UKU University Women's Outdoor Nationals Preview

Elly White introduces the competition for University Women's Outdoor Nationals

This weekend sees the biggest ever University Women’s Outdoor Nationals with over 30 teams heading to Manchester.

One of the front runners this year, and a team that was mentioned by nearly every team in the questionnaire is Birmingham. The ladies have had a very successful season, getting silver at UWIN and gold at UMON, and are coming into UWON with a very talented squad that could secure themselves another gold. From what I’ve heard, the entire team are star players in their own right, but there are a few that have been specifically mentioned. GB U23 players Grace and Kim Owens' connection will be difficult to stop, as will rising star and GB U20 player Jess Cowley. There is also a boost from Tilly Salter who has spent a year playing with Saucy Nancy, the college team from Iowa who came 3rd at USA College Championships last year. All of this adds up to a pretty formidable team that I predict to make the semis at least.

Sussex Mohawks will be looking to win UWON for the 4th year in a row, an incredible feat and something definitely within their grasp. They will be very used to playing together after sending a team to the Irish outdoor tournament The Siege of Limerick. Players to look out for are Megan Hurst throwing to Starzy Riordan-Eva and also vice-captain Rachel Clark. For the second year in a row they are fielding a second team, which shows the depth that their women’s club has. Like Birmingham, I will be very surprised if Mohawks don’t make the top four.

Leeds are another team that will expect to do really well. They have train often as a team, and 6 of them are part of the LLLeeds squad this season. Captain Claire Taylor’s strong and versatile throws will be brought down by Ruth Lowe, Alice Beeching and Rachel Finch, all up and coming LLL superstars. Leeds have entered a second team this year, something Claire says was helped by prioritising women’s trainings and games over mixed when recruiting women.

University of Leeds Women regroup in the huddle.

Durham is another University that has benefitted from LLL selections this year, and this will be evident in Sarah Clear's and Mark Clark's throws as well as Fi Rae's receiving. They also benefit from the retention of Rebecca Devine, who went to Euros with DED last summer; a formidable lefty handler with pin-point hucks. Durham are another team to enter a second team this year, again suggesting good squad depth as well as a head start on development for next year's team.

Bangor are the third Northern team to feature club players from Leeds, and after impressive indoor results will be looking to build on their 10th place finish from last year. Ava Grossman, Harriet Brown and Louise Ryan all have throws to watch out for. The North was a strong region at UWIN, coming in 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th and I expect this strength to continue outdoors. Manchester have many of their girls training regularly with the new Manchester Women’s Ultimate club team and Sheffield have the top handling combination of Kat Cheng (LLL) and Charis Lestrange.

Scotland are a consistently strong region across divisions, and Dundee and Edinburgh were both mentioned in a lot of preview questionnaires as the ones to look out for. Dundee have had a very successful season so far, winning UWIN and coming second at UMON, and look like they could continue this streak at UWON. On the Edinburgh team, Abbie Dutton's cutting as well as the handling of Carissa Tong and Gale Hunter will be formidable for any opponents looking to take down Ro Sham Bo.

Nottingham had a huge team last year and retained a lot of these players, leading to an experienced team this year, including Kirsten Wells of Manchester Women’s Ultimate. A combination of the successful season they have already had and the return of their captain Trina Lam will no doubt see Nottingham challenge hard and achieve a high finishing position.

Also boasting a large roster are the London combination team of UCL, Imperial and Kings. The unfortunate timings of their exams have meant none of the individual Universities could field enough for a team. This is obviously a shame for all three, especially UCL, who had such a strong presence at SEUWIR. People are unsure what to expect from this combination team, which reportedly will feature Iceni and SYC club players as well as some new players from the different Universities. It will be interesting to see how this all comes together in one team, nobody really knows what to expect as none of UCL, Imperial or Kings are regular faces at UWON, but their top players definitely have the experience to make this a successful team.

As well as fighting it out for the top spots, this weekend will be a great chance for second teams and beginners to experience playing competitive outdoors. Three second teams are entered this year (Sussex, Leeds and Durham) which is such a positive things for women’s University Ultimate and will provide all these girls with great exposure to the sport and experience of a more competitive environment. Combine this with the high standards we will see from all the tops teams and it looks like it’s shaping to be a fantastic weekend.

