UKU Regionals Preview - Midlands

EMO player Sean Colfer previews an unexpectedly open Midlands region, with the Mixed division at Nationals strongly affecting the tournament in Birmingham. Midlands has 3 bids to Nationals and will be held this Sunday.

Last season the Midlands region featured three teams with A Tour experience in the preceding Tour season. Cambridge led the way in the regular season, finishing seventh overall, trailed by EMO in eleventh and Jest Ridisculous in 17th. However, only two spots at Nationals were available - EMO edged out Cambridge in the final, leaving JR out in the cold.

This season, there are three places available from a Midlands region that is lacking the strength in depth of last year.

EMO have elevated their performance levels in 2013 and earned third overall, behind the 'big two' of Clapham and Chevron, at Tour. They have defeated Fire, Brighton (twice, both in sudden death) and Ranelagh, as well as trading to half with Chevron at Tour 2. So far though, the Leicester-based team have been unable to make inroads against the top two over a whole game. They will win the region, and it's unlikely to be close.

EMO will be without World Games captain Rich Gale who will still be in Cali come the event. However, club president and previous World Games competitor Daniel 'Colonel' Furnell should be able to play after a spell on the sidelines this season through injury, as should captain and coach Joe Wynder, fresh from the U23 World Championships Open team in Canada. Christian 'Bobby' Zamore and Tom 'Foxy' Fox provide the speed on offence, while vice-captains James 'Whippy' Bauld and Nathan Trickey will lead a strong, tall and athletic D line.

EMO seen here after taking on CUSB at EUCF last year. 

The next tier of teams features three B Tour mainstays. Jest Ridisculous finished as the 20th, 17th and 12th best team across Tours 1, 2 and 3 this season respectively. Cambridge finished 11th and 14th in the first two Tour events but slumped to 26th in Cardiff while EMO 2 managed two finishes at 20th and one at 21st, showing excellent consistency at the top end of B tour.

These three teams should be reasonably well matched, depending on how EMO decide to stack their rosters. However, complicating the possible outcomes this season is the fact that Nationals will also act as a qualifier for Mixed at xEUCF in Bordeaux. Both JR and Cambridge are believed to have an eye on the Mixed division at Nationals with the aim to compete at a European level, meaning both teams will be without some top players.

JR usually rely heavily on a very effective huck game, led by captain George 'Rondo' Hudson, fellow handler Chris Peploe and star receiver Alex 'Medic' Charlton. However, they will be without several 'first choice' players this Sunday - including Medic - and seem likely to surround Hudson with more inexperienced players with a view to developing their squad for the future.

It's impossible to say who Cambridge will bring considering their strong recent history and fluctuating results this season, to say nothing of the rumoured focus elsewhere. It's safe to say that U23 Open handler Dom Dathan will feature and if they decide to bring back players like GB Mixed veteran Nick Wong they will stand a good chance. The likelihood of this, though, appears slim; a big hit to their qualification hopes.

EMO 2 captain Chris 'Pudding' Alderson will have to wait to see who is available for his team, but the experience of Ian 'Scot' Scotland and playmaking of Phil Brunson have been key to their consistent performances this season. They will justifiably feel very good about their chances of joining EMO 1 in Southampton for the first time having finished ahead of Cambridge at Tour 3 and gotten close to JR in games this season.

The underdog in this region is Birmingham Ultimate. This is their first season as a Tour team and they have taken to the competition admirably. They finished runners-up in C Tour at Tour 1 and they maintained respectable B Tour finishes in Nottingham and Cardiff, at 26th and 24th respectively. They will host the tournament and will look to push for the final qualifying spot, possibly making a Vision-like run at the teams ahead of them. Their only weakness could be their very short lines, with only nine players on the team at Tour 3. Birmingham have a well rounded team, with their key plays coming from captain Ben 'Mesh' Kings and lefty handler Marius Hutcheson.

Leamington Lemmings gave EMO a shock a few years ago but they have lost a number of key players and will do well to challenge any of the teams ahead of them. St. Albans are another team that may enter the slightly geographically-expanded regional tournament, but their consistent C Tour/low B Tour position indicates they shouldn't be a threat either. Flyght Club fall into this bracket as well, after a consistent season at the top end of C Tour, as will similarly placed SharkBear, a Warwick University student team. These teams will likely battle between themselves for a shot at fifth place.

The one-day tournament should see some competitive Ultimate, especially at the level below EMO 1, but whether there is enough strength in the region for the third spot to be justified this season remains to be seen. There is the potential there for some strong teams but the focus on Mixed makes this a very difficult read. The main beneficiaries of the shifted focus should be EMO, who must be considered heavy favourites to have their whole squad in Southampton.

