The ShowGame

UKU Nationals Results

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 10:01:00 +0000

UKU Nationals were held in Southampton this weekend just past. Here's how it went...

Qualifying for EUCF 2014 held in Frankfurt are:

OPEN

1. Clapham (Elite Division)
2. Chevron Action Flash (Elite Division)
3. EMO
4. Fire of London
5. Brighton
6. Cambridge

WOMEN'S

1. Iceni
2. SYC

MIXED

1. Birmingham Mixed
2. Pingu Jam
3. Thundering Herd

Spirit of the Game winners were Flump, Iceni and Brighton Breezy - congratulations! Full results including spirit can be found here.

Mark 'Fandango' Simpson goes all out for the D against EMO in the semi-finals. Photo courtesy of Andrew Moss.

Congratulations to Iceni and Clapham Ultimate for retaining the title in their respective divisions, and to the new Mixed Champions: Birmingham Mixed!

Watch Open semi-finals and finals for all divisions with commentary by David Pichler here.

You can also but footage VOD from PushPass, who have also published a Drama post following the possibility of Pingu Jam fielding a ineligible player.

For those who took part the results of the fantasy Ultimate can be found here.

Look out for our EUCF preview coming soon...

Club or Country: An Irish Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (The Showgame) — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 17:04:00 +0000

New contributor Brian 'Boyler' Boyle discusses Club or Country from an Irish perspective...

EUCR-S is happening in Nantes, France, this weekend and for the second year in a row, Ireland will only be represented by one club after two years previously of not being represented at all. Despite this, there is interest in Ireland next year not only to send an Open, Women’s and Mixed team to EUC, but also an Open and Women’s team to U23 Worlds. This begs a very important question that I think all Irish Ultimate players need to start asking themselves: why as a country are we willing to spend so much time, effort, and money to play for Ireland, when we are not willing to spend a fraction as much to play for our clubs?

The Case for Tour

Irish players are incredibly lucky to be so close to the UK and have the opportunity to play Tour for such a small cost in comparison to other European tournaments. The competition is of a high standard, and the chance for teams to improve on their final position from the year before will always be there as an incentive for clubs to compete year after year. There is also the thrill of playing against a team that you’ve never played before or never beaten before, and starting new rivalries outside of Ireland. If the spirit circles after matches are anything to go by, British teams are always happy to play Irish teams and I’m sure they would welcome more Irish competition at Tour. A player can also play all three Tours with an additional European tournament (be that EUCR, Windmill Windup, Cologne, etc.) for less money than an entire season with an Ireland National Team. Perhaps this is something to consider with trials coming up soon.

Ranelagh were the only Irish club to compete at all three UK Tours this year. The team sent two squads to Tour 2 and London Calling (Pictured). Photo courtesy of Mark Earley.

Open

Irish national teams are supposed to have as little effect on club Ultimate as possible, but this is never the case. The biggest hindrance to clubs during national team years is using Tour 1 and Tour 2 as warm up tournaments for EUC or WU23. If this continues next year one of two things will happen: either the club teams that go to Tour will under-perform because their key players are playing for Ireland, or the club teams that would normally go (or might want to go) won’t be able to because they don’t have enough players. Ireland is too small of a nation to sustain a Senior Open and U23 Open team as well as a competitive club scene.

There is something to be said for younger players playing for a National Team and becoming better players, and then making their club teams stronger in the future. I would argue that there is just as much to be said for a younger player joining a highly competitive team and playing club Ultimate in the UK and Europe. This also benefits more players directly and exposes more players to a higher level of Ultimate than one national team could ever do. Ireland teams are one-off and only last a year. Club teams (hopefully) last for years and years. Is it worth putting a club team on hold for an entire year just to benefit a few players? As a small nation our goals should be for more players playing more Ultimate, not fewer.

Women’s

Women’s Ultimate in Ireland has been growing stronger and stronger over the last few years, but Irish women’s teams are still under-represented at Tour. Most annoyingly, an Irish women’s club has still yet to compete in EUCR (UK Nationals). Despite this, our clubs have proved that they are able to compete at a high level, whether it be LMS winning several games at WUCC and going undefeated at Tour 2 (kept out of the top 4 since they didn’t compete at Tour 1), or Rebel Ultimate competing strongly at Tour 3. If these two clubs put the effort in next year they could both attend all three Tours and EUCR for less money than it would cost to represent Ireland at EUC in Copenhagen. In contrast, if there is an Irish women’s team next year the likelihood of a club going to all 3 Tours is slim to none, and Ireland will once again go unrepresented at EUCR in the Women’s division.

Claire Pugh competes for a disc against Rogue form Australia in WUCC, one of LMS’s three victories of the week. Photo courtesy of Mark Earley.

Solution

I can think of three possible solutions to the problem of National Teams damaging club teams in Ireland. I’m sure all three will be seen as dramatic by most Irish players, but I only pose them so people can start to discuss this issue which I feel has been going unnoticed. The first is to not send an Irish Open or Women’s team to EUC next year and to concentrate entirely on Club Ultimate. However, this would need the backing of the entire community as well as a concentrated effort to get as many teams to Tour next year as possible, which I see as fairly unlikely at present. The second is to allow National Teams as normal next year, but to ban them from competing at Tour for their warm-up tournaments. Personally I like this option, but with a lack of other affordable and high-standard tournaments available I don’t see it as very viable.

The third is to send club teams to represent Ireland in EUC. This would obviously have the least effect on club Ultimate in Ireland next year, though it is not without its drawbacks. To counteract these drawbacks, whichever club team gets chosen to represent Ireland could pick up a small number of players from other clubs who get the chance to play for Ireland without damaging their own clubs by losing too many members. Club teams already compete and train regularly, and players would not be forced to choose between their club and their national team. Most importantly, the national teams would be able to compete at Tour without preventing other club teams from also competing.

The Cost of an Ireland Jersey

Representing your country in sport is indisputably a great honour, but I think Irish Ultimate players need to ask themselves an important question: is it a great accomplishment? With such a small player base the best players in the country already know they will make the team before trying out. Until there are over a dozen highly competitive clubs in Ireland, playing for Ireland can arguably be seen as more of an ego-boost and selfish, especially when you’re playing Tour for Ireland and leaving your club-mates at home. When Ultimate in Ireland was much smaller, Irish national teams contributed immeasurably to make Irish Ultimate what it is today, but now by choosing to represent Ireland instead of your club you may be indirectly harming Irish Ultimate rather than helping it. As someone who has played for Ireland myself I won’t deny that it is an incredible experience, but think about this: if you consider the people who have played for Ireland more than once, there are currently more Ireland jerseys in Ireland than there are IFDA members.

Conclusions

If you’ve read this far than you have might have found a major flaw in my argument. The players who are willing to spend so much time and effort to play for Ireland are most likely already willing to put that effort into their clubs. It’s the less eager players who are not willing to travel to Tour. After all, there were no senior Ireland teams this year and numbers at Tour were still low. This is an inherent problem and we need some sort of system to incentivise or reward players for going to Tour. Until then, as this club season comes to an end and you start working on plans for next year I would urge any player who wants to get better or see their club get better to convince your teammates to compete for their club at Tour next year. If your club has an AGM at the end of the year, raise the question of what your team will do in order to make it to all three Tours next year. The costs of going may be minimal compared to the costs of not going.

Author's Note: I chose not to focus on Mixed Ultimate as I feel Irish mixed clubs and Mixed Tour is a separate issue worthy of a separate article. Also, while I am President of the Irish Flying Disc Association, the opinions expressed in this article are my own and not those of the IFDA as a whole.

Brian will be continuing to write for The Showgame as Irish correspondent - welcome on board! Do you have an opinion about Club or Country that you want to be heard? We are looking for more contributors to this popular discussion, so get in touch!

The Question of Regionalisation

noreply@blogger.com (The Showgame) — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 15:21:00 +0000

Josh CK looks at some concerns voiced about the 2014 UKU Regionals...

[Edit - this post contains views expressed by writers that are not necessarily that of The Showgame. Our aim here is to generate a fair and intelligent discussion - please see and add to the comments below for continued discussion as well as a further elucidation of many, if not all of the points brought up. JCK]

This year's Regionals and Nationals were not without their share of controversy. Nationals was a formerly an event that looked very much like a final tour event, held in order to find a national champion on an annual basis as well as acting as qualifiers for the European championships. The regional qualification process for the Open division was debuted in 2010 to 'a mostly positive response'. With a lighter 16 team knockout, the new Nationals also featured a permanent site in Southampton, featuring a show pitch with live streaming. With broad changes made with long-term plans in mind (increase in competition at Regionals and Nationals, the creation of 'the UKU's primary "showcase" event'*), a certain amount of adaptation is arguably to be expected. However, certain decisions (specifically in the London region) have both caused confusion and incited some strongly voiced concerns. Matt Dathan writes:

Nationals comes on the back of a controversial Regionals this year, with Clapham given a bye at London qualifiers and only having to play two games to decide their seed. This meant they rocked up at 2pm in the afternoon to play their two games, in contrast to their eventual opponents, Ka-pow and Fire of London, who both had to turn up five hours earlier and play three games before playing a fresh Clapham team.

Fire and Ka-pow understandably issued a complaint to the UKU about this baffling contradiction of fair play. In response the UKU justified the decision in terms of logistics, claiming a 9-team tournament would have been too complicated to organise.

Even without going into the duller arguments of the many ways a 9-team qualifying tournament could work, to sacrifice fair play for the sake of logistics is a very dangerous road to go down. UKU said they were “utterly confident that clapham wouldn't finish lower than fifth”. Yes - you heard it - a governing body deciding where teams will finish before a disc has been thrown. This undermines the very nature of sport, not just fair play, that the outcome, however predictable it may be, is not known beforehand.

It also emerged that UKU were actually “more worried” that Clapham would send a weakened team and therefore not take first seed at Nationals (in the Midlands region, Cambridge sent a weakened team, but were they given a bye to Nationals? No.)

Proof, if ever we needed it, that UK ultimate is organised to suit the interests of the top teams. If a team does badly at qualifiers - regardless of who they are - they must take the consequences, otherwise there is absolutely no point in holding qualifying and the UKU may as well use seeding and qualifying from tour (which would be a huge shame).

This happened of course last year when Manchester beat a weakened Chevron team, but the UKU still decided that they had to meddle to ensure the top teams are given their familiar route to the final.

Maybe that’s why this year they’ve changed the seeding format (without telling us why). Traditionally, Nationals seedings are based on the previous year’s tournament, but this year they’ve changed the format and an (unelected) body has decided themselves where teams should be seeded, again undermining the credibility of having a clearly defined, automatic system of deciding seeds (as mainstream sports do). It has led to a few strange seedings at Nationals, but rest-assured, the top two haven’t been tinkered with.

The decision to give Clapham a bye not only does it compromise the principle of fair play, but it also further distances the sport’s grassroots from its elite. Regionals is the only time amateur players get the chance to test themselves against the best - ultimate’s equivalent to the FA Cup - and the only time elite players will have to put up with playing amateur teams.

Another new invention for this year’s Nationals is the decision to charge player fees rather than team fees. With each individual having to pay £20 each, and considering the average team size in the Open division is around 17 players, the revenue for hosting the tournament has risen significantly on last year. Unless costs have jumped equally as high, it means more money going into the pockets of a few at the expense of the many in the ultimate community.

The sport already struggles to attract a diverse proportion of society, but the ballooning cost of playing the sport (and it’s not only Nationals) will make it even more of a white, middle class hobby than it already is.

It is a shame that the sport seems to be floating away from principles that it has always regarded very highly. Greater accountability must be imposed on decisions and a greater say must be given to the players (and payers) of the sport. There will be much more written on this subject in the coming months.

Dale Walker also took issue with the London Regionals schedule, and writes of a sense of the lacklustre at this year's Northern Regionals.

In principle, the UKU move to a regional/national/Euros structure is a smart move. It is a far more relatable structure to the US system of many years of Sectionals / Regionals / Nationals and allows for tournaments to be played on a local scale with weighted bids from each region reflecting that region’s strength (based on Tour). In theory, it should provide a tournament that isn’t too far of a commute to make and replaces the need to schedule in a round earlier in the Tour for lower ranked teams to play their more illustrious contemporaries. However, something still isn’t quite right.

Northern Regionals saw a predictable finish with Chevron meeting Manchester in the final after both teams eased past the remaining field. However, in a theme that appears to be translated across the country, Northern Regionals saw a relative lack of engagement from many teams who saw little point in attending a tournament with no realistic opportunity to progress to the Open division. This must be considered a real area of concern for the UKU – with the shift to a regional structure, the UKU aimed to provide an opportunity for lower ranked teams to play the country’s best but this hasn’t translated into attendance yet. In the Northern region, even established powers like LeedsLeedsLeeds and The Brown didn’t attend despite having a very realistic shot of taking the #3 bid from the region. In some cases, the scheduling doesn’t even allow for the lower ranked teams to play some of the biggest draws the format is supposed to provide – Clapham qualified for Nationals before the first disc was even thrown, which seems almost an admission that some teams are too good to play against lower ranked opposition. The UKU surely cannot promote the tournament as an opportunity to play against the best then double back on themselves through scheduling?

To further illustrate the issues at hand, Sheffield Steal ended up taking the third bid from the region ahead of Liverpool’s Vision after a convincing win in the 3v4 game to go. Steal featured a large number of LLL & Relentless players who even as a loose pickup team ended up qualifying for Open Nationals. If the regional format is to continue, these events need to become more than just a qualifier as at present too many clubs omit them from their calendar entirely. Perhaps as part of the event the UKU can arrange for the Elite team(s) in each region to provide skills clinics or something similar to create an event that is more than just a qualifier.

The UKU website presents Regionals as development focused, promoting 'a one-day tournament, hopefully a couple of hours from home' which also creates a chance to 'play against a really top team'. However, it seems there is growing pains as top teams are reluctant to accept Regionals as an important date in their busy diaries, and Regionals is not necessarily providing as much development as it could for the teams and players of UK Ultimate. There is clearly some disagreement with the handling of this year's events - but is this a turn in the wrong direction or an overreaction to a blip in an otherwise strong transition to a new Nationals structure? Is this an issue with our tournament organising, or one that's grown out of our player base's attitudes towards development? Do we, and should we care more about fostering strength on a regional level, even at the expense of our own club? Would strength at a regional level arguably not always lead to longer term club benefits, whether for the elite or grassroots? As always there is no simple answer to a complex issue, but it seems one that is ripe for debate as more and more are concerned with the structuring and development of our sport. Discuss...

