KCL Thrown Ultimate

FRIDAY NIGHT

the journey up to york was rather unfortunate. wed managed to lose
kaleigh and yoz managed to lose his sleeping bag… a couple of card
games later and we had arrived in york. the uni campus looked quite
nice and before we went to sleep we decided on some rather insightful
‘i have never’ and then some late night mack line. it was quite late
before we got to sleep: all the teams were crammed into one hall,
meaning it was very hot, very smelly and more than one person snored…

SATURDAY (group games)

vs portsmouth ‘sublime’ – 4 – 10

shame to go all the way to york and have to play another south east
team but actually we hadnt played portsmouth this year. still, who
wants to play sublime?
to be honest, sublime started much more confidently than we did,
maybe we were a little intimidated for being at nationals, so we let
sublime take the lead and build momentum. we really underperformed
and didnt do anything special so went to the half deservedly behind
7-2. (louis scoring thrown’s first ever point at nationals.) as is
typical for thrown though, we pulled ourselves together and put in a
massive performance in the second half. trading a couple of really
hard fought points, we made it very difficult for them and ended the
second half 3-2 down as the buzzer called for a cap. if the game went
on for a little longer we definitely could have pulled this game
back. in reality, we just needed to start better.
sublime were as much a mixed ability team as us but i think they had
a few more experienced players and the aggression of those players
served them well. it wasnt an unspirited match by any means, and
though it wasnt an ideal start it was definitely a promising one.

vs leicester ‘jesters’ – 2 – 11

our first new team was a very very good one. this team had good discs
skills and was very athletic. their handlers were very aggressive and
looked for the huck constantly.
we put on our brownie zone and made it difficult for them but they
worked it up very patiently. when they did break through the cup they
always had a second cut and that is what punished us.
when we were on o, their zone was very tight. it was a line trap zone
which made it difficult for our relatively inexperienced handlers.
upwind was a nightmare, and we even struggled downwind as well.
nevertheless we kept on trying, coming close so often. we should have
converted our chances a little more clinically but we were defeated
by a very good side in a well spirited match.

vs york – 11 – 1

this looked like a very poor york team and we couldnt decide whether
it was because they were fielding a second team or because their team
got in for hosting nationals… whatever the reason we took the lead
and kept it. york didnt have the handlers to beat a zone and we
forced a lot of turnovers. i still think we made it very difficult
for ourselves, and should really have scored the points with a lot
more ease… nick made a lot of unforced drops, which we might have
been punished for against a better team, but then picked himself up
to get some awesome grabs. some great forward dump cuts made him a
massive threat.
dan got some great break force scores as well, giving us quite a few
moments of glory.
the one point we conceded was from a huck. we had an awful habit over
the weekend of letting our marks run deep and not chasing them. its
something we really shouldnt let happen, its lazy and annoying…
in any case i got my push pass score in so im quite happy.

vs strathclyde ‘dark horses’ – 10 – 6

we were somewhat terrified to play a scottish team, but actually wed
been watching them all day and seen that they were a little impatient
with the disc. i reckon we were evenly matched with this team, but
just got our heads in earlier. nick had to leave after just a few
points but helped us make a great start. with quite a lot of wind
picking up this was a massive upwind downwind contest. we traded
points quite a while but got quite worried when they worked it upwind
against our zone. they dropped and we got a turnover to score and
really made sure to tighten our zone d up. inevitably we faced a zone
d going upwind but we worked it up really nicely. the handlers dumped
and swung to spread the cup, with jesse awesome as the middle
handler. the poppers kept popping and creating the holes and the
wings helped spread the play even further. it took us a couple of
efforts but we finally got the upwind point we so deserved.
dark horses dropped their heads whilst we were playing with our tails
up. our upfield scored loads of points downwind, this time with some
hucks. kaleigh managed to get a d, run pitch length to recieve a huck
and assist in a score! weve never really had a great long game,
despite our plethora of recievers so this was really exciting. we got
our second upwind point and destroyed any hope for dark horses. great
game, ensuring that we finished in the top 8.

SATURDAY NIGHT

after a tiring day we were all absolutely knackered. after a quick
shower we got some taxis into york and got some really good fish and
chips and then some ice cream. wed decided to watch iron man at the
cinema, so despite the outrageous £7.20 ticket price we did just
that. it turned out to be just the sort of film we needed, and the
seats in that cinema were amazingly comfortable. we came back to
campus and joined the end of the party. a lot of the teams had
already retired to the communal hall, but i guess this is
nationals… after losing money to the pub quiz machine and laughing
at the few people on the dance floor we went back to try and get some
sleep…

SUNDAY

vs warwick ‘bears’ – 7 – 12

last time we played bears, at the skunks xmas tournament, we were
well and truly schooled. (you can read it in the match report on the
site) bears were number 1 seed, and hadnt conceded more than 3 or 4
points in the group games. so perhaps we gave them too much respect
to start with. again we never really got going and bears took a
comfortable lead. with some great end zone cuts yoz scored a couple
of points for us to take us into the half with a disappointing
scoreline.
second half we pulled ourselves together again. alex, had been superb
throughout the tournament being the only real contender for the bag.
great layout ds and awesome bids. we forced more and more turnovers
and switched to a lanes offence. suddenly our o was transformed and
we scored point after point. lanes never worked too well in practice
but for some reason wed put it all together and started our comeback.
unfortunately wed left it a little too late… but took great pride
in our sweet offence.

