By Will Rennie
Drizzle and total cloud cover ... team pulls together over the weekend
... morale high after mad night dressed as Egyptians ... great team
performance bags first silverwear of the season.
I woke up on Saturday determined to make it to Kelvinbridge by 7.15 -
the time I'd arranged to meet Lesley and Laura so we could get the
train to Stirling - but as I ran up Great Western Road at 7.25,
repeatedly dropping my sleeping bag and the head-dress for my costume
all over the pavement, the thought struck me: 'we're not going to make
the train' ...
A mad taxi rush later and we got on with a minute to spare. The
weather in Glasgow was was wet and miserable and Stirling was no
better. However, we got to the pitches and swiftly met up with the
rest of the team, ready to face our first opponents of the day at 9am
- Shooting Stars 2.
We conceded an early few points as we took time to get our heads into
the game, but we began to pull it back in the second half when Conor
arrived to inject some venom into our O. Stars played a zone D for
the whole game, which we managed to overcome as the game progressed
but unfortunately their early advantage carried them through and we
ended up losing 8-4.
Blaze 1 followed, and we came at them with a much stronger
performance. On O, we flowed and linked up well, making it as hard as
possible for their D to keep up. Our own D was initially vulnerable
to their long game, and we were punished on a couple of points, but we
managed to shut them down and ended up taking the game 9-7.
The group was looking quite even at this point, Ro Sham 2 ahead just
slightly after Blaze drew with Stars 2. We faced up to Ro Sham for
our final game of the day, but unfortunately got turned-over on one of
our O points, giving Ro Sham a two point cushion that we weren't able
to come back from, despite going point-for-point for the rest of the game.
So ended the first day. We left the field knowing that we'd come
bottom of the group (because Stars, who were equal with us on points,
had won when we played them), and therefore that we could come no
higher than 9th in the final table. Our aim for Sunday, then, was the
plate.
But before any more ultimate could be played was the party.
Tutankhamun made an appearance, along with Cleopatra, a few mummies,
some tea-towelled gentlemen and the Egyptian flag. Lots of Red Bull
and beer later saw a large number of Scottish ultimate players on a
bus from the uni back to Stirling. Much singing.
Sunday dawned bright and clear and we took to the pitches for another
9am start, a cross-over which saw us once again facing Blaze 1. Our
team was depleted since Laura and Marou had been injured after
Saturday's play, but we got straight into the game with a quick few
points early on. Learning from the previous day, we got straight onto
closing down their long game and as a result were able to walk away
convincing 11-5 winners, moving from 14th in the table to 11th.
Mojo 2 followed, who had also been plagued by injury. As a result,
they had to pick up a few guys from other teams, and they got off to a
good start against us in one of the toughest games of the weekend
physically. They ran us hard, and for the first half of the game we
weren't able to match their rate of scoring. We managed to pull it
back a bit, and for the remainder of the game traded points with them,
but eventually Ro-Stars-Mojo won by a couple of points. However,
because they'd played with pick-ups they had to forfeit the result and
Farflung A were in the plate final.
Flatball 2 had played against Farflung 1 at the end of the day of
Saturday, and looked like a strong team. They had an effective long
game, and some nippy cuts who could potentially do some damage. We
came out at full tilt, though, and scored three or four points early
on. Flatball were making a few mistakes on O, and we capitalised.
After twenty minutes, we were definitely in the driving seat.
However, despite some calls going against them, Flatball started to
pull it back with some hucking. They scored three unanswered points
going into the final quarter of the game to bring the score to 10-9,
and then followed one very long point, seeing both teams turn over a
number of times, which eventually finished after the buzzer had
sounded with a point to Flatball. 10-10 was the score, and we moved
into sudden death, Farflung on O. Less than two minutes after the
point started, the match was over. A decisive attack from the pull
took us straight into the Flatball end-zone and the plate was ours!
I had a great weekend, both for the quality of the games and the good
craic to be had chatting to everyone on the touchline and at the
party. Everyone on Farflung A played well, and it was very enjoyable
to be a part of the team. A few personal highlights:
Sally's ever-dependable handling.
Lesley single-handedly shutting down Blaze 1's long game on the Sunday
by marking Callum so well that he could barely get the disc away.
Gaurav homing in on the end-zone time and again to keep Mojo and
Flatball on their toes, and adding a few points to the scoreboard as well.
Laura's cool head on O during Saturday's games that particularly
helped to get the Blaze game in the bag for us.
Shaun's absurdly accurate hammer that flew half the length of the
pitch into the end-zone for a score in the final.
Simon's safe hands, producing some quality grabs to bail me out on a
number of occasions after I threw him some criminally bad discs.
Marou's infamous layouts, saving more than a couple of throws that
would otherwise have gone straight into the mud.
Jessie's cheeky cuts to the line allowing us to keep up a flowing attack.
JJSJ's match-saving end-zone D against Flatball.
Conor's rampaging cuts through the defence of any team we played
against all weekend.
And I guess I'll have to add the grab that won the final for us.
Can't remember who caught that one.
Farflung on a plate!
Fuzz