Here are my predictions for the top 5:

1. Sussex

2. Birmingham

3. Leeds

4. Edinburgh

5. Durham

Once again, Good luck from The ShowGame to all players competing at University Nationals this weekend!

UKU University Open Nationals Division 1 Preview

Chris Bamford introduces the 16 competitors heading to University Outdoor Open Nationals this weekend

The university season is approaching its climax and many teams will be glad that Open and Women's Nationals is returning to Manchester, after last year being hosted at the perennially windy Grove Farm in Nottingham. With BUCS eligibility rules kicking in fully, last year’s comfortable winners from Ireland can’t compete so there will be a new champion this year. For those who don’t know, the qualifiers are:

Sc
Dundee

Edinburgh

Heriott-Watt

Glasgow

N
Durham

Manchester

York

M
Warwick

Cambridge

Birmingham

W
Bristol

Bath

Exeter

SE
Sussex

Sussex 2

Imperial

Last year saw Scotland dominate proceedings open, with every team attending a nationals event (div 1, div 2, indoors and outdoors) finishing in the top 8. This performance helped them get the 4th division 1 spot in front of the Midlands; something that Glasgow will be very glad of having scrapped for the final qualification spot at regionals.

Edinburgh vs Dundee at Scottish Regionals this year. Photo courtesy of LightBox St Andrews. 

The usual combination of graduating players and development since last year always makes prediction extremely tough, but all of the regional champions will be hoping to make a run at the nationals trophy. Dundee once again won in Scotland and will be confident they can dominate their English competition. The athleticism that runs throughout their team is seriously impressive, with Benji Heywood describing some of their defensive work as ‘ridiculous’. Heriott-Watt were predicted as the dark horses to make Div 1 in Scotland by many and successfully lived up to those expectations. Div 1 outdoors is new territory for them but they will be confident that their rapidly developing team can make an impact. Close behind them Edinburgh will look to maintain their impressive reputation. Built up by an appearance in the final last year, the loss of some key players has left them looking unlikely to repeat a finals berth but they will still hope to make the top half. Taking the final Div 1 spot from Scotland are Glasgow. A strong showing indoors will have built confidence, but after under-performing at outdoor regionals they will be hoping as they did indoors to place higher at the national competition.

Northern Champions Durham comfortably saw off the usual Northern heavyweights Manchester in their regional final and I expect them to make the top 8 with ease. Having upset the usual state of affairs in the North, they’ll take a lot of confidence into Nationals and having with a handy ability to win the right games at the right time throughout this season so far, they are one of my tips to make the semi-finals. Manchester however will want to correct what they will see as an aberration in not winning regionals. Despite still possessing some top players, everyone is wondering if they have the squad depth to compete with the best in the country.  York are another team whose progression to Div 1 status has been rapid after failing to qualify last year for Division 2. Since then they have worked hard and developed into a cohesive unit - no one was surprised when they secured 3^rd place at Northern regionals.

In the Midlands traditional University powerhouse Warwick sprung a surprise victory and regained their position at the top after a couple of years in the (relative) wilderness. Captain Sam Hawkins masterminded victory in a tough region, leading a squad with no big stars to a well deserved regional title. Warwick will want to add their name to a trophy they have won multiple times before, however they could be held back by several absentees from their regional squad. Cambridge won Indoors and will fully believe they can repeat the trick outdoors. Their chances are harmed by having only half of ‘those two Americans’ (Justin Norden and Ben Funk) involved as Funk is reportedly injured. This gives even more importance to the depth of their team, and opposition will be hoping to pressure squad players into errors in order to beat them. Birmingham have an impressive recent track record with victories at UMIN, UMON, as well as 3^rd place finishes at UOON 2014 and UOIN 2013 and 2014. Despite this they only managed 3^rd place at regionals, and needed a second attempt to beat Nottingham to qualify. Having done so they will now be looking to add more medals to their impressive collection.

