Club or Country? Introduction

Josh Coxon Kelly introduces the next edition of Discussion titled: Club or Country?

Next week teams will compete for the right to call themselves the greatest Ultimate club in the world. Now only a number of days away, excited qualifiers from 40 different countries and 161 different teams will be adding the finer touches to their preparation for this momentous opportunity at time of publishing - getting their bodies and minds perfectly ready to take on the rest of the world. At the height of elite non-commercial ultimate the WUCC held this year in Lecco, Italy is only challenged in terms of prestige by international competitions that occur between the World Club years. Players and coaches will still talk with a hushed reverence of Maribor, Southampton, Sakai, Vancouver as they share stories of their brushes with international glory or defeat, and our whole community is undeniably galvanised by the prospect of GB being represented and competing at Ultimate on the highest international stage.

The EUC and WUGC not only carry an extra weight with the privilege and national pride bound up in their medals, but also arguably present a more tantalising prospect for underdog ultimate nationals given the single-team restriction placed on entrants. With only a single entrance from USA, Canada, Japan, or any other of the growing list of world class Ultimate nations (Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Colombia...), the elusive quarter and semi final brackets are notably more viable for the underdog. The most recent example of this comes from close to home with our very own GB open squad making a first ever appearance in a world final in the recent summer of 2012, in Sakai. Whilst the defeat to USA may have been a decisive one, the GB Open performance in Japan provides lasting inspiration for up and coming British players whose dreams of international success were shown to be more viable than perhaps we had all thought a few summers ago.

Whilst not all players at in Lecco will have represented their country, there will be very few international competitors who do not have a club team at WUCC 2014, and depending on the nation, the distribution of national players varies greatly. There are clearly some quite disparate approaches across the international community to balancing the push and pull between club and country.

In the UK Clapham Ultimate have been open National champions for 13 years, and Iceni have held the women’s title for 8 out of the last 10 years. Whilst neither team is completely unscathed, they are widely held as the best teams in the country and there has is a sense building suggesting that we are starting to develop our own domestic ‘gap’, between the best London club and the rest of the country. Accompanying this suggestion, is the discussion of whether or not we should as a country be sending our most successful teams, or a combination of all-star players from across the country's most competitive squads.

Daniel Furnell (EMO) passes to Si Dathan (Chevron) for GB in Japan. Photo courtesy of Stuart Austin.

It is undeniable that London seems to gravitationally attract a huge portion of young people in the UK whether for career, financial or other reasons. This effect is only going to be further exacerbated for our young sportsmen and women by the high percentage of the Ultimate community who learn and/or mature as players at their universities, and subsequently seek out employment in the larger cities. The country is evidently lopsided population wise, and this as well as the bustling London scene is drawing more and more talent to bolster the already dominant London clubs. Yet, despite this weighting towards the capital, top players from clubs across the country consistently prove at tour and GB selection processes that they can bring their own individual dominance over others from further down the London rosters.

There are clearly many variables and opinions in the balance in this debate, and the pieces in this series will provide an analysis of the British approach and comparison to other world powerhouses, as well as speculation on what steps need to be taken to best progress in the future. Sion Scone will be providing an in-depth analysis of the various options open to us. Supplementing this analysis will be two contrasting opinions from the UK Open club scene [Editor’s note: these supplementary posts are knowingly open-division-centric. We would love to expand the scope of this discussion to other divisions - comment below or get in touch!]: Ollie Benjamin (Clapham ~ 10 years) and Mark Penny (Chevron ~ 7 years). 

The last catch in Lecco will be followed by joy, desolation, celebrations and relaxation for many who move past the pinnacle of their seasons. For some however, it won’t be long after this that the focus turns to EUC’15, WUGC 2016, and the trialling, training and competitive journey of international ultimate that swiftly rises to the height of priority. Should we reassess our current system, and would doing so lead to short term, long term improvement, neither or both? Should we be focusing on top level or grass roots? Should such questions even be imposed on those who make up these teams, and should these people have the responsibility to do both? Let's start the discussion…

UKU Tour 3 Review

David Pryce, Fiona Kwan, Thomas Cliff and Christopher Bell review Tour 3 with some insight into the rest of the season...

Full standings can be found here for Women's and here for Open. But what happened in Cardiff?

