SB Men’s 1sts at ELUMIR
Regionals this year were on a 3G football pitch at the Cranford Superdome. After weeks (3 hours) of intensive practice on hard court, we were disappointed (happy) with the change of surface but (mostly) ready to play. Pool play was pretty uneventful and we topped our pool after wins against Imperial 3 (15-1), Herts 2 (15-0), Essex 1 (9-4), and UCL 1 (10-4).
In a slightly unusual tournament schedule, the quarterfinals were also on the Saturday. Our match-up was against LSE 1. Every so often you play a game where everything seems to go wrong; this was that game for us. We made way more mistakes than usual. They made some bad bids which could have injured Tejas and did injure Perry. Universe point had multiple turns by both teams, and they finally converted it. 8-9. It was pretty tough post-match. But we still had the chance to win three games in a row on the Sunday to finish 4th and qualify for (division 2) nationals.
First up on the Sunday afternoon, St. Mary’s 1. True to form, they played a zone which caused us a lot of problems, even on the bigger 3G pitches. The game had a strange rhythm; we held onto the discs for minutes looking for gaps while they played their iso and went straight for the end zone. Fortunately they could never get a lead and put us under any serious time pressure with the zone and we were just about chilly enough to play the game out. 7-5 to Cambridge.
That win earned us a rematch with UCL. The match seemed to be going the way of our pool game when we started with a 3-0 lead. But indoors being indoors, and rematches being rematches, it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that they fought back to 3-3. The game was much more intense than the one the previous day and we traded it out until universe. Tejas then threw a hammer to the breakside for the final point which has to be one of the most frustrating ways to lose on universe. 7-6 to Cambridge and a very enjoyable rematch.
The 4 vs 5 game-to-go for division 2 nationals was Brunel vs Cambridge, a quite common bracket fixture since Cambridge joined the East and London region for indoors a few years ago. The game avoided a lot of the indoor nonsense (no isos, no end zone walls, relatively few overheads) and played more like an outdoor game of fives with quick handler movement and strikes. The game was close, but we pulled away in the middle. We were just a bit more clinical and put a bit more pressure on defense. 9-6 to Cambridge.
So we’re off to Glasgow for Division 2 Nationals in February. We were a bit disappointed to not have a chance to play Imperial or Herts who finished 1st and 2nd but I’m sure we’ll have the chance to play some more intense games at Nationals.
Perry, Tejas, MC, Cope
Adam, Jonny, JR, Mo
