KCL Thrown Ultimate

FRISBEE BASED KARAOKE

Looking at the spreadsheet, we seem to have a winner, so I thought I’d suggest this nice place I go to now and then.
It’s got a great atmosphere, the people are friendly, there’s definitely enough space for all of us, and most importantly it’s really cheap. Student night is on Monday and happy hour is 7-8pm. I’m going tomorrow night, so if anyone wants to join me just meet me at the entrance to the IMAX in Waterloo at 6.55, it’s not that far. Cool beans.

JDBeyonce

FITNESS TRAINING

It’s on as usual, sorry for leaving the email so late. Hopefully you all were planning on coming anyway…

OUTDOOR REGIONALS MATCH REPORT

WARNING: I got a bit carried away, so stop reading unless you don’t mind losing the next couple of hours of your life…

Regionals. The big one. The most important tournament of the year. The reason we get out of bed, put on our boots, and brave the harsh wilderness that is Hyde Park. The reason we spend hour upon hour throwing, catching, forcing, cutting, dumping, stacking, zoning, drinking. The reason you put up with my crap. Regionals.

It all began nice and early on a Saturday morning, Victoria station. Everyone had managed to get there on time (except Suba who was asleep) so our little green army boarded the train to Chichester, where glory and honour awaited us. An hour and a half or so later, we finally reached the venue, and the first thing I saw was a layout Callahan. Sweet. At the club house we were joined by those who drove there, and Suba eventually did show up, and thus KCL Thrown’s 2011 Outdoor Regionals squad, the squad to end all squads, was complete.

I had decided to play for the 2nd team, a decision met with mixed reactions, but not one I regret in the slightest. Air to the Thrown consisted of (both days) Suba, Fowzia, Adam M, Craig, Spritzer, JoeTM, Hockers, (Saturday only) Camizzle, Nicole, Lee, Harry P. After some last minute tactics and some words of inspiration, it was time to lead the troops out to battle…

Mohawks 3

Although they were a 3rd team, they were still Mohawks and we knew we had to bring our best. I won the toss to start on O and we took to the field for our very first point of South East Outdoor Regionals 2011. What followed can only be described as bad-ass. In a single flowing move, we worked the disc up the field straight into their endzone for the score. No mistakes, no turnovers, and all 7 players were involved. The next point we got the D almost straight away, and scored again just as quickly. This was pretty much the story for the rest of the match.
Final score: 11-2 to THROWN!!!

UCL 2

Our performance against Mohawks 3 was near perfect, so if it’s not broken don’t fix it. We brought that same intensity and same quality to the Under Cover Lovers and took a comfortable lead. Then came one of those points. One of those epic 15 minute points. So far we hadn’t really been tested defensively, but now it was time to see what we were made of. It had everything – point-blocks, layout D’s, fingertip D’s – everything. They eventually scored, but then came my favourite point of the tournament… ANOTHER epic 15 minute point! More point-blocks, layouts, and fingertip saves (mostly in the endzone too), but this time we showed real character and dug deep to get the score. We finished them off, and won our group in style. Oh yeah!
Final Score: 8-4 to THROWN!!!

Reading Dragons

Our crossover match was against Reading, and if we could beat them we would become 7th seed, which would mean we could end up playing (and whooping) the 1st team, so we were well up for this one. Of course Reading were 7th for a reason and they took the half 7-1. All day our man D was excellent, and it still was; they really had to work hard for those points. However they were just that little bit faster, so we decided to bring out the big guns…zone. This radically changed the match; we started getting the D’s and traded points for the rest of the match. If we had used our zones from the start I honestly think we could’ve beaten them. It was a great way to end a great day, although during the match Lee was stricken with cramp and the girls dragged him off the pitch by his arms and legs as he cried out in agony. Poor Lee.
Final score: 13-6 to Dragons

EVENING FESTIVITIES

After a nice hot shower (for the guys at least) and dropping our stuff off at the gym we would be sleeping in, Thrown 1 and 2 were finally reunited and we hit the town. Luckily we found a Chinese restaurant that just happened to have a table able to seat all 21 of us. We ate heartily, sang Happy Birthday to Louis three times, and booed DD when they showed up. Good times. Next stop was the pub, where Louis downed his first dirty pint of the night. There was also some bourbon drinking, Mohawks that put mine to shame, and general merriment. Final stop was the party. We got there at the fashionably late time of 11pm, but soon found out that it would end at midnight. Lame. However even in that one hour, we partied it up like we always do. There was Sweet Lou’s second dirty pint, a boat race, a mosh pit, and an altercation with a bouncer on a power trip, but that’s another story…
Anyway after the party we made our way back to the gym, except for Louis and a few others who went off to explore Chichester’s bustling night life. Even tough I was dead tired, I couldn’t get to sleep. The Mohawks kept laughing, UAL kept telling them to shut up (even going so far as to duct-taping one of them), Louis fell over when he got back, people were shouting out German porn expressions (me included lol), one guy was snoring really loudly, and to top it all off the full moon was shining right in my face. Despite all that, I did nod off in the end, and somehow actually woke up before anyone else on Sunday morning. A few topless stretches later it was time to gather the troops again. It was going to be a tough day.

HU? 2

We had lost 4 players, and our reinforcements never turned up (you know who you are), so on Sunday we were down to 8. We didn’t have time to eat breakfast or even refill our water bottles, but it didn’t matter – Air to the Thrown is always ready for Ultimate. Even though we were sleepy, hungry and sore from Saturday, we came out hard and soon got back into the swing of things. Our D never let them string more than 2 or 3 passes together, and our O quickly converted turnovers into scores. A few more minutes and we would’ve point-capped them. I even managed to get my only score of the tournament in this match. Yeah.
Final score: 13-5 to THROWN!!!