*http://www.ukultimate.com/system/files/UK%20National%20Championships%20-%20Updated%202013_0.pdf

What do you think? Did you and your team have a good experience at regionals, or choose not to play for any reason? Comment below or get in touch if you want to contribute!

UKU Nationals 2014 - Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 11:29:00 +0000

With the drama of Lecco now over the focus returns to domestic competition in Southampton at the UKU National Championships.

Bristol will once again be looking for a long-wanted win over domestic rivals Iceni. Photo courtesy of Andrew Moss

Women's

This year the women's division grows by two teams to 8, allowing a group into knockout format in which the top two head straight to semi finals. Group A looks less likely to present any upsets as Iceni and Bristol will be hardened returning from the international competition of their WUCC campaigns. Relentless and Manchester will be hoping that tiredness and the dreaded 'double peak' seasons of their opposition will give them a look into the top 4. In Group B the qualifying teams seem are less easily predicted. Punt will be favourites to take the top spot, but have had close games this season against both SYC and Leeds, who will be scrapping hard with Dragon Knights and each other for the semi final spot. As well as a National title, teams are also competing for 2 coveted European qualification spots. That there are no further qualification chances after the final, the semis will come with an extra added dose of pressure for all teams involved.

Chevron will once again be looking to end Clapham's reign. Photo courtesy of Andrew Moss

Open

The Open bracket once again features 16 regional qualifiers in a straight to knockout format. The top 6 teams will head to Europe, with the top 2 spots starting in the 'Elite' division. The final winner takes the first spot, but the second is open to poaching if the winner of the 3v4 and the loser of the final have not yet played, in which case an extra fixture will be played to determine who takes the final Elite division European qualification spot.

Clapham exceeded expectations in Lecco with their exhilarating yet crushing quarter-final loss in sudden death to eventual and repeating World Champions, Revolver. Southampton is familiar ground for domination for this team, and they will look to carry their good form into a 14th consecutive title. They are favourites but with every successive victory comes more pressure to maintain this record. Their route will likely see them face either Brighton or Fire, both teams who will be more than keen to exploit any pressure cracks in the Clapham game. Emo and Chevron are on course to meet on the other side of the bracket, with Devon or Manchester and CUlt looking to trip up the Northern division champions after their 17th place Worlds finish. Up and coming EMO will only have swelled in confidence after a taste of la dolce vita breaking into the top 16, scoring big wins against Freespeed and Melbourne Juggernaut, who knocked Chevron out of the championship bracket. If it happens, this semi is set to be a crowd-pleaser. The 5v6 will not be a 'game-to-go' to Europe, as both teams qualify, but this will in turn hike up the pressure on the preceding two games.

Herd and JR will be battling once again for European qualification. Photo Courtesy of Andrew Moss

Mixed

The 8 team Mixed Nationals tournament offers 3 qualification spots for Europeans, and a notable lack of all of the four british WUCC contenders with Bear Cavalry, Black Eagles, CUlt, and RGS. Thundering Herd are a longstanding committed mixed team and will be looking to take this opportunity to rise back to the top of the mixed pile, but they won't get there easily. Brighton boast one of the largest Ultimate communities outside of London as well as years of pedigree at mixed, and teams such as Pingu Jam, JR and Birmingham will all be bringing young and tight-knit rosters. Curve, ABH and Flyght Club are all longstanding clubs with new talent as well as experienced regulars to draw from, and will also be looking to sneak the wins needed to make the semis bracket. The movement of personnel to the Open and Women's divisions makes it tough to predict any of the games in this division, but all teams will be excited by the open field as well as the relatively high number of European qualification spots.

Keep an eye on the schedule links for results from the weekend, as well as live streaming provided for the Open semis, and Open and Women's finals. UTC have created a fantasy ultimate - check it out here! Finally, this tournament will feature a trial of non-anonymous Spirit voting for each team.

As always, best of luck from The Showgame to all teams competing this weekend!

Stay tuned for some more Nationals coverage addressing some of the controversies surrounding this year's event...

The Grapevine Returns

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 20:19:00 +0000

As the title suggests we will be bringing back The Grapevine but as a monthly collection of the best Ultimate links and news.

Just before WUCC we had our Club and Country series which you should definitely read, got an opinion to add then comment or even email us with a contribution!

WUCC is over with some great results from the UK teams check out the final results here and here. Also DP went along with Skyd Magazine who did some great writing and footage which you can watch back now!

Moving forwards, next week sees the peak of the UK season: UKU Nationals. Schedules are up and check out some of last years footage from PushPass to get you pumped!

Finally, whilst WUCC was going on we reached over the 200,000 views mark on this page! We are so thankful for you guys reading and spreading theShowGame love, keep coming back for more.

Photo courtesy of Tino Tran.

WUCC Results Day Five - Friday 8th

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:31:00 +0000

With only finals left to play we look back at a strong British showing at the 2014 World Club Championships...

Women's

Iceni finish 11th overall with a decisive win over U de Cologne and sustained and confirmed their European dominance throughout the week. Whilst the highest placed European team, they will be frustrated to not have made it into quarter finals, and also by their results against North American competition with scorelines that do not represent the potential of this team.

Win 17 - 6 vs. U. de. Cologne (GER)

Nice Bristols had a tough week with only 3 wins against Rogue (AUS), Brilliance (RUS), and YAKA (FRA) to finish in 22nd. Whilst they missed out on top 16, they will be happy to have improved on their seeding by 2 and will undoubtedly come home with a huge amount of international experience that puts their squad in good stead for years to come.

Win 13 - 11 vs. YAKA (FRA)
Lose 10 - 16 vs. E6 (SWE)

LMS also beat their seeding to move from 30th to 24th. Whilst they may be gutted to lose out in sudden death to CUSB shout in bracket play, they will be happy with big wins over Rogue (AUS), Brilliance (RUS) and Nice Bristols.

Lose 9 - 17 vs. E6 (SWE)

Lose 7 - 12 vs. YAKA (FRA)

Open

Clapham secure 5th place in dramatic style with Rob Schumacher getting the game winning block in sudden death against Furious George. Whilst the team will be rightly disappointed about not making Semi-finals, this is a landmark Worlds campaign for Clapham as they suffer a single defeat by one point to the defending World Champions, as well as a first (and convincing) victory over Buzz Bullets. They are the highest finisher of all European teams.

Win 17 - 12 vs. Buzz Bullets (JPN)
Win 17 - 16 vs. Furious George (CAN)

EMO found difficulty in their 9-16 bracket before closing the tournament on a sudden death win to finish 15th. The young Midlands squad have shown their worth at this tournament and undeniably stepped up once again with victories against Freespeed and Juggernaut. They smashed their seeding in a very competitive division and will be looking to continue their late surge up the rankings of British and European ultimate as the season continues.

Lose 11 - 17 vs. Ragnarok (DEN)
Win 17 - 16 vs. Juggernaut (AUS)

Chevron beat Freespeed in their final game to finish 17th, also in dramatic fashion with Marky 'JL' Fandango taking the final point of the tournament with a layout callahan against the European Silver Medallists. This team will be disappointed to lose out on a top 16 finish, but show promise and grit to finish the tournament with only two losses at the hands of Juggernaut, and Clapham.

Win 16 - 14 vs. Tchac (FRA)

Win 16 - 13 vs. Freespeed (SUI)

Ranelagh had a brutal tournament to say the least with only two victories late in the tournament over FAB and in their final game against Mor ho! to finish 43rd. As tough as it is to face defeat on such a stage, the Dubliners will only gain from the lessons they learned in Lecco. Check out A Ranelagh Player to get a closer look at their Worlds campaign. Also took Spirit in the Open Division! Congrats!

Lose 17 - 11 vs. Gigolo (UKR)

Win 17 - 7 vs. Mor ho! (CZE)

Mixed

Cambridge are the Cinderella team of the competition. Despite a pre-tournament friendly win against Bear Cavalry the team went to Lecco seemingly as GB's second best mixed team. This was emphatically overturned by a pre-quarter meeting between the two teams, which Cambridge one in sudden death to proceed to the top 8 bracket, and knock out their British rivals in the process. Going on to finish 6th with only North American competition above them, the midlands team will be rightly delighted with their showing in Lecco.

Win 16 - 11 vs. Hanabi (JPN)

Lose 13 - 7 vs. Union (CAN)

Bear Cavalry fell short in the cruellest way at the hands of domestic rivals, finishing 12th. Their final game loss by one point to a team they had previously beaten will be tough to take, but the Warwick alumni team will nevertheless be proud of showing themselves a serious force capable of competing on the world stage.

Lose 13 - 17 vs. Wildcard (USA)

Lose 14 - 15 vs. Gecko (CAN) finishing 12th.

RGS missed their seeding by one after two losses on the home straight to finish 28th. The squad showed their quality as they challenged finalists Polar Bears (USA) early in the tournament, but were unable to creep up into the 17-24 bracket.

Lose 14 - 15 vs. Grandmaster Flash (POL)
Lose 15 - 17 vs. Catchup Graz (AUT)

Black Eagles notched a win over RGS and bared their teeth in opening game against eventual 4th place finishers Team Fisher Price (CAN). Their finish at 37th with two decisive victories suggest a much higher placement could have been within their grasps.

Win 16 - 12 vs. China United Ultimate Party (PRC)
Win 17 - 12 vs. Outsiderz (CZE)

Women's Masters

ROBOT Finished 5th overall, narrowly missing out on the championship bracket. Their victory over eventual Bronze medallists Golden Girls (GER) suggests this finish to be deceptive in a division which, perhaps other than the North American finalists, was very closely matched.

Masters

Zimmer finish 7th overall after falling to eventual finalists FIGJAM (CAN) in the quarter finals. Whilst they couldn't overcome FIGJAM or Surly (USA), their early tournament win over Vigi (JAP, 6th) and decisive victories over all other competition add up to a strong showing.

Lose 17 - 12 vs. Surly (USA)
Win 17 - 10 vs. UFO Masters (FIN)

BAF achieved strong wins as well as two sudden death losses first to UFO Masters (FIN) and then in their last game to Ultimate Vibration (FRA). They finish their tough campaign in 12th.

Lose 13 - 17 vs. Wolpertinger (GER)
Lose 14 - 15 vs. Ultimate Vibration (FRA)

Finals - live streamed by Skyd Magazine

Women's - Seattle Riot (USA) vs. San Francisco Fury (USA) (10:30am BST)
Open - San Francisco Revolver (USA) vs. Seattle Sockeye (USA) (16:00pm BST)
Mixed - Polar Bears (USA) vs. Drag'n Thrust (USA) (13:15pm BST)
Women's Masters - Vintage (CAN) 17 - 13 Godiva (USA)
Masters - Boneyard (USA) 17 - 8 FIGJAM (CAN)

That's all from the tSG coverage of WUCC 2014. Congratulations to all UK players and teams for a fantastic showing!

WUCC Results Day Four - Thursday 7th

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 09:37:00 +0000

Keeping you up to date with how the UK teams get on today...

Women's
Final games in the power pools with quarters later.

Iceni
Lose 13 - 7 vs. Scandal (USA)
Lose 11 - 17 vs Fusion (CAN)

Nice Bristols
Lose 11 - 17 vs. LMS
Lose 7 - 17 vs MUD

LMS
Win 17 - 11 vs. Nice Bristols
Lose 14 - 15 vs CUSB Shout

Open
Today sees the pre-quarters and quarter finals.

Clapham
Win 17 - 11 vs. EMO
Lose QF 16 - 17 vs Revolver (USA)

Chevron
Win 17 - 15 vs. Frizzly Bears (GER)

EMO
Lose 11 - 17 vs. Clapham
Lose 11 - 12 vs. Lucky Grass (RUS)

Ranelagh
Win 15 - 9 vs. Wildcard (NZL)
Win 15 - 13 vs. Flying Angels Bern (SUI)

Mixed
Pre-quarters and quarter finals.

Bear Cavalry
Lose 14 - 15 vs. Cambridge
Win 17 - 12 vs Heidees Mixed (GER)

Cambridge
Win 15 - 14 vs. Bear Cavalry, and move on to quarter finals.
Lose 12 - 17 vs Drag'n Thrust (USA)

RGS
Win 17 - 12 vs. Vaasa Saints

Black Eagles
Lose 13 - 17 vs. Hippo

Women's Masters
Last day of round robin.

ROBOT
Win 12 - 10 vs. Golden Girls
Lose 9 - 15 vs. Godiva

Masters
Quarter finals.

Zimmer
Lose 17 - 15 vs. FigJam

BAF
Win 17 - 10 vs. Mucche - Ult. Bergamo.

Excitement Elsewhere

Buzz Bullets come back from 14 - 11 to win in double game point.

Clapham take the top seed Revolver to universe point in their quarter final.

WUCC Results Day Three - Wednesday 6th

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 20:38:00 +0000

Keeping you up to date with how the UK teams get on today...

Women's
All still to play for with more games from power pools tomorrow.

Iceni
Win 13 - 11 vs. Cosmic Girls (RUS)
Loss 6 -15 vs. Showdown (USA)

Nice Bristols
Win 13 - 8 vs. Brilliance (RUS)

LMS
Win 15 - 10 vs. Rogue (AUS)

Open
Familiar faces as Clapham and Chevron find themselves in the same power pool, where both will be looking to overcome Melbourne's Juggernaut as well as each other.

Clapham - Undefeated, up into top 16 where they face EMO.
Win 15 - 12 vs. Juggernaut (AUS)
Win 15 - 11 vs. Chevron (UK)

Chevron - Down into 17-24 bracket
Lose 15 - 11 vs. Clapham (UK)
Lose 12 -15 vs. Juggernaut (AUS)

EMO - Up into top 16 to play Clapham

Lose 11 - 14 vs. Furious George (CAN)

Win 15 - 11 vs. Freespeed (SUI)

Ranelagh
Lose 11 -15 vs. Prague Devils (CZE)

Mixed

Bear Cavalry - Undefeated, up to top 16.
Win 12 - 11 vs. Gecko (CAN)
Win 15 - 12 vs. Croccali (ITA)

Cambridge - Up into top 16.
Win 14 -13 vs. IKU! (Japan)
Lose 8 -15 vs. Team Fisher Price (USA)

RGS
Win 12 - 6 vs. Panthers Bern (SUI)
Lose 12 -15 vs. Black Eagles (UK)

Black Eagles
Win 15 - 12 vs. RGS (UK)

Women's Masters

ROBOT
Win 15 - 13 vs. Sanz (JPN)
vs. Vintage (CAN)

Masters

Zimmer
Win 15 - 8 vs. UFO Masters (FIN) move into 1-16 playoffs
Win 17 - 6 vs MTX (MEX) - Undefeated, up to top 8.

