With the final game of Mixed Nationals being played between the two contenders for the Tour title, it really did all come down to this last game between JC and Brighton. The weather was near perfect and there was a 200 strong crowd ready to see what the two best mixed teams at MT3 had to offer. From the very beginning, JC showed their dominance with clinical cuts, throws and grabs on offense and a great intensity on defense with every player staying tight on the oppostions shoulder and able to put defensive bids on nearly every one of Brightons discs.
Brighton had some of the strongest handlers of the weekend however and combined with a never give up attitude from their down field players were able to grind out scores against what was ultimately a team that weren't going to be beaten on the day. JC now have a guaranteed spot at WUCC 2010 in Prague while Brighton, BAF and Chevron will have to wait to see how many spots the UK region is given to find out if they will also be going.
Chevron had a strong finish coming in at 3rd while beating BAF back into 4th. Thundering Herd went unbeaten on Sunday to take the 5th spot with Thundering Herd 2 being the highest finishing 2nd team. Both High Altitude and Discuits put in great performances showing distinct improvements over the Mixed Tour. Curve put in a great performance at nationals making up a lot of ground heading upwards while the Flaming Galahs took a tough route to a well deserved 14th.
Here are the final results of Mixed Nationals 2009:
1 (=) Jeremy Codhand
2 (=) Brighton
3 (2) Chevron
4 (1) BAF 1
5 (1) Thundering Herd 1
6 (6) Leeds Loco
7 (1) Discuits
8 (7) HIgh Altitude
9 (2) Flump
10 (6) Principality of Sealand
11 (3) Kent
12 (5) Bristol Plastic Factory
13 (3) Catch those - Plate Winners
14 (3) Flaming Galahs
15 (2) LTD
16 (5) ABH
17 (7) EMU
18 (1) Brown
19 (6) Curve
20(11) Dont let go
21 (1) Thundering Herd 2
22 (4) LTD2
23 (1) Lemmings
24 (1) Meat Pies
25 (2) Fugazees
26 (8) BAF 2
27 (3) Oxford
28 (2) Sheffield Steal
29 (1) ABH 2
30 (1) Cutty Sharks
31 (=) Flyghtclub
The tournement was well organised with movement between pitches kept to a minimum, no big gaps between games or too many games in succession and a constant supply of water pitch side. I can think of a few ways that would improve the flow of games however without impacting on SOTG or the way the game is actually played. What do you think of introducing linesman to make 'in' and 'out' calls if required? They would also be able to keep both teams on side when the pull goes up, keep score, time and have replacement discs for when there is a brick or the disc just goes out of bounds somewhere. I personally think that these simple changes to how Ultimate is played here would greatly speed up games and allow players to focus better on actually playing. This might help in the current efforts to make the game more appealing to spectators. During one of our games, a group of players started crossing our pitch. Apparently due to a stoppage it appeared to onlookers that there wasn't even a game taking place!
So it's the end of the domestic mixed season and now a lot of UK players will be turning their focus to the Open season. Bring on Tour 1 in London in a fortnights time!
Paris Midwinter Night League 2006-07 D1:2
11 years ago
I find it interesting that the finishing places changed so much between MT1, MT2 and MT3/nationals. Many teams jumped up (or down) 10 or 12 places throughout the Mixed Season. Inconsistancies within teams, or simply a lot of really, really close games?
ReplyDeleteYeh I noticed that too! I think the two main factors were changing squads and incorrect seeding. It's a shame as it means teams might have a good tour winning nearly all their games followed by a shocker, losing nearly all of them. Perhaps a different schedule style would help remedy it?
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