In the West, Bristol surprised some to take the regional title, overcoming a star-studded Bath team as well as any doubts about their ability to cope with poor conditions. Josh Kyme is the leader of the team, and along with Joe Brown runs the handler set and with a wealth of downfield options in the Bristol cutters, their job is only made easier. Bristol beat favourites Bath to the top spot at regionals who have on their roster both GB and Jen players including Alex Brooks (Jen captain, previously GBU23 Captain and GB Open), Piers Nicholas (GB u20), Michael Guise (GB u20) and Andy Watt (Jen). Last year they won regionals but failed to break the top 8 at nationals and will surely hope to improve this time round. Cardiff make up the qualifiers from the West and they will be delighted with a regionals performance which saw them outperform several strong sides to earn a Div 1 spot, winning the game to go against arch-rivals Exeter. With their own star player in Kei Matsumoto leading a team full of developing freshers it will be exciting to see how they manage the pressure of a top level national competition.

Lastly onto the South East, where Sussex put on a huge demonstration of strength with their 1st and 2nd team proving stronger than anything the rest of the region could muster. This pretty extraordinary statement indicates the depth of their program and suggests they’ll have strong hopes for nationals. The first team will make their usual push for the top four with eyes set firmly on the BUCS trophy. The second team will be hoping to improve on previous showings at Div 1 events (coming last at both Indoors this year and Outdoors last year). Imperial have established themselves as the best of the rest from the South East, and no wonder with big names such as Stephan Rossbauer (Clapham), James Threadgill (Cambridge mixed), David Pryce (Fire) and Phil Sandwell (Ka-Pow). They will have aspirations of a top 8 spot at least.

My predictions for Semi-finalists are:

Dundee

Durham

Birmingham

Bristol

Three of these four are regional champions and I'm backing them to carry the habit of winning into this tournament and make the most of their strong seedings. Birmingham under-performed at regionals but have a talented squad who are used to winning and could upset their seeding from the start of the weekend in a big way.

Good luck to all teams competing at this year's BUCS Nationals - keep an eye out for results and tournament review on The Showgame!

UKU Uni Indoors BUCS Championship Review (Div 1)

Newly appointed University Coordinator Chris Bamford gives us his review of Uni Open Indoors Div 1 Nationals.

This weekend the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry was the venue for the UKU University Indoor BUCS Championship. With 16 teams having fought their way through regional qualification all fancied their chances of making the top 8 and claiming BUCS points. The unpredictable nature of the tournament, with most teams having not played each other since nationals last year meant the 5 regional champions: Dundee, Manchester, Cambridge, Exeter and Sussex started as slight favourites with Dundee returning as defending champions.

xEUCF 2013 - Open Division

UKU Open Nationals 2013 saw London's Clapham Ultimate secure their thirteenth consecutive win in a clean sweep. Chevron Action Flash achieved revenge in a repeat of 2012's semi final against Fire of London, but were unable to dislodge the perennial UK Champions. 

Brighton Ultimate improved by one to gain their highest ever placing of third, and guaranteeing themselves a spot in the upper 'Elite' bracket. They will be joined by the Cinderella story of the weekend, Devon ultimate - who have threatened an international breakout before (Nationals 2010 saw them miss out by a minor margin), but are now consolidated as surely the UK's favourite underdogs as they rise above Fire 1, EMO, and Kapow! to place 4th, after completing a late-game-comeback-sudden-death-victory over none other than Fire, a result foreboded by the epic Tour 2 Matchup.

Fire nevertheless secured the all important qualification, and Kapow! overcame a rollercoaster season to get the crucial win against EMO for the final spot, a result that jars with the two team's respective tour performances. On to Bordeaux...

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.

Mixed Tour review and what next?

David Pryce gives us his final review of Mixed Tour 2013 and looks forward to Nationals and further.
Mixed tour has ended and with it we have seen some great battles, World Games dominating as expected, over 50 different teams attended and who will go to xEUCF and Worlds?

The results are in and so overall tour standings can be calculated (unofficial algorithm used, for official UKU results await update), the info graphic below shows how teams have moved over the season. To read find the team of interest on the left (ordered by MT1 seedings) and then follow their line.

