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.

Fog Lane Cup Review - setting the stage for a truly open season...

Josh Coxon Kelly reviews the primary domestic warmup for the club open season.

Last weekend saw the second ever Fog Lane Cup take place at Stanley Lane Sports Ground in Chippenham. A stiff but unpredictable breeze and occasional rain made for testing conditions, and an opportunity for teams to break in rusty winter skill sets and new tactics alike.

Pool stages on Saturday saw two upsets from Fire 2, who showed grit and tenacity to come out with sudden death victories over both Kapow and Devon, earning themselves second in the group and a hard fought semi-finals berth. Chevron won-out, although not without fight from their opposition, which included a Kapow team hungry to improve on a tense 15-13 quarter final loss at 2012 Nationals. The London outfit were unable to improve upon last year's effort however, and Chevron proceeded to top the group.

The other side of the draw saw Fire 1 and GBU23 in a battle to top the group on Sunday morning. After dispatching EMO and Devon 2 decisively (both games got to score cap at 15-2) the Under 23s had made their statement and were ready to take their first scalp as a new team. However they found themselves up against an experienced Fire squad who, unflustered by the GB unit took an early lead, and held out for the win.

GB didn't stay dejected for long however, and made their way past Chevron in their semi-final for a chance of victory at their first ever tournament. In a game that was not lacking in familiarity between players (no less than 9 of the full U23 team are part of this year's Chevron squad), the game nevertheless saw an exciting and fiercely competitive matchup, as both teams tested the opposing offences with an array of defensive looks. Both teams showed an ability to work the disc upwind from the first pull, with GB earning an upwind break to start. Chevron replied with a break of their own, but eventually the GB D-line brought a strong that proved too strong for the Chevron rainbow. Trading stopped after the first half as GB became increasingly efficient at converting their turns as they took the momentum for the second half against a stuttering Chevron, and eventually the game.

Fire fought Fire in the other semi-final, in a training ground match-up for a final spot. Fire 1 commanded an expected lead early on, and despite a late surge from Fire 2 (characteristic of their performance throughout this tournament), they were unable to repeat the comebacks of the previous day against their first team. With Fire 1 now down to 9 men due to injury, permission was given by the TD for the two London squads to join forces to take on the GBU23 once again.

With the earlier result still fresh in both teams' minds, both sides were fighting for something in the final - Fire for consolidation of their earlier victory, and GB for vengeance. Despite a strong start from both, it wasn't long before the game was slipping from the Fire squad. With the largest squad of the tournament at 21, GB didn't waste a body as they brought a combination of athletic defence on the pitch and full-squad noise from the sideline, mounting an all-out assault on the Fire Offense. This time it proved enough, and the GB D-line showed the dominance of earlier games to take the game away convincingly 13-6.

GB U23 win Fog Lane Cup 2013. Photo courtesy of Harry Slinger-Thompson

The GB team succeeded in winning their first tournament together, and they will look to continue this winning form as they compete in the coming Open Tours 1 and 2, and finally in Toronto this July. In terms of club it was a tournament of statements. Fire 1 and Chevron topped the pack after GB, but did not yet find themselves in a rematch of last year's National semi-final. The two teams will almost certainly meet this season, but at what point? With such a short preview of the coming tour season it's difficult to make predictions, but this weekend also suggests that Manchester Ultimate are looking to overtake northern rivals Leeds in their pursuit for a top 8 A-tour position. Kapow are clearly out to prove right many people's suspicions that they can run with the top teams in the country. A tour regulars Devon, EMO and Leeds have shown that they are all preparing hard for the coming season, but will they be able to hold off the ever increasing competition from new teams? With the inclusion of GBU23 as well as European teams at London Calling, it looks like we're set up for an exciting start to the open season regardless.

Final Results (Spirit scores)

1. GB u23 (9.8)

2. Fire 1 (11.5)

3. Chevron (11)

4. Man-up (10.8)

5. Fire 2 (10.3)

6. Ka-pow (11.1)

7. Leeds (11)

8. EMO (11.1)

9. Devon (11.6)

10. Devon 2 (11.6)

Note - some of the final games were rearranged to avoid replays, hence final positions.

