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| Paganello and UTI |
01/04/2009
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| UTI - of former UK domestic scene glory - is now an exclusive international team comprised of Clapham and Flying Angel players. Lead by dark horse Randy Alpen, UTI decided to head back to the sand to see if their 2007 string of sudden death victories was merely a bit of luck. This year saw the team learn game on game, adapting and adjusting. We saw the americans in pool play - Los OX comprised of Houston, Jam and DOG players (someone got a block on Parinella and needs to add it to his blog 'i got a block on that old guy...' but can't remember who that was..oh well) - anyhow they beat us by one. Our loss in some ways set us up perfectly with a semi final match up against the tounrey favourites Sweden's Stinks (plus a few frenchies of former Clapham fame). Rob called it the night before saying it would go down to the last point - someone would have the disc and one team would win. He was right. Luckily we had the disc and it was the lightening speed of grandpa Alpen and young Holt who blew the Stinks back to Sweden with a few old school 3-3 mini tricks - pass and freggin move. It was a great game. we love playing against those dudes - they play the game as it should - intense and with conviction. Many more encounters with the Swedes to come this year I feel. The final saw us take some sweet revenge on Los Ox. Their warm up consisted of laying on the baking sand, while ours consisted of throwing and getting freaking tired in the baking sun...our warm up was better - meant we knew the pain that was upon us. Game was tied til half 8 - 8 and that's when we pulled away. The game with two halves was won by us 13-8, concluding a surpirsing and perfectly deserved return to the podium for UTI. MOOOOOOOOORRREEEE comes to mind! |
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Ollie B |
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| Tryouts 2009 |
16/11/2008
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Dear all,
Clapham Ultimate are opening their Monday night practices until the end of
December and would like to invite you to attend. Clapham are looking to
build a strong squad on the road to Prague in 2010 and are looking for
athletic, talented and committed players.
What Clapham are looking for:
1. An attitude of hard work and commitment;
2. Willingness to listen and learn the Clapham systems;
3. Want to share your wealth of expeirence / want to develop as an
individual;
4. Athleticism
Next season will see Clapham attend the UK tour series, UK Nationals, WCU
in Copenhagen, at least one US tournament and EUCF.
If you would like to attend please fill out the form at this link:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pRXfzKg-7yo7PiDgzSfHnSg&hl=en
and send a mugshot of yourself (one where you can see your face) to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with your name as the subject.
The first open practice is Monday 17th November starting at 7pm.
Kind regards
CU |
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| Learning the Clapham way |
12/10/2008
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At 12pm a swarm of young and eager university students arrived on Tooting common in Balham. The weather was a nice 21 degrees with little to no wind. The objective of the day was to introduce universities to some new drills and expose them to high-intensity trainings.
The day followed the structure of a typical Clapham training, covering warm up, box drill, buzz drill, 4 man triangle drill, some marking exercises and finishing off with some mini. It was a productive afternoon and Clapham hope that the universities took some new ideas back with them that will help improve their team.
Clapham are hoping to run similar clinics after Europeans so watch out for the announcement.
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Fergus |
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| Road to Paris |
06/10/2008
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With a brief 1 week break after winning the UK national championships early in September Clapham were preparing for EUCF in Paris. With the loss of some veteran players after Worlds, Clapham have been hard at work to ensure their superstars of the future are ready come Paris.
Trainings have been getting increasingly more challenging and have seen the introduction of new offensive plays and new defensive sets while still relying on the building blocks they had worked on all summer. With just 4 weeks left, this leaves the Empire with 8 trainings and the same numbers of track sessions to hit the ground at full speed come Paris.
Europe may have heard a rumour that the Empire was to fall this year but it remains to be seen if they make the same mistake as the rest of the UK did in September |
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Fergus |
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| 8 titles and counting! |
09/09/2008
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The weekend saw us work on new set plays each game, improving and tweaking our looks where necessary. Each game saw a new objective, each game saw a continued and determined focus.
Quarterfinal against Brighton - 15-10. They played a good game, but we mentally lapsed in the scond half. They are a team with smart players and some mean cutters. If you take your eye off the target, they eat you. We held them off, and successfully made it through to the semis against Fire of London.
Fire are a strong team, and secretly i think we were all a bit jittery about how we'd come out. Si Hill delivered an excellent pre-game talk which was just what we needed. Matt Woods came out first point setting the tone with a huge layout block on Rich Turner. Money. It was just what we needed. 3-0 up, or 3-1, allowed us a chance to get dirty and ready for battle. Can;t remember the half. Think possibly 8-7. Quite close. They made some sick grabs, but essentially mostly 50-50 passes and we knew we'd get our chances if we'd keep up the hot pressure. Second half saw Hargreaves wake up to find his nuts in the form of sweet shut down d against their handlers, stagnating their play and we finished them off.
The final: Chevron Action Flash. This year's Tour winners, stacked with experience, youth. a quality opponent. We went hard, getting a few breaks and D was ambitious on our turns, taking shots when they were on, some coming off, others not. A bit antsy. We held strongly to take the half 8-6, with the disc on O to start a new. All weekend we spoke about concentration the whole way through games. the second half of this game was out chance, and we took it. Our D was immense! I'm not sure how many different players got blocks, but it was a lot. We all scored freely, we all contributed, we all fought. Finishing Chevy off 15-8 was a great achievement. All we could hear was silence.
Another year another title. Each year is different - each time sweeter than the one before. It keeps getting better!
