Strange Blue Tournament Report

University Women's Outdoor Nationals

This is the tale of the Strange Blue Women at Outdoor Nationals.

Saturday

Team

Alex
Sonja
Nic Hands
Mel
Megan
Random pick up from Wolverhampton
an assortment of boys who couldn't bear to be watching the torunament but not playing.

So we got up bright and early on Saturday morning to drive down to Guildford, apart from Megan who was up even earlier, coz she had kindly volunteered to be the one to go by train. We arrived in the cold wet and wind to discover that we only had 1 pick up, not the expect 3, so only had 6 women. We were allowed to play using various men to pick up for us, but we had to forfeit officially all our matches on the saturday.

1st Game

SB 10 - 4 SubChi

So a team with a distinctly Jesus feel to it took the field an hour later than planned because some 11 year olds had decided to play football on pitch 4, at our aloted game time. We played very organic vertical stack with lots of undercuts and the occasional huck, (to our pick up who loved running long), very effectively. With only 1 handler in our 7 everyone was asked to help out at the back, Sonja and Mel doing a particularly good job this game. Our pick up man was the td, and he was pretty good, but we still would have beaten them without him. We refused to let him bust long on the girls (bad sportsmanship - take note!) but he made quite a handy cutter.

2nd Game

SB 3 - 9 WOW

This game followed straight on from the subchi game. the TD had to get back to TD stuff, so the WOW coach joined in as our pick up boy for this match, finding himself on the receiving end of much heckeling from their sideline flowing with subs. We ironwomaned on, and everyone had some great moments. It was pretty close at the begining Megan showing u don't have to be tall to be a great long and Nic had some awsome run through Ds. Ultimately we were just short of petrol in the tank and couldn't match their pace and legs.

3rd Game - In a row!

SB 11 - 2 Scruff

We thought this was particular harsh on a team with no subs playing 3 in a row! We were knackered after the Oxford game, so very slowly meandered to our next pitch to take on the hosts. The Oxford guy had loved playing with us so much he volunteered to play again, and one of the scruff boys, complete with skirt was also keen to help out, so finally we had a sub! We strictly enforced our no beating the girls purly by speed rule, by not throwing to them if they did. We decided string calls were the way forward to try and conserve energy and make sure that there was always someone cutting for the disk and it worked a treat. The flow was fantastic and everyone timed their cuts perfectly. The game was played in great spirit and was one of the best games of the day.

4th Game

SB 3 - 6 Flaze

So after an hour off we returned to the pitches for the last game of the day. Flaze were a really good side, with one handler who was really quite amazing. They had lots of speed and lots of subs which probably made this our best achievement of the day. We put our boy on their really good handler, and he got properly schooled by her, so we didn't feel bad about that. We fought really hard for the D, and surprised them mixing up our long and short game, Nic and Meagan and our pick up really getting milage under their legs, and Sonja and Mel providing constant and brilliant under cuts to keep them guessing what we were up to. With the game cap at 6 we almost brought it to 5-4 (no names), but it was definately a result to be proud of.

Sunday

Team

Suzannah
Alex
Sonja
Mel
Megan
Natalie
Nic for the first game
and a different random pick up from wolves.

Rested reinforcements arrived in the wonderful form of Suzannah and Natalie on Sunday morning, to boost the slightly stiff but happy players returning for their second day of disc chasing. Nic due to the crapness of the rail system could only stay for the first game, but that did mean we could field an all Cambridge line up for the first game at least.

Round Robin Match 1

SB 9 - 3 Scruff

So we'd beaten them once, but we wanted to show that it wasn't coz we had boys picking up for us. We went out with our simple game. Hard man D and simple undercuts and flow, with the occasional huck. They couldn't cope with our effort levels and the team was clearly buoyed by being all girls and able to fight fo the plate.

Round Robin Match 2

SB 4 - 8 London Utd

With Nic now gone we were back to Ironwoman and we were playing this straght after our first game. We lost the first point, but then took the next 2 through some great undercuts from Natalie and Mel, some great handling from Sonja, and Suzannah and Megan busting long. The score then reached 3-3 and they upped their game, putting on some really tough marks and using their legs to just take the disc up our open side. The effort was there from everyone but as the tiredness kicked in, eyes started to be taken off discs and we found it much tougher to beat our man. They ran away with the match a bit, but they were a good team and deserved the win. Another day, with more legs we would have had them though....

Last Game 11 v 12 Play off

SB 10 - 3 Phat Eds

We had 2 hours off before this game, and because of the way the tournament worked we had ended up in the 11/12 match. It was a bit annoying as SubChi, our first victims were in the 9/10 match. We started the game with a sneaky Plan A. I had noticed Natalie was not marked up very sensibly by them, so as her mark jogged up to her expecting her to stack, she wizzed off past her and took a huck beautifully in the end zone. Our simple game worked very well and before long we had raced to a 5-0 lead. We even then started to try some interesting O, giving the isolation a try. Not a huge success the first time, due to confusion, but worked a treat the second. Suzannah was clearly on a mission to make up for not being there on Saturday continually running off looking for hucks again and again. We finished the tournament in style with the 10-3 win.

We finished the tournament in the sun, (it came out for the last game and I managed to get burnt!) exhausted but happy, having all really enjoyed our weekend of frisbee. We didn't vote an MVP but it was undoubtedly a team MVP because everyone just put in such effort the whole time and everyone contributed greatly to our sucess.

If you have made it this far you are obvioulsy procrastinating as much as me! So next up think about ways to get more girls playing in your college, so next time the exams hit the standard women, its not just Jesus/New Thundercats that can go and we can have a more representative team. Also I'm sure you'd all enjoy having them at practise!

That is all.

Alex