vs surrey ‘scorpions’ – 8 – 10

another southeast team wed avoided at regionals… this was always
going to be a tough match. for the first time in the tournament we
got off to a flying start. lanes offence was seemingly unstoppable. i
managed to a get a scoober score to jon da beast for our first score.
our confidence in lanes was well placed and we traded a couple of
points very comfortably before they switched to a zone…
like jesters the day before they had an aggresive line trap force. we
really struggled with this again, getting caught on the side line
with nowhere to go. scorpions forced a lot of turnovers…
we put our zone on them and for a while they resorted to hammers over
the top. this wasnt a great idea with the wind like it was, and
before long they started working it patiently. breaking through our
cup. the difference between the clubs ended up being the quality and
confidence of the handlers…
second half and we needed our comeback. we sorted out our zone and
made it really difficult for them, with jon getting some great ds in
the wall and tim running the back of the field. their main deep
threat (special) was non existent. and when they put their zone on
us we started to rip through it. handling, popping, wing work, it was
all so slick. louis was a menace in the middle and received almost
every other upfield disc. we must have score 3 or 4 points without
reply. unfortunately the buzzer went, and perhaps we got a little too
desperate and started to force it up the line. with a bit more
composure we might have bought it back level. as pugh said in his
speech at the end it was looking like it could have gone to sudden
death. possibly our best performance of the tournament, we showed
amazing character to keep fighting like we did.

vs leicester ‘jesters’ (again) – 5 – 9

shame to have to rematch, especially with such a good team. our last
match with scorpions went well over time thanks to our comeback. we
already lost nick, and now louis as well, and everyone was picking up
knocks so we were devastated. credit to us to take the game to
jesters then. we took the lead and kept it. jesters didnt know what
had hit them. again we were punished for losing our men deep and
jesters were back in control.
against their zone, this time we were magnificent. alex, eric and
kaleigh were brought back to help out with the handling. despite only
playing for less than a year dan was awesome. really tough position
for a fresher, he should be proud of his performance. again, jesse
was in control in the middle of the handlers. just as with scorpions
we were making and capitilising on the holes in the cup. jesters were
really struggling to contain our players. jon, and yoz were working
the upfield, but it was erics relentless cutting which was so deadly.
helping with handling, popping like a madman: eric was everywhere. to
top off his performance he even managed to get a hammer score to tim.
jesters consistency gave them the win, but i think we can be proud of
our performance. we could easily have given in before that match
started. instead we played some of the best zone offence ive ever
seen, let alone been part of.

SUNDAY EVENING

much earned rest…

final position 8th in div 2 nationals

like i said before, im really really proud to have been able to
captain this thrown side at nationals. we played with real spirit, we
would have deserved it if we got it. our lack of experience cost us i
think. it led to some inconsistency and a little lack of composure.
but what we lacked in experience we more than made up for in effort.
we never gave up and fought hard in every point. something we should
all be proud of.
and were all still on a massive learning curve. the improvement in
our game over the weekend was phenomenal. the difference in play
between those two jesters games is testament to that.

awesome guys

next year well qualify again
well play even harder
and well finish even higher.

thrown is on the map…

UCL 1s Final score 8-1. (Lose)

Our first match in the tournament and as a team was against UCL 1s. We
knew this was going to be a tough match. As it was windy we thought it
was best to use our brownie D. Zone is what Thrown is famous for and
its something which the club has worked on hard in the run up to
regionals. Our D looked good and kept this 1st trying to find gaps in
it. Our D slowed the pace a lot and due to a turnover near their
endzone, Caz swung the disc to Alex, who then sent it to Jessie in the
endzone and got our point for this match.

LSE 1s Final Score 11-0 (Lose)

This match proved very tough. We had already realised our D had proven
itself against a 1st team of UCL?s calibre but LSE with their
experienced handlers managed to move the disc around a lot more which
tired our 8-man side so gaps started to appear and they profited from
this. Their handling was second to none which our D counldn?t answer.
Sadly, but predictably, this was a poorly spirited match from LSE.
They broke down our moral and didn?t even have the decency to do a
call once the match was over. Not how you should treat any second team
starting off in a new sport. This left our spirits low. Not a frame of
mind we wanted to take in to our next match.

Roehamptam 1s. Final Score 8-4 (win)

We didn?t know what to expect for RUF. We brought our Brownie zone
from the last two matches and it worked perfectly against RUF. We had
already found which positions the team worked best in and decided to
work on this. Jessie and Taddie played chase tireslessly, Sam and
Casbo in the cup, not letting anything through, Me and Ed and Adam
were out on the wings, stopping their swing, and Alex long with his
amazing acrobatic Ds! We only had one player to rest during the points
so it was a fantastic effort by everyone to give every point 100% so
RUF couldn?t break our Zone. Our O started to look really good. With
Alex, Casbo, Me and Ed taking turns on the hanlding we soon worked to
disc up to get our 8 point score line. Awesome match and great-spirit
from RUF.

Sublime 2s. Final Score 11-5 (win)

With the sweet taste of victory from our last match (a rare thing on
the first day) we went into the next match on a high. We knew this was
going to be tough match. Sublime 2s had a large squad. We started the
match well and took the lead. Our brownie started to frustrate them
and their frequent squad changes meant they never got grips with how
to break down our D. Our O started to really come together. We were
making some excellent cuts, the stack was looking very neat and we
started to try out come new handlers. Jessie, Ed and Caz were looking
confident now as handlers and we?re moving the disc a lot. This
started to frustrate Sublime 2 and turned the match sour. We had them
pinned in their endzone with Jessie?s and Taddie?s great chasing and
Sam?s and Casbo?s faultless cup. We could have taken loads of Callahan
points against them if only I had remembered to tell them about this
rule, and once I had if Taddie had caught them instead of D-ing them!
This upset some of their players and a few were calling fouls on
anything and everything. Even when we were down to Ironman due to
Casbo?s injury they coulnd?t break our zone and it was a fanatastic
effort from a very tired team and we managed to hard-cap them before
the claxton! Irrispective of the 11-5 hard-cap, their captain still
claimed it would have gone to a draw! An excellent end to a brilliant
day of Frisbee. Then we made our way to Ho-down! Yeeehaw!