Paris...on vient te chercher. We are coming.....faintly off in the distance the empire lurks. |
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Ollie Benjamin |
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| Clapham retain nationals trophy |
09/07/2008
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rv |
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| Clapham go SUPERSONIC |
04/11/2007
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Nike's quest to find the fastest one thousand men and women in London started with the 100m Speed Trials. Clapham sent a small battalion to fight it out. The times and results are below:
Matt 'I only run with spikes' Woods - 11.75 - 140th fatest man in London
Ally 'I paid Jimmy for overtime' Dray - 12.15 - 191st fastest man in London
Sam 'Running in a straight line is easy' Webber - 12.75 - 387th fastest man in London
Ollie 'I'm a 40 yard man' Benjamin - 13.00 - 487th fastest man in London
Fergus 'Dark horse' Weldon - 13.25 - 570th fastest man in London
Andrea 'Trainings for wimps' Parra Torres - 15.70 - 152nd fastest woman in London
1km Final will be held on November 17th
www.myspace.com/NikeSupersonic |
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Sam |
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| Clapham Tryouts 2008 |
19/10/2007
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| Clapham are holding winter training on Monday nights in Tooting. Any players interested in trying out for the club please mail both samuel.webber@gmail.com & olliebenjamin@yahoo.co.uk |
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Sam |
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| European Champions 2007 |
17/10/2007
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The break down according to Rob Alpen:
Semis...
After taking down Chevron's youngsters as lead by Barnyard and Seeelo in the Quarters, we walk over to checkout our potential semifinal opponent (karhukopia, finns vs ragnorok, danes). Rag had controlled the whole game, but up 13-12, they throw away the first pass, just miss a huck, drop the final pull and lose 15-13, wow. So karhukopia it is. They're a mixture of some new finnish guys together with quite a few of the old boys from liquidisc. Technically very sound, and atheistically, very blonde. We come out firing and get a turn on the first point, work it up and get it in. We go on to turn them every other chance or so and stick it in. The O is doing it's job and getting the D back on the field. We take half, but know there's still a ways to go. We do a bit more trading than blowing away in the second half, but we finally get another break....josh is coming off the busdriver and has to sky high AND toe it in w/ his one foot. He collects himself and puts up a monster break mark flick huck to CB. I think most of our team was already on the pitch hugging josh before the catch was even made, the throw was that money.
finals....
We got beat last year, and were taught a lesson. The Skogs came out in florence and just did a number on us and then on top of that, pulled in every single 50/50 disc. This year they were missing a couple of guys, but there's no denying that they still had the skill and ability to continue their streak over us which went back as far as a pool game in Copenhagen in 2005, and no one had beaten them since (19 months). For our part, we knew we'd been had by a better team last year and went back to the drawing board.
In an attempt to save their legs and to draw us into a cagier mental game, Skogs tried to slow down the pace of the game with a zone for most of the first half. Even though we wanted to get out and run, we were happy to pick them to pieces, scoring easily every time. The D line was getting the odd block, but was just being a bit too hyped up to be able to convert them. We went into half having had traded the whole game so far (8-7 clapham).
Skogs had succeeded in putting into motion the first part of their plan to lull us in. We had been given the opportunities and didn't convert, and the O boys hadn't even gotten their legs warm yet (surely skogs would come out in hard man for the whole 2nd half??). It had been a cagey affair, lot of jabs had been thrown, but few upper cuts. It was time we threw some uppercuts...
We started the 2nd half on D and came straight out of the gates to get a block. Working it down, we stalled for a second around about 20 yards out, but with voodoo on the disc, and Alex in the cutting lane, they made the mistake of fronting and Voods put a perfect roll curve over their shoulder and it was goaltime! It got a bit hazy for me in there, but we ended up with a 12-9 advantage after a sweet poach layout block by Euan and a quick score, the chants of MORE were deafening. They finally score, and after working it up well initially, i underthrow Voodoo on an in cut and they get a D and stomp on voods' hand in the process, it wasn't pretty. They work it up and Niklas throws a big break mark flick for a goal, but being Nickas, travelled like crazy to do. Huge makes the right call, sending the throw back. We get them on high stall turn, swing it to Colonel and he jacks it to the ever and always open 'Ten Yard' ChrisBrown, phew. We get another break and finally finish it off on O with a huck (O didn't get scored on the entire game and only turned twice) to take the title.
What I find the most amazing about this victory in particular is that all of the hard work we've done this year, and especially in preparation for Euros, paid off in amazing fashion. As the games got harder, we actually executed our game plan better rather than going away from it when the pressure is on. Wow, great job TEAM!
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Ollie B (standing in for Rob Alpen) |
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| Chesapeake Open (Washington DC) |
25/08/2007
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Saturday - Apparently the heat index was over 44, yikes !
Game 1 vs Pike - Some old friends in the form of ex-Clapham player Ben Cleveland and ex-NY player J Dono. They came out flat, we came out hot and beat them something like 13-8 or 9, could've even been more. We didn't always execute properly, but the energy and the desire were there from the outset.
Game off then Game 2 vs BAT (Detroit) - This was BAT's 3rd game on the trot (they beat Ring of Fire in a pretty exciting game). As was the theme for the day, had any team played a few games, they were usually pretty spent. They didn't give a good account of themselves and threw up a lot of garbage which we duly ate and converted for scores.
Straight into Game 3 vs Goat - They pretty much stomped us (13-?). We were flat, but they were very hot and playing great.
Straight into Game 4 vs Ring of Fire- They contested every disc, and threw a lot of shorter throws that were way more difficult than they looked. We played well in spurts, but couldn't put it together long enough and lost 13-8.
Sunday - A bit cooler than Saturday after some thunder storms, thank goodness !
Game 1 (Pre-Quarter) vs New Noise - A young and fast team, we took the wind out of their sails by capitalizing on their mistakes. We came out fired up on a Sunday morning which is what it's all about. Next!