Open Tour will start in two weekends time with London's Calling and expect battles all over. Look out for our previews for both Open and Women's divisions. REMEMBER; like, share, comment and contribute! tSG

The Grapevine - 26/04

Every Friday - A summary of some of the latest Ultimate based posts from UK, Europe and beyond...

Ka-Pow! repeat last year's win at the DED warm-up, write up by Eddy Van Der Kloot.

Our friend and contributor Mark Earley gives us another great interview with the Ireland u23 Open coach Leo Yoshida.

Barry O'Kane talks to the one and only Ultimate Rob in Episode 15 and aforementioned Mark Earley in Episode 16 (with a great shout-out cheers Mark!) on UTalkRaw.

UKU AGM takes place at MT2 in Manchester, agenda here.

PushPass have filmed 20 games at Uni Nationals, buy and watch for only £8.99.
Also check out the latest post in 'Drama' discussing the recent ESPN/USA Ultimate deal.

Cardiff beat Swansea in their University varsity, watch some footage here.

WFDF announces the number of preliminary slots countries are allocated for their club teams at WUCC 2014 in Italy.

The GB World Games team was announced a fortnight ago for Cali 2013 

Do you own or know of a blog or website that should be here? Let us know!

Mixed Tour 1 2013 - Cardiff

The British outdoor season kicked off again a week ago in Cardiff with the first instalment of the UKU Mixed Tour. David Pryce summarises the weekend's action.

A grand total of 52 teams descended on the University of Cardiff sports fields including two trialling (now selected) World Games teams, GB U23's and Ireland's U23 squad. 

Alongside these national squads the regulars of Bear Cavalry, Thundering Herd and Brighton were mixed in with newer/pick up squads Royal Goaltimate Society (RGS), Magic Toast and Meeples. Further down the seedings we saw the likes of Reading, JR, Guildford, ABH, Steal and many more battle it out for a possible higher seed at the next tour. 

Below is a graphic of how the teams rose or fell from their initial seeds. Of course, I know that the TD's struggled with the seedings this time round, not made easy by the new teams. Overall most teams stayed within a fair margin of their original seed so the TD did a great job there (and with the rest of tournament, as ever). However their were a few big jumps:

• Ireland U23 +11
• Reading +10
• ABH C +10
• Steal +10

and falls:

• Choke Hazard -15
• GU1 -14
• St Albans -13
• Flump -9

Some of these falls are most likely to do with strong players going to new teams or not playing at all but in general I think the returning national players missed over past few years now in the WG, Magic Toast, RGS teams has pushed the standard up once again.

The teams eating up seeds appear to have worked really hard and fought out every game, everyone loves a challenge and being that initial underdog can really work in your favour. 

Highly Notable: 
Black Eagles yet again perform well after a solid season last year.
Brighton are always high in the tour and remain solid at 4th.
Some Team rising from 38th to 29th have really found some flow.

Note of interest:
Bear Cav were missing their main man Dave Tyler and so didn't top the club team table but I wouldn't count them as out yet. For teams in the top 10 anything can happen.

National teams: 
GBWG really showed us what they plan to take to Cali with everyone able to pick the disc up and scoring easily with defences lagging behind. Look out for them as one team in Manchester.

Ireland U23 were probably a little under seeded but still came out strong. In a similar manner to their slightly older beach counterparts played a very good mixed game to secure some invaluable playing time together.

GB U23 had a great Saturday but struggled a little on Sunday with team dynamics holding them back at times. Some true moments of great ultimate were mixed in with a few too many turns and mis communications. These guys and gals will definitely be back next tour and will hopefully use the great training they are having to step it up ready for Worlds this summer.

Remember to LIKE, SHARE, TWEET and CONTRIBUTE.

Final positions and how they have moved.