Well, the piccy didn't quite work, but I'm still working on it. Anyway, I might as well let you know about what happened this weekend: it was the ultimate frisbee Britopen tournament down in Eastbourne and I was entered with the Birmingham team, the Shirtninjas (for those of you not acquainted with ultimate, half the energy is spent inventing weird and wonderful team names, such as: Discqualified, SlipDisc, Flyght Club... the list is endless). Things got off to a bad start when, upon arriving, we found out that we had no substitutes as various people had dropped out along the way due to injury, last-minute work commitments and demanding girlfriends (you know who you are Tim). Having no substitutes is not a good thing, as most well-organised teams usually come with enough people for an extra complete line-up, which, coupled with the fact that I had not done any serious excercise for some time, meant that I was going to be in for some pain by the end of the weekend.
The second problem we encountered was one that was universal to all teams: the weather. My god was it ever windy. And let me tell you, throwing frisbees into the wind is neither easy nor much fun. So most of the games on the first 2 days were dictated by whoever could manage to score against the wind or, more usually, whoever won the toss at the start of the game to choose ends.
I'm not going to bore you all with the minutiae of every match (mostly because I can't be assed writing it) but suffice to say that I think we did very well. We were seeded 35th (out of 40) and ended up 27th, an especially well-earned position considering the afore-mentioned lack of substitutes. The atmosphere at the tournament was also very friendly and laid-back with opposing teams having a laugh and playing fun party games together, even after hard-fought matches, which is, I suppose, the beauty of the game: the fact that the spirit of the game is still the most important thing. Anyway, I'd better nip this in the bud before I start waxing lyrical. It is now Wednesday and I have recovered enough to walk along without wincing at every step (which is far sooner than I'd hoped).
The second problem we encountered was one that was universal to all teams: the weather. My god was it ever windy. And let me tell you, throwing frisbees into the wind is neither easy nor much fun. So most of the games on the first 2 days were dictated by whoever could manage to score against the wind or, more usually, whoever won the toss at the start of the game to choose ends.
I'm not going to bore you all with the minutiae of every match (mostly because I can't be assed writing it) but suffice to say that I think we did very well. We were seeded 35th (out of 40) and ended up 27th, an especially well-earned position considering the afore-mentioned lack of substitutes. The atmosphere at the tournament was also very friendly and laid-back with opposing teams having a laugh and playing fun party games together, even after hard-fought matches, which is, I suppose, the beauty of the game: the fact that the spirit of the game is still the most important thing. Anyway, I'd better nip this in the bud before I start waxing lyrical. It is now Wednesday and I have recovered enough to walk along without wincing at every step (which is far sooner than I'd hoped).
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