SB Men's BUCS League Match vs. Nottingham
On the 16th of November, Strange Blue hosted 15/16 National Champions Nottingham for our second BUCS match of the season. This was a key match for the season – we came into the match knowing this, ready to give all we had.
Squad List:
Alex, Amos, Cope, Elliot, Jonny, JR, Louis, Luke, MC, Niall, Perry (C), Tejas, Tim
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The game played out fairly standard. From last season’s experience, we were expecting a zone from Nottingham, something which we had not practiced substantially thus far this year. The strong winds only amplified such a possibility. It was definitely a relief for us when Nottingham came out playing standard, hard man defence. This was where we knew we could shine.
We started off on offence. Some quick disc movement down the field eventually translated to a perfect up the line throw from Tejas to Perry for a score. Nottingham retaliated in quick fashion, scoring off a fairly standard vertical stack. We traded points. The highly variable winds led to a considerable number of drops from both sides, and points were generally long, intense but not particularly memorable. Notable plays include Perry’s layout D on an in-cut and JR’s grab off a high, floaty disc in the endzone.
The score is 6-7, Nottingham leading. Tejas makes a bladey backhand throw downwind into the endzone. Sandwiched between another SB player and a few Nottingham defenders, Amos goes up huge to even the score 7-7, and earn himself PotD. Nottingham receives the disc outside the endzone and calls a timeout. Time has gone. Nottingham scores. 7-8, Nottingham takes half, game to 9. Niall’s D-train keeps Nottingham’s offence down, and a huck to Luke, who calmly puts it to Jonny for the score, brings the game to universe point. Starting on defence again, we generate a couple of turnovers to go on offence, but Nottingham eventually takes the game with a break-side continuation cut into the endzone.
8-9 to Nottingham. Both teams showed an immense amount grit and intensity throughout the match. Spirit was fantastic, calls were discussed and resolved well. On our part, it was a significantly better showing than at Birmingham. Defensively, our aggressive handler and reset marks generated numerous turnovers; offensively, our reset patterns and continuation cuts were seeing much needed improvement. Overall, an enjoyable game.
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Shoutout to Theo and Charlie for side-lining, and Henry for turning up literally after the match was over.