BAF
Lose 15 - 7 vs. Surly (USA) move into 1-16 playoffs
Lose 16 - 17 vs UFO Masters (FIN) - Down to 9-16 bracket.

Excitement Elsewhere

In the Women's Division, Scandal narrowly avoid an upset beating Texas Showdown (feat. Bex Forth) 12-11.

Ragnarok (feat. Alex Cragg) beat CUSB in a tight game to guarantee top 16 and pre-quarter against Jonny Bravo.

WUCC Results Day Two - Tuesday 5th

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:00:00 +0000

For those less Twitter-literate, keeping you up to date with how the UK teams get on today in Lecco. Scores will be updated as they come in, so keep an eye out...

Today's play follows the Sunday schedule with only minor changes.

Women's

Iceni (8th)
Win 15 - 4 vs. Prague Devils (CZE, 23rd)

Nice Bristols (24th) - Coming third in pool puts them in lower power pools.
Lose 15 - 2 vs. Traffic (CAN, 7th)

LMS Ultimate (30th)
Win 12 - 7 vs. Brilliance (RUS, 14th)

Open

NEWS: Potential schedule change going forward. Top 2 from each pool will enter into 8 power pools of 3 teams. Top 2 of the power pools go to top 16 play-offs. Important implication is that some groups will be 1st-1st-2nd seeds, and some will be 1st-2nd-2nd; substantial considering that only the top 2 proceed from power pools to final 16. Please note - this change is yet to be confirmed.

Clapham (8th) - Top the pool 3 - 0 going into power pools.

Win 15 - 7 vs. KFUM Orebro (SWE, 32nd)

Chevron (12th) - Top the pool 3 - 0 going into power pools with game against Clapham tomorrow.
Win 15 - 13 vs. Heidees (GER, 36th)

EMO (22nd) - Take 2nd in pool and head to power pools as a 2nd seed.
Win 14 - 9 vs. Crackerjacks (SIN, 46th)
Win 14-10 vs. Iznogood (FRA, 27th)

Ranelagh (41st)
Lose 11 - 15 vs. Mephisto (CAN, 17th)

Max McCartney takes the grab and makes sure of it for Clapham. Photo courtesy of Kevin LeClaire / Ultiphotos.

Mixed

Bear Cavalry (8th) Top pool to keep 8th seed.
Win 15 - 8 vs. Slash (MEX, 32nd)

Cambridge (18th) Top pool to take 7th seed.
Win 15 -5 vs. China United Ultimate Party (PRC, 42nd)

RGS (27th)
Lose 11 - 15 vs Polar Bears (USA, 46th)
Lose 10 - 14 vs IKU! (JPN, 46th)

Black Eagles (38th)
Lose 10 - 15 vs. Salaspils FK (LAT, 14th)

Women's Masters

ROBOT (6th)
Win 14 - 9 vs. Guacamayas (COL, 4th)
Win 15 - 9 vs. Funky Masters (FRA, 1st)

Masters

Zimmer (4th)
Win 15 - 4 vs. Yanomami (VEN, 16th)
Win 15 - 8 vs. Gronical Dizziness (NED, 17th)

BAF (8th)
Win 15 - 5 vs. Dedushka (RUS, 21st)
Win 15 - 8 vs. MTX (FRA, 11th)

Excitement Elsewhere

Iznogood pushed Buzz Bullets with Buzz narrowly taking half 9-8. Buzz emerged victors 15-11 in an unexpectedly close pool play match up.

Bad Skid have been knocked out of top 24 by Communidad del Oso (COL) in a contentious game which included a spirit time out.

WUCC Results Day One - Monday 4th

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 19:57:00 +0000

Keeping you up to date with how the UK teams got on today...

Things eventually got off to a boggy start in Lecco today after games from Monday were rescheduled due to waterlogged fields. Here's how the home teams got on.
Full results are here.

Women's

Iceni seem comfortable as they take two wins, Bristol take 1 W 1 L, and LMS take a loss to the experienced Woodchicas.

Iceni (8th)
Win 15 - 5 vs. Athletico (FIN, 23rd)
Win 14 - 10 vs. ZUF (SUI, 9th)

Nice Bristols (24th)
Lose 9 - 14 vs. U de Cologne (GER, 10th)
Win 13 - 9 vs. Rogue (AUS, 26th)

Little Miss Sunshine (30th)
Lose 9 - 15 vs. Woodchicas (GER, 19th)

Open

Clapham and Chevron both secure power pool qualification with two wins, EMO lose out to Buzz (view stream here), and Ranelagh unfortunately fail to get their first win on the board.

Clapham (8th)
Win 15 - 5 vs. Ranelagh (IRE, 41st)
Win 15 - 9 vs. Mephisto (CAN, 17th)

Chevron (12th)
Win 15 - 10 vs. Wildcats (NZL, 37th)
Win 11 - 9 vs. Euforia (COL, 13th)

EMO (22nd)
Lose 6 - 15 vs. Buzz Bullets (JPN, 3rd)

Ranelagh (41st)
Lose 5 - 15 vs. Clapham (GBR, 8th)
Lose 12 - 14 vs. KFUM Örebro (SWE, 32nd)

Mixed

Bear Cavalry and RGS keep a clean record for the first pool play games, Black Eagles are unable to get their first win and Cambridge turn their pool inside out with a sudden death loss to the 31st seeds, and a 15-11 win over the highest seeds in their pool.

Bear Cavalry (8th)
Win 15 - 8 vs. Sexy Legs (EST, 41st)
Win 15 - 6 vs. UFO Mixed (NED, 17th)

Cambridge (18th)
Lose 14 - 15 vs. Panthers Bern (SUI, 31st)
Win 15 - 11 vs. Wild Card (USA, 7th)

RGS (27th)
Win 15 - 5 vs. Fire of Anatolia (TUR, 46th)

Black Eagles (38th)
Lose 11 - 15 vs. Team Fisher Price (CAN, 11th)
Lose 7 - 14 vs. Grandmaster Flash (POL, 35th)

R.G.S getting horizontal on the first day of play. Photo courtesy of Kevin Leclaire/Ultiphotos.

Women's Masters

The Brits finish the day 1 and 1, and in 4th position in the pool round robin.

ROBOT
Lose 8 - 15 vs. Welldone (FIN)
Win 15 - 9 vs. Primal (AUS)

Masters

Zimmer stay strong with two wins, and BAF end with a 1 and 1 for the first day.

Zimmer (4th)
Win 15 - 5 vs. MM (MEX, 24th)
Win 15 - 11 vs. Vigi (JPN, 9th)

BAF (8th)
Win 15 - 10 vs. Mokonui (NZL, 20th)
Lose 11 - 15 vs. Flood (CAN, 13th)

Excitement Elsewhere

Rumour mill: Davide is taken away from a universe point loss to Bad Skid by a WFDF rep - TRUTH: Davide was simply taken aside by his team during half time to calm down a little.
Viksjöfors push Furious George to 15-13, narrowly losing.
Texas Showdown lose out to Japan's HUCK.
Cambridge beat the American Mixed team Wildcard to mix up their pool.
Some pitches are very boggy but weather was beautiful today.
Schedule has changed a number of times in the day for tomorrows play but minimal effect for UK teams.

One of the entrance roads into the venue, a little muddy. Photo courtesy of Kevin Leclaire/Ultiphotos.

Club or Country Part 3 - An In Depth Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:37:00 +0000

In this contribution to the discussion Sion Scone tackles this contentious issue with impressive depth. The article first approaches the various pros and cons of the two systems, then theorises how such a change may actually be implemented before looking at past results to predict the potential for future success.

[Note: Throughout this piece, the shortening ‘TGB’ will stand for the traditional all-star approach that has historically been used for GB teams. ‘NGB’ will stand for any hypothetically proposed new GB model.]

Club or Country Introduction
Club or Country Part One

Club or Country Part Two

Introduction

In Ultimatum 2012, Jaimie Cross wrote an article called Geographical Bonus, which explored the idea of abandoning the focus on traditional national squads and instead focussing on development within clubs. Nearly two years on, we look at the pros and cons of such an approach, what it could mean for UK Ultimate as a whole, and whether or not a UK club team would do better than previous GB teams.

Part 1 - Advantages of the NGB model

Familiarity
Improved teamwork developed through more hours training together. As Jaimie already said, “extended familiarity and trust built over years of training with your team-mates week in week out”. A TGB team will tend to struggle against established clubs, even if the overall standard of player in those clubs is lower, because of the lack of familiarity which the TGB team is generally still working out but the clubs excel at. A NGB model would benefit greatly in this area, removing one potential hurdle. TGB teams tend only to hit their stride during the week of their major competition, which is probably too late in many instances.

Integration

No issues integrating players: less likely to have two players with the same role; the problem of moving someone out of their preferred role; or the problem of integrating players who have never played together before.

Cohesion

The team atmosphere will be stronger as a result of increased hours spent together. Even a NGB model club would need to have dedicated team bonding in a non-ultimate context if they want to get best results; one of the TGB teams had their squad taking part in dance lessons as part of a team bonding exercise, for instance.

Rapport

More honesty, less likelihood of harbouring hidden animosities between TGB team mates who are normally rivals; it is no surprise to find that players that have been part of “unsuccessful” TGB teams of the past tend to blame the players who came from other clubs. Jaimie’s article in whole could be seen as a case in point. There may, of course, be some animosity towards the NGB leadership from players who have been forced to leave their favourite club just to be part of GB. So called “personal” issues can also be resolved, resulting in the elimination of personality clashes etc.

Tactical Depth

More chance to develop tactics; more repetitions of their offence and defences, allowing them to try more things. Most TGB squads have to spend two years training yet only have one or two defensive and offensive looks, when realistically they would need to be adaptable enough to cope with a variety of playing styles if they want to succeed on an international stage.

Lower Commitment

Many who could not afford the time or money to travel to monthly, centralised TGB training sessions would in fact be able to commit the weekly local time commitment, so there would be an additional source of players for NGB.

Part 2 - Disadvantages of NGB

Ringers

If a single UK club represents GB – with or without “ringers” – then it is highly likely that anyone who would have previously tried out for TGB would attempt to try out for NGB, subject to geography, making a mockery of the idea of a “club” team.

Lack of Competition

Competition has been lauded by Jaimie as one of the key aspects of developing mental strength. The likelihood of NGB encountering competition on Tour is pretty slim, which means NGB would be highly unlikely to get any competition at all without travelling outside of Europe. There is a natural argument therefore that Tour will not offer any opportunities for developing mental strength. Of course, whether the NGB club requires Tour for competition is another matter, but the fact remains: if regular competition is vital for the development of mental strength, then reduced competition will remove any opportunities for this development. As Jaimie says, “diminished competitiveness means that the top teams/players play many games where the final result is a foregone conclusion and so there is not significant pressure”.

Devaluing of Tour

Lack of competition devalues the Tour; will the Tour even be worthwhile for a NGB club? The Tour has been repeatedly referred to as the reason that the standard of ultimate in the UK is generally above that of other parts of Europe, but if the NGB club gets more out of their regular practices than they do from Tour, then why bother going on Tour at all? This has a knock-on effect for the entire UKU population, who then get no opportunity to test themselves against the cream of British ultimate; the draw for international teams will also be far less. It will become increasingly difficult for players to break into the NGB team without such devices for improvement, and there is a strong argument that the overall quality of play in the UK will decline as a result.

Sliding Standards

Who is looking at developing individuals? My experiences of coaching GB over the last three years showed me that clubs generally are failing to develop players’ skill levels and tactical knowledge. If the NGB clubs never get any competition domestically, then it could be relatively easy for their standards to decrease. A lack of competition at practice would practically guarantee any strong player a spot at WUGC, for example, so what is going to force one of the leaders to attend practice? Without the regular yardstick comparison against other domestic teams, progress is not going to be simple to measure.

Bonding Opportunities

It would be a mistake to overlook the bonding effect of weekends spent together; a TGB model tends to throw people into hotel rooms and social occasions, which has a far better effect on team building than simply going home straight after a practice.

No Development Cycle

The NGB club is not going to be interested in taking on fresh players in the years of EUC / WUCC. This is in stark contrast to a TGB team, which removes players from their clubs during the two year cycle, forcing those clubs to develop more players in order to field teams. Despite Jaimie’s assertions that this will “primarily hinder the development of a club’s non-GB players”, I believe the exact opposite is true; former bench-warmers are forced to step up, get more pitch time at training and plenty more exposure at tournaments. This is where the “nerve-shredding competition” that Jaimie referred to comes in; inexperienced players representing their club against a bitter rival. Case in point: Clapham finally regain the European gold in 2012 after a season where they missed their GB players on Tour; the non-GB players in Clapham had a season of playing in big games behind them. They had stepped up to the plate and shown their abilities, and the club benefitted as a result. If losing top players can be a useful mechanism for developing strength in depth across a squad, then the loss of this development mechanism needs to be replaced with something else.

Stagnation

The addition of new players thrown into the mix of a TGB model every 4 years helps to create a melting pot. In 2007-08, the Fusion influence gave added emphasis on the fast break, something previously absent from GB Open. A single club team is more likely to be inflexible (sticking to one style of play) than a TGB model which can draw upon the experience of multiple playing styles. This also serves as a way of the top players from across the country sharing knowledge and skills. Without this knowledge sharing, there could be a real loss of potential.

Measuring Stick

A TGB model also provides a way of getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of players who are normally rivals from the perspective of being their teammate. As a result, players in a TGB model get to return to their clubs early on the season with a way of measuring how strong their rivals are going to be, and this gives them a way of making adjustments if they are required. This will be absent under a NGB model.

Passing on Knowledge

The TGB model has had a great effect on clubs in terms of the filtering down of tactics, good habits, fitness & training knowledge, including drills and experience in general that the top players in the country can then take back to their clubs & local community. If a single player from a small-ish club - let’s say ranked somewhere between 4-8th in the UK – makes the GB team, then they are able to take that information back & use it to educate another club by proxy. This will be lost entirely with a NGB approach, which could lead to the overall weakening of the UK club scene.

