Strange Blue Tournament Report

So the ladies + two pimpin' guys went down to Brighton last weekend for Uni Women's Outdoor Nationals and got 6th place!! WOOT!!!!

The ladies: Jo, Laura, Sonja, Natalie, Eleanor (Ellie), Lauren, Veronika, Valentijn, and me!

Driver/Photographer: Gary Lowe
THE amazing baker: Mike Fletcher

SATURDAY:

We got to University of Sussex at 8am so we decided to take a little trip to a nearby ASDA...which ended up being an epic one where we took a roundabout route in a hilly neighborhood and found ASDA as we drove down the hill.

Pool Match #1: SB vs Flatball First match of the day, having woken up at 5am, we thought we had it bad. We were clearly wrong, as Flatball came all the way from Scotland the day before and was pumped as ever. That doesn't mean we let them have the game - we scared them with a zone D from the first point. Despite not practicing together outdoors, we managed to gel together pretty quickly. The gel-ing didn't catch up to Flatball's skills in time, though, but good first game (:

LOSS SB vs Flatball 4-9

Pool Match #2: SB vs Jedi They were seeded above us, but the weather was perfect, we were warmed up, and we had eaten Mike's cake. Laura got a point block (yayy) and we had some pretty sweet handling from Jo, Nat, Valentijn, and Sonja. We once had a perfect stack at the endzone and Laura just shot out of it and caught the disc. Amazing.

WIN! SB vs Jedi 6-3

Pool Match #3: SB vs Bath So we found out that if we win this one, we had a 4th game for crossovers. If we win the 4th one too, then we didn't have a 9am start the next day. Woop! I don't really remember much about this game...someone needs to remind me. All I remember is the gun show at the end with Sonja's high pitched, "BEACH BALLLL!" Epic.

WIN! SB vs Bath 6-2

Crossovers: SB vs I Love/Heart London Last game of the day, which meant we were pretty exhausted. Both teams made silly drops and there were lots of turnovers, but our D was still tight, switching back and forth between zone and man. Our O consisted of 3-4s with the Churchill Diamond (Ellie and Lauren) doing an awesome job with great cuts (except sometimes at the same time lol). The best part was the ninja calls afterwards - epic facial expressions and yelling.

WIN! SB vs I Love/Heart London 7-2

We were guaranteed top 8 and an 11:10am start. We decided a no-go for the party at Uni of Sussex, but had lovely food at the Harvester (mmmm 12 oz steak and free salad) and a couple of the team went off to the pub. Injury of the day: Laura managed to get a gash on her leg because of a bundle with Gary and Sonja.

SUNDAY:

1-4 or 5-8?: SB vs Chichester Facing heavy, freezing, pouring rain, we were all miserably cold as we walked onto the pitch. The game, though, turned out to be fun and hard fought. Veronika was laying out for discs everywhere and our zone D was freaking them out. The rain was against us a bit, maybe?

LOSS SB vs Chichester 3-7

5-6 ot 7-8?: SB vs Halceyon This game happened right after Chichester and we had barely enough time to breathe. Before, there wasn't much of a long game, but boy did Manchester use that strategy. Laura and Lauren were the D machine pair, shutting down those long throws in this game. We were losing at first, but after the point was capped to 5, we caught up to them to 4-4. The last point was absolutely nervewracking. So many turnovers and such close calls. We dropped a couple, they dropped a couple. Veronika's layout gave her a bloody knee. Finally, in the end, Nat's disc was caught by Laura and we won in sudden death.

WIN! SB vs Halceyon 5-4

5 vs 6: SB vs Skunks Last game of the day - we had lost to them once in Indoors and we were determined to win this one. I managed to do a face D! And quote of the day from Jo when Skunks laid out to catch the disc...

"That was very impressive, but it was down."

But the last game probably took the best of us. Our zone D was getting broken by their handlers swinging all the way across the pitch and the wall got loose. We were persistent with our cutting from the stack, but we could feel the tiredness.

LOSS SB vs Skunks 4-9

SO, we placed 6TH IN THE NATION. WOOP WOOP! So proud of the girls and can't wait to play with the women again.

Props to Laura's parents for all the food they brought for us!!!

And can someone please take over being JTM? I'm going to hunt for freshers next year who's born in 1992.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anna