Women's Tour - Fiona Kwan

UKU Women's Tour Top 8 

1. Punt
2. SYC

3. ROBOT

4. LLLeeds

5. Phoenix London

6. Iceni

7. Relentless

8. Brighton Pretty

After 3 rounds of fierce contest featuring local favourites and some great input from international competition, the 2014 Tour season has come to an end. We've seen highs and lows, wins and losses, and our fair share of universe points. But sadly, the bakery is now closed. No more bagels.

This review will itself be a review of the finals for the top 6. There have been some great match-ups this season, as more and more team find themselves in contention to win - 4 different teams featured in the 3 Tour finals, Iceni and Punt being the only teams to appear more than once. 

Iceni's absence at Tour 3 was to the advantage of other top level teams who came out hard  vying for the Tour 3 trophy, and the UKU title. Here's how it all went down...

WUCC 2014 Open Division Preview: East Midlands Open

Sean Colfer starts off our WUCC previews with the team taking the third Open Division seeding: East Midlands Open.

Dave Povey gets high over Chevron at Tour 2. Photo courtesy of Graham Bailey.

UKU Open and Women's Tour 3 Preview

David Pryce and Christopher Bell take us through this weekends UKU Tour 3.

Welcome home to Clapham Ultimate and Iceni Ultimate, well played out there! This weekends schedule is here: http://bit.ly/TWR1As

A Tour
The final instalment of this years domestic UK club season is tomorrow! With two events already completed it is still mathematically possible for anyone near the top to take the Tour title. Clapham will be combining both lines into the Clapham D team seeding and EMO will be hoping for the London team to lose their almost inevitable semi final. With only a handful of points between them a big enough gap between these two teams on Sunday evening could be the chance for EMO to take the top spot from Clapham D. However, I don't think Clapham will be lying down too easily. After learning some tough lessons at the US Open they will only be hungry to return to the UK and stamp their authority on their home turf. 

Hayden Slaughter makes a huge grab over Clapham D at Tour 2. Photo courtesy of Andrew Moss.

London Calling - Open Preview

The club season is upon us! James Burbidge takes a look at the competition heading to the open division this weekend.

Returning to St Albans, Tour 1, this year's London Calling sees over 70 teams entered into the open division with 10 coming from overseas.

At the top of the pack, four teams will hope to prove themselves the best of the best in Europe: Clapham, Chevron Action Flash, Bad Skid and Flying Angels Bern. London Calling will doubtless provide top competition for these teams as they prepare for the big one: the World Club Championships in August.

Reigning National and European champions Clapham have split their team into two like last year (an O-line and a D-line), and are using the competition as the final part of a long and heated selection process. Captain Marc 'Britney' Guilbert returns to lead a club firmly focused on a peak in Lecco and will be hoping that his teams can meet in the final this year, rather than the semi. With no major player movement out, and more top recruits coming in – notably Ollie Gordon from Chevron, Matt Parslow and James Baron from Fire – they may find that the toughest competition is also the most familiar.

Photo courtesy of Graham Bailey.

A Look Ahead - The 2014 Open Season

James Burbidge continues his open coverage looking towards 2014.

2014 – A Look Ahead

In case you weren’t aware, the big deal with 2014 is the World Ultimate Club Championships (or WUCC for short). It’s taking place in Lecco, Italy from the 2nd to the 9th of August (1 week after UK Regionals, 2 weeks before Nationals). The UK will be sending 3 teams: Clapham, Chevron Action Flash and EMO. And as Clapham captain Britney points out "World Club years are different. They are different because they are the only time within the 4 year cycle of international competition that clubs can expect undivided attention and commitment from its players. For top clubs who feed various GB squads, this focus is rare and welcomed." 

With the lessons learned from 2013, and new members currently joining the squads, now seemed like a good time to take a look at the three teams.

Clapham are running closed trials this year, having taken a fairly large contingent of new players on last year. They are on a 2-year plan for the competition, which began with trials immediately after Euros in 2012. Britney notes that "Clapham in 2013 was working through new systems and new ways to play the game. We looked different and played different but [the strict framework of our plan] allowed all of us to push in the same direction. This alignment and synergy was probably our greatest accomplishment out of 2013.... [W]e can spend the remaining months between now and WUCC to perfect our systems instead explaining them. With our existing foundation, we can concentrate on looking forward instead of dissecting the past." 

With confirmed appearances at the US Open (4th July weekend) and Windmill Windup (13-15th June), Clapham will be putting themselves up against the best competition they can to prepare. "Just as it will be during Worlds, we will only have one chance to win every battle. This is our aim. Not to win a tournament, not to win a game, but to win a point, to win an individual battle. If you think is sounds too cliché, I invite you to try it. It’s harder than you think when you come up against the best in the world. The pressure is on and we will push each other up to these standards at every single training."