Brummie (front row, far right) with the rest of the GB Open Silver Medal Squad of Sakai 2012. Photo courtesy of nzsnaps.com.

Part 3 - How would it actually work?

Impact on UK Ultimate as a Whole

If competition is the best mechanism for improvement, then the best possible scenario for the development of players in the UK is to have 8 or more clubs of equal strength, so that every single game comprises pressure and develops mental strength. The result of years of competitive play would be a larger pool of elite players than currently exists, and would more closely model the club scene in the USA. It is my personal view, however, that competition alone is a poor mechanism for improvement. The real improvement takes place in the months of training prior to competition, and the competition itself performs the act of fine-tuning the machine crafted over the course of a season. Without an athletic team with strong throwing skills, no amount of competition is going to close the gap. Competition allows a team to stress test its abilities, not develop them.

For the individuals currently playing for the clubs likely to act as the NGB team - assuming they are eligible to represent GB - the NGB model is a clear win. For their team mates who would normally not make the NGB cut, it is also a win; unless, of course, they cannot commit to playing at WUGC. What happens to these players? Do they get kicked out of their club, or do they take the place that would otherwise go to someone who could play at WUGC? What about foreign players who are not eligible to play for GB? Would their clubs be kicked out?

How Will it Actually Work?

In principle, it’s simple; just award the right to represent GB to the club that wins Nationals. In reality, there may be some questions that need to be addressed. What would happen if a “super team” were formed that removed one of the currently established teams like Iceni or Clapham from their spot as representatives of GB? Would that change the viewpoint of those arguing for (or against) a NGB model? If Chevron – a team that has players spread across the country and does not train weekly - were to win the right to represent GB, then many of the arguments in favour of a sending a geographically close unit cease to exist. This means that, if being able to train locally and/or regularly is key to the decision of whether to adopt a NGB model, then would teams that do not meet this criteria be prevented from representing GB? Would they then, in turn, be prevented from playing at Nationals? Likewise, when a team wins the right to represent GB, what is to stop its captains from cutting their entire team and replacing them with superstar pick up players, with the same overall effect? Either the ability to train locally and/or regularly must be ignored in the decision to adopt a NGB model, or the UKU must police the representative clubs to ensure that they are indeed meeting a certain level of criteria; some kind of service level agreement would be required. Do the NGB teams need to train weekly? Twice per week? How many players must be at each practice to get the benefits of training regularly? While I doubt that Si Hill is going to turn up with a register to any practices, some further thought is clearly required before implementing such an idea. Of course, we could trust clubs to do their own job, but that adds an element of the unknown and a lack of overall control for the UKU; bear in mind that World Games qualification is based on the overall results of Open, Women’s and Mixed, so if one has a poor result then it has a knock-on effect for the entire country.

Currently, the UKU requires prospective GB managers to complete an application form, which is then assessed by a committee to ensure that the most qualified leaders are in charge. What if a club wins nationals yet the leadership wants to step down, or leave entirely? The end result could be a club representing GB which is very different to the one that qualified. It is not only playing quality that is likely to be affected, but also the team’s approach to SOTG. Given some poor scores for TGB teams at 2012 – and some recent high scores for UK clubs – perhaps this is one area where NGB teams might excel; consistent leadership and team attitude over a number of years can really bring a team together. It is entirely possible for the outcome of this to be a team with very poor spirit, but this doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.

What About Beach Teams, or the World Games Team?

The UKU is just starting up a regular beach championships, so this could be a useful testing ground for a NGB model. What about World Games? The TGB model has never resulted in a win over the four top nations (USA, Australia, Canada, Japan), but then very few UK teams can claim to have beaten any of the best teams from those countries anyway. Should a NGB model be adopted, and if so, how would it be awarded? Should the winner of Mixed Tour be the GB World Games team?

Part 4 - Will it Work?

Looking Back

Can we use data from previous WUCC events to see how UK club teams may have performed were they to represent GB at WUGC? By taking the results from any one division and assigning a nation ranking to the top ranked club from each country, we can get an indication of how the TGB v NGB model may fare.

The following table shows results for the highest placed UK club team at the last three WUCC. The first number shows the ranking by nation; this should represent how UK clubs might fare should they enter WUGC. The number in square brackets is the actual finishing position for that club at that championship, while the number in rounded brackets is the number of clubs that played in the respective division that year. So, for example, in 2002 WUCC Open division, the highest placing UK club team came 11th out of 39 clubs. Three countries (USA, Canada, Japan) had clubs which finished higher, so the nation ranking is 4.

	2002	2006	2010
Open	4th [11th] (39)	4th [5th] (21)	6th [10th] (48)
Women’s	4th [12th] (24)	5th [8th] (18)	6th [14th] (32)*
Mixed	7th [15th] (40)	7th [15th] (40)	5th [13th] (40)

* indicates that Leeds finished highest at WUCC 2010, yet Iceni were National Champions in 2009. The overall national ranking would be unchanged; Iceni finished 17th

How does this compare to results from the last three WUGC events?

	2004	2008	2012
Open	8th	4th	2nd
Women’s	5th	5th	7th
Mixed	7th	5th	5th

Of course, these comparisons are rudimentary and over-simplified; it could be easily argued that the WUGC results reflect stronger overall teams than the WUCC results do. For example, Japan rarely perform well in the Mixed division at WUCC (nation rankings 4, 7, 7), yet do much better at WUGC with a national team (8, 2, 3), an indication that a national team model is successful for them at least. However, the data for UK teams are inconclusive; TGB gets a single medal compared to zero for NGB. Average results are incredibly close too, across all three divisions; identical for Open (although NGB model on an upwards trajectory), with NGB slightly outperforming TGB in the Women’s division, and TGB model slightly better in the Mixed division.

One interesting result that stands out is the performance of Iceni in 2009 – Tour winners, National & European Champions – yet finished 17th at WUCC, below 3 other European teams, including one other UK based club, LLLeeds. This is clear evidence to suggest that strength one year might not be replicated, especially if a number of players are to retire at the end of a season.

Looking Forward

Assuming a NGB model were adopted for 2016 WUGC, here’s my predictions of what we might expect to see based on the current squads:

Open. Clapham have won Nationals for the last 13 years and show no signs of stopping after a dominant 2013 season that ended in their second consecutive European title. They undoubtedly have the strongest club roster in a number of years, and show enormous promise heading into WUCC 2014. However, I would have said something very similar regarding their squad in 2010 when they fell far short of their semi-final aspirations. This time around they began building their squad a year earlier, which has given them a fantastic platform to work from, and all they need to do to is maintain momentum. How would they fare at WUGC?

From my gut feeling, I think that by 2016 they might be capable of beating Canada, and their results from Chesapeake indicate that they might be able to get close to USA, but I can’t see them winning that game. GB were not capable of defeating Japan in 2004, 2008 or 2012, and I don’t see that changing by 2016, despite Buzz Bullets ageing roster. The Japanese skill level and method of training their younger players is far superior to ours. In 2012, GB Open showed that it’s perfectly possible to get a medal despite losing to USA, Canada & Japan, so a fortunate draw could easily give Clapham a finals berth. What I don’t see them doing is being strong enough to defeat Australia, Sweden, Colombia and still having the legs to win the games against USA, Canada & Japan. I predict a few losses in power pools, and then whether or not they get through quarters is entirely dependent on the draw; Japan or USA is a nightmare draw for Clapham, who would want to play Australia or maybe even Canada. Sweden would be a bit of a dodgy matchup too, either team could win. Bronze would be a great performance, and I would predict them finishing between 3rd-6th.

Women’s. Iceni have stuttered a few times domestically – notably losing the Nationals final to Leeds in 2010 – but have generally done so while playing with split squads in order to increase their depth. They have shown their ability to win tight games with back-to-back European titles, winning in sudden death from D in 2012. However, watching these games you’ll very quickly memorise the same names doing everything for Iceni, same playing almost every point. This is simply not possible at the elite level, and so I don’t see Iceni capable of defeating any of the top four until they increase the depth of their squad. Their top few players are easily capable of holding their own against the best in the world, but they won’t be able to generate breaks using their current second string of players, and they will need to as their O line is far from perfect. I would predict losses to USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Colombia, with a finish of 6th-8th; I don’t see any of the other European nations catching up unless Iceni slow their pace, which is unlikely.

Mixed. Definitely the hardest to predict, as the National champions change most years. The Mixed division shows that “super teams” loaded with stars from Open & Women’s teams are easily capable of winning the entire thing, although there has been a shift towards dedicated mixed teams with Bear Cavalry’s recent victories; how much the fact that Open, Women’s and Mixed Nationals are now all played simultaneously has to do with that is unclear. What is clear though is that a team is capable of winning the European Mixed title with little international experience, with very few of the players having represented GB at the senior level. It is my gut instinct that any such team would perform very poorly against elite opposition, and I’d predict a finish somewhere between 8th-12th at WUGC.

Conclusion - Which is Better? NGB or TGB?

Even missing some of the best players in the country, the overall NGB team is likely to be better in the short term than the equivalent TGB team. But there will be a knock-on effect which will decrease the strength of future UK programmes. There is little evidence to support the idea that a single 'superclub' would drag up the clubs underneath them. Case in point, Skogshyddan, the once-dominant Swedish club, faded and finally collapsed, the end of almost 20 years of incredibly strong Swedish ultimate (Sweden won Worlds in 1992, and got Silver in 1984, 86, 90, 94, 96, 2000). Sweden still doesn’t have a strong domestic scene, although I have no doubt that the Borg will be back... . There is plenty of evidence, however, for strong national teams where there is a tradition of strong domestic competition; Australia is an excellent example of a nation that does better than GB in almost every division, and they do so with a 'traditional' national team despite their much larger country size. Japan is a slightly skewed example in the Open division - Buzz Bullets are semi-professional - but their women’s teams have a lot of domestic competition (3 teams in the top 6 @ WUCC 2010). As previously mentioned, the Tour was responsible, 10 years ago, for enabling GB to get to the position it is in today of dominating Europe. Do we really want to move away from the model that is the envy of Europe?

In my opinion, the NGB model might do better in the short term than the TGB model has. However, I sincerely believe that it will have a long term negative effect. Interestingly, the UK club with the strongest claim to take over the national duty – Clapham – would have to attempt to replicate the best result by any senior GB team, the Open silver medal in 2012. No mean feat – for either NGB or TGB – and while this may be an unfair measure, comparisons are natural. As long as the UK does not have a structured approach to player development, the emphasis is on those players who have international experience to feed that information down. As such, having players in many clubs gaining international experience is vital to the development of the UK club scene. To remove that would be a catastrophe.

Keep the comments coming and let us know what you think. We would be more than happy to publish more full length pieces on this subject, get in touch if you would like to make a submission at the usual address: showgameblog@gmail.com!

WUCC 2014 Mixed Division Preview: Bear Cavalry

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:10:00 +0000

Matt Dathan and Matthew Hodgson finish off our previews with Bear Cavalry.

Bear Cavalry took Gold at Windmill Windup this season. Photo courtesy of Martine Bootsma/Windmill Windup.

Squad

Adam Maxwell

Alex Wylie

Darbi Donaldson

David Tyler (C)

Gemma Wakeford

Hanna John

Helen Swan-Thompson

James Freeman

Joe Swan-Thompson

Josh Wakeford

Lauren Tyler

Lucy Hawkes
Matt Alders

Matt Hodgson
Pedro Vargas
Ronja Wöstheinrich
Rosie Musgrave

Theo Tizard

About Bear Cavalry

The World Club Championships in Lecco is what Bear Cavalry has existed for since the club of mainly Warwick alumni players was formed more than four years ago.

With a 95 per cent retention rate since that first full season together, there has been little need for adding extra players to a tight-knit group, many of whom have played together at university, in the 2011 GB mixed team and at clubs such as Fire of London and Ka-Pow.

But for their final path to World’s they have added two missing jigsaws of the puzzle in the form of two Ka-Pow players – Pedro Vargas, the Portuguese handler, and the versatile Matt Hodgson.

Both were hand-picked by the Bears captain, Dave Tyler, as individuals who would easily adjust to Bears’ particular style of offense and hard man defense.

Playing and Coaching Style

That style of play is built around a pivot-based offence, characterised by cynical opponents as a hierarchical offence because it is designed around Joe Thompson and Dave Tyler, the two pivots around which the rest of the offence runs.

“Calling it a hierarchical offence is disingenuous, because outside of the top two the hierarchy isn’t well defined,” Dave explains.

It is an approach targeted for mixed ultimate and designed to bring out the best of the teams’ star players.

“It often looks like quite a naive V stack, but it's a bit more complex than that – the stack is just somewhere to keep people out of the way until a pivot player gets the disc. It's not an offence that would work for most teams – and definitely not in open – it’s evolved over time as the way to get the best out of our best players.”

When observing their style of play, you may come to the conclusion that Bear’s strategy has remained unchanged from their university days, but while the principles remain the same – man defence and a vertical stack offence – the adjustments made by the captaincy have filtered in over the years.

On first glance the offence style may look basic, but the adjustments made have highlighted the strengths of the squad and have been drilled in so thoroughly that the team has confidence in the strategy and in the reliability of the team to execute it.

Bears are hitting World’s after a hugely successful domestic season, dominating all three mixed tours and remaining unbeaten until earlier this month, when they suffered a surprise loss to Cambridge in a friendly.

The defeat was brushed aside by Bears players, who pointed to the fact they were missing four of their key players. “We needed to experience what defeat tasted like so we know never to taste it again,” said a particularly defiant Bear. And it was on Cambridge’s hallowed home turf, of course, so no confidence has been lost from within the very close unit of players.

Domination has not been a new experience for Bears however, having won mixed tour in 2011 and 2012, winning nationals in 2012 and 2013 and the European Club Championships in Bordeaux last year.

They continued to impress on the international stage this season, winning the Golden Elephant trophy at Windmill Windup in Amsterdam. Winning on the domestic and European scene is one thing; world domination is another level altogether, and captain Dave is realistic when it comes to setting a goal in Lecco.

Predictions

He said it was difficult to predict how a club like Bears will fare against non-European teams, pointing to the example of Venezuela under-23s at last year’s World Championships to show how dangerous it is to guess the strength of teams from more unfamiliar countries.

As with the Open and Women’s divisions, the pinnacle of European mixed clubs come from the UK. But unlike Clapham and Iceni, who have both recently returned home from facing North America’s elite at the US Open, Bear Cavalry have never played a team that competes outside of Europe, so adjustments will have to be made based on filmed footage and adapting throughout the tournament.