Day 2:

Mowhawkes 2s 4-3. (win!!!!!!!) 12-13 Seeded match

After a fanastic party and our efforts at line dancing (thanks
Kaleigh, Jessie, Ed Evans, Tim) a distant memory, we woke to find
ourselves seeded 12th from our previous days work. This was fanastatic
but we had to work to keep our seed. Our first match was against
Mohawkes 2s. If we won this we would have earnt our place to be the
top of the second teams.

The wind had dropped and this worried us as our proven brownie was
more effective with the wind. Nevertheless, we snatched 2 points
quickly to take the lead. They had then figured out how to get past
our brownie. This game became a game of long discs, most of which
we?re brought down by Alex, Ed and Adam working up field. 3 found
their way through and Mohawkes 2 took the lead. The score 3-2. Just
before the Claxton and with me watching from the sidelines, Thrown 2
picked up their game when they needed to the most. This point seemed
to go on forever and with fanastic efforts from everyone, we clawed it
back to 3-3. The Claxton had gone during this point, which meant it
was first to 4?. next point wins and takes 12th seed. We started on D,
we quickly turned the match down thanks to our awesome chasers and
great cup. The disc then found its way down field really quickly.
Mohawkes 2 couldn?t stop it and Jessie had found space to take the
point. We had done it! We had earned our place to be top of the second
teams.

Surrey 1s 11-0 (Lose) 12-5 Seeded match.

Thanks to our success we had made the rest of our day of Frisbee hard.
We had to play against high-seeded teams, as we had at the beginning
of day one. Shattered after our last match we kept this team at bay.
The score didn?t reflect at how hard we had worked at D and how this
match went to the full 45 minutes. Unfortunately their hanlders were
too much for us to match.

Kent 1s. 8-3 (lose) 12-9 Seed match.

With the wind on their side Kent quickly took the first point. But
thanks to some great lineside support from Thrown 1 (which you had
done for all our matches) we came back to take the lead 2-1 and looked
as if we were going to take 9th seed from them. The game for both
teams turned into huck and D. Kent?s hanlder (Gladys) had a great huck
and even with Alex?s tirless efforts in the endzone bringing these
down, some got through and Kent took the lead. This match was the
best-spirited match of the whole tournament and it was much closer
then the score showed. It was great fun playing against Kent 1s which
left us with one more chance to improve our seed.

Last match ? Hu 1s 11-3 (lose) 12-11 Seed match.

Shattered after a long tournament and desperate for a pint we were up
against the host?s 1st team. Holloway started very well. They answered
our D by moving things up the line and with long hucks. They quickly
took a strong lead. We started to change things around with our D.
With Adam long and Ed on the wing they took down so many of their long
hucks. This meant on O we tried to do the same with the great solid
hanlding from Jessie, Ed, Casbo and Alex and grabs from Sam, Adam and
Taddie we worked it up the pitch and earnt everyone of the three
points, even though their number 57 tried to unjustifiably take them
off us by trying to claim we were out. A fanastic effort against
another first team and we finished the tournament with our heads held
high.

Everyone on our 8-man squad had to play his or her hearts out this
tournament to achieve what we had achieved. You should be proud of
yourselves that you played the best Frisbee the club has ever seen for
a second team. Well-done Guys!

This will be the last time I take a second team to Outdoor Regionals
and I would like to thank every one of you from Thrown 2 and Thrown 1
for making it such an awesome Tournament. For as long as I?ve been at
Thrown, this is the best the club has ever done at a Regional
Tournament.

Our first pool game of the day was against 2nd Seed
Mohawks 1 (Sussex), a great team who we know well. We
knew this was going to be our hardest game of the
first day and we went in fresh with nothing to loose.
There was a strong cross wind and we decided to hit
the Mohawks with our trademark brownie zone. The tight
D contained their efforts to dump and swing the disc
and we were soon causing turnovers all over the place.
We took advantage and scored quickly on the break,
with Jesse putting up some accurate long discs to
up-field cutters. Thrown looked to be the dominant
side at this point, but not for long. Mohawks started
to work the zone with some crafty scoobers and hammers
over the top of the wall. They moved smoothly up the
pitch and there seemed little we could do to stop them
as they took the lead. Thrown regrouped and made some
adjustments to the zone, sticking one member of the
wall a bit further back to stop the over-heads. Jon
and Eric carried this out to devastating effect
putting a stop to the Mohawks brief resurgence. Midway
through the game there were some hairy calls as
Mohawks felt the tension build, these were resolved
satisfactorily. Adnan and Nick easily found a way
around or through the Mohawk’s attempted zone cup and
flow from the up-field ensured we kept the score-board
ticking over, we scored the final two points to win
the game 6-4. This was a historic win for Thrown and
gave us an excellent chance of securing top spot in
our group and second seed on day 2!

We went into our second game against Scorpions 2
(Surrey) feeling confident and well warmed up after
the first game. They struggled to string more than a
couple of passes together against our various zone Ds
and we easily converted turnovers near their endzone
into scores. We were reasonably clinical and won the
game 11-0.

The third game of the day was against Disc Doctors 2
(Imperial). Having not hung out or played with
imperial as much as we should have this year we didn’t
know exactly what we’d have to deal with. This was a
team comprised wholly of freshers but they were all
reasonably athletic and liked to throw some crazy
shit. We took the first few points easily. This game
was played on a different pitch to the first two and
points were played up wind / down wind. We found this
challenging and were turning over more than we would
have liked. Things started to look a little shaky when
dD brought down a wild huck for a score. Unable to
replicate our demolition of Surrey 2 the frustration
was showing a little. Some hard brownie D and calm O
from the handlers Dan and Nick steadied the ship and
we cruised to win 11-2 scoring two Callahan points
along the way.

