KCL Thrown Ultimate

So here it is a full tournament report from plymouth beginners.

N.B. From this point on the following freshers shall be referred to as:

Hannah : The NOID (Winner of THE BAG)
James : Choker
Sora : Miss Swiss
William : Captain Asian (MVP)

Friday 17th.
Having had a few phone calls and frantic emails we finally decided to catch the
6:03 train to plymouth from paddington. After meeting everyone at the station
and collecting some free food (in the way of a raw potato and a free krispy
kreme) It dawned on us that we were one short. with 10 minutes untill train left
we received a text from Cpt. Asian explaining he had fallen asleep and may be a
little bit late. We watched our train pull off into the distance and disgruntle
waited for Cpt. Asian to arrrive. Turns out that the next train wasn’t for
another hour so we only had one choice. PERUDO!!! After a very laboured few
rounds explaining the rules and half a game we got on the train to find not one
free unreserved seat. We marked out territory where we could, stealing seats and
camping in the aisle and passed the time with some ridiculous group therapies
(which seriously shocked those we shared the train with) and even more perudo. I
also gave a thrilling captains pep talk and explanation of some advanced rules
and tactics that had fellow travelers enthralled. We arrive at the station at
10:30 to be met by Afro Peat (guess where he gets his name from), Greg Simon and
George the bitch (she is in fact a female dog). We dump our stuff and head into
town for some takeaway before confiding ourselves to our rooms and getting a
good nights kip at around about 1am.

Saturday 18th.
Our first day, our first games. fortunately games don’t start untill 10:40 for
us so we have plenty of time to do a warm up and a forcing drill. We get into
our kit to find that Choker had no t shirts and the NOID hadn’t brought a green
top. hmmmmmmm. Fortunately El Presidente Ward rocks up with an old thrown top
and by handing over the t-shirt i planned to wear home to choker we are all set.

Uriel 3 (The Angry Werewolves):
Here we go, first game of the tournament and it’s the people we will be sharing
our house with later that night. They were a fairly big team with two complete
lines so they came at us hard. We Settled in for a battle of points trading upto
2-2. Everyone was running really hard, possibly too hard, when fatigue got the
better of us. There stack got tighter and ours got sloppier and they took two
points against us. We pinched another point but they took a final two. Everyone
ran hard and worked well but in they end there play was a little bit more
refined then ours and we end up behind.
FINAL SCORE Thrown 3 – Angry Werewolves 6

Picnic 2 (Pirelli’s Players):
Not to be disheartened we entered out second pool game, this time against two of
the experienced players who hosted us. This was a tough team who eventually came
3rd overall from the entire weekend. They had good long cuts and some very
active experienced players. Miss Swiss and Cpt. Asian were both putting in very
dependable firstcuts and we looked really promising. they took the early lead
but we brought it back to 2-1. The last point you could really tell they felt
pressured. Some strong forcing by all was forcing the experienced players to put
up very risky discs and it looked like we could bring it back. Unfortunately a
bit of panicking in the when were on O lead to us never quite completing a point
and we were eventually beaten by the clock. A shame as I felt if the game had
lasted longer we could have had it. Though spirits were high after the game and
during a cool based on eating brioche as fast as possible (during which we first
encountered Cpt. Asian’s excuse of “but i’m a small asian kid” which would
become a recurring theme throughout the tournament) both teams shook off the
incredible tension that had filled the last two points of a game which really
could have gone either way.
FINAL SCORE Thrown 1 – Pirelli’s Players 3

Jesters:
We were going to be moved to a bigger pitch for this game and Taddie, Nick and I
all tried to encourage the team to cut long, whilest we chowed down on some
pasties nick had brought us from his local bakery. The Jesters didn’t start
strong and we took advantage of that. We got our first point with some beautiful
up the line flow. they came back hard and really put the D on us only to match
us with a very similar style of O to how we played. The points went back and
forth and the NOID really started to shine as a very dependable first cut. We
started to put more long discs up and it was working for us, Choker also gained
more confidence and started to pick up the disc to handle. Just after they took
a point against us to put them in the lead at 4-3 a call from the sideline came
of one minute. The match stepped up at least three notches in intensity and as
neither team who was on the pitch really new the score other then to say it was
close hammers and hucks became the staples. some great long cuts by Choker and
Cpt. Asian looked to get that last point but the frantic atmosphere on both
teams meant neither managed to complete their long discs. The game went and we
all slid off the pitch (I was honestly that sweaty) for the speeches. The Jester
captain and I both agreed that it really could have gone either way and it was a
ridiculously close game. Nick finally got to play Ninja which he had been
hounding us for all morning and predictably he won.
FINAL SCORE Thrown 3 – Jesters 4

Disco 1:
We entered this game with plans to use our long threat a lot more and at the
same time continue to work hard on our first cut. This game started off with two
mammoth points, exhausting our team which continued to run hard the entire time,
it was ridiculous. We caught up later in the game and had some great first cuts
from both Miss Swiss and the NOID who even look for the swing, a skill which
helped us out a lot. The Ward family turned up to cheer us on, and inspired Nick
who with true skill and grace put a beautiful Hammer into the far corner of the
endzone that curled around the defender for a fantastic point. We evened up the
score to 2-2 but unfortunately the intensity of the game had worn us down which
allowed discos to take a last minute game winning point.
FINAL SCORE Thrown 2 – Disco (one) 3