Game 2 (Quarter-Final) vs Chain Lightening - This was a game to salivate over. These guys had a number of superstars and a big reputation after making semis at nationals last year. The first half wasn't the cleanest of affairs, we got one break, but then gave it back and a couple more. We were playing pretty sub-par, but then again we were only down 6-8 at half, plenty to smile about and to realize that we were still very much in this thing. They converted their O to make it 6-9, but they didn't know what was just about to hit them. We converted our O and got back on D and started turning the screws and cashing in. Mention has to be made for Josh Wardle’s sick full layout grab at the back of the endzone (courtesy of a hero-maker Rob) to put us up 11-10, game to 12. They converted their O and it was into sudden death (Clapham receiving). Some how they forgot about Bix, but the long flick just fell short. Ok, time to put the clamps down. We played 10 seconds of our best D and they have nothing left but to throw it straight at Sammy on stall 9 (potential for a callahan, but alas...) After a bit of flittering about, we get it into the zone for a 12-11 victory !
Game 3 (Semi-Final) vs Goat (again) - We owed these guys a proper game after rolling over on Saturday, but we never really gave it to them. We started well with the D getting a turn and sticking it in on the first point. The O was firing early and we were up a break. That's when things started to go wrong. They got off a few break-mark hucks in a row and then put the clamps down on D. We stopped moving the disc and cutting properly and next thing you know we had gone down 8-4 at half. We never really got any traction in the second half and went down rather meakly. All that said, Goat played a great style of disc with some fantastic execution. They also were very physical (but legal) on their marks and played the tightest D of any team at the tourney.
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Rob |
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| 2007 Tour 2 - Clapham 2 |
14/07/2007
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Mansfield was not the best place to visit especially with the rain that battered the North earlier in the summer. This was compounded on Sunday with more rain which left make most pitches unplayable.
Clapham 2 started against Ltd release and produced a dominant first half performance to lead 8-1. However inexperience in putting these situations to bed left Clapham with only a 15-9 victory after some spirited play by the Southamptoners. Second game was against arch rivals Fire of London 2. In a very spirited game Fire put lots of early pressure on Clapham and were rewarded with a Callahan goal in the first half which they took 8-6. Despite sopme strong play from Clapham the 2 point gap was held to 10 - 12 fire. Finally Clapham worked out how to stop the ifre offence and with the stroing defence making the blocks Clapham pulled out 5 unanswered points to take the win 15-12. The final game of Sturday saw Clapham face a under strength Devon side who were comfortably beaten. However it is hoped that in the next meeting devon have a few more players so that the skills of the team can be fully seen.
Top of the pool meant Discuits on Sunday morning. Having lost in sudden death at tour 1 Clapham wanted revenge and discuits knew this would be a tough game. Early trading with no turnovers in the first 4 points when Clapham got the first block. Failure to convert and some strong Discuit defence and the two point gap opened to half at 8-6 discuits. Further misery as Discuits took the next two after half and then trading to 14-10. Clapham though don't like defeat and started an end of game fight back and when the hooter went at 14-13 clapham had to level for a sudden death game, and this was duly done. Clapham got the block but a mis cue with the handlers gave the disc back to Discuiits and they finally showed the compusure that had been lacking for a while. Another sudden death defeat left Clapham fighting for 9th. Clapham showed character though in quickly beating BAF in worsening conditions before facing MMJ in a 9-10 game. The pitch by this stage was a mud bath and the shortened game was quickly finished in Claphams favour.
With much encouraging play Clapham 2 aim to get back into the top 8 at Tour 3 and hopefully claim the highest finishing 2nd team on tour. |
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Jo |
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| 2007 Tour 1 - London |
24/06/2007
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first game - Leeds. We started slow, offence managing to put in most of their points, but the defence mainly stood around and watched vaughny and wigsy put in leeds goals with ease.
One break from leeds meant they took the half 8-6.
Second half and we came out firing, intensity rose and the blocks came. Things returned to their usual order and Leeds had nothing. Still not really playing as a team, but individually we outplayed them and ran away with it
Final score - 15-10.
Second game, vs brighton.
Continuing where we left off, without really clicking but getting the job done and dispatched them with ease.
Final game of the day - Fusion. Both teams knew that they we through to the semi's and the game lacked much intensity. Despite never gaining a huge lead it was always comfortable and the final score was 15-11.
Sunday morning semi-final, Chevron. Offense started to come together, although still far from perfect, but this game was all about our d. They had nothing, we put the clamps on and they barely had any opportunities to huck it to their big receivers. Final score 17-7
Final time. Fusion had knocked out Fire in a tight semi so the final was a re-match of saturdays game. Suddenly we were a new team. We kept up the ferocious intensity on d, but started playing with our heads on offense and playing smart. We took our opportunities and punished their mistakes, taking an early 3-0 lead. There was no let up and we continued to dominate. Individually we were superb, with huge grabs from Hargreaves and Si Weeks in particular, and as a team we were slick and unstoppable. Fusion keeled over under the pressure and we clinched the first Tour title 17-5! The biggest margin I've ever seen.
Bring on Tour 2! |
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Colin |
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| MINI Tournament Thank You's |
28/05/2007
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We (curve players) had a great time. Excellent idea - we'd definitely come again.
I'd also like to say how wonderfully welcoming and friendly several clapham players were. It's a real tribute to you guys to be the #1 UK team and to also have a bunch of players who will wander over to unknown players on a team obviously of much lower standard and take the time to chat, find out who we are, give some tips, talk about how clapham does things and so on. 4 or 5 players did this and it created a really good impression. Excellent spirit off the pitch as well as on is a great thing.
Cheers ! |
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Jon |
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| Clapham Goes Mini |
19/04/2007
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We’re expecting thirty to forty teams, and are making a big push to get people of all skill levels out. Mark your diaries and take part in what should be England’s most communal Ultimate gathering, as teams play both competitive games and share their passion for the game with newcomers. http://www.claphamultimate.com/mini/index.html (website compliments of Josh) and we look forward to seeing you there!
