UKU Women's Nationals 2013

Charlie Blair previews Women's Nationals 2013.

With British clubs having been awarded four spots at xEUCF in the women’s division this year, it is a great shame that there isn’t an improvement upon the number of teams that competed at Nationals 2012. A further disappointment is that only four teams who consistently finished in the top half of the women’s tour this year have chosen to attend.

The most obvious absence is that of PUNT. Having had such an impressive season, completely un-phased by the more established opposition or indeed by the loss of leadership in Lily Huang and Lucy Barnes, they steadily climbed the rankings at tour, eventually finishing 3rd in Cardiff. Naturally, one would hope they would be hungry for a final come Nationals. However, the majority of this team, a team who had laid down the foundations to be real contenders in Europe this year, are instead representing in the mixed division.

PUNT then appear to encapsulate the wider grievance felt by some that the women’s division has been neglected, if not damaged,

The Grapevine - 09/08

The Grapevine: where Marvin Gaye heard it and where you hear all about UK Ultimate!

Nationals is only a couple weeks away and there are currently 7 Women's teams competing if you are not playing Mixed and can get a few friends together to form a team, go! It's a great tournament and worth the experience! So enter a team now and make it a full on 8 (or more) team division, maybe even cause an upset! 

Regionals has happened, read our coverage and also read how the Open Nationals brackets had to be amended giving us the first round games ready to go!

Benji writes about personal bias on the field in Understanding Ultimate.

In the ever present debate of USAU (observers) vs WFDF (let the players decide), Ultiworld have published an open letter to WFDF calling for observers in making line calls and sorting disputes at major WFDF events from 2014 written by one of the USAU Junior Coaches . A great read, sparking many comments; what do you think about it?

The German made ultimate film "The Invisible String" is available from amazon.de, sounds like it is amazing so go grab one and also looking forward to the "Flatball" documentary in October!

Finally this week has been the European Youth Ultimate Championship in Cologne, Germany. Great Britain have been fairing well and the 4 squads today will start by playing:
Junior Open - QF vs Switzerland [Finished 4th]
Junior Women - 5-8 Semi vs Czech Republic [Finished 7th]
U17 Open - 6W's last pool game vs Sweden  [Finished 1st: GOLD]
U17 Women - SF vs Austria [Finished 3rd: BRONZE]
Full results can be found on the ultiorganizer. A special mention goes out to the U17 Open squad who went 9-1 down to Austria, then 14-7 down and game point to comeback and win in sudden death 15-14. Watch their triumphant final score and en masse celebration, keep it up GB! 

Keep reading and commenting away! DP @ tSG. 

ECBU GB Review

David Pryce tells the GB story from last months ECBU campaign.

Whilst our u23's battle for international glory in Toronto we finally review ECBU for GB. Over 100 GB athletes along with medical staff and supporters went to Calafell, Spain to take on the continent in the European Championships of Beach Ultimate at the end of June. Expectations and confidence were high and a lot of great results came out of the tournament. Highlights for each squad were:

Open

• Shock in early game loss to Latvia.
• Get through by beating Spain by enough points and meet Portugal in pre-quarter. 
• Ease through both pre-quarter and QF to semi final vs Germany, close game but go catch it here.
• Make final to play Switzerland, slow start and get beaten to half 8-4. Second half comeback but couldn't quite make it back. Well deserved silver medal

GB and Portugal Open after the Brits take the win. Photo courtesy of Chris Whittle.

Mixed

• Show pitch game against Ireland was only loss in pool but meant nothing, still went to quarters
• Strange schedule (re seeding top 8?!) meant replay of Ireland game for QF.
• Disappointing loss in QF and next game against France gives another pool replay vs Poland for 7th/8th placement.
• After losing Francesca Scarampi to a dislocated shoulder for a huge layout score in tight game, play restarts. Win in sudden death, finish 7th.

Womens

• Only lost to eventual winners Russia in pools.
• Beat France 12-9 in quarters.
• Universe point loss to Swiss in semi.
• Final game loss to Germany but I feel this squad is not done.

Masters

• Took Gold in a great final against France.
• Always made points cap and only team to score more than 7 were France in the final.
• Si Hill really gets flying after securing his medal.

Photo courtesy of Clarwen Snell.

Mixed Masters

• Few tight games to starts against France and Belgium winning by 2 and 3.
• Better play against Spain and Austria winning both 13-4.
• Final pool game against Germany very tight but win by 2.
• Semi against France = win. 
• Final against Germany again another tight affair and with 10-8 lead the Germans come back to take game. 
• Silver and Spirit winners!

Womens Masters

• Early blip to UEI, loss in universe point.
• Other pools games go the right way except second Germany game.
• Final is third game vs Germany.
• Tight affair but loss by 2, another silver for GB.

Grand Masters

• Couldn't beat France (the eventual winners) or Austria but...
• Always got the best of Germany (played them three times)
• Finished the weekend off in 3rd.

The full standings can be found here plus spirit results here. 

Here we collate all the country results into a medal table (like the Olympics) where it is ordered by number of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals we could get something like this.

We can see that the teams that had a squad in every division come top 3, as expected. GB make second from losing out in the Open, Mixed Masters and Women's Masters finals but only team to get a medal of every type. Special mention goes out to all the SOTG winners: Germany (Women's Masters and Grand Masters), GB Mixed Masters, Switzerland Open, Spain Masters, Belgium Women's and Turkey/Portugal Mixed.

What does all this mean? Well GB performed well in most divisions and as a player I know that many of the teams and players want more beach as well as representing their country. Worlds is in two years and teams might start to form even earlier to work on the strong basis of ECBU. Keep an eye out at Paganello 2014 for some of these teams trialling players and structures ready to take on the world.

Well that's beach done with. More grass coverage coming up! DP @ tSG.

ECBU 2013 Preview

David Pryce, Josh Coxon Kelly and Lauren Bryant bring the ECBU preview as seen on SkyD Magazine a couple weeks ago. With only 1 day to go get behind our GB squads and follow them at www.live.ecbu2013.org

Number of active players: - approx 3000, (106 at ECBU).

Notable beach tournaments: Sunburn, Copa del Soul, C.U.B.E, Frostbite, Quicksands, West Coast Fours, Sandcastle.

Past participation in beach championships: WCBU 2004, WCBU 2007, WCBU 2011.

Division participation at ECBU 2013: Open, Women, Mixed, Open Masters, Mixed Masters, Womens Masters, Grand Masters.

Overall most players in the UK learn and continue to play on grass.

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.