Ugly Ducklings:
This was a BIG team, not in quantity but in size. They also wore green which
meant nick got to play in a white button up shirt. There experienced had some
really good hammers and hucks and so our D was really put under pressure.
Fortunately we stood strong with the NOID putting on an incredible force; Miss
Swiss and Choker marking out their men tirelessly; and Cpt. Asian pulling off
run through Ds all over the place. We realised our long game was never going to
work against them so we used our undercuts to great affect. Unfortunately the
pure persistence of their long threat got through our D by sheer quantity of
discs. Though the team lost this one, they should be really proud of their D, it
was ridiculously strong.
FINAL SCORE Thrown 4 – Ugly Ducklings 5

Saturday evening:
After some shopping for the THE BAG, THE BAG, THE BAG; we hit the weatherspoons
for some dinner and drinks. We played hands on the bushes for what seemed like
hours with some ridiculously speedy rounds. we also took a couple of stabs at 20
+ 1 which lead to some ridiculous rules as well as the interesting fact game.
After we were all full up we headed to the party. It was in an incredibly packed
little bar that was pretty dingy. However drinks were cheap and strong, and once
every one was a bit loosened up (and Cpt. Asian and Choker took a go on matilda
the “two-person-naked-mannequin-beer-bong-with-breasts-for-mouth-pieces”) we
busted out some frisbee dances. we even got a couple of dance offs going between
Cpt. Asian and Taddie. We decided to hit the SU and queued for ages, but
fortunately Taddie hit us with his “ill flow” to give us all some personalised
raps to pass the time, don’t worry i’ll get Miss Swiss to show you the videos
some time. After failing to get into the SU as the NOID had no ID (clever huh)
we tried out our party venue form last year the fresher and professor. We
managed to sneak the NOID but they wouldn’t take Taddie’s ID….. to be fair I
wouldn’t let him into my pub either. We headed back to the first and got some
real dance offs going with Cpt. Asian and Taddie taking on Afro Peat and a
couple of other freshers from other teams not worthy of a mention. We headed
home and crammed 6 players into a room the size of a double bed. Despite Choker
singing softly like a man possessed whilest trying to strangle Miss Swiss in her
sleep we managed to rest up for the next day.

Sunday
Air Badgers 2:
Whilest we were nursing hangovers and had slept on a hard floor all night the
air badgers (a team of 12 yr olds) had gone home and had their mummys tuck them
and kiss them goodnight. We entered the game incredibly cocky. We put up swill
with height because we knew would pull it down off them. Unfortunately their
experienced players are amazing (having played from the age of 12 and now 19,
they came 4th at club indoor nationals this year) would pull this crap down and
could pick out any of their own players. Some sloppy D by us (you try keeping
track of a kid half your height with a hangover) and the fact that they were
fast and really knew how to cut deep meant the game went to sudden death with us
eventually taking the final point. surprisingly the kids weren’t interested in
doing a cool.
FINAL SCORE Thrown 6 – Air Badgers (two) 5

Metro Magic:
This was a tough game, this guys play hard and are tall (much like the other
swansea team Ugly Ducklings). Like the Ugly Ducklings they had some tall deeps
and great hucks but unlike the Ugly Ducklings they also had a great short game.
They played hard, really hard and so did we. This was my favourite game of the
weekend purely because of the intensity both teams played with. Despite everyone
cutting incredibly strongly and the NOID and Cpt. Asian both pulling off some
really impressive Ds, we got trashed. After the game I had to make special
mention of how well spirited this team had been, in the proper sense of playing
hard despite how the game was going (most teams would have got lazy once they
took such a heavy lead over us) and the fairness of their calls. I hope that our
beginners learn a thing or two from these guys in terms of the attitude you
should be playing with.
FINAL SCORE Thrown 2 – Metro Magic 8

Air Badgers 3:
Our final game and we approached it with determination not to have the same
close call as last time. We were in the big hall once again and both teams
instantly put up the longs. This allowed the air badgers to get an early point
through us not sticking to a men, but having learnt from before everyone quickly
rectified this with Choker in particular swatting just about everything out of
the air and putting up a lot of long discs himself. we also used our beautiful
dump swing (which several teams had commented on before hand) to get around them
quickly for the breakside score when we were close to end zone.
FINAL SCORE Thrown 6 – Air Badgers (three) 1

Final Standings:
1. Surrey Scorpions 1 – MVP: T-Bo (I have no idea how to spell this,
sorry)
2. Cowie’s Chiefs (Picnic 1)
3. Pirelli’s Playas (Picnic 2)
4. Mythago 2 – Spirit Winners
5. Jesters
6. Uriel 2
7. Uriel 3
8. Uriel 1
9. Ugly Ducklings
10. Surrey Scorpions 2
11. Reading Dragons
12. Wootton’s Wonderers (Picnic 3)
13. Metro Magic – Plate Winners
14. Mythago 1
15. THROWN <——
16. AirBadgers 3
17. Disco 2
18. Disco 1
19. AirBadgers 2
20. Shrink 2 Fit (Picnic 4)
21. Reading Snogard
22. AirBadgers 1 – Spoon Winners
23. Puriel

The guys did extremely well and improved so much, with real improvements in D
long cuts and dump swinging. Almost every captain said they felt the game could
have gone both ways which shows how close we came for a lot of our games. This
was such a fun tournament and I was so proud of the team and I know they enjoyed
it as much as I did.

Hope to see you all at Lufbra
Dan