Our fourth and final game or the first day was against
Kent Touch This 1, a cool team who are always a lot of
fun to play against and hang out with. We knew that if
we won this match then we had made it to Nationals
(Div 2)! We had seen Kent take the first two points
off the Mohawks in an earlier game and had to give
them the respect they deserved. Once again we used the
brownie zone to great effect. Adnan and Dan proved
virtually unbreakable in the chase positions and Tim,
Louis and Jesse brought down absolutely everything
that went long. We got the turnovers we needed and
converted with some pretty slick O. Our man O looked
surprisingly good with plenty of pace and flow notably
from Eric and Louis, whilst our zone O was calm and
confident with Ed English and Adnan swinging around
the cup to Kyle, Jon and Kaleigh popping. We dominated
and the final score was 9-3. Despite this scoreline
this game showed weaknesses in our endzone play,
something we had to address before our games on the
second day.
Overall this was an amazing first day performance. We
had put ourselves in a great position for Sunday.

Our first game of the second day was against 3rd seed
LSE our archrivals. We had already beaten them once
this year at MadK’s Ladder League thing but didn’t
know what to expect from their full strength squad.
Needless to say that the majority of their players
were not LSE students but then again we have a couple
of star pick-ups ourselves! We immediately hit them
with our brownie and they dealt with depressingly well
working the disc patiently up the pitch. We were
sloppy on our O points and weren’t patient enough
again their zone. Our heads dropped and morale took a
bashing thanks to LSE’s enthusiastic celebrations. We
switched to man D with a straight-up force this reaped
rewards in the form of turnovers but once again we
just couldn’t convert and we lost quite badly, the
final score 11-2. Notable positives from the game
included some tight man D from Ed resulting in at
least one run through D and a score with a huck to
great long cut from Louis.

Our second game of the day was for 3rd position
against Brunel 1, a strong team with a reputation for
hard man O and D and consistent disc skills. The game
started off with a mammoth downwind point for us. Our
brownie seemed to be working again and Brunel turned
over a few times. The point seemed to be full of
calls, all of which I must add were dealt with
excellently showing great spirit from both sides.
Unfortunately Brunel got a few good breaks and managed
to get the score. This turned out to be something of a
turning point in the match. Brunel coped with our D
better on the down wind points and they scored fairly
easily. The confidence they gained against the zone
allowed them to score one more upwind break.
Nevertheless Thrown continued to play well, I was
particularly impressed by the way we handled their man
D; we got some good flow going against a team renowned
for their speed and intensity – Kaleigh, and Eric in
particular provided top class up-field cuts. Kyle
scored with a layout grab that was called out,
discussion ensued but the score stood. The final score
was 5-2 to Brunel. I think we played very in this game
showing glimpses of the great all round team we have
the potential to become in the next few seasons.

Our final match was re-match against Mohawks 1. The
game was for 4th position and another chance to play
for 3rd. This was our last shot at Div 1 nationals. We
were tired but still up for it. Mohawks were
strengthened by the return of their captain, Gash.
They were ready for us and our zone and took the first
point easily with good long play. On our downwind
point Mohawks managed to get the turnover and showed
great patience against our brownie scoring the point
without too much trouble. With our zone cracked
Mohawks went on to score several more easy points
before we mixed things up with a bit on man D. Once
again we proved a match with our man D but just
couldn’t get everything working on O. A notable
exception was Adnan’s stunning sidearm huck to Jesse
who took off for a massive layout score. We managed
one more point but Mohawks had gained their revenge!
The final score 9-2 to Mohawks.

Although this was a slightly disappointing way to end
the weekend we can be exceptionally proud of our
achievements (both first and second teams). We have
qualified for div 2 nationals two years in a row and
proven ourselves a match for some of the top teams in
the southeast! Our focus should now be on success at
Nationals, I cant wait!

Many Thanks to everyone who played for thrown this
weeked, i had an ace time.

im still aching so much from yesterday. it was absolutely awesome. i
know i got annoyed at the last match, but honestly we played so well
in all the games. this is a great start to the run up to regionals.
weve got a couple of more of these tournaments in the build up to
regionals and so weve got loads of time to perfect our game

vs lse
6 – 5
lse are massive rivals for us, and they have been consistently strong
over the last few years, so this was a tough match to start with.
nevertheless we went up 2-0 and i was so excited. our brownie zone was
working well and lse were lucky to be able to use risky high release
throws to bring it back to 2-2. we then went on to trade points to
4-4, in which time jon da beast managed to concuss one of the lse
players… harry and jesse gave us a great long option and louis and
dan looked comfortable at this higher level. despite leading for most
of the match we found ourselves 5 – 4 down with just minutes to go.
wed played so well the entire game and we fought hard right to the end
to bring it level and go into sudden death. even though they are
rivals this was a really well spirited match and we showed great
strength of character to win this match. great effort

vs revolution pick up
13 – 2 ?
it was a shame we couldnt play another university team, but actually
we used this match to great effect. i dont think wed ever used
arrowhead zone before and so it was great to see everyone pick it up
so easily. this wasnt a great team, but even so our offence was
incredible. we had great flow, as good as any team, utilising short
and long options. i remember eric made some especially great grabs in
this match. overall we really made this match look easy.