DD 1

Somehow DD were down in the bottom half with us and were playing Iron Man, so we thought we could take them. We were wrong. We gave it all we had, but their long game and tall players made it very difficult for us. Our 1st team had bagelled their 2nd team and it looked like DD were going to do the same, but we weren’t going to let that happen. With what little energy we had left we pulled together and ground out a well deserved score. No one bagels us.
Final Score: 15-1 to DD

UAL

Our penultimate match was against a relatively new team, and one I had never faced before – Up the Arts. By this time, the lack of subs was really taking its toll on the team, and they took full advantage of that fact. They had a big squad, running us hard and subbing frequently to stay fresh, but we weren’t going down without a fight. We still managed to get our flow going and score some nice points, and we still managed to get lots of D’s, which they complimented us on. They were a really nice bunch, one of the best spirited teams we had encountered all weekend. I’d really like to play them again… and destroy them.
Final score: 15-5 to UAL

Mohawks 3 (again)

Because of how the tournament was set up, and because of our results, our very last match ended up being the same as our very first match – same opponents and same seedings. Everything had come round full circle and it was time for one last big effort. Both teams were familiar with each other from Saturday – I marked the frizzy-haired guy, Ben marked Lindsay Lohan, Craig marked his Scandinavian girlfriend (sadly she didn’t reciprocate), and Sean got physical (literally) with the red-head. Like always, we came out strong and traded points. Unfortunately the lack of subs took its toll once again, and they edged ahead. But that didn’t stop us. Even though we were running on empty, even though our bodies were aching and our muscles were burning, even though I was dead on my feet and everyone else had to pick up the slack (effectively playing 6 on 7), we kept on going. We kept up our flow, we kept getting D’s, and we kept scoring. I even managed to muster up enough energy for the most gratuitous layout D ever. It truly was a hard fought match from both sides, right to the very end, and a fitting way to end the tournament.
Final Score: 9-4 to Mohawks

AIR TO THE THROWN

Saturday:
Nicole – Ran her heart out, showed how much difference fitness training makes.
Camizzle – Man-marking expert; never let her mark get free.
Lee – Deadly speed, great movement, and some nice hammers.
Harry P – Pinpoint hucks, greats grabs, and dealt with any long threat (except that one time).

Both days:
Suba & Fowzia – Iron Maidens. Rock solid in the wall, composed on the disc, and possibly psychic (able to D the disc without looking).
Adam M – Constant long threat. Always running hard and getting free. Needs to learn how to layout though.
Craig – Big catches and even bigger smack-down D’s. Spent half of his time falling over.
JoeTM – Skills to pay the bills both upfield and at handling. Very strong force. Scored in every match.

MVP:
Spritzer – MVP. Short cuts, long cuts, open side, break side, catches, throws, back-up saves, fingertip D’s. All that was missing was a cape and an S on his chest (or a white wig and a bra).

The Bag (the bag the bag):
Hockers – Unanimous winner. Saved us time after time (I love that song btw) by throwing himself at the disc and getting that vital turnover. Also our best handler, always there for the dump and always making the right decision.

In my opinion this was the strongest 2nd team Thrown had ever brought to Regionals. From the very first point of the very first game, everything just clicked. Our O was unstoppable, our D was unbreakable, and we just kept going from strength to strength. On offence the cuts were sharp, the throws were accurate, and the catches were secure, but what really kicked ass was the flow. Every single point we scored was the result of a string of well timed cuts and passes; it was poetry in motion. It was slick, precise and fast, but never rushed. Whenever we needed to we dumped it back, and a split second later we got right back to tearing through the other team’s defence.

And then there was our own defence, which was equally as impressive. Every team we came across had to work really hard to get past us. Man marking or zone, it didn’t matter, we would just shut them down and force them to huck it or do something crazy. Honestly I have never seen so many run-through D’s, fingertip D’s, layout D’s, point-blocks and foot-blocks from an entire team, i.e. not just one or two people, but everyone. Even when we were exhausted, and it looked like all was lost, someone would always come out of nowhere and get that point-saving D. I always say “defence win matches” and it really did.

But above all else, the thing that made the biggest difference was the team’s spirit. Throughout the entire weekend, every single player maintained the same level of determination, drive and desire, and it showed when we stepped onto the pitch. Every cut was at 100% speed, every disc was chased down, no D was ever a lost cause. Whenever mistakes were made, no one got angry with themselves or one another, we would just forget about it and get back to the task at hand, hungry as ever. Whenever we were losing, we never let our heads drop, we never stopped believing we could bring it back. Similarly, whenever we were winning, we never got complacent, we never dropped our intensity. Morale was sky high from start to finish, support was always there on and off the pitch, and we really pulled together as a team. Nothing has made me prouder as a coach than seeing you all develop throughout the season, steadily learning and improving, culminating in the sheer awesomeness and bad-assery that I witnessed at Regionals. I couldn’t ask for more. Best tournament ever. Double rainbow all the way.

Jon da Beast

FITNESS TRAINING…cancelled

I had this speech about how if you’re with the right person everyday is Valentine’s Day, but I know none of you will listen to me, and so to avoid the embarrassment of being stood up tomorrow evening, I’ve decided to cancel fitness training.

However you’re not getting off the hook that easy! Regionals is upon us, and one of our major strengths is our fitness. Soooooooo if there is enough demand, I can run fitness on Tuesday…or put a lot more fitness into Wednesday practice. Reply below. Cool beans.

Jon