When pushed for a prediction – and Dave was the only one of the UK mixed teams’ captains who was brave enough to give a prediction, a reflection of his straightforward, honest approach to leadership – he told The ShowGame that a realistic goal for the team was a finishing position between seventh and 12^th place.

“I’d say it’s a huge success in results if we come in the top eight,” he says. “I’d like us to come up against one of the top four teams and prove that our systems work. We won’t win, simply because we aren’t individually good enough, but I want to see whether what we’ve built as a club holds its own to the top of our abilities as individuals,” he adds.

Lecco is the last hurrah for Bear Cavalry. Like retiring footballers, it is always best to go out on top, leaving a positive legacy to remember the team by. Barring world domination, there is little left to achieve for the club, having risen from winning student nationals to European champions and what the team hopes will be a top eight finish at World’s.

The best crop of players in the team are likely to focus on GB for the next couple of years and while Bear Cavalry might make the odd reappearance at tournaments at home and abroad, it will no longer be a club with such a serious and focused set of objectives.

Whatever you make of their style of play and approach to the game, you cannot doubt the commitment of the players to a set program over such a length of time and the impressive journey they have made all the way from Freshers’ year at Warwick University.

And that is that. Keep you eyes open for the SkyD and tSG coverage of WUCC.

WUCC 2014 Mixed Division Preview: Cambridge Ultimate

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:08:00 +0000

Matthew Hodgson and Matt Dathan preview Cambridge Ultimate in the Mixed division of WUCC 2014.

Cambridge winning the Golden Keg final and last month. Photo courtesy of the Golden Keg crew.

Squad

Adrienne Tecza

Ania Koscia

Ben Bruin

Dom Dathan

Duncan Pocklington

Fran Dathan

Hannah Boddy

Hannah Williams

Howard Storey

James Threadgill

Joe Durst

Kelly Hogan

Lucy Barnes

Magali Matsumiya

Matt Metcalfe

Michele Ghansah

Nancy Rawlings

Niamh Delaney

Nick Wong

Rich Hims

Sam Turner

Sam Vile

Steve Kolthammer

Susanna Bidgood

About Cambridge

If it was a pub quiz, Cambridge would be firm favourites. Not only do they boast a host of current and alumni Cambridge students, they have been joined by a number of players from their arch-rivals, Oxford, to form a team that would not look out of place being tested by Jeremy Paxman.

However it is not a pub quiz, it is the World Ultimate Club Championships, and the question on many people’s minds is, with more than seven doctorates among the team, will too many genii spoil the grand plan, masterminded by co-captains Nick Wong and Magali Matsumiya?

The team held limited try-outs for a small number of invited players to add external experience and talent to a team that has a very cohesive feel to it, due to a long tradition of weekly training sessions in Cambridge.

So whilst the likes of James Threadgill, Frances Dathan and Ben Bruin might water down the average IQ of the team, they will add vital graft and experience to the team.

The combination of a strong history of ultimate in Cambridge, the integration of its university team with the club, the rise of the women’s team Punt and the handful of additions to the squad has led to the rising force of the Cambridge mixed team.

Until last year, they were certainly not considered a powerhouse on the UK scene. Yes, they regularly made the quarter finals and the top 10 at mixed tours, but they were not a team that was feared.

Yet, after their most successful mixed tour season last year – securing second and third-placed finishes – they went into nationals brimming with confidence. They lost to Bear Cavalry in the final and finished in second place, enough to qualify for the European Club championships and their long-awaited prize of a spot at World’s.

At Europeans in Bordeaux their only defeats came against the Latvian team Salaspils FK and a narrow loss against UFO Utrecht in the quarter finals, before securing an impressive fifth-place finish.

With only a handful of new additions this season, they travel to Lecco as one of the most prepared teams. Their turnout at training is outstanding compared to other teams, they reached every almost final of the mixed tours this season and have performed very well at two international warm-up tournaments, finishing as runners-up at G-Spot in Ghent and winning the Golden Keg tournament in Dublin, beating RGS in the process.

Add to that their surprise 15-13 win over Bear Cavalry in a warm-up game earlier this month – the first UK team to beat Bears in over a year – Cambridge “look to be timing their peak perfectly for World’s,” as one rival team’s captain put it.

Playing and Coaching Style

At times, however, their preparation domestically has been frustrating, with the lack of competition in the UK a problem shared by Bear Cavalry.

“It’s been frustrating that a lot of our games haven’t been that close,” says Nick. “We’ve only had one or two games each tour to really develop and learn new things.”

Cambridge’s style of play is very much driven by a horizontal offence, with hints of split stack principles, aiming to make big isolations for their cutters, which will give opposition teams match-up nightmares across both genders.

“We’ve got some really good women on the team,” says Nick. “So we set up our offence to make sure we give them the space to do their thing.”

Some players have joked about the amount of time spent discussing the small minutiae of tactics, suggesting too many genii do indeed spoil the grand plan, but Nick does well to use and contain the billions of brain cells competing for talking time.

Nick dismisses the importance of the team’s superior IQ, however. “IQ smarts translates very poorly into frisbee smarts,” he explains. And co captain Mags says it sometimes has a detrimental effect at trainings.

“It leads to a vast amount of discussion of every possibility that could possibly ever happen, which is not ideal,” she says of certain players’ tendency to analyse their tactics to the nth degree.

As for their tactics off the pitch, the captains are taking a more Fabio Capello approach to team discipline than RGS have, with an alcohol ban in action throughout the tournament. Only time will tell which approach works better, but don’t expect Cambridge players to be hitting the bars of Lecco until at least Saturday evening.

Prediction

Nick refused to set a goal for Cambridge at World’s – or at least he chose to keep his cards close to his chest – preferring to determine success as “playing really well as a team and playing to our potential,” taking each game as it comes.

He stressed Cambridge’s team ethos was more important than any key individuals, and the team’s strength across the board, rather than certain stand-out players, is something that their UK rivals lack.

“There’s no kind of individual stars as such. What we’ve done well so far is try to work out how to get key contributions from everyone, so not to rely too much on stars, but to have a good spread from everyone.”

It is a point put rather more bluntly by a Bear Cavalry player, who predicted a top-16 finish for Cambridge.

“A very flat squad without any standout players but plenty of depth,” is how they described Cambridge. “Tactically they're very sound but I suspect they're simply not talented enough to break down a really good team.

“They've also got a really hard draw so would be very hard pressed to get out of their power pool let alone make top eight. A finish in the 12-16 bracket in my opinion.”

Cambridge are not afraid of rewarding their star players on the day however, with American Steve Kolthammer winning male MVP at Golden Keg and the female award going to Magali Matsumiya, who has come a long way since playing in her first mixed tour in 2007, when, unaware of the term ‘gender across’, ended up marking a guy and leaving the free woman to score an easy point.

Cambridge will be going into WUCC seeded 18^th – the second-ranked British team behind Bears – but have all the pieces in place and preparation to compete with anyone and make a run at the top spots.

Almost there only one team left ...

Club or Country Part 2 - Is GB ready?

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 17:23:00 +0000

Mark Penny continues Club or Country by asking:

Are GB missing out not sending a club team to represent our country?

For Club or Country Introduction click here.

For Club or Country Part One click here.

A lot of the leading international teams from our sport are winners of the national club championships from their respective countries. The US sent Sockeye to Worlds in 2008 and Revolver in 2012, whereas teams such as Japan and Sweden have consistent representation from Buzz Bullets and Skogshyddan. The same can be seen in the women’s division, with San Francisco’s Fury being a prime example of success within this system. The question being asked is this: are we, in Britain, right or wrong for not sending our national champions overseas?

There are arguments in favour of sending our reigning champions to international tournaments, the most obvious and important of which is the strong chemistry between players within a club team, which comes as a result of regular training. As solid an argument as that is, in my opinion it doesn’t out-power the fact that an accumulation of players from across Britain will hold more talent than say, for example, the Clapham or Chevron Squad alone. Furthermore, the chemistry held by the club teams is not excluded from an All-Star lineup. Great Britain does not have a large player base to pick from when compared with the US or Canada. This means that our club teams, whether they are considered to be top teams in the UK or not, are not packed from first pick to last with international standard players. The top teams in North America are. If we did send what would at the moment be Clapham to Worlds, then the second tier of their players would get dominated by the second tier of players from bigger countries’ rosters. This would result in Britain continuously losing games due to a lack of strength in depth.

Mark Penny playing for GB at WUGC in Japan. Photo courtesy of nzsnaps.com.

Britain’s best players are spread across the country, dotted around in a variety of different clubs and areas. We are very regionalised around the major cities and universities, with small pockets of talent everywhere. For example, Josh Coxon Kelly, Sam Vile, Matt ‘Whippet’ Ford, Kate Rae and Charlie Blair all represented at elite level and came out of the first generation of a single tiny ultimate community in Kent. Should GB not be trying to take advantage of these small pockets of talent that exist in our country to strengthen our National side, without those players having to migrate to the most dominant club? Choosing one club to represent us is confining ourselves to picking our players from one part of the country. We should be thinking that as our country isn’t as big as the USA, or Canada we are at an advantage! Might it not be the case that if it were geographically possible for them to conceivably travel and train together, these nations might also prefer to send an “allstar” team?

To send one club abroad would be a waste of the talent that ultimate players here have to offer. GB went to the world championships in Japan and with the right preparation (and the right amount of fortune), managed to come 2nd in the world. I’m not saying that Britain are the second best team in the world, but this is evidence that the system that we have at the moment, with the right nurturing, shows promise. The most successful squad in our country’s ultimate history had players from Clapham, Chevron, Fire, Emo, Brighton, Fusion and Ka-pow. There seems to be a similar situation in the women’s division too. Yes, we could send Iceni along but how can you ignore the talent residing in the Bristol, SYC, Punt and LLLeeds squads?

Another thing that we need to think about is the future for our national teams. Last summer the GBu23 squads went out to Toronto for the world u23 championships and although some results didn’t quite go in our favour, we saw that from the very first pull of the tournament, in our Open team’s show game against Canada, that we have a lot to offer on the world stage. This being said, only 3 of these players were a part of Clapham’s Nationals winning squad. Our GB u17 team have just won gold out in Lecco, the majority of these players are not going to end up in London or Manchester any time soon. Do we really want to suffocate the development of our rising stars by not having the majority of them in our national side? Sending a club team to represent us at international tournaments will nullify all of the work that is being done at the grassroots level in Britain. We could have the next international superstar training up in Scotland, but he/she wouldn’t be able to help improve our national side because he/she couldn’t get down to London for a weekly training session. These players need exposure to international tournaments if Britain intends on climbing the ranking ladder in the future.

The real questions that we need to be asking revolves around how we can improve on the system that we have. Should we train more regularly and deal with the consequences? Do we require better funding? Should we take longer to prepare? I don’t know the answer to these questions but to me, it feels as though the nomination of a single club to represent our nation is choosing what might seem like a quick fix for more awkward questions surrounding how we approach, and how much we commit as amateur athletes to preparing for and representing our country.

WUCC 2014 Mixed Division Preview: Royal Goaltimate Society

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 11:47:00 +0000

Matt Dathan and Matthew Hodgson take a look into Royal Goaltimate Society and their road to WUCC 2014 in the Mixed division.

Luke T of RGS brings down a wayward disc at Golden Keg last month. Photo courtesy of the Golden Keg crew.

Squad

Alizé Clough

Amie Channon

Cat Tobiasiewicz

Chris Whittle

Chrissy Birtwistle (C)

Colin Green

David Ford

Fred Shone

Iain McConachie

James Jagger

Jonny Clark (C)

Julia Jaensch

Katrina Ford

Philipa Sturt

Richard Macleod

Romanie Hannah

Ruby Rennison

Sam Green

Steph Gillick

Tim Sanders

Luke Tobiasiewicz

Will Smith

Willis Bruckermann

Zack Dorner

About R.G.S.
For much of the season R.G.S have resembled more of a dating agency than an ultimate team, but finally they're starting to hit it off on the pitch as well as off. The team was seen by some – perhaps unfairly – as the laughing stock of the UK teams going to Worlds due to dropping as low as 9th in the mixed division. But the facts fail to tell the full story.

Only a handful of the players going to Lecco this summer played for the R.G.S that qualified for World’s by winning mixed tour last year, which explains why the team struggled to gel in the opening months of the season. The wind and rain of Nottingham and Cheltenham at Mixed Tours 2 and 3 did not help a team trying to gel as a team and develop a new offence, but, as Jonny Clark one of the two captains said, it certainly created the all-important team spirit and graft that often takes time for a new team.

“Those early tournaments were particularly frustrating, but we learned to fight as a team and rely on the weapons we have to grind out games,” he told The ShowGame.

They are running offensive looks out of vertical, horizontal (listen out for their ‘hozzers for blozzers’ call) and split stacks as well as deploying multiple zones and man defensive plays. With a new squad and players based as far away as Canada and Dubai, all of these challenges contributed to the time that it took this team to come together.

However the mixed season was only the beginning of their preparations and they have since gone on to impress in foreign tournaments. If their run of recent form is anything to go by then they should be on course to get some wins at Worlds.

At Windmill Windup in Amsterdam, their only defeats came against the French national team, eventual winners Bear Cavalry and Heidees, the German mixed team, who they later beat in their final game of the tournament to secure an impressive fifth place finish, a position which certainly made those early critics of R.G.S look a bit silly. They also beat a host of other European mixed teams going to WUCC, including the Dutch team UFO and Bon Disc’Manche from France.

Last month they travelled to Golden Keg in Dublin, where they beat Grandmaster Flash from Poland and narrowly lost to the winners, Cambridge.

Coaching and Playing Style
R.G.S – or the Royal Goaltimate Society to give their full name – were the only mixed team going to Worlds that held open trials, due to the exodus of Clapham and Iceni players who chose to play in the open and women’s division instead.

With the help of coaching from Jaimie Cross, an experienced veteran of managing new teams, Jonny and fellow captain Chrissie Birtwistle ran try-outs over the winter that triallists said had a professional feel to them, held under the roof of the state-of-the-art Soccerdome centre in Greenwich.

Players to Watch
Along with a handful of existing players from the previous year, they managed to secure some very talented players who were unattached to other WUCC squads, including Amie Channon and Ruby Rennison from SYC and Iain ‘Con’ McConachie, an ex-Clapham and Fusion player who has returned to Frisbee after a few years in the wilderness.