The Grapevine - 17/01

This week's Grapevine brings the best from ultimate news around the globe

Keep voting for the World Games Team of the Year ... 'Flying Disc' is winning. . . 

This week we launched Discussion, kicking off with a provocative piece by Sophie Edmondson...

Ultiworld Editor Charlie Eisenhood did a Reddit based 'AMA' ...

Understanding Ultimate bring us the conclusion in a 3 part series looking at IO turnovers... 

Ultimate Interviews get to know the European Ultimate Celebrity that is 'Oddi'...

EMO ultimate bring the banter in their individual preseason self-promotion #pickme videos. Check out their Facebook for the links, including our favourite...

We've got plenty in store at TheShowGame in terms of preseason content - as always if you're interested in helping out then get in touch! tSG

A Quick Look in the Rear-view Mirror - Open Tour 2013

James Burbidge looks back at 2013 from the Open division perspective.

Another year another national championship for Clapham, followed up by another European title. With their sights firmly set on Worlds, and a two-year plan in place, Clapham were a dominant force, even by their own standards. Aside from their obvious additions to the trophy shelf, one of the highlights of the year must have been a strong performance at the Chesapeake Invite where they narrowly missed out on a spot in the final, facing up all weekend against some of the toughest US club teams. You can read more about that weekend here.

Clapham take the European title for the second year running. Photo courtesy of Get Horizontal.

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.

Tour 2 Review - A Tour (ft. Alex Cragg)

Josh Coxon Kelly tells us the tale of A tour at Nottingham including the inside story from one of the Fire 1 captains Alex Cragg.

Players and teams came to Nottingham expecting stormy weather and were not disappointed. A stiff wind all weekend and rushes of rain ensured that Tour 2 was a test of throwing skill and team strategy where patience and discipline would pay dividends. Such conditions are also ripe for upset - particularly on pitches with clear up/down wind orientation - and in this category the A tour didn’t disappoint.

Pool A saw Clapham and GB u23 looking to hold onto the top two seeds in a straight to semis schedule. The meeting of these two teams was closer than at Tour 1, but despite an early lead due to an excellent start by GB, clapham showed their consistency and improved steadily throughout the game to come out victorious once again. Neither Ranelagh or KaPow managed to break into the top 2 of the pool, and a 10-9 loss in their match-up to Ranelagh saw the bottom two in the pool switch seeds.

Michael Speer (GB U23) bids on Matt Dathan (KaPow) in the pool stages. Photo courtesy of Graham Bailey.

In Pool B a reduced Chevron squad make light work of opposition including an opening grudge match against Fire (in recent seasons a frequent matchup, this was the first time the squads had met since Fire’s victory in the 2012 Nationals semi-final). Chevron came out strong and didn’t let up, winning 15-6 in a game that was to be ominous of Fire’s weekend to come. EMO held seed in a dramatic win against a stuttering Fire squad, confirming their place in the top 4 for a second tour running, a win that could turn out to have serious implications in terms of tour rankings for WUCC 2014...

Chevron stayed clinical despite the wind and repeated their tour 1 quarter final victory over the u23s on Sunday, this time for a place in the final to play Clapham. However Chevron’s high retention performances would not continue into the last game of the weekend. Clapham brought a smart game that capitalised early and played through the Chevron zone in both directions. Down early, Chevron were unable to recover and didn’t manage to adapt their more conservative playing style to the worsening conditions as well as their London rivals, who emerged comfortable winners.

Fire veteran Lewis Glover does just enough to beat David Ray (Leeds).
Photo Courtesy of Graham Bailey.

Movement from the second 8 was to create arguably the most dramatic storylines of this tour however, as a Devon squad bolstered by returning players (including Chevron D-line star Ben Hall) completed a dramatic victory over Fire 1 on Sunday morning in the crossover for top 8. Players arriving early at the food and physio tents were treated to a sudden death comeback victory for Devon featuring a completed world’s greatest and the most emphatic of celebrations as Fire’s weekend took a further turn for the worse.

Manchester converted their qualification, avoiding the relegation fate shared by BAF, Cambridge and Glasgow. The highest climber from the second 8 was Fire 2, who after beating KaPow found themselves in the top 8, eventually finishing one place above their first team. 
Fire 1 have long been a firm top 4 team, and have been no stranger to finals at Tour, Nationals and even European championships in the last 5 years. Dropping out of the top 8 is the first significant movement of one the top 3 teams of recent A-tour history - tSG spoke to captain Alex Cragg to gain some insight into the weekend’s events...

