Fully Charged win Tour 0 south!

Tour 0 south proved to be a great tournement. I watched some fantastic games, especially Tooting Tigers v Team Shark, Kent v Fully Charged and the final, Fully Charged v Fire. With the splitting of Tour 0 into north and south and the top 4 getting their free pass into Tour A, Tour 0 had something that for me makes a great tourney, loads of close games and not knowing who is going to win!

Team Shark and Limited Release both brought strong teams to the competition and both made the A-tour nudging out Kent and Bristol Plastic Factory into the B-Tour despite themsleves also having very skilled squads. In the Kent v Fully Charged game, Kent showed a fantastic strength of character to more than hold their own against a very fast and physical team, if they continue to improve expect to see them in the A-Tour soon! Tooting Tigers performed well on the day with great defensive play. They proved they deserve their 3rd place finish when they were up against Team Shark who had some legends of UK ultimate playing for them. TT weren't going to be undone despite not having played together for as long as the other teams that qualified for the A-Tour forcing opposition turnovers through point blocks and tight man defense.

The final game was one of the best I've seen in a long time. The Fire squad was a combination of their 1st and 2nd team offensive players. The story goes that in an O v D Fire of London game, the D line won leaving the O guys with a ticket to Tour 0 to work on...their O. Both Fire and Fully Charged wanted this win, it wasn't that it was for the title of tour 0 south champion but that they both believed they could do it if they committed themselves 100% to their team. It showed in the intensity that every single person on the pitched played with. FC managed to get a ~4 point lead against Fire having taken the half and then some. Fire have been in plenty of top match ups and know how to perform under pressure however and brought the game back to sudden death at 11-11. The final point saw FC start on O and their very calm handlers worked right the way up to the Fire endzone against a well rehearsed zone D. After swinging the disc a few times they soon found a space and scored with a simple pass into the front middle of the endzone.

It's great to see the standard of club ultimate in the UK improving year on year with new teams starting up and the more established clubs happy to work with students and those just starting out. This coming weekend it's off to UMON in Nottingham for me, more to come about that later in the week.

2009 Tour 0 South Results:

1  (5)     Fully Charged
2  (=)     Fire of London 2
3   (=)     Tooting Tigers
4   (3)     Brighton
5   (3)     Ltd Release
6   (2)    Team Shark
7   (=)    Bristol Plastic Factory
8    (6)   Kent Open
9    (=)   Burro Electrico
10  (5)    Devon
11   (2)   London Revolution
12   (1)   Brighton 2
13   (3)   ABH
14   (2)   Ltd Release 2
15   (=)   Flump
16   (1)  Devon 2
17   (4)  Ltd Release 3
18   (=) Lucky Huckers
19   (1)  TBU (The Bournemouth Ultimatum)
20  (1)  Kent Mustang
21   (5) Team Shark 2

2009 Tour 0 North Results:

 1 - (=) EMO 1 
2 - (=) Leeds
3 - (=) Fusion West
4 - (2) Vision
5 - (2) BAF 1
6 - (2) The Brown 1
7 - (3) Mild Mannered Janitors
8 - (3) Sheffield Steal
9 - (=) Strange Blue 1
10 - (9) The Brown 2
11 - (3) Mustard
12 - (5) Strange Blue 2
13 - (=) EMO 2
14 - (4) Leamington Lemmings 1
15 - (5) Belfast Ultimate Giants
16 - (5) Flyght Club
17 - (5) Trigger Happy
18 - (3) BAF 2
19 - (3) Abstract
20 - (5) Mighty Hucks
21 - (1) Staffordshire Oat Cakes
22 - (=) Leamington Lemmings 2