee exerience. The cool still air makes the disc fly flatter and truer for longer, there's no sun to get in your eyes and you can watch the final with your hands wrapped around a mug of warm soup (or at least you could when I was a lad).

Anyway, Autumn League is awesome, and this league might even feature appearances from some of the ACT's most fragile, shy and endangered players.

League starts on the 20th of April and runs until the 8th of June. It's on Wednesday nights, at the Dickson fields (Antil street, Dickson). Division 3 kicks off at 6:30 and Divison 2 starts at 7:45 (someone had better correct me if I'm wrong...).

The registration page for Autumn league is now online at http://www.afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=990.

If you just can't wait until the 20th for your next frisbee game, Pickup has resumed on Sundays at 5:00pm at Downer playing fields (cnr of Melba and Bonython streets, Downer). These details were apparently decided BEFORE the end of daylight savings so contact Erik (erikjanlindeboom at hotmail dot com) if you want the full story.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Factory finish with Silver

Factory lost to Wildcard 15-9 in their final in Brisbane this morning. It sounds like the first half was really close but Wildcard ran away with the game after half-time. Congratulations to Wildcard for winning the tourney and to Factory for a great result. We look forward to the ticker-tape parade and heroes welcome when the team gets back.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Factory are in the final

Factory won their semi final at universe point over Melbourne's Honey today. They play Sydney's Wildcard in the final at 10:45 tomorrow. Follow forcesideline and #auc2011 on twitter to see what's going on.

This is the first nationals final an ACT women's team has played since 2003. Let's hope they can notch up one more win.

Nationals update

OK, I've been a bit slack updating, so it may come as a suprise to you that the Australian Ultimate Championships (which all the cool people just call Nationals) is on right now in Brisbane.

The ACT has two teams attending; Fyshwick United in the open division and Factory in the women's division. You can have a look at some of the previous posts to see how these teams have gone in their last few tournaments (Eastern Regionals and the Brisbane-Canberra Invitational) but both teams have had some good results so far in the season.

Nationals started on Friday, and since then it's been a pretty turmultous few days in both divisions.

First the bad news: Fyshwick won two of their three games on the first day, but haven't managed a win since then over any of the real contenters at the tournament. Their results from day two mean that they're out of contention for the pre-semis and the highest they can now place is fifth. After several years at the top end of the results ladder (FU have made semis in all of the last three years and the final in two of those years) this is a really disappointing result for the boys and I'm sure they're all wishing it could have worked out differently. That said, there's still a bunch of good teams to play and beat left in their part of the draw and I'm sure they'll put in some good performances today and tomorrow.

Now the good news: Factory came second in their pool of 7 teams, losing one game to Sporting Team Box Athletico United (the reigning champions) and winning all their other matches. This includes some really important wins over Sand Dunes from Sydney and Kaos from Perth, both firsts for the season. It sounds like the team is feeling positive and is fired up to play their quarter final today. Their opponent for that game is still undecided (it depends on the result of a game that's probably ending right about now). Either way, it's a great result for Factory and hopefully they can keep it up all the way to the final on Monday.

If you're looking for results or more info there are a few sources to try. First, Simon Talbot and the Forcesideline crew are providing regular updates and blow by blow commentary for a couple of games on twitter. Summaries of the day's results are here. There are also some slightly sketchy results on the tournament website. And finally, there are a mix of perspectives and posts here. Between all of these different sources you can usually get a reasonable idea of what's going on.

The women's final (hopefully starring Factory) will be on on Monday and Forcesideline will definitely be covering it (they've even been trying to stream video footage so keep an eye out for that). If Factory make it through either get access to Twitter at work or stay home and claim you have an unsightly and infectious rash.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Colony Plunder and Sporting Team Box Athletico United win the BCI

Despite forecasts of rain, we had two fine and sunny days over the weekend for the 3rd Brisbane Canberra Invitational, held at the Giralang Playing Fields.