vs imperial
7 – 2 ?
match ups with imperial have always been difficult, we know from
practicing alongside them that they are a strong team and theyve done
well so far this year. again, we found ourselves 2-0 up and i feared
we might not be able to keep the lead. dd scored a couple of points
but our brownie zone was impenetrable. nick and jon were awesome in
the wall and tim and kyle kept the long d tight. i really cant believe
how good our zone was. we have to keep it up. o was sweet as well. the
poppers and wings made short work of their zone d. kaleigh came back
to help out with the handling and we looked like a complete team.

vs abh
4 – 14 ?
whilst our zone d and o was awesome, we found ourselves really lacking
on man defence and offence and this was exploited by abh. its
something we have to work on during practice. our flow was good at
times but we just couldnt keep up. shame to end the day on such a poor
loss…

nevertheless, we convincingly beat two good university teams
yesterday. our zone d and o was awesome. and i feel really proud of
our team. we need to work on man and also 3 4 offence but this is a
great start.

really well done to everyone who played.

we had an awesome time.

it was a really cool team i thought.
good mix of experience and freshers

adnan
spike
kaleigh
nick
alex
matt
marty
jessie

after a very early start at waterloo we picked up a couple of players
along the way and got stuck into our first match almost as soon as we
arrived.

vs totoro
totoro were eventual finalists and was full of experienced players. we
were perhaps a little too respectful and let them play their own
style. our short play was quickly congested and we had no long threat
at all, making it very easy for them to d and very difficult for us to
score points. whilst our o was struggling, our d was awesome. alex in
particular made some great d’s. despite our great effort, we just
couldnt keep up
final score 2 – 7

vs skunks 3
skunks had split their experienced and fresher players equally between
their 4 teams, so this was actually a close match up for us. skunks
played well and deservedly took the lead. wed talked about our lack of
long threat in the previous match and so we started throwing more
hammers and made it back to level. unfortunately this turned out to be
quite an unspirited game, with skunks calling picks and stall outs
inappropriately. nevertheless we managed to take and hold on to our
lead. we could have scored 3 or 4 more points if wed have caught our
hammers and if there werent so many calls.
final score 5 – 3

vs disco 1
i dont think thrown has ever played uwe so this was exciting. wed not
yet played our best ultimate but things were about to change. disco
were an impressive team with well drilled cutting and great disc
skills. theyd taken totoro to the wire in their game, so we were in
for a tough match. we all just seemed to click in this match and took
the first point. our short play was patient and accurate and our long
threat was devastating. we scored form all over the pitch, with marty
and kaleigh scoring from both short and long cuts. we traded points
with disco right to the end, but theyd fought back. really well
spirited match with everyone playing to their best. probably the best
match thrown 1 has ever played.
final score 6 – 7

vs bournemouth ultimatum
another team new to thrown history. bournemouth had a massive squad.
we stayed focussed and kept up our standard of play from the last
match. as in the previous match, we scored both quick and long points.
we handled their man and their zone comfortably. great handling from
spike and nick meant we made it look easy. bournemouth had no answer
to anything, with jessie managing to sky someone twice her height to
score the most memorable point of the tournament.
final score 8 – 3 ?

after 4 really tough games, thrown had gelled and improved so much, it
was incredible. 2 of the teams in the pool made it to the semis so wed
done well to make it to crossovers.

crossover
vs bears
hadnt seen anything of this team at all, but we knew they were a well
drilled and very quick team. maybe wed worn ourselves out from the
last two matches, but our d just couldnt keep up with bears. bears had
some decent players, but man for man we should have matched them. they
were just so well drilled, mixing it between stack, iso and homeboy.
bears deservedly won this match, sending us down to the bottom half of
the table..
final score 3 – 7 ?

evening
after a really long day of ultimate we crashed at one of the skunks
houses. it took a couple of shuttle runs to get the whole team to his
house, but it was worth it. we chilled out and watched some strictly
come dancing and played drinking games. marty and matt went to collect
out take away indian food and returned after the best part of an
hour… anyway the food was good and we were set to go. unfortunately,
because of the food delay, we missed the pub and went straight to the
club: kaos…
we couldnt find many ultimate players and spent most of the couple of
hours we were there playing more drinking games. we enjoyed probably
one of the best games of ‘i have never’… and eventually retired to
sleep, in preparation for the following morning. sleep deprivation and
copious amounts of alcohol werent ideal…

vs skunks 4
this was one of the stronger skunks team, but we were still as strong
if not stronger man for man. maybe it was the alcohol and lack of
sleep, but we really let ourselves down here. we were the stronger
side, but we just couldnt concentrate at all… less said the better i
reckon…
final score 4 – 7 ?

vs no frills 1
after a disappointing start to the day we pulled it back. no frills
had a predominantly fresher team, but even then werent to be
underestimated. our d was back to being at its high standards, with
everyone getting their d’s but our o really excelled in this match. no
frills liked to play 4 on the line so we had to be patient near the
end zone. we couldnt have been better, with players popping in and out
of the end zone. matt came back to handle and played really maturely.
the decision making from everyone in the team was perfect and we
annihilated no frills.
final score 8- 1 ?

vs disco 2
disco 2 was full of freshers and picked up a couple of experienced
players. this should have been easy for us, but we let them take the
lead and for some reason we kept conceding points… we eventually
fought back and won the match, but it wasnt our best performance…

i had a great time this tournament. we played out of our skins and
looked like a really top class team at times. we need more work to
improve consistency but the basics are all there.

well played everyone

schneider award
this was decided by vote and amazingly 6 people got nominated, which
really reflects how well everyone played.
the winner, though, was alex.
his d stood out throughout the whole tournament and makes him the
deserved schneider.

London winter league 2007 started off in classic fashion: early morning bus rides, and shitty weather! But isn’t that what we all love about winter league? The team for the day was an interesting mix of old school thrown, young blood and a dash of US pickup
just for fun!