All mixed up? Apologies, find your team and follow their progress.

Looking at how teams have done over the course of the tour: RGS, Cambridge and Black Eagles clearly having great seasons with Bears falling from their top spot. Ten from the top 16 beat their initial seeding but the worst drop was Peeps who fell 9 positions (Golden Ants also fell 7 positions and out of this bracket).

Further down there was a lot of big movers namely:

• Mustard +19
• Flyght Club +18
• Steal +14
• BAM! +12 [apologies for missing this one out!]
• Reading +12
• Some Team +10
• JR +10

Overall a great season and hopefully a lot of good preparation for our National teams going to World Games and u23 World Championships this summer.

Matthew Hodgson gets horizontal for Thundering Herd 1 vs DED. Photo Courtesy of Graham Bailey.

What does this seasons results mean for the upcoming national and international competitions. With teams like RGS, Magic Toast, Bristol, Black Eagles and DED; I imagine that most players will be choosing Open or Womens over Mixed. Hence leaving UKU Nationals 2013 to be played out by Cambridge, Bears, Brighton and company. From the teams that do play Nationals there are 3 slots for xEUCF 2013 in Bordeaux. At a wild guess I would say Cambridge, Bears and Herd would take those with Brighton Open/Womens vying for an Open spot. Another spot for Euros will be decided dependent on teams entered so we may see a 4th team go, wait and see.

That would be this season over, BUT this season also gives the qualification for World Ultimate Club Championships 2014 in Italy. Again the UK has 3 slots and is 4th on the waiting list for another. As set out by the UKU mixed qualification for Worlds is through a combination of:

1. The winner of UKU Nationals 2013 in each division wins a spot at WUCC 2014
2. The highest placed UK team at XEUCF in each division (excluding winner of Nationals) also wins a spot at WUCC 2014
3. Any remaining spots are allocated based on the UKU Tour rankings 2013

N.B. that if the winner of UKU Nationals is the highest placed team at xEUCF, the next ranked team at xEUCF will be awarded the 2nd WUCC bid.

There are many combinations of what could happen here, mostly dependent on which teams go to which tournaments. Although if RGS don't go to Nationals or Euros they would be guaranteed the third spot if they decided to go to Worlds. Tentative prediction: Cambridge, Bears for definite, the last spot is too hard to call.

Who will get to go to Worlds?

Well that is it, Mixed Tour is done for 2013 watch out for Nationals in August. Next weekend gives us the start of the Open and Women's season with some European teams coming to London's Calling in St Albans!

Open and Women's Tour previews should be up next week so keep an eye out for those and more! Thanks for reading, remember to like and share.

University Women's Outdoor Nationals

Thank to Sarah Harrison for sending us this  brief preview for University Women's Outdoor Nationals taking place this weekend in Nottingham alongside the Open and Alumni divisions. 

This weekend sees the return of the Women's Outdoor Nationals, where ladies from all over the country will be battling it out for the coveted gold medal. An astonishing 27 teams will be heading down to Nottingham, the biggest women's university tournament the UK has ever seen. In this preview, I will look at who I consider the major threats for the women's national title, and predict (hopefully accurately) who will be top dog at Grove Farm.

It is notoriously hard to predict Women's Ultimate, especially at University level. Even after four years of University Ultimate, I still find it incredibly difficult to predict which teams will perform well and make it to the final. Every year, teams go through several transition phases. Some teams have to cope with losing the majority of their experienced players, whereas others are forever building a strong squad. However, the influence of good coaching as well as picking up GB Juniors can have a huge effect on the Women's game.  Some teams may be strong on paper, but get them outside in 20mph winds and it's a completely different story. Here are some things you should be looking out for this weekend.