It was great tournament, with a number of interesting results for several teams. Heads of State from Melbourne picked up wins over I-Beam and Colony Plunder, suggesting that the dominance of the Eastern Region at open division at last year's nationals (with all four of the semi finalists coming from NSW or the ACT) will be challenged this year. Fyshwick United won against Colony Pillage, giving the local team their first win over the Sydney club. Firestorm from Brisbane notched up an impressive win of Fyshwick United which is a huge scalp for them and their first win over FU since 2007.

In the women's division it seems like the comments from Sand Dunes coach Simon Wood that the depth of the women's division has improved immensely are spot on. Wildcard showed their strength as a club, combining their two teams from Regionals and fighting their way into the final against Sporting Team Box Athletico United. For their part, Sporting Team Box Athletico United had a number of tough games after a fairly easy run so far this season, even tasting bitter defeat at the hands of rival Melbourne club Honey. Meanwhile, Newcastle's Sugar Mags ground out a universe-point win over Factory from the ACT. Black Betty beat Regionals winners Southside and maybe also Factory (I missed the result from their last game) which is another step up from their impressive showing at Eastern Regionals.

In the end, however, it was dominant display from both of the winning teams. Colony Plunder won the open division and Sporting Team Box Athletico United won the women's division, with Fyshwick United and Wildcard runners up. Spirit went to Colony Pillage and Sporting Team Box Athletico United which is a really impressive result for both clubs.

Thanks to Leon for organising the tournament, and to Erin, Hebs, Liz, Nat, Erik, Brett, Sue, Carl and the FU boys for getting food, setting up and packing up, refilling water containers, cooking BBQs and making the event run smoothly. Sorry if I've missed anyone - Leon would know for sure who did what.

Monday, March 7, 2011

BCI is on THIS WEEKEND

The Brisbane Canberra Invitational, Australia's premier (only?) invitational tournament, is on at the Giralang playing fields this weekend.

The open division features Colony Plunder and Colony Pillage from Sydney, defending national champions I-Beam from Newcastle, Firestorm from Brisbane, Chilly and Heads of State from Melbourne, Gammin from Perth and Fyshwick United from Canberra

The women's division has Southside, Wildcard and Sand Dunes from Sydney, Black Betty from Brisbane, Sugar Mags from Newcastle, defending national champions Sporting Team Box Athletico United and Honey from Melbourne and Factory from Canberra.

Now that we're getting towards the business end of the season, the BCI looks set to showcase some high quality ultimate and should be a great preview of the national championships in Bribane at the start of April. Come along and see Australian ultimate at its best and support the local teams.

The tournament director, Leon Smith, is still looking for volunteers. If you're able to help out on the weekend contact me at who dot is dot the dot schmooze at gmail dot com and I'll put you in touch with him. Volunteering is a great way to support the frisbee community and see the world of frisbee beyond weekly league games.

As an aside, where's Karma? I'm not sure how these things work but I would have thought their 5th place finish at Nationals last year would have secured them an invite. Are invitations just based on Regionals?

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Regionals Wrap-up

Last weekend, Canberra hosted the Eastern Regional Championships at the UC playing fields. This event is a qualification tournament for teams from NSW and the ACT for the National Championships later this year (to be held in Bribane at the start of April). It was a pretty big tournament, with 8 Open Division teams and 9 Women's Division teams. The field was boosted by a few interstate teams that came to get some extra tournament experience including Black Betty and Kaos, women's teams from Brisbane and Perth respectively, and the New Zealand Keas, the kiwi open under 23s team.

The pool play on Saturday included some games in tough conditions, with strong winds and a bit of rain making things difficult. On Sunday, the skies cleared and the wind eased slightly for the playoffs.

In the Open Division, 7 teams were vying for 5 qualification spots for Nationals. In the Women's Division all the eastern region teams automatically qualified.