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Clapham Ultimate |
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| TOUR 0 |
01/04/2007
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Bristol tours are noted for wind and rain. However this year only wind showed up. Clapham 2 faced an adjustment to playing 40 min games during the initial pool play which made a strong start vital. First opponents Seamus Murphy started much stronger than Clapham and raced into an early lead and held to 4-2 with half time at 5. Clapham responded in the proper way though realling off 7 unanswered points to close the game out 9-4. Second game saw Clapham face the GB U17s. While 9-0 was expected the juniors played very well and enjoyed the Clapham side junk and zone coaching that followed the game. We all wish GB success this year and judging by the skillful play shown at times are confident that they will improve throughout the year and challenge at international level over the summer. Two more pool games remained. ABH were comfortably beaten leaving Janitors as the last game of the pool. Janitors started very strongly and their zone cause Clapham problems in the windy conditions. Janitors took half and the first point of the second to lead 6-3. Clapham though showed the fighting spirit and rallied to 6-6 with the time cap then applied game to 8. Clapham though were unable to break the Janitors offence again and the game traded to an 8-7 win for Janitors. This left a play off game with Strange Blue to finish the day. Clapham are never as dangerous as when they have just been beaten and a dominant performance saw Clapham win 10-1 with Strange Blue rarely looking comfortable against a strong Clapham defence.
Sunday saw a pool play with Paddy Murphy and Brighton. Both games saw the strength in depth of the Clapham team with all players producing some great ultimate on both sides of the disk. Paddy Murphy were beaten 10-7 followed by some good 1 liners in the circle. Sadly though against Brighton a recurring knee injury saw me out of the game at 1-1. I therefore missed this game and only know that Clapham won.
The final against LeedsLeedsLeeds saw a traditional Bristol final, Leeds v Clapham. The game was a highly spirited match with lots of high quality play and Clapham edged it 15-14. Clapham also won spirit showing that they highest standards of ultimate and good competitive spirit still go hand in hand. A strong start to the season but it is still never enough! MORE!!! |
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Jo |
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| Winter Tryouts |
01/01/2007
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alex |
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| EUCF |
06/10/2006
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Clapham set out for Florence with hopes high of repeating the triumph of Rostock the previous year. This was a new tournament within the European calander but after a strong first year the tournament will hopefully stay in the calander and continue to improve European ultimate.
Clapham started strongly winning all 3 pool play games without letting an opponent rach double figures. The Austrian Big EZ, Italian CUSB and Finnish SOS teams all played well but the dominant Clapham D line kept the score board ticking over.
The format had a knockout last 16 for all teams and the first elimination game for Clapham was Brighton form the UK. In the previous meeting between the two teams this season Brighton had come close to an upset and Clapham were determined to prevent them getting that close again. 15-4 did not truely reflect how hard fought the game had been. Brighton kept working hard but often found the hard Clapham D a little too tight. Clapham's quarter final was with the other Italian side in the Tournament Cota Rica. Cota have found success on sand but the grass fields did not help them against a Clapham side who dominated from the first throw. Clapham came out hard and kept the foot on the gas throughout pulling out a 15-4 win. The evening semi final saw a suprise re match with the Big EZ who had played some spectacular ultimate since meeting Clapham in the first game of the tournament. The result and te game were similar to the first with Clapham dominating early and not allowing the Austrians to get much of foot hold in the game. 15 - 8 and Clapham were in their second European final i two years.
The final against Skogsydans had been anticipated by most since the tournament had started. The game started with both teams offences dominating against the opponents with the first 6 points scored without a bid from the defence let alone a turn over. Skogs got the first break and added two more in the first half to put Clapham behind at half for the first time that tournament. Clapham rallied and broke back with the first point of the second half and with the sideline providing strong support the d searched for more. However Skogs kept the offence tight and Clapham were unable to keep their strong season going. Defeated 15-11 in the end only though leaves us hungry for more victories. With WUCC coming up Clapham have the perfect opportunity to get more silverware before the season ends. |
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Jo |
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| Sad News |
04/10/2006
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 | On Sunday night Will Wiersma died in a car accident returning from a tournament. Doug Baker was also killed, and two more players hospitalised.
Having just qualifed for nationals with mixed team Gendors, they were returning home from the Southwest Mixed Regionals in Arizona when their car swerved to avoid a Coyote and came off the road.
Will played with us while he was in the UK and at WCU in Copenhagen earlier this year. Will was a fantatsic guy on and off the field and will be soreley missed.
Our hearts are with his family and all his friends.
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Rv |
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| Nationals |
03/09/2006
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Once again Clapham made the pilgrimage to Mansfield for the UK National finals hoping to add to the tour title won in Cardiff.
A bye in the first round saw Clapham have a pleasant start time of 1230. However the draw with Janitors was not an easy fixture. Janitors have many strong players and have occasionally shown this year that they could have finished the tour higher than they did. Clapham expected a tough game and were not disapointed. The awful weather made both teams struggle to master the tricky conditions. Clapham however coped slightly better in the conditions and were always in control of the game. The second game on Sunday saw Clapham play Blue Arse Flies in the quarter final. Clapham came out hard from the start and BAF were not allowed to show the find of skill that would see them take a very credible 6th place, their highest finish of the 2006 season. The main highlight of this game was an outstanding pull landing right in the back corner. Some may say that because the back corner was four pitches away that the pull wasn't perfect but that may just be nit picking.
Semi finals saw Clapham match up with Chevron in their first semi final of the year. The game was tight as they always are between these two teams. Clapham had a very strong first half with the offence scoring all their posessions to take half at 8-4. however Chevron came out hard in the second half and fought back to 10-8. However Clapham dug in and scored three on the trot to maintain control of the game. The two teams then traded out to finish the match and Clapham were in the final.