Their star players so far this season have been Richard ‘Macca’ Macleod and Kate Ford. “Underestimate Macca at your peril,” was a warning shot one R.G.S aimed at their WUCC opponents.

Predictions
According to R.G.S players Tim Sanders and Kate Rae, the season changed when the team started going to the pub together after trainings and summer league, and the team’s best performance of the season came after their biggest night out as a team. It was the same night as four of the girls reportedly got lucky after wearing identical Get Horizontal t-shirts (from where the ‘hozzers for blozzers’ play was born), so it is unlikely that either a socialising or a drinking ban will be imposed on the players in Lecco.

It’s a squad finally bearing the fruits of an intense, sometimes frustrating but hard-working build-up to WUCC. “We’re just going to take it a point and game at a time,” Jonny says, preferring not to set a firm target of where they hope to finish.

“We’ve got a really great pool lined up with Fire of Anatolia, UKU! And Polar Bears so our first aim will be pushing for the top half of the draw. More than anything we’re looking forward to getting our whole squad together and seeing what we can bring to the first round of games.”

The last piece of the jigsaw will be Colin and Sam Green joining the team from Canada. Each have made cameo appearances throughout the season and Jonny hopes the excitement they bring to the team will give them the vital boost to push R.G.S up into the top echelons of the competition.

Their record on the international stage is far better than the domestic scene. As their performances at Windmill and Golden Keg showed, the hotter climates of Lecco and the absence of home media scrutiny will benefit their style of play and mental state and they are increasingly looking like a team that could impress and punch above the weight of a team seeded 27th at WUCC.

Photo courtesy of Ruby Rennison.

That's two down, two to go! But first some more discussion...

WUCC 2014 Mixed Division Preview: Black Eagles

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 11:01:00 +0000

Matthew 'Smatt' Hodgson and Matt Dathan start off our Mixed Division WUCC 2014 previews with late additions Black Eagles.

Black Eagles at UKU Nationals 2013. Photo courtesy of Graham Bailey.

Squad

Ali Brown

Audrey Melançon-Fournier

Calum Easton

Carissa Tong

Catie Newton

Chris Knudsen

Dave Damby

Doug Olley

Gill Spy

Gordon Kerr

Graeme McDowell

Hannah Newton

Harry Glasspool

Helen Waring
James Glover (C)
Katie McLean

Nessa Forde

Niall Wilkinson

Pete Pharoah

Phil Webb

Rory Curran

Simone Whale

About Black Eagles

It may be the last year that Black Eagles have to compete alongside English teams to qualify for World’s if Scots vote for independence in September, and this year they got in by the skin of their teeth.

Rewind four weeks and Black Eagles’ players were planning a summer free of ultimate, but thanks to a late drop-out, the team accepted a late entry to fly to Lecco.

They narrowly missed out on a qualification spot last year, after an impressive start to the season in mixed tour where they fell just short. They will be missing two of their star players from previous year – Frances Dathan and Adrienne Tecza – who were both poached by Cambridge after Eagles failed to qualify.

Despite limited preparation , Black Eagles will be travelling to Lecco with largely the same roster that finished mixed tour this season with an overall fifth-placed finish, third in 2013.

They have only mustered one training session since being offered the spot a month ago, but that is one more session than they have managed together all season, so opposing teams would be wise not to underestimate the Eagles.

As with Bear Cavalry, the core players of the squad have been playing together since their university days. But the club itself was only formed in 2011 and has African football to thank for its formation.

“We were formed in a pub, after a conversation about African football teams, with the vision of playing quality mixed ultimate with our friends who are now distributed worldwide,”

explains James Glover, the lightning quick Yorkshireman who moved to Edinburgh for university and has stayed ever since. James was one of the three founders – along with Gordon Kerr and Graeme McDowell and explains Black Eagles as “unlike most other ultimate teams”.

Playing and Coaching Style

Scottish ultimate has long been known for tight defense and the ability to play in all weather conditions and, although the weather in Lecco looks set to be a little hotter than the typical Scottish climate, tough man defence and player familiarity should outweigh a lot of the missed preparation time.

They like to deploy a no-nonsense, straightforward approach to ultimate, perhaps wise given their lack of preparation. “Our playing style is based on big shots – on the field and in the bar – and big takes,” he says.

The Eagles have hovered towards the top of mixed tour for a number of years now, despite not holding organized training sessions and have been able to compete with and beat England’s elite, even if they have struggled to do it consistently over a whole season.

At a time when Scottish open and women's clubs have taken a step back from the golden age – when Ro-Sham-Bo were the most feared name in university ultimate and Fusion were regularly making open tour semis and finals – Black Eagles have become the best performing club in any division from Scotland.

And they are not just representing Scotland. As the only team going to World’s who are a team based further north than the Midlands (Chevron divide their trainings between Bristol and Manchester) it shows how dominated UK ultimate is by southern, mostly London-based teams and how hard it is for players who are based in the north to reach the top echelons of the game. It would be refreshing to see a resurgence in northern ultimate and the opportunity presented by this tournament to gain elite experience is going to be invaluable.

Prediction

With little expectation, the team will be competing against the world’s best teams with nothing to lose. Although it will be frustrating competing at World’s lacking a full strength squad and not having had a full season of preparation, it is a fantastic opportunity for Eagles to gain invaluable experience in what could be their last international tournament representing Great Britain.

The goal Black Eagles have set themselves is a top half finish and to “have fun while doing it”. Their motto – “go big or go home” – will be applied both on the pitch by day and off the pitch by night as they hit the bars lining the shores of Lake Como.

Good luck to our only Scottish team at WUCC, more Smatt and Matt to come!

Club or Country Part 1 - Game to Go

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 18:38:00 +0000

Clapham's Ollie Benjamin provides his viewpoint on the question at hand...

For Club or Country? Introduction click here.

As 2014 moves on, there is a great sense of anticipation, excitement for what can be achieved this club season. Clapham showed dominance in 2013, taking Tour, Nationals, a strong Chesapeake appearance, and for the first time defending Europeans. A good prep year, paved nicely for Worlds in Italy next week.

The core of this team has emerged out of a 2008 transition year when the likes of Rob Alpen, Alex Bowers, Matt Woods, Sam 'Scando' Webber, and Adam Holt moved on. Slowly we rebuilt the squad through new leadership of Colin Shaw, Marc Guilbert, and myself. We brought in JJ Howell, Justin Foord, Richard Harris, Cian O'Morain, brought back Si Hill, and slowly year on year have firmly re-established ourselves as the leading club in Europe.

Ollie gets high at WUCC 2010 in Prague. Photo courtesy of Tom Styles/BlockStackTV.

Slovakia (EUC '11), Japan (WUGC '12) and Colombia (WG '13) as the international GB open destinations have come and gone with encouraging and yet sorrowful showings. The underlying question for club and country is: 'how can we be the best?'. How do we create the environment that nurtures and innovates the best players, the best team. Our aim, my aim, has always been to play at the highest level, able to compete with the best of the American teams, the top 16, their top 8 and their top 4. Nationally the question begs of how can GB break and beat that top 3 (America, Canada and Japan).

So what are the required conditions? Depth, Skill, Experience, Flexibility, Resilience - these are the words from current and former club captains at Clapham - they should resonate with those with ambition of greatness. I am entering my 12th or 13th year as a club member for Clapham. Players come and go; London life is busy. As we (I) grow older, priorities shift, jobs become more demanding, and families emerge. In amongst this, how do we create the best game in Europe, and how do we build that game, week on week into a system capable of producing a world beating team?

As the necessary conditions are interpreted by subsequent GB programs, teams will thrive and fall. However there is one condition not listed in the above which might prove a useful discussion point for the GB community. It's a condition that is wholly absent from the British and European scene at its highest level. This is the the 'game to go'. Jim Parinella references this in his 'Why I'm Still Around' piece for Skyd and am sure that many an American and Canadian player would appreciate and understand the importance of those 'games to go'; what they mean for individual players and what they mean for the team.

The game to go is what got me hooked. I had the priviledge of playing ultimate in Santa Cruz during the 2001/2 season. I had returned from 18 months abroad in Germany having picked up the sport through the Goettinger 7, and later Wall City in Berlin. Upon the prodigal son's return, I was fortunate enough to earn a place on a team coached by Idris Nolan (Jam) and Dan Dewey (Condors) whilst being captained by Sammy C-K and Jeremy Cram (Sockeye). We had a short roster, but it was talented. We battled incrementally throughout the season always working towards Regionals - towards the game to go. That season, Stanford were runaway favourites and the eventual winners at Nationals. Our northwest division had two places, which having lost to Stanford early on the Sunday of the Regionals meant the back door beckoned. We beat Berkeley and Washington pitting us against an Oregon team lead by Ben Wiggins and others whose names never quite stuck. I didn't know who he or they were, I was simply told as a D handler to not let him touch the disc. Off I went. We won the game 15-13. A huge upset. We played out of our skins - it was the stuff of heroes. We made Nationals, where we sucked, but for me it didn't matter. We won our slot to a closed party, and that meant and still means something big.

I am recounting my small story because it's part of what shaped me. It's a format that encourages a level focus amongst like-minded teams. It creates an annually repeatable camaraderie and a team environment that, if strong enough, makes you believe you actually can defeat anyone (or in my case, if not everyone, at least take the 2 seed). And the thing is, I don't see this very often over here - with the exception of 8-10 games played with Clapham and 3/4 with GB, the do or die points have been few and far between. They do appear in the great games - queue vs. Flying Angels in 2005/2011, but they are not nearly enough.

So, where am I leading - have you guessed? I suggest a structural change that allows the team who wins Nationals to take on the helm of representing GB. They decide who leads the club, who is part of the club, how often they train, what they eat, where they sleep. The one who wins that game to go decides.

The naïve instantly look to the facts. Clapham has won Nationals 13 years in a row, meaning we should be GB, is that right? Well, yes. I think so. The team who wins Nationals is the best in the country - full stop. We have proven this year on year, but have not made the leap to being world beaters. Why? Well aside from not having enough depth, skill, strategy, there is one reason - and it boils down to simple scheduling.

GB years are a nightmare. They distracts the team's best players, take them away from I don't know how many weekends. They drain money, time, etc., and what if that was all invested into the team that won Nationals? Might that not mean we train more often? Play in more tournaments - and over years, might we not progress more quickly? We can define the frame for how it might work. The victorious team might elect to take on 5 outside players, or they might keep the squad the same. Tryouts might be a bit fiercer, and maybe quarterfinals, semis and even finals at Nationals might be that much tighter.

There are lots of ingredients needed to make the leap. The game to go is one element that I know has impact, so why not give it a go - what's to lose? This country has lots to offer. The upcoming players are serious, as are the senior ones. The mix is right, our members just need to take a leap.

Coming tomorrow - a different perspective from Mark Penny of Chevron Action Flash...

WUCC 2014 Open Masters Division Preview: Blue Arse Flies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 11:21:00 +0000

Sean Colfer previews the second UK Open Masters team going to WUCC next week: Blue Arsed Flies.

BAF preparing for WUCC at Tom's Tourney this year. Photo courtesy of Get Horizontal.

Squad

Adam Batchelor

Alex Livingstone

Axel Baier

Ben Wickerson

Chris Hughes

Gordon Kelman

James Ayrton

James Rodgers

Jason DeCicco

Jaume Martin Serentill

Joe Pietrzak

Karl Mann

Lee Noble

Luke Gomm

Merrick Cardew

Neil Webber

Oli Browne

Robert Cooper

Sebastien Beltramo

Simon Townsend

About the Team

Blue Arse Flies, a team based originally around Evesham and Cheltenham, have been around for a long, long time now. They are in fact older than some of the people who have played with them in the past, such is their longevity and commitment to bringing through young players. They have played at WUCC in three decades, at St. Andrews in 1999, Hawaii in 2002 and Prague in 2010, in the mixed division. This time around they are moving into masters play, where they finished fourth at xEUCF in 2013, going down in sudden death to Ultimate Vibration of France in the bronze medal game.

They are bringing a fairly large squad of 20 which should give them enough legs to keep their key players fresh. GB Mixed player Merrick 'Mez' Cardew is the standout name, an excellent athlete who is more than capable of creating the play as well as striking long for hucks from the host of vastly experienced handlers such as Chris Hughes and Adam Batchelor. Luke 'Zulu' Gomm is another excellent athlete who will command a lot of attention on offence. They have a number of good defensive players who have represented GB - including some who played in 1990(!) - and have played at the top level in Europe before and will be well capable of matching up with most teams in their division.

Coaching and Playing Style

Much like Zimmer, BAF have not trained a great deal specifically for WUCC. They have been playing Open Tour all season with several of the younger players on their roster and will only have their first day without them on August 3rd - the first day of play in Lecco. However that isn't the limit of their similarities with their fellow British masters representatives; these players know each other as well as they possibly could, and so dedicated trainings aren't as vital as they would be for a younger, less experienced team.

On offence they will almost certainly look to use big throws to their most talented receivers to make up ground in a hurry. Their game on Tour with younger players involved was to isolate talented cutters downfield and, with cutters like Mez and Voodoo in the team, will be looking to do the same in Italy. On defence, they are more than capable of playing effective zones with their know how and nous, but certainly have the legs and athleticism to grind out turns using man if needed. However, this could be where they run into difficulties in Lecco - consistently generating turns at an elite level without a deep line of players capable of getting blocks out of nothing is a challenge.

Expected Finishing Place

BAF are aiming to compete as well as they can and to enjoy their experience of playing against some of the best Masters teams on the planet. They have some outstanding talent on their team but the squad is more top-heavy than the deep Zimmer roster, which may present issues when top teams are able to match them up with their top defenders. Their pool is quite tough (including Surly of the USA, last WUCC's silver medallists), but if they can hold seed they would go into a more favourable power pool and could be in with an outside shot at a quarterfinal place. A range of 7-16 seems like its a reasonable landing spot for them, but it's very difficult to see them going beyond that. I'm sure they'll do well at the parties though.

Predicted finish: 11th

Thanks to Merrick Cardew for his help with this preview and good luck to BAF!

WUCC 2014 Women's Masters Division Preview: R.O.B.O.T

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 22:46:00 +0000

Lauren Bryant previews the only Women's Masters team going to Lecco from UK: R.O.B.O.T.

ROBOT taking on LLLeeds during this years Tour season. Photo courtesy of Nick Moss.

