Strange Blue Tournament Report

Lloret Costa Brava

Dear All

This is a true and accurate account of the Adventures of Strange Blue on Tour at the Lloret Costa Brava Tournament 2008, which took place in Lloret De Mar on the 15th - 17th March. All mistakes and any omissions are entirely the authors own - for which I humbly apologise. I also apologise for the length.

For this tournament, regular members of the SB team were joined in Espania by old friends (Ryan and Hilary) and new friends (Bob and Amy) and a very cute team mascot (Sophie). The first night in Spain was spent by some in a 4* hotel right by the beach - and by others on an 8hr. bus trip across the Pyrenees. Either way we came out onto the pitch ready for a great weekend's beach ultimate. I say beach... the beach at Lloret is more like gravel - and we quickly learnt that sand-socks were the order of the day. We also quickly learnt that playing on a beach ain't like playing on grass. You go in slow-motion, can't jump and get doubly tired. After some sage words from Captain JB regarding making sure we try and avoid lead throws - we were ready for our first game.

Day 1

SB 11 - 6 Salaspils (Latvia)

Picture the scene from Dodgeball - a Latvian team of giants and goddesses vs SB's Average Joe's gym. The music started playing, the pull was thrown and we were in. Boy could these Latvians run! With some awesome female handlers and receivers that seemed to be able to lay-out the width of the pitch we were in for a run for our money. However, after recovering from the distraction of sexy Eastern Europeans in hotpants we got down to the game in hand and played some very cool disc. The pattern we were to follow for the rest of the tournament began to take form, with cool-headed handling from JB, Anna, Ryan, Hilary, Amy and Jez and frenetic yet effective cutting from Susanna, Jassie, Berry, Bob (and me). We all played out of our skins in this first game and I think our experience over the younger Latvian team showed. SB for the win.

SB 4 - 8 Patatas Bravas (Spain)

After the first win we were out for some more frisbee blood. Patatas Bravas were much more evenly-matched with us and it was always going to be a hard game. Their skill on the beach showed out, where we were cutting 3 times, they only made one decisive cut and the disc always ended in their hands. Despite some valiant lay-out scores from Bob and Berry and some long points with many D's PB took it away in the end.

SB 12 - 2 Frisbilanas (Spain)

Ok I really can't remember this game at all. However, the scoreline says 12 -2 to SB so I imagine we had some amazing D's and dominated the game from start to finish. By this time we were getting a bit more used to the sand, and those windy days practising on Jesus Green paid off. As this tournament was mixed it was essential that at least 2 women were on the pitch at all times. Luckily we had some stonking women with us, that pwned all over the other team's girls. Following this win, spirits were high so we went off and started a tournie tradition of eating gelato. With Berry and JB fluent in the local lingo they managed to get some amazing looking waffles smothered with ice cream and chocolate sauce. I ended up with a tourist-special Mr Whippy and 99 flake... SB were pretty knackered this night so we went back to our luxury hotel ate an all you can eat buffet and then headed off to bed. Except Jez and Berry, who went out on the town.

Day 2

SB 11 - 6 XLR8RS (Belgium)

A new day and morale was high. The XLR8RS (Accelerators) looked pretty intimidating in their All Black kits. But they soon fell before the SB scythe. With some amazing connections established between Amy and Bob and JB and Anna and some trademark lay-out D's from Berry we took the game away.

SB 12 - 6 Ziggles (France)

Another SB dominated game, with everyone kicking some butt. Jez unfortunately had a bit of a shocker this game with a dropped pull, that the opposition quickly took advantage of. It didn't matter in the long run and it provided good ribbing material for the rest of the day. He then went out and bought a couple of hats, one styling one for himself and a bling Playboy hat for me (in revenge). During one of the final points of this game, I found myself in the middle of the endzone miles away from my marker - Jez popped a bullet at me which for some reason I thought was intended for JB... instead of catching it for the score I performed a Matrix style back-lean-limbo and watched as it sailed over my head and luckily into JB's waiting hands. What a loser... the ribbing was returned on me!

