KCL Thrown Ultimate

so last weekend was the very first time thrown had competed in
university indoor nationals

the team to go down in history was as follows…

adnan (c)
harry
kaleigh
tim
dan
louis
john
nick
kyle

i had a great weekend
so my reminiscing tournament report might get a little long.
well worth the read though (i hope)

FRIDAY NIGHT

the train journey was long
but two hours of group therapy and a slight distraction of sudoku
meant that the time flew right by… (im not being sarcastic)

unfortunately, we lost nick to his brother, and split the remaining 8
of us into 2 taxis. my taxi got to the pub without any trouble, but
harrys taxi managed to get dropped off in the middle of nowhere…
about 20 mins walk away… lol.

despite us arriving at the pub at close to 10, we were actually the
first team to arrive… we were introduced to the infamous
unicoordinator chef and after a few drinks we retired to our hosts
house.

i had a good nights sleep actually, despite harrys gas and the late
night return of unknowing housmates…

SATURDAY

our venue for the weekend was the velodrome.
it was an incredible venue with a central area for two pitches
surrounded by the cycle track.

GROUP GAMES

thrown had a tough group. (university names for those of you too cool…)
mythago (bristol)
duf (durham)
skunks (southampton)
thrown

but we were up for the challenge

vs DUF

never played duf before but the only thing i did know about them was
that at outdoor nationals last year, coming from one of the stronger
regions, they had their first team in div1 and their second team in
div2…
i had this great idea of 3-2 formation. it was awesome. genuinely
awesome. unfortunately we had never practiced it before, so it fell
apart quite quickly… our offence didnt work at all and our d wasnt
really up to scratch quite yet. we recovered a couple of points when
we reverted to stack but by then it was too late
our sluggish start to the day, coupled by my tactical error meant that
we started the day with a disappointing loss against a team i am
confident we could beat.
FINAL SCORE 2 – 6?

vs MYTHAGO

for the rest of the tournament we forgot about my inspired 3-2
formation and stuck to stack. undaunted by mythagos seeding we came
out hard. we had underperformed in our last match and everyone wanted
to prove themselves. we took a 2 point lead thanks to some great
upfield cutting and our d was strong enough to fend off a fight back.
mythago favoured the iso offence but tim marked out the giant gb
junior most of the time and we forced a lot of turnovers with pressure
on the handlers.
our offence wasnt particulalry spectacular but it was our hard work on
defence which won the game for us.
one of our best performances of the tournament, all credit to both
teams, as this was a very well spirited match.
FINALS SCORE 7 – 5?

vs SKUNKS

skunks had beaten the other two teams and so toppped the group,
looking as strong as ever. from what i could tell they hadnt lost any
of their experienced players, and had in fact picked up at least one
ex-player (presumably on a masters)
johns maths told us that, based on the other results in the group, if
we lost to skunks we would be in a three way tie with the duf and
mythago. to top the tie we had to score just 6 points… (i was having
flashbacks of indoor regionals last year when we got relegated to the
bottom half of the division when we got caught in such a tie…)

experience taught me that shouldnt be our team talk though…
we had improved so much in the last game, we wanted to win.

skunks had quite a few plays up their sleeves.
they used mirror quite a lot and tried iso every now and again. our
defence was more than up for the challenge though. focussed througout
none of their points were easy. our offence was the same as ever:
quick but a little unorganised. john was especially sharp with his up
the line handler cuts. we were more than a match for skunks. we even
had a dropped blade in the endzone in the dying seconds of the match.
FINAL SCORE 6 – 6

another awesome performance by the team.
we came second in what i would say was the toughest group there.

CROSSOVER

unfortunatley we had no time to celebrate our awesomeness.
we were put straight into a crossover with a team from sterling, scotland

vs BLAZE

this was a really good team, with a handler sporting as much bad
stubble as i was. again our d was epic. blaze had a really nice give
and go style of play, with handlers moving up the pitch in quick
movements. definitely something we could learn from. louis really came
into his own here. with some excellent cutting. we spread the defence
and this was as close to slick offence as we came. harry threw a
really nice outside-in backhand that fell into louis arms in the
endzone. if that wasnt good enough, kaleigh decided to join in with
the assisting. desperate for my first point of the tournament i made
an up the line cut only to recieve a fake from kaleigh. cursing at
her, i watched her throw a break backhand instead. ‘idiot’ i thought,
until i saw louis lay out for the score… this was louis and kaleighs
match for sure. no surprise i guess that it was the ex and current
fitness coach that shone in the second of the back to back games…

this was another well spirited, competitive game. both teams favoured
working the disc up, but unfortunately for us, the buzzer went whilst
they were on offence. blaze won in sudden death, but really this could
have gone either way.
FINAL SCORE 6 – 7

i never enjoy losing, but we had played some really nice ultimate.
everyone was involved. our sideline was great. so despite the result
relegating us to the bottom half we could be proud of our efforts thus far

