Strange Blue Tournament Report

Mixed Tour 2

Greetings, Sun Beams,

Last weekend (May 9th-10th) Strange Blue took to the roads at stupid o'clock on Saturday morning to travel to Didsbury, Manchester for Mixed Tour 2. Due to unfortunate timing of engineering exams we didn't have enough ladies to take a team to mixed tour 1, so despite solid efforts from last year's tour results we were seeded 18th (out of 44), in the 3rd bracket.

The team was looking hot, lead by the "grumpy" Pedro. For the boys we took: the "lovable" Mat Shannon, the "inappropriate" Tom Cope, the "no BS" Harrison Floyd, the "tall" Chris Sandbrook, the "enigmatic" Tom Borchert, the "accessorising" Marcus Gallagher-Jones and the "commando" Dave Heavens. For the girls we had: the "wife" Kelly Hogan-Matos-Anderson-etc. the "tournament virgin" Lindsey, the "three engineers" Snodge, Natalie and Megan, and me, the "call girl" Jassy ;)

Pool Game 1: SB vs High Altitude

Bleary-eyed we came face to face with the Scotts' High Altitude, but it wasn't sleepy confusion that made the captain so recognisable... he was indeed our dear friend, the "traitor" Alan (no offence, Alan :P). Who a fortnight ago was on the list to be playing with us. The cheek! Anyway, the forecast had been for yucky wind and rain, but was in fact dry and gusty, which still meant upwind was pretty difficult conditions, saying that we began by trading a few upwind scores. Despite some moments of sweet defensive play (Nat got a run through d on 2 girls in the endzone, and Megan seemed to be in the right place at the right time to take down some dodgy swill) we were kinda slow off the bat, and HA took the half 7-5. In the second half however we tightened the leaks in our zone, totally had a sweet comeback to 10-8, which we managed to hold onto with some solid catching and good zone work:

WIN! SB 14 - 12 High Altitude

Pool Game 2: SB vs. Thundering Herd 2

Another familiar face this game came in the form of Cat Smale, who was full of smiles as ever... especially as our zone work was made a mockery of by the T'Herd. Despite the slightly sucky performance there we sparkled on offence, with a diamond grab from Lindsey taking down a massive huck just short of the endzone which was rapidly converted into a score, and some sweet cutting from Sonja in the middle that made a bunch of yards and a speedy dump meant she could zip free again to the endzone to receive a gorgeous floaty outside-in flick from Heavens :) niiice. Sandy also had took down one of Pedro's better hucks at full tilt with a massive lay, and Dave skyed some Turds in the endzone for another score. The game was close, but SB never gave up the edge, and took the victory:

WIN! SB 12 - 9 Thundering Herd 2

Pool Game 3: SB vs. Flash (formerly MILF)

This game was preceded by a lengthy gap, which Pedro, Tom and Megan filled by throwing discs at a small child repeatedly, even when he had rolled into a ball in fear. I don't blame them, he was a pretty annoying kid... don't you hate it when children can throw better forehands than you? :P We also realised that we didn't need this victory to still come top of our pool... which had a significant impact on the uninspiring pissing-about style of play that ensued. Anyway, the wind was still coming and going and the sunshine had disappeared as rain threatened overhead, SB came out nonchalant but strong taking a 4-0 lead. Then we started having a bit too much fun and not only stepped off on D we also weren't playing very tight offence, plus Flash stopped making quite so many unfortunate drops. They also started connecting with their wicked little receiver who brought down some long puts and Flash tallied up score after score until they brought it back to evens. SB tried to wake up a bit from our giggly stupor by again reinforcing our zone, which did gain us a lot of turnovers, and looking for the long option about three times per downwind point before we'd put them away. We took the half... just... then held on by our fingernails to seal the victory with another of those ridiculous downwind points where three long attempts were smacked aside rather than caught, until a hammer (or was it a scuba?) from Pedro landed safely in the clutches of Sonja. Some other exciting things that happened: Pedro and Shannon got a lay out Ds, and Tom Cope got frustrated that he kept throwing his up-the-line flicks into the floor. We played "Do you take it up the arse" as our call. Tom Cope tried to dispute a starting play of "Do you take it up the shitter" and got booed off the field, much to his dismay, and it was a girl-on-girl final featuring myself and a Flash lady.. who I owned :) And as an extra treat Flash flashed us after we "huzzah"ed them.

WIN! SB 10 - 8 Flash >>> SB top the pool!!!