Squad

Alejandra Ospina

Angela Caulfield

Carolyn Le Cocq

Claerwen Snell

Claire Mitchell

Clare Avenell

Elizabeth Searle

Felicity Perry

Gemma Youlten

Gemma Taylor

Helen Windle

Joelie Chalmer

Julia Murray

Kathrine Montagu-Smith

Kiley Brown

KJ Boardman-Hims

Kristina Cernusakova

Lianne Elsdon

Linda Gilmour

Linz Wilkinson

Magdalena Glanc

Nicole Cozens

Ruth Carelton

Sarah Douglas

Sophie Beavan

Stephanie Bolton

About ROBOT

Really Old Birds On Tour already win points for their name, and are an exciting prospect going into WUCC. Set up last year as the UK's first women's masters team, ROBOT bring not only experience to the field but an intimidating level of skills and athleticism.

The core of the team played together in 2013 as ROBOT on the UK circuit and as GB women's masters at ECBU, where they took silver. The team made semi-finals at the second and third women's tours in the UK, proving they can match up against the top tier of UK women's ultimate.

Players to watch

#55 Gemma Taylor - Huge flicks hucks and gritty defence, GT will put her body on the line for the team.

#23 Sophie Beavan - Dominant cutter able to get free at will, quick and smart.

#1 Jools Murray - Big throws and big vision and a complete athlete. All three also captained GB women in 2011/2012.

Predictions

There is no seeding in the women's masters division, with nine teams playing a round robin before play-offs. ROBOT have the ability to dispatch anyone in the division, knocking out other European teams and further-afield rivals from Colombia and Australia. But they may not be able to better North America's Godiva (US) or Vintage (Canada), which have a long history of playing together as well as some of the best of elite North American Club players from recent years. A finals berth may be just out of reach, but the team should certainly have their sights on medals.

That's the Women's Masters UK team, easy! Take it to the world!

Club or Country? Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Josh CK) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 18:11:00 +0000

Josh Coxon Kelly introduces the next edition of Discussion titled: Club or Country?

Next week teams will compete for the right to call themselves the greatest Ultimate club in the world. Now only a number of days away, excited qualifiers from 40 different countries and 161 different teams will be adding the finer touches to their preparation for this momentous opportunity at time of publishing - getting their bodies and minds perfectly ready to take on the rest of the world. At the height of elite non-commercial ultimate the WUCC held this year in Lecco, Italy is only challenged in terms of prestige by international competitions that occur between the World Club years. Players and coaches will still talk with a hushed reverence of Maribor, Southampton, Sakai, Vancouver as they share stories of their brushes with international glory or defeat, and our whole community is undeniably galvanised by the prospect of GB being represented and competing at Ultimate on the highest international stage.

The EUC and WUGC not only carry an extra weight with the privilege and national pride bound up in their medals, but also arguably present a more tantalising prospect for underdog ultimate nationals given the single-team restriction placed on entrants. With only a single entrance from USA, Canada, Japan, or any other of the growing list of world class Ultimate nations (Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Colombia...), the elusive quarter and semi final brackets are notably more viable for the underdog. The most recent example of this comes from close to home with our very own GB open squad making a first ever appearance in a world final in the recent summer of 2012, in Sakai. Whilst the defeat to USA may have been a decisive one, the GB Open performance in Japan provides lasting inspiration for up and coming British players whose dreams of international success were shown to be more viable than perhaps we had all thought a few summers ago.

Whilst not all players at in Lecco will have represented their country, there will be very few international competitors who do not have a club team at WUCC 2014, and depending on the nation, the distribution of national players varies greatly. There are clearly some quite disparate approaches across the international community to balancing the push and pull between club and country.

In the UK Clapham Ultimate have been open National champions for 13 years, and Iceni have held the women’s title for 8 out of the last 10 years. Whilst neither team is completely unscathed, they are widely held as the best teams in the country and there has is a sense building suggesting that we are starting to develop our own domestic ‘gap’, between the best London club and the rest of the country. Accompanying this suggestion, is the discussion of whether or not we should as a country be sending our most successful teams, or a combination of all-star players from across the country's most competitive squads.

Daniel Furnell (EMO) passes to Si Dathan (Chevron) for GB in Japan. Photo courtesy of Stuart Austin.

It is undeniable that London seems to gravitationally attract a huge portion of young people in the UK whether for career, financial or other reasons. This effect is only going to be further exacerbated for our young sportsmen and women by the high percentage of the Ultimate community who learn and/or mature as players at their universities, and subsequently seek out employment in the larger cities. The country is evidently lopsided population wise, and this as well as the bustling London scene is drawing more and more talent to bolster the already dominant London clubs. Yet, despite this weighting towards the capital, top players from clubs across the country consistently prove at tour and GB selection processes that they can bring their own individual dominance over others from further down the London rosters.

There are clearly many variables and opinions in the balance in this debate, and the pieces in this series will provide an analysis of the British approach and comparison to other world powerhouses, as well as speculation on what steps need to be taken to best progress in the future. Sion Scone will be providing an in-depth analysis of the various options open to us. Supplementing this analysis will be two contrasting opinions from the UK Open club scene [Editor’s note: these supplementary posts are knowingly open-division-centric. We would love to expand the scope of this discussion to other divisions - comment below or get in touch!]: Ollie Benjamin (Clapham ~ 10 years) and Mark Penny (Chevron ~ 7 years).

The last catch in Lecco will be followed by joy, desolation, celebrations and relaxation for many who move past the pinnacle of their seasons. For some however, it won’t be long after this that the focus turns to EUC’15, WUGC 2016, and the trialling, training and competitive journey of international ultimate that swiftly rises to the height of priority. Should we reassess our current system, and would doing so lead to short term, long term improvement, neither or both? Should we be focusing on top level or grass roots? Should such questions even be imposed on those who make up these teams, and should these people have the responsibility to do both? Let's start the discussion…

WUCC 2014 Open Masters Division Preview: Zimmer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:35:00 +0000

Sean Colfer previews Zimmer in the Open Masters division at WUCC 2014.

UKU CEO Si Hill commanding Zimmer from the back at UKU Tour 3. Photo courtesy of Christine Rushworth.

Squad

Alan Harding

Ben Mitchell

Bob Himms

Dan Berry

Dave Barnard

Dave Sealy

David Moore

David Bixler

David Grayson

Elias Thaysen

Jim Hancox

Joe Bolton

Lars Patel

Lewis Glover

Matthew Ford

Paul Atkins

Rik Shipley

Rob McGowan

Rob Whitehouse

Si Weeks

Simon Hill

Sion Thaysen

Stu Mitchell

Tom Boreham

About the Team

Last time WUCC came around, Age Against the Machine were the representatives from GB. Age finished 14th in the division, winning three games over the course of the tournament. This time around, Zimmer are better equipped to make some noise in the upper end of the tournament, reflected in their top four seeding after winning the xEUCF Masters title at a canter.

Watching the Zimmer team is like watching an all-star team of UK Ultimate players from the early 2000s. There are representatives from every successful team in UK Ultimate history – Clapham, Chevron, Fire, Leeds and Brighton among them. This is a very talented, deep and (obviously) experienced team that has performed very well on Tour this season, including a 5th place finish at Tour 3 in Cardiff. Every member of the team has the fundamental skills needed to be a top level player and there are excellent athletes on show here, albeit slightly more wizened than in the Open teams from the UK.

The offence features a lot of what you would expect from a team with such experienced throwers. Their primary handlers are Ben Mitchell and Si Hill, latterly of Leeds and Clapham, with Rik Shipley, Lewis Glover and others able to play at the back as well. Their cutters on offence have a good mixture of size and speed and are all able to rotate as needed, giving the team good balance and a plethora of options.

The defence is similarly varied, with a number of players capable of playing tight man defence or applying effective zones. The ex-Chevron contingent, veterans such as Dave Sealy, Dave Barnard and Dave Grayson, feature alongside other ex-GB players to form a strong, deep defensive unit.

Coaching and Playing Style

On offence Zimmer are capable of mixing it up, as you would expect from a team that has seen everything that the game can throw at them. They have some very athletic cutters who take the top off the defence and allow players like the handlers mentioned above time and space to reset the disc and look for favourable match ups down-field. They didn’t see much zone during the Tour season, predictably so as it’s likely they would have gone through it with some ease in any conditions.

Their defence is strong as a man unit, with height and speed that is enough to generate blocks on any team in the UK. They have a zone that they like to break out as well that is big at the front and at the back with some nippy flexibility in the middle, making clever use of their personnel and causing a lot of problems around the handlers. The experience of all of these players at the very top level is evident, with everyone making smart plays to limit their opponents as much as possible.

Zimmer have not trained together a great deal but that shouldn't hold them back. There are players who have played with each other for years - the chemistry that another team would want to work on in training is already there for Zimmer.

Expected Finishing Place

Zimmer are the best team in Europe, but USAU National champions Surly, of Blaine, Minnesota, and runners-up Boneyard, from North Carolina, will be predictably strong; those from Canada and Australia will be tough opponents as well. That said, Zimmer should have the strength in depth to get to the quarter finals. Last time around, Helsinki Ultimate managed to make semis and lost to an Eastern Greys team inspired and led by Australian World Games star Tom Rogacki. That strong performance by a European team shows that the top four isn’t as out of reach as it appears to be in the Open division. I think Zimmer will reach the quarters, and I’m looking forward to seeing if they can push it even further.

Predicted finish: 5th

BAF to come in the Masters division but ROBOT first. Best of luck to both teams from tSG!

WUCC 2014 Women's Division Preview: Nice Bristols

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 14:14:00 +0000

Lauren Bryant previews Nice Bristols as the second and final Women's team going WUCC.

Nice Bristols playing YAKA at London's Calling this season. Photo courtesy of Andrew Moss.

Squad

Ali Smith

Bridget Brown

Brigid Harty

Emily Arnold

Georgie Davin

Grace Owen

Jen Hart (C)

Jen Link

Jess Bonham

Jessica Renz

Kat Hand

Kate Markey

Kim Owen

Lesley Morison

Maria Cahill

Megan Cumberlidge

Miranda Cole

Prisce Lesne

Rachel Dean

Rachel Naden

Sarah Garner

Sophie Peters

Sophie Wharton

Steph Walker

About Nice Bristols

The women from the west of England have been making waves in recent years, developing talented junior players and consistently finishing high on the domestic scene. Two recent European Championships appearances (2012 and 2013) have also given them good exposure to international play, where they have proven they can compete. A strict geo-team, Bristol has worked from the moment they qualified for WUCC last year, training hard, working on fitness, fundraising and cementing their team vibe, with great success over the winter season including several media appearances to promote the team and secure vital funds.

Bristol's core of players has remained the same, with leadership comprised of players with international experience. Jen Hart is supported as captain by GB women's players Maria Cahill and Brigid Harty.

Like Iceni, Bristol were only able to attend two of the three women's tours in the run-up to WUCC, as the team decided to head to the US for a greater challenge. Bristol competed at the Boston Invite in June, where they finished 8th, improving their seeding and warming themselves up for the world championships.

Bristol play smart, heads-up offensive that takes advantage of what the defence allows, with nice around breaks and a good long game. This is a team capable of causing upsets, with great talent and self-belief.

Players to Watch

#45 Priscille Lesne - Quick and smart cutter, who will manufacture blocks.

#25 Kate Markey - A playmaker able to get free everywhere on the field, greedy for the disc and greedy for the score.

#6 Maria Cahill - GB women returner, with impressive break throws and great handler movement.

#27 Ali Smith - Relentless cutter with smart positioning and great grabs

#11 Sarah Garner - Handler with huge throws, and hard-to-stop breaks

Prediction

Seeded 24th, Bristol are more than capable of upsetting many teams along the way. They could easily outshine their 9th-place finish at xEUCF last year by finishing high among European rivals, but lack significant experience beyond the continent. Nice Bristols should at the very least hold seed and knock out many teams seeded above them, challenging for a top 16 finish.

UKU Regionals 2014 Results

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 14:03:00 +0000

This weekend saw the five regional tournaments taking place across the country. Below are the results of the teams that have qualified for UKU Nationals 2014.

Greater London

1. Clapham

2. Fire 1

3. Ka-Pow

4. Flump

5. Fire 2

South East

1. Brighton

2. Reading

3. DED

South West

1. Devon

Midlands

1. EMO

2. BAF

3. JR

North

1. Chevron

2. Manchester

3. Sheffield Steal

Scotland & NI

1. NEO

This would give our speculative UKU Nationals 2014 seedings taken from Tour rankings and adjusted to avoid regional rematches:

Nationals 2014

1. Clapham

2. EMO

3. Chevron

4. Fire 1

5. Brighton

6. Manchester

7. Ka-Pow

8. BAF
9. Flump

10. Reading

11. Devon

12. NEO

13. JR

14. DED

15. Sheffield Steal

16. Fire 2

and first round games:

Round 1 games

Clapham vs Fire 2

EMO vs Sheffield Steal

Chevron vs DED

Fire 1 vs JR

Brighton vs NEO

Manchester vs Devon

Ka-Pow vs Reading

BAF vs Flump

See you all in Southampton at the end of August, WUCC first!

UKU Tour 3 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 10:00:00 +0000

David Pryce, Fiona Kwan, Thomas Cliff and Christopher Bell review Tour 3 with some insight into the rest of the season...

Full standings can be found here for Women's and here for Open. But what happened in Cardiff?

Women's Tour - Fiona Kwan

UKU Women's Tour Top 8

1. Punt
2. SYC

3. ROBOT

4. LLLeeds

5. Phoenix London

6. Iceni

7. Relentless

8. Brighton Pretty

After 3 rounds of fierce contest featuring local favourites and some great input from international competition, the 2014 Tour season has come to an end. We've seen highs and lows, wins and losses, and our fair share of universe points. But sadly, the bakery is now closed. No more bagels.

This review will itself be a review of the finals for the top 6. There have been some great match-ups this season, as more and more team find themselves in contention to win - 4 different teams featured in the 3 Tour finals, Iceni and Punt being the only teams to appear more than once.

Iceni's absence at Tour 3 was to the advantage of other top level teams who came out hard vying for the Tour 3 trophy, and the UKU title. Here's how it all went down...