Prediction*:
1. EMO 1
2. EMO 2
3. Birmingham Ultimate
4. Cambridge
5. JR
6. St. Albans
7. SharkBear
8. Flyght Club
9. Leamington

*And, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I am a proud EMO squad member. I tried to stay impartial with this preview but it looks like it didn't work out so well...

What do you think? Comments below! DP @ tSG.

UKU Regionals Preview - Scotland

Ben Heywood of Understanding Ultimate fame and Glasgow Ultimate player tells us how he thinks Scottish regionals will go down. Scotland has 1 bid to Nationals and will be held this Sunday.

A real match?

For the first time ever, Scottish Regionals might just see a contest.

In the past, everyone has always known that Fusion would qualify, and the whole thing has just been a chance to get a few games of Ultimate. Fusion would enter two teams, split evenly so that they'd get at least one reasonable game when they played each other.

Last year, Abstract came very close to an upset against one of the Fusion teams, but no-one had any serious expectations of beating both of them and taking the Nationals spot. This year, it all looks very different.

Glasgow Ultimate have emerged as an A Tour squad, winning promotion from an incredibly competitive B Tour 1 and (just) holding on for the rest of the season despite never quite having the full squad out there. They even gave me my first taste of A tour in 9 years, which shows how short they must have been...

Glasgow at T2 in Nottingham. Photo courtesy of David Sparks.

And Fusion? Well, I don't think they can complain if I say they've had a 'mare. A little unlucky with the opponents they drew at Tour 1, they just barely avoided relegation to the C tour; and then, doubtless on the back of that result, failed to get a team together for the rest of the season. They've had a couple of guys away with U23s, and a lot of old hands have retired or focussed on Mixed with Black Eagles.

But Fusion are back... A team has emerged for regionals, and doubtless they want some revenge. It'll be a very interesting match up. Fusion has no obvious weaknesses - they're all young and quick, and they can all throw. But they perhaps lack the experienced general, the one truly top-class player that will bring them together. When they disagree, who has the authority to really take charge?

Whereas Glasgow probably have the top 3 or 4 players in the tournament, better than anything Fusion have on the preliminary roster I've seen, and a good crowd of skilled and drilled athletes to back them up - but also a few who wouldn't have matched Fusion on an athletic level until Phil Webb's weekly boot camp. It'll be fun finding out how much that fitness has paid off....

I suspect the game will be decided on the Glasgow leadership's superior tactical experience - they'll know how to use which players in which situations, whereas Fusion's even roster will mean everyone is trying to win the game themselves rather than sometimes defer to a stronger team-mate. I predict Glasgow by 4. But I suspect Fusion may have something to say about that...

Or maybe there'll be a shock? Sneeeky's have impressed me this season with some solid results and some very solid performances, though they'll probably lack firepower against the top 2 teams' strongest lines. And there's talk of Black Eagles entering - which frankly means anything at all could happen. Some of their guys are top class - the kind of players who used to see Fusion into the A Tour top 4 - and their best girls (if they bring some?) can compete against anybody. Who knows? Maybe even Abstract will get a team together for the first time this year.

But here's my prediction (even though I don't yet know which of these teams will turn up!):
1 Glasgow 1
2 Fusion
3 Black Eagles
4 Sneeeky's
5 Glasgow 2

Read more of Ben's work on Understanding Ultimate! DP @ tSG.

UKU Regionals Preview - South West

James Bunting from Devon gives us a quick preview to a rather one sided SW region, but who will go to Nationals, Devon 1, 2 or 3? SW has 2 bids to Nationals and will be held this Saturday.

With the south west continually proving to be one of the least populated regions, it will still come as a surprise to know that this year it will only be contested by 3 Devon teams.

The absence of Cardiff Storm, who have qualified for Nationals the last few years, and a lack of a Bristol showing, means it will be more of a glorified training session for the boys in green. It is unlikely that Devon 2 will cause any Fire-esque upsets in the club, especially not given Devon 1's strong showing at Tours 2 and 3 and increasing confidence against the bigger teams, so the odds are very much on for it to finish Devon 1, Devon 2, Devon 3 respectively.

Women's Tour 2013 Review

With Charlie Blair away on U23 duties the review of the Women's season falls to me (DP), hope I can do it justice. It was an absolute corker!

