Strange Blue Tournament Report

Open Tour 3

Open Tour Three | Cardiff

The final Tour of the season, and SB were back in the A Tour for my final outing as el capitan. Again we took a good size squad and with plenty of ability: Jon Middleton, Chris Rowlands, Berry Mulligan, Paul Robustelli, Mark Stephens, James Kermode, Lee Priestola, Pedro Matos, Stu Eve, Tom Cope, Steve Schindewolf, Tom Borchert, Danny Cole, Seb Barber and Ryan Woodard. Here's how things panned out...

Saturday (peer pools in the 9-16 bracket)

SB 3 - 15 Brighton 1
Okay, so not the greatest scoreline, but Brighton are a top team - even dragging along the dead weight of JB ;-) Anyhow it wasn't quite as bad as the numbers make it look! We played some good hard stuff in this game and made Brighton work hard for their points. The best thing was to see everyone getting involved right from the start. It boded well...

SB 15 - 13 EMO
Second game brought another titanic struggle against EMO. We were 4-2 up after a great start with loads of energy and in-their-personal-bubble D. Then we had a cuppa while they took it away to 9-4. Thankfully we took the wake up call, put away the kit-kats and started to play again. And boy did we play. Again, everyone got involved and the standard was really good. Great to see us working so well together and supporting each other through the game. From 9-4 down we could have rolled over, but there was fight all the way and we snuck away with it 15-13 in the end. Nice 1 fellas.

SB 7 - 15 Clapham 2
And so to the game for a chance of top 8 after that cracking win against the midlanders. Unfortunately, it was, err, Clapham. But this time we chose to give them a fight rather than a walkover. They started really strongly and went up by a few, but we really dug in and again we supported each other and got things fired up. Having put three straight points on them, the south London boys got a little scared and took a time out for some time with their comfort blankets. And they needed to - we played really well to get back into the game and take it to them. Okay so in the end the time-out worked for them and they stepped it up, but it was really great that we forced them to do that. And we'll come back stonger next time...

Sunday (bottom four round robin)

SB 7 - 15 BAF
Sunday morning saw us up against BAF - a long time A Tour team, but they'd had a shocker of a first day playing like proper chumps and letting The Brown waltz into the top 12. Sadly for us they chose Sunday for some revenge, and their level was definitely higher than ours for most of this game. A deserved win for them but again there were good patches from us - it was no walk in the park for them. We just need to cut out our unforced turnovers and we'll be right up there.

SB 7 - 15 EMO
Oh dear - some more boys out for revenge! This time the EMO boys got the win, but again it was our little mistakes that cost us most. The great thing is that when it comes together we're right with them. Still, on this occasion a few too many drops and throw-aways meant that there was too much ground to make up. On to the last of the weekend then.

SB 4 - 15 LTD Release
Um, I think we might have got a little tired! Leading 4-3 this one looked as if it could go all the way to the wire..... until we kinda forgot to score any more points. Anyhow, there's a good reason we got fatigued and lost this one - and that's that everyone put so much into everything they did up to that point. Every game had seen us fight hard, and we can take enormous credit for that. 16th we may have been, but not without a win, and not without playing some great stuff.

MVP - Me
Well only by default. Played like a turd, but as it was my last as captain the good folk of SB gave me a good send off and a disc with messages of undying love. Cheers all, been a pleasure.

And there you have it. The conclusion of SB's exploits at Tour for 2007. Our final position was a well-earned 17th, and it's been a cracking year with loads of guys turning up to each one. Thanks to everyone who's been a part of it. And it's been even better to have the women's team along too this year. Let's see SB with the same enthusiasm in '08 :-)

So it just remains for me to say Paul is the new Open Captain and he'll be leading us to Nationals on 1/2 September, so sign up now and let's storm it. Looking forward to another year of SB ultimate.............

Oh and finally (really this time) just a word of warning - your new captain is the same guy who, at about 3 in the morning on the Friday night of tour, was heard across the field of tents to say..... "I just pissed on your tent dudes, cos you wouldn't shut the f*** up!". The guy has class. And knows how to shut up rowdy types at tournies. Enjoy................

Over n out

Dave