Strange Blue Tournament Report

Last weekend SB came 5th in UMON, woop! The team (in a random order): Fatty Jon, Paul, Mike, Jassy, Megan, Gary, Snodge, Natman, Matt, Natalie, Susanna, Emily and me.

Saturday

SB 13-3 Leeds 2

After a (very!) early start and drive to Manchester/Salford, we were ready to play. It was (very, very) cold and (very, very, VERY) windy. So Leeds gave us a chance to practice many of the D structures we would be using during the weekend like the glam (girly clam) and junk with girly wall (for extra emotional pressure). Even so, our man D worked perfectly fine on them and we just went right through till the end. Good start.

SB 11-1 LSE

LSE were a pretty chilled out team. Their handlers weren't too confident and their girls didn't seem to like running, so all our enthusiastic SB-energy was just too much for them! Our glam was working nicely and we were using all our players well. Sweet throws from Paul, great cuts from Matt, and so much more I've forgotten. Just well played everyone!

SB 4-8 Sussex

We really should have won this game... It would have made our lives so much easier. We had seen Sussex make lots of dodgy throws in the game before and therefore we didn't start too worried. But unfortunately they had realised this too and changed their offense quite a lot... They moved the disc round quickly, which tired us out, whereas our dump & swing just weren't really there and we made lots of panicky throws upfield that got turned over.

SB 11-3 Durham

I thought it was just me not remembering anything about this match but after consulting some reliable other people I dare say that there just wasn't anything worth remembering! We knew what we were doing, scared them with our zone, scored lots of points... Good work on the sideline as well - not just in this match but in general!

SB 7-2 Nottingham

Cross-over and last match of the day! The only match we played on the show pitch (i.e. the only one with actual cones and score boards). This time, the wind was going down in the pitch so our upwind points were hard. Now some people might be scared by zones. But not Gary and Natman. They completely destroyed Nottingham's D by just walking right through it, with about a million short passes per point between them and Paul and Natalie. Amazing to watch. :) (Though not so much for Nottingham, whose sideline kept screaming "CRASH CRASH CRASH" to no avail.)

So that was it for the day, we ended up 8th seed, a bit unfortunate really. We were staying in a hotel which was absolutely brilliant. Supersoft double beds! However before we could collapse onto said beds, we went to the curry mile, where our lovely reinforcements troops (Fatty Jon and Emily) joined us for a tasty meal. :)

Sunday

SB 4-8 Warwick

Well rested we arrived at the pitch again, to play what would be the hardest match of the tournament, against Warwick. It was sunny now and less windy, which made a big difference. Our D was good, but not good enough for some of their throws and cuts, whereas on O we were a bit shaky at first, until we really got our heads in the game, so by the end we had got much better at reacting to their i-o breaks and handling tactics. Shame we lost, but a good game still!

SB 10-3 Loughborough

Haze kind of gave up in this game, which was a shame. We didn't start off that keen either. So in the beginning, even though we took the lead, we let them get away with way too much until we realised we could do much better than that and really picked it up. From then on we kept playing well and played very good zone D, in some incredibly long points! Every time we would have worked it up right to the endzone, there would be a silly mistake somewhere and we had to do the whole thing again... Credit to Mike for being a great chase all the way through. They threw lots away too though, which we used nice and quickly with some lovely 3-4 play.

SB 11-4 St Andrews

Flatball were very well spirited and gave us a great last game! The wind had picked up again so we could bring out our awesome zone which made them struggle. Our wall was tight and and our deep catches were all amazing! Their zone on the other hand was breakable and we had lots of options most of the time. We were focussed until the end and played very well together as a team. So, a great last game to end the tournament!

Thank you all for an amazing weekend, I had a great time playing with you! It's very sad that this is the last student tournament for so many... Roll on tour! :)

Valentijn xxx