Tournament Reports
Great Barr Crawl '06
Date: 02 - 03 December 2006
Result:5 / 20
Report #1
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Posted by
Dan on 2006-12-06 00:00:00
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This was our first tournament together as a team, so we were understandably excited. Whippet and I have been talking about 'our first tournament' since we started trying to get a Kent team going, right back in April. We felt it was crucially important to get some playing time together, hence our friendly with Kent Touch This, but there is nothing quite like a competitive tournament to build team spirit.
While there were definitely mutterings in some quarters about leaving for Birmingham on Saturday morning, in the end it worked out pretty well. Alarms went off across the county at 4.15am, and we were on the road by 5am. We made good progress, getting to Birmingham with time to spare.
We had six games on Saturday and six on Sunday, nine of which were pool games. In our pool we won seven and lost two, and we had some utterly convincing results. I can't remember what our scores were, or even the names of all the teams we played, but we whopped quite a few and had a few tight games go our way. We had a great game against Flyght Club and ended up losing by a point, but as they went on to finish 3rd this should perhaps be seen as an extremely positive outcome. We showed a lot of class against the better teams in our group, and I was particularly impressed with the way our student players kept their composure in the face of opposition far better than any they've played before.
Our style of play was fantastic: at times fast and aggressive, with Whippet, Omni and Boyband adding pure speed to our offence, at other times extremely patient and savvy. We came up against zone defence quite a few times over the weekend, and we wreaked it every single time. There wasn't a single zone that was able to consistently shut down our offence. The key when playing zone is to hold the disc, retain possession, and make the other team work three times as hard as you to keep their offence working. We showed a lot of maturity on the disc, not panicking and throwing it away on spurious scoring attempts.
It was a real blow to lose Steve and Boyband, both of whom played really well. Steve continued to show that he's a lot faster than he looks (sorry Steve), getting free consistently through a combination of running the right lines and doing so at pace. As his confidence increased throughout the day his offence got stronger and stronger, and his defence grew ever tighter.
Boyband ran like a mother****er all day, at reeled in some excellent grabs to help our points tally. Having players with this sort of pace really adds an edge to any offence, and it is crucial to have such players if a team is to find any sort of success. Now if we can just get him fired, thereby freeing him up for outdoor practice, we might be onto a winner.
After our final game on Saturday came the Fantasy Game, where one player from every team took part in a game which was scored on an individual basis for things like layout D, point blocks, catching the score and so on. Whippet represented well with a couple of huge layouts, both on offence and defence.
That evening we went out, drank too much and ate curry and kebabs. Much fun was had by all. Andy drank something that can only be described as curried beer, while I proved that I am **** at drinking games and was rightfully punished. "Safety" was said many a time that night.
We lost Steve and Boyband for Sunday, as duty called them back to the Garden of England, but Andy and Hairy Mike stayed on to represent the student body. They were a little post-modern with their interpretation of the time and therefore the first game of the day was played without them. I'm glad that we had the challenge of playing Iron Man for one game, and one game only. I'm not sure my lungs could have handled a day of it.
We finished 3rd in our pool, and had three further games which would decide our final finishing position. We lost our crossover to Angels, who went on to come second, and then won our next two games to finish 5th. Throughout the weekend we were improving rapidly, and so it was absolutely fantastic to finish on a game where it all game together. Pete caught more knives than I've had hot dinners. Well, not entirely true, as anyone who has seen my waistline can attest to the fact that I've never missed a dinner in my life, but he did catch an awful lot of knives. Whippet stopped throwing knives at the back of my head, and instead turned his attention to throwing them at Pete, with infinitely more success. Andy was composure itself in the face of some hefty defence, and he was a real asset for us. His knowledge of the game must have tripled over the weekend, and he became a really strong player for us on D. Mike gave us a sterling effort, and when we decided that he had to play as our number one handler during one game he didn't let us down. He rose to the challenge, and put together some really nice moves to set us on our way.
Tim was outstanding all weekend, a true rock in offence. His averages for completed throws must be pretty damn high, and his defence continues to improve as he regains fitness after his injury. He even risked it all for the team by laying out in one of our games, which is pretty ****ing stupid when you’re due to see the physio the following day. Or I guess you could say it was the best possible time, depending on your point of view.
Omni, whom many of you won't know, is a friend that Whippet and I have played with many times before. He was a fantastic addition to the team, and we're glad he was able to make the long and arduous journey from Milton Keynes to Birmingham to be there. Another of our faster-than-****-off-a-shovel players, he can also throw, jump, read, defend and layout.
And finally, Whippet, who had an amazing weekend which surely cements his place as favourite for the Captaincy when we hold elections sometime soon. Leading on the front, he probably spent more time on the floor face down than a paedophile in prison. How his nipple piercings stand up to so much punishment defies belief. He showed great leadership skills, including (but not limited to) haggling the taxi driver, eating possibly the nastiest fish supper I've ever seen, getting us to all of our games on time and spotting a nice little coffee shop for us to spend Sunday morning in. His only weakness all weekend was that fact that he KEPT THROWING KNIVES AT THE BACK OF MY ****ING HEAD.
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