A fortnight has passed and the dust has settled on Women's Tour 3 in Cardiff. With considerably less teams than we started with (15 down from 21) and some great battles at previous Tours, most would have expected Iceni to take this tournament with ease. However things were not quite there for the 'full fat' squad with a few key players missing and the Welsh heat taking its toll on many. I have since spoken with some of the Iceni players and they agree that Nice Bristols outplayed the overall champs. I asked Sarah "Saz" Garner, Nice Bristols captain, whether this was the first time that this had occurred and how it felt:
"Yep, this is the first time since the club was formed that we've won a Tour, which feels like an incredible achievement. I'm quite tempted to retire my captaincy on this high! I think we've all known for a long time that we're capable of doing it on paper, but we've never actually managed to string the right set of results together over one weekend before."

When asked what was different SG mentioned Iceni "missing their World Games players at this tournament, and Fran (Scarampi), a huge player for them, is still recovering from a dislocated shoulder" however she stressed that they "were also missing Ali (Smith) and Brigid (Harty) - both GB players in Japan last year". This doesn't mean to say that Iceni or Nice Bristol are both solely made up of superstars but as SG correctly pointed out "a lot of the play can go through the well known faces, and that can leave a bit of uncertainty when they're not around. I personally felt that Iceni didn't quite have the confidence in themselves that they usually do, and I think we capitalised on that by coming out firing in the early part of the game both times we played them."

Charlie Blair about to get horiztonal in the final. Photo courtesy of Louise Smith.

A key to Nice Bristols success and the growth of women's Ultimate in the UK is the development of "younger players and getting them to play in big semis and finals [which] is something Bristol have been keen on for a long time, and I think that women's clubs up and down the country are now seeing the benefit of doing this too."

Massive congratulations to Nice Bristol on their T3 victory, looking further down the results we see Punt displacing both LeedsLeedsLeeds and SYC to take third, finishing off a great rising season. With the exception of ROBOT (who fell from 4th to 9th) and the rising Nice Bristol 2 team (who grabbed the last top 8 spot) the remaining positions were as expected. A special mention to a Rebel player who in the first game had to be taken off the field by paramedics, we wish you a speedy recovery back in Ireland! 

So that's Tour over and done below we can see the full results using the official UKU points

The regular season movement in the 2013 Women's Tour.

Full official results can also be found here.
The T3 final did little for the overall standings with Iceni still coming out top, Savage do appear rather low down but that would be due to only attending the first two events. On average they would move up a couple slots. 

It is promising to see more and more Women's teams springing up and 3 clubs able to put out regular second teams and still keep the skill level high. I continued to ask SG if this require anything different in training:
"I think we've had the skills there for a while. Making the Nationals Final last year, and performing well at our first EUCF (6th and Spirit) did a lot for our individual and team confidence about playing at a high level, and whilst we continue to bring new players into the mix, there are a good core of us that have been playing together for several seasons now and have a good understanding of each other. In the past couple of seasons we've upped the intensity of our training sessions throughout the year, so that stepping up a gear at Tour doesn't come as a complete shock, and I think that has gradually allowed us to start winning those games that previously we didn't quite have the belief or experience to do."

Sarah continued by saying that

"... it's really important to remember that we play together for fun, and no matter what the scoreline and whoever the opposition, we try and have a bit of banter with everyone on the sideline to keep things lighthearted and keep ourselves relaxed, which is when we play our best. My captains speeches usually try to reflect this, and usually turn into me digging myself out of a hole I've just created. Highlight of this weekend being 'look after yourselves ladies, and stay wet'. I meant hydrated..."

Now what? Well there is no regionals for the Women's division, yet, but Nationals is only a month away now. I asked Sarah what will Nice Bristols be doing for preparation

"We certainly won't be looking to change anything major tactically this late in the season, it will be more about building on and tweaking what we have achieved so far. Within the team there is a great sense of trust that everyone will do what they need to to prepare for Nationals individually, and when we come together for training that is only part of that preparation. There is a lot of individual responsibility on players to know what they need to do and when - whether that is at training, on holiday, or during a Tour final - and everyone responds really well to that and puts in the hard yards outside of club training." 

As ever the positions at Nationals will decide who goes to Euros and this year. With it being xEUCF the UK gets 4 Women's spots, plus the added pressure of the winner of Nationals getting a WUCC 2014 spot I pressed SG for a prediction for the Euros slots:

"I'd say this year it's very difficult to call. I think Iceni would still be favourites going into the tournament, given their history, but as for who else is capable of making a final and Euros - Leeds, SYC, Punt, Seven Sisters and, naturally, Nice Bristols, will all be in the mix. It's going to be a fantastic tournament, probably the closest in years, and I'm sure there will be lots of sudden death spectaculars and more than a few upsets!"

Punt rise high over Leeds but what team will they bring to Southampton? Photo courtesy of Andrew Moss.

