Strange Blue Tournament Report

Nationals

Hi all,

Here's a report from the weekend in Cardiff.

First note: do not go to Cardiff from London via the M4 (confirm with Harry's and Magic's cars, who took over twice as long to make it to the venue).

Saturday began with a late start... 11.50am, although by then we had already picked up an injury: Crow stepped on a twig (well... it was more like a spoke really...) that went through his sandals and made a nice deep hole in his foot. Notheless... he played all games.

First game against Bristol. This time, they had their full team back and were looking for some payback from Tour 1. Well... they got it. Their numbers and intensity were very high throughout, and a couple of very good layout D's got those few extra points that turned the game in their favour. It didn't help us that Strachan hurt his ankle halfway through the game and Magic was stuck in traffic. 10-15 or so...

Second game against a debilitated Flyght Club (i.e. playing SB-2008-style: 10 men). Even so, we slacked and the result was not as comfortable as one would expect under the circumstances (i.e. 15-9... or so).

The third game of the day was a decider. A win meant a cross over Sunday morning, a loss meant relegation to the lower ranks. Our relaxed attitude carried on from the previous game. After all, we were playing the fairly new Lemmings team. What could they do to us, really? Well... they could start strong, build confidence, and take SB to 10-14, game to 15. Yup! We were one point away from a really bad weekend. Paul and myself were our usual selves, yelling about. Luckily, the team ignored us and decided that they really wanted those cross-overs, so... yup... 5 points in a row and we were looking at a dismayed Lemmings team.

Sunday' cross over came and another team was looking for some payback: Burro Electrico. The game was amazing. Our team put on a show. First half, 8-4 for us. Our offence was not turned a single time. We were on a roll... that is... until the second half, at which point one of the muppets in our team, who thinks he has good scoobers, decided to put 2 very dubious ones into the end-zone. Yup... my 2 scoobers gave them their first two turns and from that point on, it was a whole different game. A few more mistakes followed and they took the game away from us (12-15 or so).

We moved on to yet another repeat. This time, against our 2009 rivals, Vision. To make it short, they had the legs and the composure. We made way to many unforced errors, partly due to lack of experience, partly due to some very tired legs from the previous day and cross-over. They won comfortably 10-15 or so.

Finally, last official game of the season. We were looking at a very tired team. We had played some 7 hours of intense ultimate and it was showing. We came up against EMO 2. A team with a couple of their firsts on the lineup and more legs than us (they are still practising hard with their firsts). With Strachan, Magic and Paul out (Paul had an awesome weekend, running throughout and getting us 2 precious layout D's on Saturday's along with 3 of the last 5 scores and was about to pass out from exhaustion) the team tried its best. Although our offence was good, we did not have the legs to get any Ds. So, a couple of mistakes meant that it was tricky to get back from a couple of breaks down. Another 10-15 or so game.

In the end, it was still a good weekend, despite the results. We pulled a tough game out of the bag and we had an amazing first game on Sunday. Imagine what it would be like if we kept practising for the last 2 months and could count on a few more players. Hopefully, next year we will be facing the tour in a different way, knowing that we could be aiming for a permanent seat in the A tour.

Over and out.

Pedro