Strange Blue Tournament Report

University Women's Indoor Regionals

As you may have heard, SB women played indoor regionals in Liverpool. Apparently as JTM I have to write up the tournament report and so here goes:

[Alex: Jo did claim at one point that being JTM didn't make her TB...judge for yourself]

We were seeded 4th (out of 19) and were placed in what looked to be quite a difficult pool.

Players attending were:

Alex
Susanna
Jassy
Snodge
Cat
Laura
Jo
Natalie
Chris (who kindly drove us).

Saturday :

Pool game 1:

SB 6 - 5 Jedi

As this was our first game we were still pretty sleepy and rusty and so conceded the first point but brought it back when Susanna laid out to score and Jo jumped in a point. The team traded points; Jedi had some excellent flow going and we kept catching the disc just out of bounds of the endzone. The match included one epically long point which Jedi eventually scored, however we came back and went one up with 30 seconds to spare. The call at the end of this game definitely deserves a mention- we played a round of guess the song intro, for which we performed the beginning of Billie Jean, in 3 parts. For this Cat taught us a small amount of beatboxing (boots and cats- annunciate the b and c), later becoming The Beat of the tournament.

Pool game 2:

SB 9 - 1 Phat 'Eds

In this game once we saw everything was going well we tried out some bits and pieces (I think Alex even came off for a bit). Highlights include Nat taking out 2 players (pushing one into the wall and body blocking another) and Jassy successfully throwing a hammer into the endzone to score (!). There were some sneaky players with snakey cuts which were eventually outsmarted and a mix of wonky and successful blades and hammers.

Pool game 3:

SB 10 - 2 Halcyon

After only a one game gap we came out to get the first point with an up the line forehand from Snodge to Nat. We had success with both the ISO and the rubber and Cat did an excellent job managing to cover their most confident player for the entire game. Our D was also much improved at this point, examples of which include Jassy's point block and Laura doing an awesome D in the endzone. Not only did we finish top of our pool but also won 'gangster ninja' at the end. Job well done.

Game 4:

SB 8 - 4 Sheffield Hallum

Hallum pulled out a zone which meant we had to 'swing it to win it.' We lost the first point, managed to go 5:1 up only for Hallum to pull it back to 5:4. Snodge scored off of a hammer from Alex and Nat got a point block on one of their main handlers, and some killer D from Laura and Jo in particular got us the turn overs, and some super flow and grabs allowed us to pull away. Good spirited calls were made on both sides and all in all it was a really fun game. Then for our call we played 'boob disc' during which my team encountered height problems (passing a disc from a tall to a short person proved incredibly difficult.) For full details on game play contact Jassy, for a photo of the call in action contact Chris ;)

After the matches we enjoyed Chinese takeaway before heading to the roller disco in our very snazzy superhero outfits. All looked superb however very special mentions go to Jassy's amazing costume (which included boots, silver gloves and home made headband and cape complete with intricately cut out SB logos) and to Nat who actually got honked by a van on the way! (It was definitely you :p)

The party was awesome and we actually managed to get 6 of us in a conga line in the roller disco, capes streaming behind. The costumes were clearly a hit: Jassy knocked down a man only to be helped up and kissed! Unlike the men's tournament at least 3 of the top 6 teams were in attendance (and pies, who went on to come second, were sporting homemade tutus).

Sunday

Game 5 (1 v 4) - game to qualify for nationals:

SB 12 - 4 WUBU

Again this was first thing in the morning and so we had spent quite a lot of time trying to make sure we were properly awake for this game (including pre-match ninja). We secured the first point by sending an easy long to Susanna, only for them to do the same back to us next point. However once the game was underway we ran away with the lead (again to the extent that Alex came off for some points). There were lots of excellent D's and catches across the board including endzone D from Laura, a sweet feet endzone grab by snodge and some point blocks by Alex and Nat (who then scored off the back of it). Natalie, having done a super invert with Jo, jogged on to a floaty disc free as a bird with the smuggest look on her face, raised eyebrow, and an eat my dust expression to boot. Finally Jo received her first decent bruise from the tournament by doing the splits and subsequently falling over in order to catch a disk in flutter guts.

The FINAL:

SB 7 - 6 Pies

After an excruciating 3 hours plus wait it was time for the final. Both teams were nervous but we definitely seemed to be fairing better through a combination of our "Yes we can" moto and dancing to "Boots and Cats" on the line.

We traded the first couple of points and then throughout the rest of the match were either equal or marginally ahead. The game was very very tight and pretty intense. Cat was laying out everywhere (to the extent that she hurt her shoulder pretty badly) and discs were getting multiple bids (including one where I missed in the endzone, sprawled out on the floor for a second bid and narrowly avoided colliding with cat as she laid out for the third bid). Laura again had some amazing grabs, snodge some killer decision makinig, Jo awesome run through Ds and Natalie got an awesome assist to Susanna and we managed to both score with our ISO (Alex to Susanna to Jo) and shutdown theirs with some awesome D from Jassy.

At the last pull the score was equal (5:5) with only 1minute 24 to go. Susanna threw a disc but mid throw her arm collided with her defender and the disk flew wild, luckily to be caught by Alex in her first indoor layout ever. She then threw the disc to Susanna in the endzone with only 6 seconds to spare. This and Alex's excellent handling and leadership throughout led her to win the MVP trophy for the final (Yeah Alex!).The game was played with excellent spirit. Calls were made by both sides from the out set but were always settled fairly and amicably. This includes one player on the other team catching an awesome disc just marginally outside the endzone and immediately calling it out. There were some massive points and some excellent play from both sides. Pie went on to win their next match and come second in the tournament whilst wearing their awesome costumes from the roller disco the night before.

Needless to say we were pretty thrilled and spent the rest of the day happily supporting other teams and drinking hot chocolate. I definitely enjoyed Alex gesturing with a trophy in each hand as she gave a short speech at the awards ceremony. Then we rolled out and had our own mini-prize ceremony at the service station with parts of the cava bottles Alex bought to celebrate.

Prizes as I can remember were:

Most smug look when catching a disk: Nat (for the eyebrows)
Most splendiferous costume: Jassy (for the sheer amount of effort and the awesome result)
Most heart in mouth moment: Waiting for Susanna to catch the winning disc, it seemed to hang forever
Most Improved Player: Laura

A big thank-you to Chris for driving us around, shouting louder then anyone else on the sideline and for completing excellent evasive action!

In the words of Sam Lings "overall it was a totally sweet tournament, and we totally did a load of totally sweet stuff and played some totally sweet Frisbee."

Jo x