Fire of London beat Fusion in their semi to set up the all London tie. The early exchanges saw both offences struggle against lively defences with the early rain making conditions very tough for both teams. Clapham though showed the benefit of Rob shouting at us in trainning with both o and d mastering the conditions and swinging the disk with considerable ease. Taking half 8-6 meant Clapham had one hand on the trophy. The second half followed the pattern of the first with Fire of London's Rodders producing many outragous grabs to keep his side in the game. However a game turning grab from Chris Brown turned the game and momentum in Clapham's favour. When time ran out the game was capped to 14 and Clapham o scored the final point clinically to take the title 14-11.
Europe is now the target of the bullfrogs and we head to Florence with our heads held high. |
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Jo |
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| Tour 3 |
17/08/2006
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Finally the Rock has come back to Clapham!
As we rolled up on Saturday morning I was pleasantly surprised with what greeted me: Not one but TWO members of staff organising at the gate and in the car park, a car park big enough to hold ALL of the players and most importantly pitches with grass on them! The venue as a whole was excellent and it was a pleasure to play in. Moving onto business and a first game against Chevron. Chevy had struggled at Tour 2 with a small squad and were now heavily underseeded. We knew they would be spoiling for a fight and looking to do their level best to ruin our season but after a closely fought game, Clapham ran out winners 15-9. Fire II followed on from that and as a team which had risen meteorically from the B Tour at Tour 1 (where they didn't drop a point on the Saturday) to be seeded 6th, we knew we could have a fight on our hands. The Clapham defence went out hard early and despite a bit of a lapse in the middle of the game, we ran out eventual winners 15-10. Final game on Saturday was against Fusion a team full of running, great throws and exciting plays. Again Clapham went out hard early and opened up a bit of a lead but didn't shut the door. Fusion played some excellent D and we struggled to stop their deep threat. The game was close but when the cap went on, we couldn't raise our game to close the gap and Fusion went on to win 15-13: Clapham's first defeat on home soil this year.
Our loss to the Scots meant that we lined up against Fire instead of Leeds on Sunday at the sensible hour of 12. As always the game was hotly contested. Clapham went up early, Fire came back hard and then we went up again. On an upwind/downwind pitch Clapham had the advantage as time was running out but the Fire D line put together a run of points to close it up at 13-13, game to 15. Rob called time out and psyched us up. It was a game to 2 and we were NOT going to lose. The words of wisdom worked and the Offence punched in their goals to put us into our third straight final in a rematch against the Scots. We were thirsty for revenge. Knowing that they would be nervous in their first final we went out hard on D getting the early break. This was quickly followed by another break and another as the Clapham defensive line punished every mistake and capitalised on every possession to put together a five point D run. At 6-1 it would have been easy for Fusion to surrender but they showed their character and traded to half, 8-3. Clapham let the intensity slip early in the second half and full credit to Fusion they turned our mistakes into goals but having lost once we would not do it again. Clapham wound the screw in the end game and came up big with huge blocks and grabs from Carthorse, Finn and Sol to name a few. Clapham restored the 5 point lead to take the game 15-10 and Clapham confirmed their status as once again the strongest and most consistent team in the UK. With sights on Nationals, Europeans and Worlds we still have a lot of hard work to do. We might be Tour Champions but it's never enough. It's time to step up training, we want MMMMOOOORRREEEE!
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Jo |
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| Tour 2 |
29/07/2006
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Eastbourne was the setting for a second tour event that had drama and a stunning fightback in the final. The return to the top 8 peer pools saw Clapham line up to play Bristol, Brighton and Fire of London on a tough first day. It was buisness as usual against Bristol with a dominant 15-6 victory. However in the second game Brighton played very strongly against a Claphm side who seemed to have forgotten the clinical play they had shown for much of the season. Missing many chances in the first half and with the offense stuttering Brighton capitalised and founnd themselves at 13-13 game to 15. Clapham scored but Brighton came right back to tie the game and next point wins. However Clapham showed their metal and scored to secure the semi final spot.
Fire of London started the last game of Saturday poorly by their standards and admission and found themselves 7-2 behind early on with Clapham looking to have learnt the lesson about clinical play. However Clapham again had a poor passage of play allowing Fire to come back into the game. however Clapham held on for a 15-13 win giving the Fusion in the semi finals.
The semi final pitch was an upwind downind pitch with Clapham gaining the advantage of starting downwind. Both sides showed clinical offence taking the score to 5-4 Clapham. Then the D took over scoring 3 on the trot to take half 8-4. Clapham traded for much of the second half though a few offensive mistakes allowed Fusion to pull a couple back to finish 15-12.
This set up a rematch with Fire. This time Fire started very strongly and took an early break and then followed this up with a second to lead 4-2. Clapham tried hard to rally but strong Fire offence kept the Clapham d dogs at bay until late in the half. Finally the break came but it was not enough to take the half which Fire won 8-7. The second half followed the same pattern with both teams playing strong and hard ultimate. However as the game closed out Clapham still trailed by 2 or 1 depending on who had just scored. Time ran out at 14-12 Fire with the hard cap applied at 16 or 15 win by 2. Clapham needed 4 of the next 5 points but both of the next two. Pressure though brings out the best in the frogs with 3 point rattled off in quick time. The side lined bayed for more wanting to win on d. The block the throw floats over the head of the intended reciever but Olly B eats garbage and went to get the disc. a 16-14 win. 2 Tours from 2. With all still to play for at Tour 3 Clapham will go looking for better performances and more and to hopefully regain the Tour title. |
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Jo |
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| Tour 1 - Birmingham |
09/07/2006
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A nice change this year to go away from the mudbath which is Bristol and into the tranquil surroundings of Perry Barr. The open format saw Clapham lining up against teams that we don't get to face very much. We started hard against Cambridge and kept the hammer down to finish the game quickly 15-2. Then we played fresh-faced Sheffield Steal, a team not long in existence but with a very organised structure and plenty of legs. Our defence was slack and struggled to turn them over and capitalise early but after an inspirational time out where Rob hurled abuse at us and told the defence to suck it up, we picked up the tempo and finished the game victorious 15-5. Last game of the day saw us line up against BPF who had some very familiar faces and some not so familiar faces. We knew what we had to do and cam out hard. Offence scored the first point and D scored the second, and the third, and the fourth. With no let up in sight and the Devils in Black fired up on Ginseng and screams of "MOOOORRRRREEE!" from the sideline the game was only going one way. Clapham finished 15-4 victors. Saturday night saw most of the team making the trip to the Moonlight Tandoori for a very nice with 'mood lighting'. After some very good food, a few laughs (many at my expense as I lost credit card roulette) it was home to bed in preparation for the early start on Sunday.
