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.

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?