SB 5 - 8 Pussy Catch (France)

More French and this time they were hungry for le sangreal. Pussy Catch had been playing well the whole tournament and we were ready for a hard fight. They certainly gave it to us, we went down by 4 points very quickly (mostly due to being distracted by shouts of 'Allez Pooooooouusy' from the sideline). These guys were just too good and it was late in the day for playing such a high-octane team. However, a timely time-out call by JB and some motivating words we fought our way back, getting 3 points in a row. It unfortunately wasn't enough. Disaster struck during this game when Berry collided with a Pussy and twisted his knee. Berry had to limp off the pitch and wasn't able to play for the rest of the tournament. We definitely missed his safe hands and killer D.

SB 9 - 8 Ooups (Germany)

After losing two out of our 6 pool games we were playing a cross-over with Ooups to remain in the top 12. Ooups were not as good as us, but they really wanted the win. We went out rather complacently and ze Germans started pulling ahead. This made JB get proper ratty, he called a time-out and bawled us out good and proper (swearing and all - Magick would have been proud). The message hit home we pulled up our sand-socks and took back 4 points a row. We took them to Sudden Death and after a v. long point of back and forth we took the win. Ooups (being German) then decided they would go for a swim. Naked. Butt naked. As the rather proper English looked around embarrassedly Ooups stripped off and dived in. Jez followed. In his shorts.

Party

After a quiet night on the Saturday we were determined to go out large on the Sunday night. We were very happy with our performance so far and the costume party seemed like the perfect place to celebrate. One problem was we didn't have any costumes. So after gelato Jez and I stopped off to buy some liquid supplies for the group and we retired to the girls' room to get proper wasted. Jassy showed her normal amazing form for coming up with games and initiated the Circle of Death. 52 cards, 52 forfeits, a crate of San Miguel, a bottle of Margarita, a bottle of Tequila and a pack of European Porn Cards (new with sucking!). I was a little embarrassed at one point as being the 'PornMaster' I was instructed to make the participants act out a scene on the cards... The Queen of Diamonds fell to Bob and Susanna... I think we still have photos. Suffice to say after this we were ready to party, so at midnight we all bravely stepped out to the costume party dressed in ski-suits and ski-goggles (all we had with us). SB really stepped upto the party plate and we rocked the joint (the best bit was when JB was doing upside-down handstand push-ups right in the mosh-pit - a spectacle rarely seen).

Day 3

SB 5 - 8 Tourne-disc (France) Game to be 10th or above

"Ouch" was all anyone could say when we stepped out into the bright sunlight to take on more French. Tourne-Disc were a good team and they made us run around the park. We fought well early with some good long options and started a few points up. But we were sweating tequila and had beer in our boots and it certainly showed. They had the legs on us , we had lost Berry and Jassie was out with a stinking cold/sore throat/flu - so we were a little short-handed. Still we fought valiantly and luckily JB didn't bawl us out (altho he did swear at the other team at one point).

SB 11 - 6 Salaspils (Latvia) Game to be 11th or 12th

We finished the tournament the way we started, against the mighty Latvians. This was a brilliantly spirited match and the Latvians had really picked up their game. Once again they were punishing us with excellent handling and awesome receiving. But we knew this was our last game, so we left nothing behind and ran our asses off. All of the connections that had been forming throughout the tournie came to fruition: Jez and Ryan finally managed to make the links to each other; Jassie (fighting the flu) came on to D the crap out their females and unleashed some awesome quick-reaction grabs; Anna remained her cool and pinpoint accurate self and slammed loads into the end-zone; Amy showed that girls are way better than boys by D'ing a couple of the Latvian boyz; every point Hilary was on the pitch seemed to end in a score; Bob was somehow able to be at both ends of the pitch at once, making D's and then scoring long hucks; I scored a few with some gratuitous layouts mostly from JB's steady handling and expertly placed discs; Susanna showed what we have now come to expect as standard from her, great continuation handling coupled with safe hands in the end-zone. Berry mostly chatted up the Spanish ladies, but when they weren't fawning over his poor hurt knee he was very vocal on the sidelines giving sage advice and great encouragement. SB for the win and a very creditable 11th out of 24 finish.

The match ended with us all (Latvians and SB) stripping off and diving in the sea to cool off.

Ooups got the Spirit prize (need to remember the naked swimming if we want to win Spirit next year). I can't remember if we voted an MVP (sorry if we did!) but to be honest everyone really put their heart and soul into it and so it should probably be a Team MVP anyway!

Long Live the Beach and we'd better come back next year!

Oops that report was really long again.

Stu