Our first game was against Thundering Herd 1. We arrived with minutes to spare and started out cold and not a little bit sleepy. The wind was strong and we struggled to maintain possession. We tried man defence to get us running and for a bit of a warm up but soon realized that zone was probably a better option. This slowed the game down and stopped their heavy scoring, eventually allowing us to score our single point of the match, TJ with the assist to Kaleigh for the score. The game ended something like 8-1, a score that both teams agreed was not really reflective.

Thankfully there was no break between our first and second games and we went to play Curve feeling warm and hungry for a win. The beginners in our side seemed to have picked up the brownie zone pretty well so we wasted no time in throwing it, in classic thrown fashion, on our opposition. The zone was tight and we got the turnovers we wanted quickly. Some good hands from Jessie, and a bit flow through Tim and Robin helped us build up a nice lead. Curve did make a resurgence of sorts but we managed to hold on, scoring most of our downwind points. We closed out the game to record our second win of the season against Curve – the score 9-6 (maybe?).

Game three was against Overthrow (the ARUP company team FYI). We only knew a couple of their players, one of them Manny, always a threat. We went into the game after a good warm up and with the spark of confidence we needed. Once again the brownie worked like a dream. Hard forcing from me and Kaleigh, the impenetrable wall of Stella and Nick, and Tim flying high in the long position made sure that Overthrow didn’t make much use of the little possession they had. On o we took our chances –memorable scores include Tim skying Manny and Robin’s break force scuba to me. This was definitely Thrown’s best game of the day, with stifling d and sharp o. The final score 10-2. This win secured our 4th seed but the day was not over yet and our hardest game still lay ahead. We were to face Brighton in the 3rd/4th playoff.

Brighton put out a very strong team with the likes of Ham and Roach on the line. We went out with nothing to lose and our first point was slick (and downwind) as we managed to get the score, bringing with it a bit of confidence. On D our brownie looked stronger than ever. We worked so hard, with everyone putting in 100% effort. This soon reaped rewards in the form of turnovers. Unfortunately the wind had picked up again, and was soon joined by some driving rain. This was ultimately to be our downfall on O as we struggled to maintain possession in the up-field and found adjusting to man offensive difficult as they mixed it up on D. Brighton started to edge away, using their experience to slowly break our zone. Our other point came in the form of a calahan score – proving the strength of our zone d. The final score was a respectable 5-2 to Brighton.

So overall we held seed, which is great. We also proved that when it comes to shitty weather we can still zone it with the best of them.

More importantly I had a great day and I hope everyone else did too!

hanks again to everyone who made it down this weekend to brighton. it
was absolutely awesome. i fear this may be quite a long tournament
report… so much happened… sorry if i get the scores wrong.

DAY 0
friday evening

only 5 of us took the train down from london bridge on friday evening
(me, cazbo, lucy, louis and dan). but that didnt stop us from enjoying
several games of mafia. then, after a brief stop at brighton station
we headed to the sussex student union at falmer. here, we met up with
some mohawks, and some more thrown players (robin, laura and kyle).
and after a couple of drinks and louis’ encounter with a girl in
search of condoms, thrown went outside to play some midnight ultimate.
disc skills werent great, probably due to the drinking and lack of
light, but still good fun. dan suffered the first of many head
injuries, when a beautifully, if not perfectly, thrown disc hit him
right in the face.
tired from the first night already, we retired to gash’s house and
managed to cram into the rooms available, in preparation for the first
day of ultimate

DAY 1
saturday group stages

early saturday morning, we were joined by even more thrown players (ed
english, ed evans, marty and jess) giving us quite a big squad for the
day.
thrown was actually in quite a difficult group, with tournament
favourites mohawks 1, a solid looking brunel 2 and an unknown
chichester 2. with many of our players having never played together
before, and a depleted first team without the likes of harry, kaleigh
and tim, this was always going to be difficult.

vs Chichester 2
in retrospect this was a hugely dissapointing game. we were slow to
get started and chi played hard right from the start. our d was sloppy
and our o was confused. we looked awful… then, within just a couple
of points i went down in a heap after landing badly on my right ankle,
taking me out for the rest of the tournament.
i dont remember much of this game, but we really should have done
better. the less said about it the better. it was a poor start to the
tournament but fortunately things could only get better
final score ?

vs Brunel 2
having talked about what had gone wrong in the last match, we were
fired up for this next one. we played a lot harder, and earned every
one of the points we scored. there were loads of turnovers as our d
worked relentlessly. kyle, in partiular was solid throughout and dan
was consistently finding space. though our o was still a little
haphazard we traded points for most of the match, before brunel pulled
away right at the end.
even though we lost, it was great to see the massive improvement from
the last game. thats the most important thing most of the silly
mistakes were cut out and we looked like a team with real character.
final score 5-4 to brunel

vs mohawks 1
this was always going to be difficult, mohawks had annihilated the
other two teams and i dont think theyd conceded a single point in
their path towards the final.
but thrown just wasnt intimidated at all. we were keen to keep
improving and maybe even cause an upset…
our d was epic in this match. we were hungry for the disc and forced a
lot of turnovers. mohawks struggled to score points against us and
didnt look like finding a way through. halfway through the game theyd
scored just 2 points and we were looking close to getting a point on
the board. ed english was awesome on d and really looked like he was
enjoying himself. ed evans and marty were making great cuts and thrown
had some great periods of possession in this match. it wasnt long till
we got through the mohawks and made them concede their first point of
the tournament, to which the sideline cheered empahatically.
unfortunately for us, their quality came through, and they pulled away
towards the end.
this was a great match for me to watch, as it was obvious that we had
some great potential in our midst.
final score 8-1 to mohawks