Combined teams

Never underestimate the power of a combo team. Although some may have never trained together before, the combination of a decent team and some strong additional players could prove lethal. Here are the teams that will be merging this weekend:

Aberdeen/Stirling

Bristol/Cardiff

Dundee/Glasgow

Heriot-Watt/St Andrews

Oxford/Oxford Brookes

Portsmouth/Southampton

Sheffield/Sheffield Hallam

All teams have promise to do well. Having said that, some teams will have been able to train together, which could be the tipping point in their success. With the Oxford/Brookes and Sheffield/Hallam teams coming from the same cities, their potentially existing team bonding may be able overthrow some of the stronger teams. However, it is hard to ignore Dundee's dominance over the past year. The women's squad were incredibly strong indoors and will be looking to continue their reign outdoors with the additional strength of Glasgow. Look out for them, as well as Portsmouth/Southampton. Southampton reached the final last year and they will still be fighting for the top spot, while Portsmouth performed well at Div I Mixed Indoors and will add some strong players to that squad.

The Midlands


With the likes of Birmingham, Nottingham, and Warwick - not forgetting teams like Oxford, Loughborough and Cambridge -the Midlands is seen as a notoriously strong region. All of these girls are good friends and play each other on a regular basis. After incredibly strong finishes at Mixed and Women's Indoor Nationals, the Midlands teams will be tough to beat. My prediction: Nottingham and Birmingham will be the most successful.

Sussex



Never leave out this team. With players like Megan Hurst, Kim Isaac and Lucy Wiggins; Sussex have huge potential to defend their title. The work done by Felix and Megan in training will surely be seen on the field. In my opinion no defence is safe here, but can they make it three years on the trot against a rejuvenated Edinburgh?

Edinburgh

Over the last 12 months, Edinburgh have been in the top 8 in every division, winning Mixed Outdoor Nationals a few weeks ago as well as finishing in the top 4 at Women's Indoor Nationals. Edinburgh have slowly been building a super team, which looks to be incredibly strong outdoors. After playing against them and watching them a few weeks ago, I think that they have the depth and the skills to win the tournament. Only a well drilled, experienced team will be able to stop them.

Having said that, there are plenty of experienced players who will be representing their University this weekend. Beware of the lower seeded teams: they will have small experienced cores that will be looking to improve their seeding and develop their team for future years

My prediction? It's going to be close at the top. There's going to be tears and tantrums. There's also going to be some brilliant Ultimate this weekend. I will be writing a review after the tournament, but for now, here is my top 4.

1. Edinburgh.

2. Sussex.

3. Birmingham.

4. Nottingham.

Good luck to everyone this weekend. See you there.

If you want an in depth analysis go check out Harry Mason's preview http://bit.ly/ZtsG4I. Make sure to follow the action on twitter with the #ukuon hashtag. Whilst you're there follow us at www.twitter.com/TheShowGame and like us on fb www.facebook.com/TheShowGame.

UCC Ultimate - from Cork to Nottingham, via Maynooth

Mark Earley brings us the story of University College Cork's year so far in their journey to Nottingham. Cork will be attending UK University Nationals next week with aims to avenge a painful finals loss at the hands of the Sussex Mohawks last year. 

In Ireland the tournament that decides which university teams are the national champions is called Intervarsities and it takes place relatively late in the calendar year (April). Given the size of Irish Ultimate the Mixed and Women’s Intervarsities are smaller affairs with the Open division tournament being the centerpiece of the university season. That said, the Cork outfit, UCC Ultimate currently hold both the Women’s and Mixed events and were looking to win their third title of the season last weekend. There is no qualification process for Open Intervarsities and all colleges are encouraged to bring as many players and teams as they can muster. Since the first Intervarsities took place the number of teams in attendance has ebbed and flowed, peaking at 16 in 2009, a number almost equalled this year.

Open Intervarsities took place last weekend in Maynooth, a town just outside Dublin in wet and very windy conditions. Fifteen teams took part with a pick up team helping to round out the schedule. Going into the tournament it was hard to look past one of three teams as potential winners – UCC from Cork who had won the tournament 3 years in a row, and the two strongest Dublin-based college teams, UCD and Trinity. Three other teams, DCU – the college team from where WJUC took place last August – UL, from Limerick and NUI Maynooth, the home team, were expected to battle it out for the remaining semi-final spot.

