Herd Mauled by Bears in Sunny Cardiff - Mixed Tour 1 Report

Matt Dathan reports on Mixed Tour 1 in sun-soaked Cardiff

Bear Cavalry took Thundering Herd to the slaughter to draw first blood in this season’s mixed tour. 

On yet another sunny day on the fields of Cardiff, Herd went into the final still milking their fine 13-10 semi-final victory over Bristol, but their performance was less than legendairy. It all looked to be going well for the Londoners in the first half as they kept up with the Bears, trailing by just one point at half.

Theo Tizard (Bear Cavalry) gets high over the Herd.

Former Bears handler Cian Ó Móráin was a constant thorn in their side and was opening up too many breaks for their liking. But tactics maestro Dave Tyler put his thinking hat on at half time and pulled out a masterstroke to contain the Irish playmaker, stifling his leftie throws.

UKU Mixed Tour 1 Preview

Matthew "Smatt" Hodgson starts his tSG career off with a quick preview of #ukumt1.

With teams attempting to prepare for the World Club Championships this year, the Tour will feel simultaneously significant and insignificant. Whilst results won’t “matter”, the worlds teams will want to prepare as best they can and notch some wins against the other teams going, and the teams not going to worlds will be eager to cause some upsets. (Note: as far as I’ve seen, the qualification method for EUCF in Frankfurt hasn’t been announced).

Below is an analysis of the top 10 seeded teams for UKU Mixed Tour 1 this weekend in Cardiff. 

Teams going to WUCC

Bear Cavalry: The focus for Bears is worlds. They have retained almost the entire squad from the European Championship winning team, brought in D line contributors, and comfortably handled business at Winter League (not conceding more than 5 points in a game). The Bears are out to win the tour and continue their legacy as a mixed powerhouse on their route to WUCC.

Cambridge: have taken the interesting decision to split their worlds team between O and D lines for Mixed tour 1 (and possibly beyond?). Whilst this will undoubtedly provide plenty of exposure to the highest level of mixed ultimate across the roster, and get more game time and grow connections along the two lines, I see them losing some games on the decision as well. Having said that, with this long to go before WUCC, losses likely won’t provide as much of a sting if the progression is there.

The Grapevine - 28/03

The Grapevine.

Brummie is really getting around now with another skills clinic, this time in Croatia also featuring some guest US coaches. Get Horizontal mentioned the tournament last year that will run alongside the clinic. Sign up for both now, looks immense!

Mixed Tour 1 has gone paperless and exclusively online so make sure to follow all the updates on the #ukumt1 tagboard!

SkyD have released their 2014 Mock Draft (US ultimate minds creating their fantasy draft from the best players in the open game) and two UK players, Justin Foord and Tom Abrams (Clapham), made one of the teams.

The Flatball Film has been in production for sometime now but this exciting movie chronicling the history of ultimate needs our help! Go and support the maker now! Watch the trailer below. 

The Grapevine - 07/03

The Grapevine.

As many of you will know Carleton Ultimate (CUT) the US College team lost three players in a tragic road incident last week. Josh and I would like to personally send our regards to the CUT community and families. 

There have been heartfelt testimonials from the UKU, Lou Buruss, Elliot Trotter and many many more. 

Turning to other news, Nice Bristols were on the BBC's The One Show! Skip to around 33 mins to catch them and some quality Push Pass footage.

Speaking of Push Pass. UKU Regionals footage is being uploaded now go grab a subscription or just the games you want from your region of choice!

WCBU 2015 has been announced for Dubai!! Go watch a great little video preview.

Scottish University Open Outdoor Regionals Preview

Rory Curran finishes off UKU University regionals with Scotland.

Scottish Uni Open Outdoor Regionals will have a different look and feel about it this year. With the introduction of a Women’s sanctioned event running along side the main BUCS open qualifier it’s unlikely many girls will feature in the main event (though they will be fighting for medals of their own). Another change is the introduction of upfront bad weather arrangements meaning teams will travel safe in the knowledge they will be settling nationals qualification one way or another, with most regionals in recent memory having been rained off, this is a luxury that those from the drier side of the country may take for granted. Another big change in Scottish Ultimate is the fact that Edinburgh, after at least a decade of top two finishes, are no longer considered to be part of the top two north of the border their demise has been likened to that of Manchester United, with some going as far as saying Man U and Ro Sham Bo alike are top Division material.

Edinburgh in the final last year, can they repeat? Photo courtesy of Andrew Moss.

University Regionals 2014 Results.

Congratulations to all the teams who qualified for University Nationals 2014 from University Open Outdoor Regionals. Here are the top 6 from each region:

West

Div 1

1. Bristol

2. Bath

3. Cardiff

Div 2

4. Exeter

5. Southampton

6. Bournemouth

South East

Div 1

1. Sussex 1

2. Sussex 2

3. Imperial College

Div 2

4. LSE

5. Surrey

6. Kent

Midlands

Div 1

1. Warwick

2. Cambridge

3. Birmingham

Div 2

4. Nottingham

5. Oxford

6. Loughborough

North

Div 1

1. Durham

2. Manchester

3. York

Div 2

4. Newcastle

5. Liverpool

6. Bangor

Scotland

Div 1

1. Dundee

2. Heriot Watt

3. Edinburgh

4. Glasgow

Div 2

5. Strathclyde
6. St. Andrews

7. Aberdeen

Into possible seeds for Nationals:

Division 1 (suggested by Ashley Yeo)

1. Dundee
2. Warwick
3. Durham 4. Sussex 15. Bristol6. Heriot Watt7. Manchester8. Cambridge9. Birmingham10. Bath11. Edinburgh12. York13. Sussex 214. Cardiff15. Imperial16. Glasgow

Division 2

1. Nottingham

2. I1

3. LSE

4. Strathclyde

5. St. Andrews

6. Oxford

7. Exeter

8. Aberdeen

9. Newcastle

10. Surrey

11. Southampton

12. Bournemouth

13. Liverpool

14. Bangor

15. Loughborough

16. Kent