My final question looked back at the epic change in weather that we had from Tour 2's rain, wind and cold to Tour 3's heatwave, so I asked what Nice Bristol eat or drink to recover from these extremes,

"Vanilla ice cream in a waffle cone with a flake and lots of raspberry sauce. I discovered that this weekend. My teammates were also drinking Pimm's from Nalgenes on the drive home. It was hot tea after Tour 2 though."

Let's hope that Nationals and xEUCF is ice cream weather not hot tea.

Looking forward to the return of Charlie Blair? Do keep supporting the World Games squad with the #gbwg2013 hashtag and following them online however you can! DP @ tSG.

World Games Special: Roundup and Predictions

World Games Special

Hopefully you’ve followed the series and are up-to-date with all the teams competing in Cali, Colombia over the next week. If you missed any of them, you can find the pieces here.

The Opening Ceremony has already happened, and games start on Sunday. This should be a terrific tournament, and rumours are that there'll be large crowds for the Ultimate games.

Thanks to the amazing efforts of the Ultimate community and ulti.tv you will be able to watch all of the games: here! You can find the full schedule here. 
More live streaming links: 
http://core.enetres.net/CoreV1/Share/DEE56DFCB3E64BCC88376576A57D5481028?rnd=%27+Math.random%28%29

http://www.senalcolombia.tv/juegosmundiales2013/ 
(Click on senal en vivo ^^)

VOD at bottom of here.

GB’s games are:

vs Canada - Sunday, July 28th - 4pm,

vs Colombia - Sunday, July 28th - 10:10pm,

vs Japan - Monday, July 29th - 2:30pm,

vs Australia - Tuesday, July 30th - 1:10am,

vs USA - Tuesday, July 30th - 5:30pm,

3v4 – Tuesday, July 30th - 10pm,

1v2 - Wednesday, July 31st - 12am.

Amazing Score Reporting System for Ultimate at World Games 2013

We will have the opportunity to follow the games trough an incredible score reporting interface called WING.

It will give highly detailed stats of each player and team like: game time, time outs, goals, assists, D's, drops, pulls, touches during the game or during the tournament; also a fresh new tool which draws the disc trajectory. Plus player profiles, team roster and much more cool stuff. Here are some sneak peak screenshots:

and here is where you can find it: www.conceptoocho.com/wing

And finally – money where your mouth is time!

Finally, it feels like other countries are catching up to the traditional giants of ultimate, Canada and the USA. When only the top 13 players are selected from each nation, that effect is only magnified. For the first time, it feels like anyone can beat anyone – and that should make for a thoroughly exciting competition.

My predicted final standings for the tournament are

1. USA

2. Canada

3. Great Britain

4. Australia

5./6. Japan/Colombia (there is no placement game for these positions).

DP’s predictions (so hard to make these but here goes, prove me wrong please!) are

1. USA

2. Japan

3. Canada

4. Great Britain

5./6. Australia Columbia

What are yours? Comment below.

World Games Previews: Colombia

James Burbidge ends his fantastic World Games Previews with the hosts Colombia!

Colombia

The Lineup

Yina Cartagena

Maria Angelica Forero

Yina Mendoza

Elizabeth Mosquera

Laura Ospina

Eliana Rico

Antonio Barrera

Julio Duque

Alexander Ford

Julian Gaviria

Luis Miguel Ibargen

Mauricio Martinez

Santiago Montano

About the Team

Mixed is not a feature of Colombian ultimate, but combine the top players from each of the divisions and they form a fierce mixed team. Youth ultimate is exploding in Colombia, and that is reflected on the team too – several of the players have opted for World Games rather than the u23 competition in Toronto, and most have come through the juniors programme.

Colombia’s women’s teams have been particularly dominant in the last few years (2 golds for the junior team, 4^th at WUGC2012), and their women will be one of their strongest assets in Cali. Yina Cartagena in particular looks like that potent combination of a cutter with big throws. Meanwhile Elizabeth Mosquera has the height to match-up with any team’s deep cutters and Laura Ospina has a nose for the goal.

On the men’s side, Mauricio Martinez controls the Colombian’s offense as one of their more experienced handlers. Luis Miguel Ibargen made a name for himself at Junior Worlds last year and Santiago Montano won MVP of the mixed division at WUGC in Japan. Meanwhile Julio Duque has been playing with Colony in Australia where he made enough plays to merit his own highlight reel.

Coaches and Expected Playing Style

Like Japan the Colombian team is not particularly tall and relies on the speed to generate offense. Expect to see a pair of male handlers getting the disc into the hands of their dominating female cutters who are extremely comfortable breaking the force or hucking it deep. Colombia are an extremely passionate team, and on the defense this translates as an exciting – bid-heavy - man-to-man play. Whilst they have previously been known for having their own interpretations of the rules and spirit of the game, in recent years they won spirit medals at international tournaments.

