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.
Monday, July 26, 2010
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
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