The sun was barely crawling out of its bed (well maybe not but it seemed that way) when Clapham rose the next morning. Buoyed by the appearance of RV who looked none the worse for wear despite hitting the Champagne at a wedding the day before. In fact, RV looked better following his night on the bubbly than he normally does on a tournament Sunday morning, might be something we should look into… Anyway warm up started at 7:45 and by game time at 8:30 we were psyched. Clapham knew that EMO wanted it and knew that we would have to go out hard to stop them from gaining momentum early and that is exactly what we did. We started on Offence and the boys punched it in smoothly. They then didn't get back onto the pitch until the second half as the D Dogs hit the line running and didn't let up. It was fair to say that the EMO boys were rattled and before they knew it, the first half had gone 8-0. EMO managed to compose themselves somewhat at half time and the second half was closer but the mountain was too big to climb and Clapham ran out comfortable winners 15-3.
The semis saw a rematch of last year's Tour 3 final from Birmingham with our South London neighbours Fire of London. Resplendent in their new gear Fire started hard and broke the Clapham offence early. We broke back soon after and traded the first half out to 7-7 where we sent out a STACKED defensive line with the aim of breaking and taking half and just like Ronseal they did exactly what it said on the tin. So halftime and 8-7 up but we knew one point's difference would not be enough. The halftime talk consisted of psyching the team for the big push and we came out strong, breaking again twice. A few calls disrupted the flow of the game a little but not enough to change the outcome. Clapham ate garbage, kept the pedal to the metal and ran out victors 14-12. Big shout out to Salsa in this game who was screaming at the D line to get blocks and eat garbage and then proceeded to show us how it was done with some huge layout D's and the game winning grab over a crowd of players far bigger and taller than our slightly built Salsa-dancing Sally.
There then followed what seemed like an eternal break before the final. The team kept themselves amused in various ways, some watched tennis, Sweeks slept, many played MTA and Rick and myself sat and ate. Finally it was game time and we knew it was going to be big. We started the game on O and got broken. With the D boys champing at the bit, the O line punched one in and let us loose. We broke back, and broke again to put us back level. The two teams then traded for a while, feeling each other out. Leeds had some great deep looks which we struggled to contain although similarly the Clapham O line looked pretty smooth and both lines despite wind-induced turnovers, were scoring at will. Shortly before half though some large D from Clapham and in particular the unstoppable Carthorse saw the Bullfrogs go up and take half 8-5. Following half time was a monster point where the Clapham D line turned Leeds over on our endzone line and then proceeded to work the disc all of the way up the pitch completing what must have been a hundred passes including two monster grabs from Rob Mcgowan, one from a Carthorse hammer so high that I swear I saw snow on it as it came down. Eventually we scored and the sideline went wild. The O boys carried on scoring, Sweeks had seriously sticky hands and caught everything including a dodgy hammer from Randy for the score but the second half and the game was owned by Carthorse (MVP) who got massive blocks on Leeds' big receivers and ran the offence once he'd got them. Carthorse is living proof that winners do track!
So all in all a successful weekend. We won Tour 1 for the first time in five years, however, with Fire and Leeds training their new players hard and teams like Fusion and Chevy just waiting to pounce Clapham cannot afford to let up. It's never enough and the crowd wants MMMMOOOORRRRREEEEE! |
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Jo |
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| Boston |
24/06/2006
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After much anticipation Clapham finally made the trip to Boston to play their first elite level US tournament. With English flags flying on everything Clapham arrived at Fort Devens full of confidence.
First game was with PoNY of New York. The game started with what would sadly be a theme of day 1 with the offence failing to score the first point. However a strong showing fromt he D line made PoNY call the first time out 3-1 down. Clapham refused to be stopped however and continued to pound the New Yorkers taking half 8-4. Rob's now familiar we ain't won nothing yet call inspired the Clapham team to continue to dominate and eventually ran out winners 15-10. A good start to the pool.
Second Game was against Potomac from Washington DC. They were stronger than PoNY and used the deep game very effictively to a couple of big receivers. However Clapham again played strong defence and consistent patient offence and took half by two. This was kept throughout the second half and Clapham took the game 15-13.
The final pool game was against DoG from Boston. This game was for the top of the pool with both sides already guaranteed a spot in the quarter finals. The game started at a much higher tempo than the previous two games and DoG showed much of the skill that has seen them at the top of the US game for over a decade. For once Clapham's D line were struggling to get blocks despite huge effort put in. This lead to the loss of the half 8-6. Clapham needed to keep the offence tight and they did keeping the trading going. However a few late mistakes proved costly despite the D lines late scores with Clapham finally losing 15-12
A meaningless game against Sub Zero followed because it would make no difference to the final positions. Clapham rested some strong players who would be needed for the big games on Sunday. A strong team performance was the result of a tight and tired fourth game. Some huge blocks from Chris Brown were not enough with Claphm losing the game 11-9
Day 2 and the rain had now gone although the clouds remained. There comes a time in every teams life when it must kick at 0830 in the morning. Clapham did just that agianst Goat from Toronto. The Candian side were allowed no time or space to play in as the offence and defence did their jobs time and time again. A half time lead of 8-5 was extended to a 15-7 win giving Clapham a place in the semi finals.