DAY 1
saturday evening

unfortunately we lost both eds and marty in the afternoon. it would
have been cool if they could have stayed but im grateful for their
effort in coming down for the one day. thanks a lot guys

we finished quite early actually, around 2 maybe? so we went outside
to play some more ultimate. after a fun but rather unsuccessful mack
line and a couple of show games we decided to head down to brighton.
kyle took us on an extremely long, but inspiringly scenic, route to a
chocolate place, where we feasted on some incredible chocolate cakes.
i was struggling to finish just half of one of those bad boys… the
sunset was beautiful and it was really nice to walk through the
various small streets in the brighton town centre.
after cake we got some great fish and chips and even though it was
cold and windy we headed to the beach. after throwing rocks at kyle we
got the frisbee out and chucked about for a bit against the backdrop
of brighton pier. dan and lucy were getting really good at throwing
against the wind. it was really impressive.
on our way to brighton pier dan suffered his second head injury. we
spent a couple of pennies on the slot machines before heading back to
gash’s ahead of the party that night. after a couple of rounds of ring
of fire we got changed into our mafia gear. cazbo made a great effort,
in fact everyone did, except me. sorry…
the party was great fun. we played a couple of rounds of hands in the
bushes, kyle was pretending to avoid his stalker, and i was treated to
a lecture by shimmy about his new phone… nearly all the teams were
there and it was cool to see everyone. great party.

DAY 2
sunday elimiation stages

having been relegated to the bottom half of the rankings we were
understandably dissapointed, but we were confident. we picked up nick
and everyone had improved so much the last day. we were on our way to
win our second plate.

vs mohawks 3
every single mohawks team has great disc skills and this team was no
exception. even so they were no match for us. we worked unbelievably
hard in this match. mohawks couldnt handle our iso and louis started
to make some incredible end zone cuts, making scoring look easy. nick
and laura were great as handlers and caz was working hard as dump
handler.
the silly mistakes were cut out from the previous day and we were
looking amazing.
final score 8-3 to thrown

vs brunel 2 (again…)
we could have and should have won this match yesterday and so this was
our chance to redeem ourselves.
we stared much harder and took the lead before trading points. robin
was infallible as our iso and we were close to the plate final.
for some reason though, we started to let errors enter our game. we
conceded some sloppy points, allowing open side cuts to go free, and
we pretty much gifted them the victory…
we had moments of brilliance in this match, with jessie making some
awesome grabs, but it was our own fault that we lost this one.
final score 7-5 to brunel.

vs imperial
even though we missed out on another plate, it was cool to be able to
play imperial as our last match. i was dying to play this one… but
it was fine, because everyone else pulle their weight. lucy made some
awesome ds and dan and louis were great on o. jessie made some awesome
grabs, and even though it was tight, we never looked in danger of
losing.
great way to end the tournament.
final score 7-5 to thrown

final position 11th
great result for us. the beginners in our team improved so so much. it
was great to see. couple more months and you guys will be great,
couple more years and well be unstoppable. make sure you keep coming
to practice and tournaments. and keep working hard. make sure we earn
everything get.

schneider award
louis
awesome end zone cutting. in indoors and outdoors this is possibly the
most difficult thing to teach and to learn. louis looked like a pro.

favourite quotes
“surprise me” girl in search of condoms
“easy, i could do this with my eyes closed” dan
“hows your chlamidiya?” jess in a game of do you take it up the ass.

jess, lucy and dan took some photos. so look out for them on facebook.

thanks to everyone, for tending to my ridiculous injury.

really well played guys. i had such a great weekend.

Kaleigh’s Team

Saturday at 10 and Lucy, Sam, Marty, Jamie, Nick, and Rich take the line for their first competitive game of ultimate, which turns out to be against 7 psychotic frenchmen called the apocalyptic cows. The game consisted of relatively quick points and rather frantic throws as the inexperience of both sets of players showed. Unfortunately in spite of all the hard running put in by the team thrown’s lack of organisation meant we only gained one point in return for our efforts. Final score, 8-1 to the apocalyptic cows. After surviving the cows’ call described by TJ as looking like ‘some weird initiation rite,’ involving bumping into eachother and mooing, Thrown legend Spike to give and a quick chat about play and tactics.

Before long though Thrown once again took to the field, this time against arch-rivals LSE. The team talk between matches helped us a lot as this time Thrown dominated the play. with Sam setting the pace the whole team played hard, out running their opposition despite LSE having twice as many players as us. What’s more LSE’s women were no match for Lucy and Marty, who not only manage to lose their mark every time, but completely cut them out on defense as well. We had some excellent work from the rest of the men, all of them managing to hold on to whatever swill I was throwing at them.

Third match: Brunel. Brunel always put out a strong team, but they were clearly out-played. By this time the freshers were starting to get the hang of things with our stack becoming ever more cohesive. We had excellent cuts by Lucy and Jamie, and perfect flow between Jamie, Nick, and Rich as well as some good defence by Sam. This game really illustrated how much we had inproved as a team since the start of the day. Not only did we win the match and achieve our target of scoring 4 points but we did it with the freshers playing Iron man (no subs) for half of it. Highlight of the day: Rich’s Dorset bum wrestling skills while wearing a women’s shirt against a considerably bigger dude. Way to represent. Final score 6-3 to Thrown.

Our final match against Thrown(Fred) really showed the high level of intensity we’d been playing at that day. Tired and sore, yet with constant hard work, especially from Jamie, Nick, Sam and Rich. For the Freshers this last game was played iron man, and the tired legs started to tell by the end as we lost a close game after trading the first several points.

Overall an awesome day, I saw some real improvement throughout, and lots of fun.