UCC Ultimate Logo

After an upset free Saturday, it was Maynooth who caused the big shock of the tournament by winning their quarter-final on universe point against DCU. This was quite a break through for the team and their first time making it through to the semi-finals. (Later in the day they would add the Spirit Award to their top 4 finish). Cork, Trinity and UCD all joined them, as expected. The pick of the semis was a battle between long-term rivals UCD and Trinity. Both teams had looked strong up until meeting and went in to the game confident but it ended up being a match that will be remembered for the upwind downwind conditions as opposed to for the Ultimate. At first, neither side managed to do much more than play for territory but it was Trinity who imposed themselves getting a brace of upwind goals to build a 4 point lead that they kept until half. UCD fought back in the second half but the gap was too much and Trinity progressed.

Elsewhere UCC took care of a young and determined NUI Maynooth with little fuss, advancing into the final, making it a rematch of the previous year. UCC captain John ‘Doc’ Doherty put their performance against what he called ‘the tournament surprise package’ down to their considerable advantage in terms of experience. ‘A lot of us playing so well in this game was down to the fact that we were much more experienced than Maynooth in the windy conditions, and they had a lot of up-and-coming players who probably hadn't played that much in such conditions before’.

Trinity's Hugo Fitzpatrick with a big bid in the final

The final took place on a slightly more sheltered field and Cork came out on D to start. They turned Trinity in the first point and after a dropped pull in the second were very soon 2-0 up. This became 3-0 after more tight defence and the Corkonian team were in a position they are familiar with – bossing the pace of a game having taken an early lead. Trinity captain Finnian Flood explained that having gone three points up early ‘UCC played with a lot of hunger and composure. Suffocating our O with their strong defense and hitting the open man on their offence whether it was an under cut or a deep strike’. This was echoed by his counterpart Doherty who was pleased with their performance; ‘The offence was patient, the D was tight. We played like we knew we could in the first half to get the lead. I think in the second half we could have been a little more patient, because the wind picked up a lot, and we tried to force it a bit’. Trinity came back into the game with Sam Mehigan, Brian Boyle and Sean O’Mahony helping to add a measure of respectability to the scoreline but realistically it was all over as a competitive game by half-time. Standout performances came from a number of Cork players including veteran Donal Murray and captain John Doherty, It’s worth noting that UCC had lost twice to Trinity earlier in the season so to win the final 13-6 to win their 4th title in as many years will have given them great pleasure.

Trinity's David Ferguson throws around the mark of UCC captain John Doherty 

Given how late the Intervarsities tournament takes place, qualification for UK Uni Outdoor Open Nationals takes place via a University League held in February. UCC will be representing Ireland in Nottingham next week and are looking forward to it. We spoke to their captain Doherty about the trip and he had the following to say: ‘It is always hard to tell what we will come up against in the UK. I saw some of the defending champions Sussex at Siege of Limerick, and they looked even stronger than last year. So we have them as the team to beat standard-wise in order to be good enough to win it. We are missing a good few big players from last years team - last year’s captain Donal O'Donohoe, Mark Fanning and the star player all weekend Kevin Rice, but we have five new first year students this year who we think are capable of stepping up when needed’.

Last year the boys from Cork finished runners up after an excellent string of results but couldn’t beat a Mohawks side who were (and arguably still are) in a rich vein of form. That said, Doherty and his team are going over with only one thing in mind: ‘My team mates would be amazed if I said we have any other plan than to go over to Nottingham to win the tournament. It's been our goal all season to win our own Irish IVs, and to then go to the UK and win UK Nationals’. This comment could be construed by some as arrogant but it would be slight on the Cork mentality to brush it off like that. Focus, determination, hard work and tactical intelligence are the mark of this team. As Flood, the Trinity captain, commented ‘They (UCC) are a very experienced, hungry team with a lot of athleticism and confidence and should do very well in Nottingham. Teams will have to play smart to beat them, but one thing is for sure - at UK Nats they won't give up anything easy’. 

We wish them the best of luck on their trip, as no doubt do the many Irish players they are representing.

Photos courtesy of Sarah Cummins & Mark Earley.