Twisted metal from Boston stood between Clapham and a place in the final. Twisted Metal came out hard and were full of running. Their D line was the hardest running Clapham had faced all tournament and the difficulty in adjusting the style showed with some huge grabs needed to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Metal took the firtst half 8-6 but Clapham were confident that they could do more. A run by the D line brought Clapham back into the game but then the Twisted Metal D went on a run of their own leaving the score at 14-9. Clapham though don't know how to give up and punched in 2 quick scores to make the game still tight. However Metal pulled themselves together and finally ended Claphams dream at 15-11.
The tournament saw some huge performances from many players and showed that this Clapham team has much more to achieve. Bring on the tour!
MORE!!! |
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Jo |
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| Boston |
17/05/2006
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| The tournament is on 24/25 June and will be the first time a UK mens team has been invited into an elite level tournament on US soil. See www.buda.org/bostoninv for details |
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Jo |
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| Copenhagen |
13/05/2006
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On May 12th 2006 Clapham Ultimate headed out to Copenhagen to play the cream of European ultimate. This would be the first international competition since winning Euros in July 2005. Now with a new team and new tactics, could they continue to dominate the Continent?
All flying out at different times depending on their salary, the team arrived in varying states of consciousness, but soon got focused before the first game against KFUM Örebro. Not put off by their unusual name, Clapham came out hard and dispatched them without too much difficulty.
Second came the Swiss team FreeSpeed. This would be the first real test of the new Clapham squad. Possibly due to a lack of respect for our opposition, the defense line came out slow, unable to cope with the Swiss height. The offense line worked hard and kept the game alive, but with the D line barely touching the disc, there was little chance of victory. The result, the first international loss for Clapham in a year. Their 11 game unbeaten run was over.
Friday night saw little partying and plenty of sleep, possibly because Peter Harvey was yet to arrive.
Next: Skogshyddan. Sounds like Swedish Flem, but its also the name of Sweden's top Ultimate team. The reigning champions of this Copenhagen tournament and absent from Euros, Clapham were desperate to show them what they could do.
The two teams matched up early Saturday but showed no signs of tiredness. The Clapham offense continued to dominate, scoring every point they played, including one sick grab from Mr. Simon Weeks after a wayward hammer from Tomas Vesly (yes they do happen). The Defense line stepped up from friday and got blocks (Peter Harvey had arrived), but couldn't work the disc and were unable to convert. Fortunately the team started on Offense, so still managed to win 13-12.
Then Karhukopia from Sweden, and after soundly beating them, Clapham met the Flying Angels (Switzerland) in the quarter finals. Usually an epic match-up (2 mind-blowing games at Euros) this time was remarkably tame. Clapham came out winners, progressing to the semi's.
Saturday night saw more partying (as was Mr. Alistair Dray's Birthday) although the long day had sapped a lot of energy and the team turned in before too long.
Sunday morning saw Clapham vs Fire of London, who train 50 metres away. This game saw a return to the old Clapham ways, trading to half time to keep the fans interested, then utterly destroying the opposition with a 6 points run in the second half.
Final time, Skogshyddan. Saturday's game had shown how even these teams were, but now there was a new factor, wind.
The teams adopted very diverse styles. Clapham using their handlers to work the disc, and Skogs throwing long and relying on their receivers to bring down the blustery disc. Clapham's offense worked well against the zone, but eventually passes would go to ground in the tough conditions. Skogs' receivers were able to bring down far too many of their upwind hucks, but were unable to go the last 10metres into the zone. Clapham's defense still struggled when they had the disc, especially downwind, giving the Skogs team too many chances to score going into the wind. Eventually score they did, and despite upwind points of their own Clapham were never quite able to match the Swedes who ran out 11-9 winners.
So Clapham finished 2nd yet again, but what does this mean for their status as kings of Europe? Clapham left Copenhagen obviously disappointed, but they all knew that after a bit of training (training had started 2 weeks before) they could arrive in Italy for the European championships (Oct 06) ready to prove who's boss
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Colin |
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| winter practices |
15/10/2005
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| If you're interested in playing with Clapham send a mail to ollie |
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alex |
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| National Champions |
06/09/2005
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Final: Clapham 17-11 Leeds
MVP of the final was Nasser M'bae, playing a great game in his first appearance in black |
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alex |
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| European Champions |
09/07/2005
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Clapham 17 Turku Terror 4
Clapham 17 Cusb 4
Clapham 17 UniStars 2
Clapham 17 LeedsLeedsLeeds 11
Clapham 17 Ultimate Vibration 9
Clapham 17 Liquidisc 11
Clapham 17 Flying Angels Bern 14
Clapham 17 LeedsLeedsLeeds 9
Clapham 14 Flying Angels Bern 13
Final
Clapham 17 Ragnarok 13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0864pIa7JzQ |
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Jo |
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| Preparation for European Clubs |
24/06/2005
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alex |
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| Clapham win Tour 2 |
21/05/2005
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Pool Play:
Clapham 15-9 BAF
Clapham 15-6 Leeds
Clapham 15-8 Fire of London
Quarters
Clapham 15-5 EMO
Semi
Clapham 15-8 Leeds
Final
Clapham 16-11 Fire of London |
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alex |
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| Clapham Savage |
11/05/2005
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Boots on and ready to go by 10am.