Quite a few of the results at tour 2 were obviously disappointing for you and your team. What do you think happened to cause the upsets?

We'd had a slightly lower finish than we'd hoped for at Tour 1, even given the international teams, but we knew we had the ability to play at the top; taking a strong Bad Skid to sudden death proved that.

Unfortunately, that confidence backfired and we presumed our games were foregone conclusions. We failed to take the Chevron game as enough of a sign that wasn't going to be the case. People wanted to beat us more than we wanted to beat them; our heads weren't in the right place and we lacked focus causing too many individual errors, which crippled any tactical adjustments.

Another problem was that we tried to play Ultimate... Some people might scoff at that, but we undervalued territory in those conditions. We know how to play through a zone, but it was only half way through the Devon game, 6 points down, that we started to play to our real strengths.

What actions did you take to turn around the team’s mentality after these losses?

We made sure that our pre-game preparation consisted of much more throwing, getting people's self belief back. We needed to salvage something from the weekend, and putting the prospect of losing all our games into context helped bring back some desire to win.

We'd probably placed too much focus on the bigger picture of World's qualification, so we brought things back to focus on one game at a time.

Unexpected losses are undeniably difficult to take, but they can give an opportunity to learn about your team - what lessons did you take from tour 2?

The main thing I think we learnt is that we probably haven't been exploiting our individual strengths enough, instead focussing on a team ethos that has seen some people's roles mutate.

Every single player was hugely disappointed with the weeked, and I think everyone's taking a bit more personal responsibility since then. We all know we can do better. We'll be a very different team at Tour 3 and Nationals.

The second team’s squad has been strong at all showings this year and performed very well to qualify for the top 8 in Nottingham - will this see much change in players between the teams for Tour 3?

Fire 2 have been brilliant this year. A lot of people wrote them off after last year, but they've proven that to have been a blip in a very strong history for a second team. They're definitely on track for their season goal of taking one of the 6 Euro's spots.

One of our ideas for the year was to allow each team to have its own identity, which has included playing and drilling in those teams at training sessions. This builds up the relationships players need to do well.

However, there has been a small amount of movement, with 2 players coming up from Fire 2. We've also moved a couple of Fire 1 players into the seconds to give them more experience playing against top 4 competition (with Fire 1 being locked out).

Outside of players will there be any significant shift in Fire’s approach to Tour 3 and the rest of the season?

Absolutely. After quite a few roster changes from last year, it's taken some time for everyone to find their role and for us to play in the best way to exploit our strengths. I think our experience at Tour 2 has brought us together more, and our passion and desire to win has only grown. We've also restructured how we call lines, which has lead to much better performances in training.

What are your team goals for Nationals and Europeans?

Barring a huge upset at Tour 3, we've now missed out on our first shot at World's qualification. There's enough time before Nationals to put everything we've learnt about ourselves into practice, and, like last year, our target is to make the final of Nationals and win. After that we'll have to see about Europeans. We've learnt to not look too far in the future!

Fire of London.

There is all to play for in the final tour of the season. Fire 1 will be looking to turn their season around in the lead up to Nationals. Clapham will be missing stars with the absence of World Games squad players, and Chevron, U23 and EMO will be looking to capitalise on this to hand them their first loss of the season. Ranelagh found the form they were looking for in Nottingham rising to 5th, but with the recent events at Tour 2 all A tour teams will be fighting hard for that giant killing that will send them up the rankings.

A Tour movers. Courtesy of Wayne Retter.

All ready for a heatwave in Cardiff? Don't forget your suncream and hats! Like, share, contribute and tweet! DP @ tSG.

The Grapevine - 05/07

This weeks The Grapevine covers blogs, results and #ukut3 squads...

Full ECBU 2013 results can be found here with a lot more on the live.ecbu2013.org website! Huge congratulations go out to all who represented Great Britain and thanks to every supporter out there or back in blighty! Watch out for our insiders review in next few weeks....

Ragnarok are representing Europe at the US Open in Raleigh, North Carolina. Started play yesterday but Get Horizontal have brought together all the info you need to follow them!

Love to jack it deep? See what Benji has to say about hucking on Understanding Ultimate.

UTalkRaw is really starting to bring in the ultimate celebrities, check out episode 26 where Dan Roddick tells us about the beginnings of Ultimate itself! 