The team is coached by Andres Polani, a fixture at club team Matanga, and Andres Angel, a player/coach for one of Colombia’s more successful international teams, Euforia.

 

Luis Miguel Ibargen lays out for the disc.

Expected Finishing Place

Whilst the home crowd and lack-of-travel advantage is not to be underestimated, it remains to be seen whether Colombia has what it takes to translate success on the junior level to that at the elite senior level. Whilst I don’t expect them to go necessarily go winless, I also don’t expect them to break into the top 4.

6^th

That's that done but now the playing begins! DP @ tSG.

The Grapevine - 26/07

The Grapevine this week covers every age group Juniors, U23, World Games and Masters!

We have had ECBU and still have players out in Toronto and Cali for U23 and World Games (helpful page coming soon) the Juniors have the European Youth Ultimate Championships coming up, schedule and pools is out!

As mentioned U23's is ongoing and our page is being updated daily with scores and facts, Open are in the 1v8 quarter today so keep up the support as we enter the last few days of this tournament...

...and the first days of World Games in Cali. The Opening ceremony was last night and Ultimate games start on Sunday. The TD's have arranged this amazing score reporter called WING, which will show game time, time outs, goals, assists, Ds, drops, pulls and touches during the game or during the tournament; also a fresh new tool which draws the disc trajectory. For more details check out the Grapevine WG special tomorrow.

Our coverage of ECBU is now done and Chrissy Birtwistle from the Womens team has written another piece for Forbes on failure leading to success.

After a small hiatus Ultimate Interviews returns with a chat to the Ultimate field marker Martin Rasp.

UTalkRaw is on holiday for a bit so contact Barry if you have any ideas for new shows but Understanding Ultimate is not and discusses hard work, talent and Ben Wiggins. 

xEUCF is not that far away and all the regional allocations have been decided and two Masters teams have already been accepted! Who will go from Open, Women's and Mixed teams? Regionals next weekend then Nationals over Bank Holiday to decide!

Busy times! Keep supporting the U23's with #u23wfdf and following their twitter accounts.

World Games Previews: Team Canada

James Burbidge covers Team Canada in the fifth instalment of his World Games Previews.

Team Canada

The Lineup

Candice Chan

Caroline Cadotte

Mira Donaldson

Danielle Fortin

Catherine Hui

Anne Mercier (captain)

Andy Collins (captain)

Cam Harris

Morgan Hibbert

Jeff Lindquist

Mark Lloyd

Nick Menzies

Adrian Yearwood

About the Team

For the first time Team Canada’s male component will be made up more of GOAT players than those from Furious George. Adrian Yearwood, Mark Lloyd, Jeff Lindquist and Cam Harris have all been standout players for the Toronto club team in the last few years. However, Morgan Hibbert from Furious George is probably the biggest name on the team, and is accompanied by teammate Nick Menzies and (ex) Furious player Andy Collins (who appears to have retired from Club). You can see most of these players in action here.

The ladies of the team come from three different teams: captain Anne Mercier and Danielle Fortin come from the Toronto-based Capitals; Candice Chan and Mira Donaldson and Catherine Hui from the Vancouver-based Traffic; whilst Caroline Cadotte is the sole representative of Montreal’s Odyssee.

Standout receivers on this team are Morgan Hibbert, Jeff Lindquist and Catherine Hui. Expect Anne Mercier, Danielle Fortin, Adrian Yearwood and Nick Menzies to anchor things at the back.

 

Jeff Lindquist makes an unconventional break throw.

Coaches and Expected Playing Style

Coached by another familiar name of Canadian ultimate – Jeff Cruikshank – expect this team to bring a fierce competitive spirit to the tournament. Whilst this has occasionally spilt over the top in past competitions, no-one can deny that Team Canada brings a gritty defense more than capable of making comeback runs.

Offensively I’d expect them to use their match-ups in one-on-one situations as much as possible, isolating cutters in as much space as possible. With a tall set of male cutters and a speedy set of female ones, they should have a strong deep game – great if it’s working, tough on a small roster if it’s not.

Expected Finishing Place

So far they’ve played the US team twice, and split the results – the first match can be watched here. Canada has a strong team, comprising players who have been consistently exposed to Ultimate at the highest level. That experience should tell in a competition like this, but I don’t see them overcoming the US.

2^nd

World Games starts this Sunday, watch out for viewing links soon and keep supporting our GB teams in Toronto! DP @ tSG.