Fred’s Team

Heres the report for my Thrown team, really sorry if there are any
errors like names wrong, or if I miss a really great grab you made,
but my memory’s a little bit hazy in me old age! Also sorry its a bit
slower, but I’m a responsible graduate!!

We started of the day with a first game against Brunel, who we knew
would be strong as they are a big sporting uni, with great facilities
and ultra-fit students, and the nerves of a freshers weren’t helped by
our team being iron-man-tastic going into their first ever competitive
game, and when we lost our first couple of points I was worried it was
all going to go a bit pear shaped, but our team really pulled together
and with some really competitive spirit and great first cuts from
Katie, some good D’s on their speedy longs from Matt, and some great
cuts from Jess, playing her first ever game having not even been to a
practice before, we managed to get back into the game and pull it back
to set up a close finish. My memory of the end is a bit hazy but I
think eventually the quality of Brunels handlers hucking, and the
sheer fitness of their longs payed off for them and they won it by a
couple of points, but against the eventual winners of the whole
tournament this was a really encouraging performance. We then had two
games off to chill out and put some money in Nicks tampon box.

After everyone had got nice and stiff we were back for our next game
against Subime, and with Sanna recovered from her hangover, we were
armed with subs!! Even so Sublimes very high intensity play led to us
dropping two early points to go 2-0 down, but we were still playing
some good frisbee, and just lacked a killer edge infront of the zone.
After some impromptu endzone coaching from TJ, in a mamoth and crucial
third point, both teams played some really sweet flow, but ours really
stood out, esspecially the improvement in cutting from Louis and
Taddie, now cutting good lines, getting free all over the place and
seeing loads of the disc, allowing us to win this point, and the next
two to snatch the game 3-2 on the last point.

After a lunch break and more tampaxpokery with Nick we were back
against the wonderfully spirited (and brilliant named!) Kent touch
this, ahhhhhhhh happy hammer memories. But enough of the MC our team
were looking like a real frisbee team now, playing really hard D and
very structured O with everyone making really good cuts (no need to
pick out individuals here, because everyone made perfect cuts and
found space to get the disc), pushing Kent to resort to a risky long
game and helping us to a good win (followed by some knee killing mini
frisbee, and the kevlar padding really didn’t help!!)

Finally we made it to the 9v10 game, against another thrown team. We
knew it would be tough, especially with Flembo looking like a strange
nordic pixie, but the play that had served us well all day still did
the job, with great first cuts from Katie, giving and option every
time, brilliant second cuts and flow down the pitch from Taddie,
Louis, Sanna and Jess and great long D’s and O’s from Matt and Ed we
just managed to hold on for 5-3 (I think!). We had a great days
ultimate and everyone improved immensely, going from a set of players
who for the most part had barely played a game before to looking like
a proper ultimate team in a day, and thats the highest accolade I can
pay.

Now, the only people that will be at practice on Saturday are Craig
Melson and his Ferret, because you beginners have the chance to do it
all over again at Plymouth, just you get to do it for two days and you
get a massive party in between, even I’m going it’s so good!! So
e-mail Kaliegh right now and say your going to!!

DO IT!!!

Fred

Kyle’s Team

Thrown US as we became known throughout the day (because of my bad memory) did amazing! We were 3rd overall which was really good, but even more importantly we all learnt loads and had great fun. It was really tough on the fresher’s who did not have any subs, which makes the results even more impressive. What was also really good is the way everyone could play with the different handlers, as we changed through 4 of them during the course of day: Kyle, John (amazing hammer), Adnan and Harry.

Our first game was against Kent. Really fun and well spirited as it always is with Kent. The game came really close and ended up with thrown ahead at 4-3 and the final point bringing the scores to 4 -4. A DRAW!
THE DANCE OFF… the Brent dance, seen twice through out the day started us off. Then Ben strutted his crazy stuff. Kent reply then Kyle’s worm sealed the deal. A DRAW AGAIN. Midget Frisbee, a killer on the knees but fun none the less, another DRAW. Down the Rock Paper Scissors! Kings won first, then Kent. It all came down to the final hand. KINGS WON! We were through! Good times! Cheers Kent that was an amazing game.

UCL! A very fun game quite competitive which was good for getting the fitness levels up. I think the score was 6-0 or something. A Bagel! It just shows how well we played that we pulled that off, against a big rival club. There were a few foul discussions in the match which were played through. Maybe playing that competitively for a beginner’s tournament was not necessary, but despite that it was a good learning experience for everyone and we came out strong. Ed showed that he could handle well and keep calm under pressure. Knowing the lowest place we could be was 4th, boosted morale and lead us on to our next match… the toughest of the day…

Brunel (who later went on to play in the finals). The only game of the day we lost but it was still very close. 4 -3 to them. Amazing huck by Adam (I think here). We played some long points here and everyone’s fitness and dedication held strong so we held on and pulled in a close game despite playing the best team there. Injury to Ben meant that we had to take a sub, but in the last point of the game, having played iron man showed that we were going well. Shaun had some great fakes and break side cuts which opened up the play and showed off his speed. Good times.

The final game of the day was against Canterbury a predominately French team, meant that it was difficult to discuss fouls. They had quite a few tall players so we thought we might stretch them and see how our long game could play out. We had some amazing hucks and catches. Matt had joined our team and helped us with some great D’s and catches. Our cuts were amazing, with someone being free at most points. Jessie was very good at getting into space. The handlers used the up the line play to kings advantage a lot but more experienced teams may have recognised this play and shut it down. Enjoyable and meant that we came third overall and really good place to start off that year.

Just a quick word about Plymouth; everyone was really amazing so it would be great to build on this weekends play, learn even more stuff and have a really good time as well! Hope to see you all there!

Cheers to all the handlers and people who made it such a great day!