The final results were:

Open Division:
1 Colony Plunder (Sydney)
2 Colony Pillage (Sydney)
3 Fyshwick United (Canberra)
4 I-Beam (Newcastle)
5 NZ Keas (New Zealand)
6 Magnum (Sydney and Wollongong)
7 Umlaut (Sydney)
8 Duffmen (Sydney)

With the two Colony teams, Fyshwick United, I-Beam and Magnum qualifying for Nationals.

Women's Division:
1 Southside Penguins (Sydney)
2 Sand Dunes (Sydney)
3 Kaos (Perth)
4 Factory (Canberra)
5 Wildcard % (Sydney)
6 Wildcard * (Sydney)
7 Sugar Mags (Newcastle)
8 Black Betty (Brisbane)
9 Southside Swans (Sydney)

The two Wildcard teams are combining for Nationals, so all the eastern region teams qualified. Black Betty and Kaos qualified at their own qualification tournaments in their home regions.

Congratulations to Colony Plunder and the Southside Penguin for winning their divisions. Congratulations also to the NZ Keas and the Southside Swans for winning spirit in their divisions.

Thanks to Naomi, Craig, Andrew, Laura, Erik and Kate for their help during the weekend, and to Erin, Nat, Mica, Liz, Hebs and Amy for their work before the tournament to get everything running. Finally, thanks to the players who were able to help out during the weekend (especially the FU boys) and to Kaos, Black Betty and the Keas for heading along to the tournament and adding some quality competition.

The 12th and 13th of March sees another great tournament come to Canberra, the Brisbane-Canberra Invitational. This will bring the 8 best men's and 8 best women's teams to town for a quality hit out before nationals. The tournament will be hosted at Giralang fields and will be well worth a look. Both ACT teams look sharp this year so come down and support the local clubs.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

New websites

Hi Ultimate Lovers,

The Canberra men and women's teams have created new websites. ANU Disc Enthusiasts also
have a new look on the web.

Check out the sites:
http://www.factoryultimate.com
http://www.fyshwickunited.com
http://www.anudiscenthusiasts.com

Factory and Fyshwick also have new discs with their logo on. Discs cost $15. Look out for a Factory or Fyshwick player at league if you would like to buy one. The Fyshwick home page has a picture of the disc design. They look great so get one fast before they go.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

FU Regionals team

Fyshwick United has selected their team for regionals.
Make us proud boys. Regionals is here in Canberra so come
along on the 19/20 February to the University of Canberra
to support our local teams.

Congratulations to all those who made the team.

The team (in alphabetical order):

Adam
AJ
Asher
Brevin
Dan
Gareth
Ian
James Ley
James O'Reilly
Jonno
Konrad
Lancey
Matt
Mikey
Pete
Tom Walcott
Tom Watson
Waz

Jonno, Pete and AJ: FU selectors

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Summer League

It seems summer league is going to be held at Kaleen playing fields (Diamatina st).
League will be on Wednesday nights and run for 6 weeks from the 2 Feb-9 Mar.
Registration is $200 per team or $20 per individual.

Login and sign-up here:
http://www.afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=964

Monday, January 10, 2011

Eastern Regionals is on in Canberra

That's right! The ACT will host regionals at the University of Canberra fields on the 19th and 20th of February. The rego page will be up an the AFDA website shortly and details for the weekend should be out soon.

Congratulations to Factory for putting together a winning bid for the tournament. If you're interested in helping out contact easternregionalsact at gmail dot com.

Stay tuned for more details. It looks like there are going to be heaps of tournaments in the ACT this year, we've also got the Brisbane Canberra Invititional in March and apparently Eastern University Games (which I think is in July).

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

What's going on with league?

I've got no idea.

We're still waiting on word from the powers that be about how we're going to deal with the closure of our beloved Dickson playing fields. Our league is once again SO HUGE that it won't fit anywhere else.

Once details emerge I'll get them posted up here.