SATURDAY NIGHT:

The forecast had been for a pretty soggy weekend, so as a last minute act of wimpiness most of the team had opted for a hotel, leaving Sandy and Lindsey to brave the campsite on their own. Plus Keedro were off to a surprise birthday party and Marcus went back to Liverpool for the night, so our numbers were streamlined somewhat. Our intention was to watch Star Trek then dinner and party, but we took too long in the showers so ended up in Nandos with tickets for a later Star Trek showing. Nandos saw Tom Cope eat a whole chicken, a portion of ratatouille, some halloumi cheese, extra-large fries and 12 top-ups of his bottomless soft drink whilst Sonja just had a burger. Shannon et al had also made a trip to TESCO bringing back with them a bottle of malibu which I added to everyone's drinks as we played an undercover game of "Never have I ever". After the movie (in which Snodge fell asleep) we went on a booze cruising mission, and brought our haul of tequila, lambrini wine and malibu back to the hotel where we took residence in room 369 and drank the lot (featuring a mini-frisbee challenge by Shannon and myself) over copious immature games including the age old Truth or Dare. Oh dear.

Sunday!!

*Knock knock*....opens door, bleary-eyed... "JESUS CHRIST!!" That was how pleased Shannon was to see me after a mighty 4 hours sleep, but also pretty much sums up how pleased everyone was to see morning. I was queasy to say the least, but I'm pretty sure Harry and Tom Cope who polished off most of the tequila felt a LOT worse.

Warm up number one was more mental than physical, and Pedro made sure everyone knew it. I think he also thought we were just trying to stress him out when Tom Cope told him about the tequila binge...

Game to get into the Top 16: SB vs. Flaming Galahs

This game was tight, and their spirit was A LOT better than ours. The pitch had been shifted due to ground issues so there was no front/back endzone paintings, which lead to several debates about whether catches were actually inside the endzone. Pedro seemed to be enjoying himself getting involved in said debates, ordering the Galahs to "look at the forensics!".. Crazy Europeans.. Anyway, Galahs' longs were a real threat with some very speedy men and their D was tight using their poaches well tempting lots of passes that they knew they could get Ds on. Kelly had a particularly strong game, being everywhere where you really needed her to be and taking down some important discs. Lindsey also started to show her flair too, which totally grew through the rest of the day, catching a bunch of Sandy's puts for scores. We tried to recreate the girly Clam developed at UMON but the zone-ier style used this time seemed debatable as to whether it was any good or not. I wasn't a fan. The game was spent mostly trading, but we managed to sneak a couple points ahead to take the half at 7-4... a "dangerous" place to be apparently. They came back at us, but we held on strong to take the win. We also had a very satisfying game of German Porn after, and I clung onto a second girl-on-girl final victory eheh :)

WIN! SB 13 - 11 Flaming Galahs

Game for the plate final: SB vs. Limited Release

I can't remember much about this game, other than this is when the long hucks really started connecting for us. Tom Cope probably caught at least half of our points, with Pedro ripping out sweet long throws time after time. Ltd definitely used their women a lot more than SB this game, as well as scoring off their deeps consistently. The breeze was present but not severe, and the game was spent trading until they broke us for the half and although we carried on trading we never broke them back for the victory, so long plate final.

LOSS :( SB 11 - 13 Limited Release

15v16: SB vs. High Altitude... again

Well, the loss of the previous match kinda set Pedro into mood lacking his usual drive. He knew that this time around High Altitude would be well into their swing and the match would be a lot tougher. They zoned us pretty successfully, and as the wind was still an issue this only worked in their favour as our own zone hadn't really been our strongest weapon. We struggled to get very many scores in the first half, letting them run away to a 7-3 lead to take the half, and throughout the second half we still didn't step it up to try and hold onto 15th place. The call had to be the best of the weekend; Pedro and Alan's faces were covered in shaving foam and the teams threw Wotsits at them from a small distance trying to get them to stick to the foam :) I think that might have cheered Pedro up a little bit...

LOSS :( SB 5 - 10 High Altitude (that's a guess, they owned us basically)

Start seeding: 18th
Final seeding: 16th

We wrapped up the weekend with some food from the burger van, and polished off the last of Megan's incredible fairy cakes then hit the road. We've opted for a team MVP, with everyone having moments of greatness, and I'm totally proud of them all :) Without having practised together, plus a rather alcoholic bloodstream on Sunday, we still totally pulled it off and moved up a bracket into the TOP 16!!! WOOO!!

Live long and prosper,

Frove,

Jassy Xx