vs COBRAS

chichester were without one of their main handlers – skellie. theyd
looked weak at regionals, flattered by a lazy brunel team in their
group, and they looked pretty poor in manchester as well.
tough game to motivate ourselves for… this was a walkover…
unfortunately that wasnt the case at all. chichester came out hard and scored
a few quick points. taking the lead, they were smart enough to put a
zone on us and slow down our offence. i started to panic a lot…
chicester were throwing some crazy discs, and somehow they were
bringing them down… the bastards…
john, dan and nick decided to step up to the challenge. patiently
working their way through the zone they managed to bring it back
level. nick even managed to recover two stray discs, one from a point
block and the other… i dont even know… back in the lead they had
to be more aggresive and try to force turnovers with man. we ate them
up and cruised to victory. guaranteeing us top half of the bottom
half…
FINAL SCORE 7 – 4

SATURDAY NIGHT

after some team bonding in the showers… we explored asda, before
heading back to our hosts place to dump our stuff. we were sharing the
house with blt (bath) that evening. they seemed nice enough, but their
captain wouldnt stop asking me if ‘i was going to get it down
tonight?’. what does that mean?!

we decided to go out for a team meal somewhere along manchesters curry
mile. we got harrased in the street by some restaurant person but
managed to secure unlimited poppadums, a starter, main, rice/naan and
coffee for just £8 per person. thats not bad at all…
another round of group therapy meant we spent the best part of 3 hours
in the restaurant together.
i really loved it

when we got to the techno baa-bar, venue for the party, we were
treated to some finnish dance moves. the party wasnt going anywhere,
so we retired to the house at around 12. watched some brass eye and
went to sleep.

SUNDAY

first match was against far flung. another scottish team. hadnt seen
any of these guys play before so had no idea what we were up against.
all we knew was that if we won this we would be in the plate final.
the potential to get some bling from nationals…

vs FAR FLUNG

cant remember much of this game to be honest except for how it ended.
it was a sloppy match. we werent playing as well as we were
yesterday and they were equally sluggish. in what turned out to be the
penultimate point of the game john went for a disc only to crumple to
the floor. i watched from a distance before kaleigh suggested i should
go help. so with my vast medical knowledge i asked if he was
alright… carried off the pitch, john could only watch as we played our
sudden death point.
in such a situation, what you really want is a consistent player on
the pitch, but with john injured we had to do with what we had left…
we showed real character and scored in the high pressure situation.
taking us to the plate final.
FINAL SCORE 7 – 6

A&E

turns out john wasnt just pretending… hed done some real damage to
his ankle. john and i were kindly taken to a&e by chef’s girlfriend.
branded as ‘urgent’ we were in and out in just a few hours.
just in time for me to make a rematch with mythago…

PLATE FINAL
vs MYTHAGO

mythago were pumped for this match. we werent. we couldnt get our
heads in the game, and without john we maybe felt defeated before the
match even started… mythago took the lead and put on a zone. we
worked it up nicely but our lack of indoor practice meant we couldnt
get through their 4 on the line. dan was probably most effective
against the 4 on the line. tough to be a handler with just one years
experience, he was solid in front of their line and behind it as well.
i threw away a lot in this game. kyle layed out in epic fashion to
save one of my errors but that wasnt enough. in the last point of the
game, their captain layed
out from the middle of the cup to intercept a shoulder level disc…
deserved winners, mythago took the plate.
FINAL SCORE 2 – 6

dissapointing end to the tournament, but rather than dwell on the
results i thought i would focus on our play, commitment and attitude.
i had a great time playing this weekend, and was proud to captain the
thrown team. everyone played their very best and we all worked hard on
d. we were spirited and intense. exactly how a university team should
be.

with the exception of one player, weve all learnt to play at kings:
weve been nurtured by the thrown system. and this club has produced an
excellent team that should make kings proud. we can not only compete
at this level but we can win. we need to turn up to more practices and
match our athleticism with drills and tactics.
dD came 3rd because they were smart. their zone knew exactly what they
were doing. and we should learn from that example.

we did so well this weekend.
we can do better.

schneider award (MVP)
tim – tough to decide. everyone was awesome.
great on d and tireless on offence. the reason i voted for him was for
his attitude. tim wanted the win.

the bag (BEST DEFENSIVE EFFORTS)
we didnt do this for some reason. we really should have…
so ill decide this title
harry – we all worked hard on d. even us handlers… but harry gets
this prize for his amazing d in the last match. running pitch length
to intercept a hammer which would otherwise have been an easy score
for mythago. even when the match was arguably already lost, harry
leads by example.

favourite group therapy questions
to kaleigh – “who would you lend your breasts out to for one month”
to louis – “who would be your love guru”
to dan “who would have the biggest entourage of people if they became
popstars”

favourite quotes
harry – “just needed to clear some space” (following a banzai to see
how long it would take harry to make reference to his bowel movements
when returning from the toilets) (3secs)

awesome weekend

well done if you read it this far

adnan