The Final: Bristol vs. Punt

Half time score: Bristol 9 - 4 Punt

Full time result: Bristol 16 - 17 Punt

Punt have been the movers and shakers of Tour this year and have had a remarkable season. A strong performance in 2013 raised expectations for the Cambridge/Oxford side, and they didn't let us down. Consistent finishes in all three Tour events brought them a well deserved victory in the overall tour standings, beating out SYC by 41 points. They’ll also be ranked 2nd at Nationals, a remarkable feat for such a young team.

Coming into Tour 3, there was a still a certain amount of mystery surrounding the Bristol side this year. The result of them splitting their squad at Tour 1, and their notable absence at Tour 2 meant that they weren't seen together until last weekend. In fact, Punt hadn't had a chance to play Bristol all season, so this was a new encounter for all players involved. With the Bristol women representing in Lecco in a couple weeks time (and many of the Punt players playing for Cambridge mixed) both teams were well drilled and ready to play. This naturally lead to a high quality contest, and a hard fought victory.

Benefitting from low player turnover from last year in addition to a full season playing together, Bristol came out strong in the first half, and despite strong defensive pressure from Punt, the Worlds-bound side took half decisively at 9-4.

Moving into the second half, Punt stepped up their defence, resulting in a number of turnovers near Bristol's endzone which they were able to capitalise on. In a comeback worthy of the final, Punt brought it back to 11-11. From here, both teams fought hard, but Punt made it evident that they came to win. With the combination of Punt's defensive strength and the wind playing a role in generating turnovers for both sides, Bristol's offence began to lose steam. Ultimately, Punt was able to overcome their opposition and beat favourites Bristol in sudden death taking the Tour 3 and overall Tour title.

Despite the upset, Bristol still finished the season in 10th place, with an average of 230 points per event. They go into Nationals ranked 3rd.

A new addition to the squad this year, Punt's Hannah Boddy was awarded MVP, and took the lovely glass UKU trophy home with her. Congratulations!

A clip of the winning point from the final, thanks to Matthew Hodgson.

3 vs. 4: SYC vs. ROBOT

Half time score: SYC 7 - 5 ROBOT

Full time result: SYC 15 - 10 ROBOT

SYC and ROBOT seem to have played each other a lot this season, with Tour 3 being no exception. After losing to Punt and Bristol respectively in the semis, both were looking to give a strong showing in the 3 vs. 4. Both teams played some excellent D in this game, forcing the offense to put up some shaky throws.

From the beginning SYC came out strong, piling the defensive pressure and generating turns from the seasoned ROBOT side. While ROBOT’s O was solid with all the right decisions being made with no unforced throwaways, SYC’s defense eventually overwhelmed them. Going into the second half, the London women already had a clear advantage. ROBOT however also brought their strong defensive game, using clever poaches to mark out the younger SYC squad. This strategy worked well for them, stopping the quick and athletic style of SYC, slowing the pace to a more manageable speed, and forcing them to use their break throws.

In spite of ROBOT’s best efforts however, SYC had a convincing victory coming second in final standings; ROBOT finishing right behind them in third.

5 vs. 6: Phoenix London vs. Rebel

It's great to see that Tour is still attracting international teams this far into the season. Rebel proved a real force to be reckoned with in Cardiff, meeting the high standard of Irish ultimate set by Little Miss Sunshine at Tour 2. They proved to be an extremely athletic team, and their short squad of 10 showed no signs of fatigue in their final against Phoenix.

After a sudden death cross-down and overall disappointing finish at Tour 1, Phoenix have been working hard to climb back up the rankings from 13th. As the season has progressed, this new London team has gelled more, and worked hard to get themselves seeded in the top 8 for the next two tours.

In this match-up, Rebel came out strong, going up 4-1. They used their poaches and zone D to throw off their London competitors, forcing turns even when Phoenix was able to break through the cup. They also proved very effective on offense, with great handler play and quick up the line movement which proved devastating to Phoenix's D. After a well used timeout call, Phoenix were able to adjust their strategy, and come back stronger against the Irish side. They began to shut down the handler movement by putting a poach in the open lane, and reigning in their offense to be more clinical. But despite their best efforts, the damage was already done and Rebel had a comfortable victory in the end.

A well spirited game which saw both teams finish above seed; Rebel from 8th to 5th, and

Phoenix from 7th to 6th.

Great job to all who participated - there were some fantastic games over the weekend. Thanks for coming, and see you at Nationals!

UKU Open Tour Top 8

1. Clapham O

2. EMO

3. Chevron Action Flash

4. Fire of London

5. Zimmer

6. Brighton Gritty

7. Ranelagh 1

8. Manchester

A Tour - David Pryce

With Clapham consolidating back into one team after a flurry of injuries and the repercussions of the US Open, the full squad were out to prove they still could dominate at home. Overall this was what we were shown, with no real trouble in their pool and a lacklustre performance from Fire of London 1 in the semi final setting Clapham against Chevron in the final. Chevron clearly wanted this game and started off the game with a lead and some were hopeful that they could hold onto this. However, Clapham changed gear and got back into it in the second half, taking the game and the Tour title once again. Not to take anything from Chevron, Rob Schumacher (Clapham #99) tweeted:

The final against @chevronultimate best game yet at tour! Good luck in lecco!

— Rob Schumacher (@RobSchuie) July 14, 2014

A sign of mutual respect as the top two British teams turn on from familiar opponents to face and hopefully overcome bigger challenges; the rest of the world better watch out for Chevron as well as Clapham.

In a windy 3v4 game EMO took the win over Fire of London who end the season back in the top 4. The only team of this 4 not attending worlds, Fire now look straight to Nationals where they will want to take advantage of Clapham, Chevron and EMO having to double peak this season.

Zimmer finished the season with a very strong performance holding off Rebel and keeping their 5th seed. This all bodes well for their upcoming campaign in Lecco. Rounding off the top 8 at Tour 3 we see the now regulars Manchester and new guard NEO. This meteoric rise through the ranks has surprised some but they have made a statement at Tour that cannot be ignored by competition going into Regionals and Nationals.

Just outside of the top 8 we see Brighton who have experienced a slight fall, but I fully expect them to come out hard to recoup this at Nationals. The lower brackets of the a tour have seen many teams across the season, with old and new faces in CUlt, Reading, Birmingham and LLLeeds making those last few coveted A tour spots a true battleground.

Chevron Action Flash huddle up for the UKU Tour 3 final. Photo courtesy of Serena de Nahlik.

B Tour - Thomas Cliff

Welcome to crossover country.

In my humble opinion, Sunday morning in B tour is one of the most intriguing spectacles in the tour season, simply because of the sheer amount of movement that is not only possible, but probable, due to 3 sets of crossovers with chances to be promoted or relegated mid tournament. The top 8 of B tour was unrecognisable from the start to the end of the tournament, with only 2 teams retaining a spot therein.

As always, Saturday is just a scrap for the best possible seed going into the vital Sunday morning games. The only team to rock the boat at the top of the pile were Fire 2, upsetting JR at the third time of asking this season to top their pool.

The crossovers for A tour threw up two upsets, firstly Reading taking a game from Devon and Flump being rudely shunted back down to the B tour by Leeds. As a side note Flump somehow managed to score 8 points in every single game this weekend. One for the statisticians. In the other big games the flair heavy JR pushed DED all the way but they couldn’t quite seal the deal, and Fire 2 had their hot streak ended comfortably by Birmingham’s quick-movement based play. Highlight heavy Devon went on to top B tour with a 17th place finish.

Lower down the bracket, worlds-bound BAF looked imperious, taking out all comers on their way to a crossover against an athletic Sneekys squad. BAF went on to win this, and finished their weekend as high as was possible at 21st; no mean feat from a lowly 31st position start. BAF weren’t the only lower seed to win their crossover in the middle bracket. In fact, everyone did, which ruins the fun a bit.

At the bottom of the bracket all of the newcomers, The Brown, ABH, and Camden struggled to adjust on Saturday. However all 3 managed to hold on to their B tour spots (leaving my foot securely in my mouth). St Albans however weren't so lucky, falling to a Guildford squad who seem to have left it quite late in the season to let their presence be known.

The season is far from over with regionals an important proving ground for B tour teams looking to make the top flight for nationals. Birmingham showed this and were able to use Nationals qualification to take a step up with their team last year. With regional results just in, it will be interesting to see if any of this year's B tour teams can make a dent in the top 16 at Southampton.

Stu Greer bids for Fire of London 2. Photo courtesy of Serena de Nahlik.

C Tour - Christopher Bell

Guildford went unbeaten in Cardiff as they proved to all that they belonged in B Tour all season long. Passing through their group relatively untroubled, they came up against St Albans in their crossover, before beating ABH comfortably. In fact, they didn’t concede more than 5 points in a game until they gave up 9 against Tour 2’s C Tour champions; The Brown.

Guilford were the only team to manage the jump from C Tour to B. Rhubarb and Pingu Jam held seed on Saturday to face B Tour teams, while Black Sheep jumped seven seeds by beating Devon 2 and CUlt 2 to top their group. Black Sheep squared up against Camden 1 on Sunday morning, but after a strong first 30 seconds, lost the half 8-1 and were only able to trade in the second half. Rhubarb beat Black Sheep and Pingu Jam beat St Albans, setting up Rhubarb to win the C Tour and St Albans to finish third.

The rest of the division saw a lot of movement – a special mention must go to Curve 2, who started 20^th (bottom seed) and went on to win the bottom set of 8 – finishing 13^th. Hampshire managed to improve on their initial seed of 11^th to finish 5^th, enjoying an unbeaten Sunday along with Curve 2 and Guildford. Many teams finished roughly where they started, with Hammertime, Lemmings, Pier Pressure, Reading 2 and Camden 2 all finishing within one seed of their starting position.

Just as impressive as that of Curve 2 was the performance of Devon 3 – they managed to climb from second-bottom to third in their group, finishing the tournament in an impressive 12^th, also an 8 place increase. In fact, they only finished 4 places lower than their second team. This result points to a great foundation for the club, and a real platform for growth in the off season, as we look ahead to next year.

UltiClips review UKU Tour 3 with some great clips from the weekend!

The Tour season comes to a close but there is plenty more to play for! Stay tuned for WUCC 2014 previews and more!

WUCC 2014 Open Division Preview: Clapham Ultimate

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 10:54:00 +0000

Sean Colfer brings us the final Open Division WUCC preview: Clapham Ultimate.

Matthew Parslow makes the grab at Tour 3. Photo courtesy of Nick Moss.

Squad

Marc Guilbert (C)
Justin Foord (C)
Richard Harris (C)
Anthony Solomon
Matt Parslow
Jaimie Cross
Philip Johnson
Ollie Gordon
Philip Garner
Richard Raz
David Stobbs
Andy Mitchell
Benjamin Funk
Tom Abrams
Chris Frazer
Chris Baker
Magnus Wilson
Robert Schumacher
Dominic Clark
Ashley Yeo
Giacomo Maltman
Max McCartney
Cian Ó Móráin
Colin Shaw
Ollie Benjamin

About the Team

The latest version of the dynasty that has ruled UK Ultimate for 13 years now, this Clapham team is absolutely terrifying for any British or European opponents. They have cherry-picked the best players from several of their rivals, they have developed their own players to the point where they rival the best in the world. Their reputation precedes them in Europe where they do what the very best do in every sport; they win half of the game before they even step on the field purely because of the jersey they wear.

However, the recent US Open showed that North American teams do not suffer with the same trepidation when faced with the Bullfrog – indeed, Sockeye seemed to perform Clapham’s own trick on them. Their 2-5 record in Minnesota will give them food for thought, but it certainly does not mean they are incapable of competing with the Americans. They were able to reach double figures against every opponent and defeated Canadian powerhouse Furious George (albeit a weaker Furious squad featuring triallists) with a squad missing several O line players – including captain and key player Justin Foord for a portion of the tournament – and contending with some nervous-looking drops throughout the weekend. WUCC will be more like home turf for Clapham and they will feel good about turning some of those four and five point losses into much closer games, especially if they can avoid the worryingly slow starts they had in Blaine.

Clapham boast surely the deepest roster in Europe, from top to bottom and stacked with GB players from various teams and eras. Justin Foord will be the main focus of defences but GB Open cutter Rob Schumacher, GB Mixed handler Jaimie Cross and GB World Games player Matt Parslow are just three of the other players that will demand attention. The defensive line is led by GB World Games player Richard Harris and features fellow World Games squad members Ollie Gordon and Tom Abrams. Marc Guilbert captains and leads the team. There is not much in the way of weak links here, and that is why they are the best European hope of breaking the North American and Japanese hegemony at the top of the tournament.

Coaching and Playing Style

Clapham’s offence faced something of a surprise against the Americans at the US Open as they often seemed to struggle to initiate their plays when their first option was taken away. In the Tour season they have rarely struggled and, despite a wobble at Tour 2 against Fire, have scored comfortably on every team they have played. They use a lot of movement from a variety of setups and try to isolate cutters down-field, particularly young receivers Andy Mitchell and Ashley Yeo. Their recycling between handlers is especially effective and is one of the reasons why teams find it so difficult to get blocks against them.

Defensively they have stuck largely with man this season and have relied on their athleticism to get blocks. As they are arguably the most physical team in Europe, that has worked well for them. However, they may have to change things up in Lecco as the level of their opponents goes up – something they will certainly be aware of and will have planned for. Their positioning is one example of something that will need to improve; it was found wanting at times against Sockeye with the Fish finding space up the line far too often for Clapham to be comfortable.

Clapham train together three times a week and have been to Windmill Windup and the US Open this year in preparation for WUCC. If, for any reason, they do miss out on their targets, it won’t be for a lack of preparation.

Expected Finishing Place

This is the toughest category for any of these previews, but with Clapham it is a little easier. After missing out on the quarter-finals of WUCC 2010 by a single point (losing in sudden death to Canadian team Invictus), they will be looking to get to the top eight this time around. That will be the minimum requirement of this team, and rightly so as they are without a doubt talented and committed enough to make it to the quarters.

I have little doubt that their aim is to go further than that, but to do so would require beating several of the North American or Japanese teams - current seedings suggest a potential quarter final meeting with either Sockeye or Buzz Bullets. Progression beyond knockout stages will be an incredibly tough task even if they cut out the simple errors that plagued them at the US Open. They will need to find solutions for the problems the Americans they have already encountered posed them and also for Buzz Bullets (who defeated them heavily in Prague), but they are capable of doing just that if everything comes together. Hopefully for them, and for Ultimate in the UK, they do so with aplomb.

Predicted finish: 7th

That's the Open Division done, more to come!