12 June 2014

London Calling - Open Divison Review

James Burbidge Summarises the start of the UK Open Club Season

Not that there was much doubt in anyone’s mind – but Clapham had no problem asserting their dominance over the rest of Europe at London Calling. Split O and D lines cruised through their pools and bracket play to meet in the final where the D-line beat the O 15-9.

Playing as a full squad almost proved their undoing – trading down against Bad Skid late in the show game on Saturday evening, a clean slate for the weekend looked far from certain. With a clinical finish however, they found another gear at 12-13 down to take the game away from the Germans 15-13.

It was surprising therefore, to see Bad Skid lose in the quarterfinal to one of the French national teams on Sunday morning. Perhaps this is simply explained by a gut-busting performance the night before causing a mental and physical hangover the next day. Likewise a shorthanded FAB finished 11th (dropping from their 3 seed) but gave Clapham their closest game of the weekend, losing to the D-line by just 2.

Ashley Yeo goes up to get the goal. Photo Courtesy of Andrew Moss


Both French teams made it to the quarterfinals, and it will be exciting to see what they can achieve at Euros with a bit more time together under their belts and when the wheat is separated from the chaff. Austria, on the other hand, had a solid weekend against top level competition, but failed to excite, finishing 14th.

Viksjofors and EMO will both be quietly pleased with their weekends, taking 4th and 6th respectively, and proving they can hang with the best in Europe. EMO quietly took the 2nd seed for Tour 2, displacing Chevron (and putting themselves on the same side of the bracket as Clapham). Likewise a Bear-heavy Fire will be happy with their 9th place finish, which should translate to 5th at Tour 2.

Big movers up from the mid-table were Glasgow, who moved from 23rd to 16th after knocking Ka-Pow down in a crossover, and Zimmer who did the same for Brighton City (O-line) to move from 20th to 12th. Devon meanwhile, dropped from 13th to 19th, despite playing their elite pool extremely close on Saturday (a 2 point loss to Bad Skid, and a sudden death win over Fire).

With the seedings and schedule released in record time, we now know that the Tour 2 team list will be as follows:

1. Clapham D
2. Clapham O
3.  EMO
4.  Chevron
5.  Fire
6.  Zimmer
7. Ranelagh
8.  Brighton
9. Glasgow
10. Manchester
11. Devon
12. DED
13. Ka-Pow
14. Cult
15. LLLeeds
16. Birmingham



Another fantastic London Calling in the book (what pitches!), roll on Tour 2.

Tour 2 Previews and more are on the way, stay tuned!

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