A cool analysis blog, Ultimate Strategy and Coaching has recently started looking into NexGen games with the aide of the match footage. Find it here!

Last but not least, EMO have been doing a great job on pitch and with their social media. Like their FB page where you will find not only their team lists for the upcoming #ukut3 but read the piece from Ian 'Scot' Scotland - EMO's mentality change in 2013.

EMO having their best season so far in 2013.

Enjoy the sun and Wimbledon semis and finals! More to come soon! DP @ tSG.

London's Calling Review - A Tour

Josh Coxon Kelly brings us this weeks penultimate review of London's Calling - A tour.

As expected the opening tour of 2013 has brought an exciting start to the UK domestic season. With weather conditions which came dangerously close to ‘summery’ at points, UK clubs were treated to the perfect conditions to start off their season’s battles and rivalries.

Sitting pretty at the top of the pack, Clapham’s O line showed throughout the weekend why they were given the number 1 seed as the only non-movers of the A-tour. Bolstered by a returning Giacomo Maltman and new recruits Magnus Wilson (Tooting) and Rob Schumacher (Fire), the Clapham machine showed its capabilities with a clinical weekend - with their closest test from Bad Skid (15-13 Clapham) overshadowed by a decisive victory over the same team in the final. With the D-Line ‘dogs’ woofing their way to third place, the current UK and European champions have succeeded in a strong statement to start their competitive year.

Chevron captain Mark Penny lays out for the grab against CUSB 

Chevron proceeded through pool play unscathed, and found their form of the weekend for their quarter final matchup against the GB U23 squad which despite being largely outnumbered and losing 8 players to the opposition, they came out of with a 15-10 victory. Unphased by the aggressive offence and screaming defense Chevron showed an early sign of the form they will need to replicate if they hope to challenge for the long coveted National and European titles later in the year.

The GBU23 team had one of the most controversial seedings pre-tournament at 7th. They rose to beat this by two, but will be unhappy to not have had a shot at a Tour final. The young squad showed flashes of brilliance throughout the weekend, and displayed one of the more formidable defensive squads at the tournament. However, an occasionally stuttering offense was exposed by the most experienced opponents with losses to Clapham and Chevron. When this team plays at the top of their abilities they are strong enough to take on any domestic club - but will they be able to sustain this level of play to get the result they want at Tour 2?

EMO 1’s ascension of three seeds is maybe the story of the weekend, and a considerable move at such a high level of competition. Despite missing the leadership and pitch length throws of Joe Wynder, EMO showed themselves as a strong geo-team that has full intentions of challenging for the top 4 this season. They have stars Rich Gale and Dan ‘Colonel’ Furnell from the recent GB Open squad (Rich will also be attending World Games), backed up by plenty of pace and athleticism from a solid squad. EMO have reported consistently high numbers at trainings, and this is reflected in large squads attending Tour events for the recent years. Most importantly the team are starting to play with the belief that is needed for giant killings - keep an eye on these boys for potential major upsets later in the season.

A tour movers. Courtesy of Wayne Retter.

Fire of London found themselves in tough matchups for their quarter-finals (Bad Skid) and the 5-8 playoff (a livid u23 squad). The resultant 7th place position will be disappointing, but does not in any way suggest that Fire are not going to be fighting hard for finals berths as the season continues. Once again recruiting heavily, and importantly retaining GB Open/World Games Matt Parslow, Fire are strong once again and, importantly, are a team that knows how to peak later on in the season.

Outside of the top 8 we find Kapow!, who after an upset in Fire 2's favour on Saturday will have been disappointed not to have been in the top 8, but have shown their intentions for bigger things by taking 9th over Cota Rica. Bear Cavalry more than validated their A Tour starting seeding, rising 8 seeds and finishing over Brighton, a top 4 team of recent years. Refreshed DED and Tooting squads both saw falls of 6 seeds - it will be interesting to see if the new faces on these squads will be able to return their teams to top 8 contention, or if their season will be more about staying in the A tour altogether.

With the current strength of the B Tour, teams traditionally used to A Tour ultimate such as BAF, Cambridge, Fire 2, Devon and Tooting may find re-qualification harder than ever before. The Tour season has got off to a strong start, but with shifting squads and various non club entries it is hard to get a picture of Nationals yet. Consistency is key to the Tour, and with competition rising at all levels, no game will be won easily in Nottingham.

Almost there, tomorrow we have saved the best till last: Women's review! Remember to like, share, comment and contribute! DP @ tSG.