If interested get in touch with myself: olliebenjamin@yahoo.co.uk |
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Ollie B |
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| Wonderful Copenhagen 2005 |
28/04/2005
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Saturday:
A 10-5 victory in the opening game against Helsinki Ultimate Team was followed by dissapointing sudden death results in the remaining pool games against Ultimate Vibration (8-9) and Skogshyddan (6-8). Despite this setback, Clapham gained automatic qualification to the quarter finals by the back door, coming second in a tough pool.
Sunday:
Given that opportunity, Clapham weren't about to take anything for granted. Trading points early in the quarter final against SOS, Clapham took a key time-out, got fired up for D, and went out and took the game from the Finns, winning 12-9.
Their reward was a semi final match-up with Mir san Zamperl. Again Clapham came out raring to go, and proved too much for their German opposition, winning 10-7.
The stage was set for a final rematch with the Skogs. Clapham paid the price against the more clinical Swedes early on, but staged a spirited comeback with the crowd behind them. It was a case of too little too late however, but the final score of 12-15 provided plenty of entertainment for the gathered masses.
In testament to their philosophy of play-hard-play-fair ultimate, Clapham also came second in the spirit rankings.
Full results here and spirit rankings here.
Great games, great pool party, good times.
Having sized up the opposition, training continues in earnest towards Europeans in July.
MMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRREE!!!!!
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Euan |
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| Winter league final |
12/03/2005
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In the first game of the day Fire’s second team came out hard and kept us running. However CU’s efficient offence kicked in, scoring most of the turnovers. Zone D worked well too, despite Fire’s patient handling. Eventually, came out comfortable winners in the end.
A messy second game against Warwick Bears. Again, those speedy students worked hard and kept us running. Despite conceding four (?) points, the victory came as we concentrated on consolidating our zone.
So the big semi final came and went. The first match of the year against last year’s WL final champions Fire One. We were up for it, they were up for it. Hard running and clinical finishing from Clapham provided us with 5 points to no reply. “More, more” the crowd shouted. From then on we never looked back. Despite a last ditch attempt from Fire to claw back the deficit, Clapham had started too strongly and proved to be worthy winners.
So to the final, where we met a little known team from South London called Clapham A. With the losers having to pay both teams entry fees, both teams were up for it. After a bit of point swapping, team B went ahead. Team A promptly responded and came back. Good zone characterised the game. It was close, but Team B made sure in the end though, winning the game 11-9.
Good job from both teams, stating intentions for 2005 with an all Clapham final. The party was good too. Good work. |
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olly G |
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| And so it begins |
17/02/2005
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alex |
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| LWL Feb |
13/02/2005
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Clapham 2 started the day with a win against strange Blue. Blue scored twice and were comfortably beaten despite a below par performance. Next up were Discuits who were also dispatched with relative ease. This gave a semi final with Clapham 1. The game was the first real test for either side and some high quality ultimate was played by both sides. Clapham 1 coped with the conditions better with Doug proving inspirational against the zone. Clapham 2's final game was against Purple Haze and featured two former Clapham boys. The game was put beyond the students in the first half with Clapham pulling out a commanding lead they did not surrender.
Bring on the charity shield. |
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Jo |
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| Tour 1 |
04/02/2005
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Day 1 went well; Clapham 1 opened up with a comfortable win over Fire 2 and then went on to dispatch Chevy and Fusion with relative ease. Indeed, Chevy were the only team to score in double figures (10) against the Clapham 1 D - a big positive to focus on.
Clapham 2 started the day against Fire 1 who were looking to get a quick start on the Clapham 'seconds'. No chance. We won a hard fought but well spirited game. Next up were LLLeeds. We traded point for point and with the help of the arrival of Clapham 1 on the sideline took the game in sudden death. Taking the game against Leeds upped everyone's spirits and we then rolled over BAF to end the day undefeated.
Going into the quarters, Clapham were ranked 1 & 2 respectively and had dominated the opening day.
Clapham 2 made short work of BPF and headed over to find Clapham 1 down 13-8 to Fire 1...and then the come back started. Hot defence from every single player on the field and great support from all on the sideline mean Clapham 1 scored a succession of unanswered points to force sudden death, first to 16. Unfortunately it wasnt to be, Fire managed to grab victory from the jaws of choke city, but the come back is something that needs to be remembered as an example of what we can do if we keep concentrating and playing together. C1 ended the day beating fusion by 2 then BPF by 10 to finish 5th overall.
C2 (12 players) went into a semi against Chevy (1000's of players) and it was point for point the whole way. Chevy managed to grab the sudden death victory by virtue of being slightly fresher and earned a finals spot against LLLeeds who took their semi against Fire 1.
A mixed weekend overall, but we all got an idea of what is possible when we work to make things go our way. More to come. Much more.
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Big Mac |
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| January Track |
11/01/2005
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alex |
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| Lookfly Kit Sponsorship |
10/01/2005
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Clapham Ultimate have been sponsored by Lookfly for their squad kit for European Clubs and the Tour this season. Look out for a new design and co-ordinated tracksuits in the near future.
It was decided to go with Lookfly due to their new improved materials, their ease of service but also the fact they have put a lot in to UK Ultimate.
If you want to look as good as us: www.lookfly.com |
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malG |
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| Winter League 2 |
13/12/2004
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WL2 saw some of the Bristol crew brave the cold and grace the smoke with their dulcit yokel tones. But after a less than desirable start they soon found themselves scrapping for mid-table obscurity.
More predictably the home side, fileding a lot of youth academy players, looked extremely comfortable with both the conditions and the opposition and produced a well disciplined display of real defence and patient O.
The young upstarts from Haze again produced a great display to make the final, but despite some top heckling and nice moves were unable to keep up with the champs' tenacious D and reasonably controlled finishing. Your time will come. just NOT TODAY! |
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RV |
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| Winter schedule |
31/10/2004
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alex |
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| FOUR!!! |
23/08/2004
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Nationals - Birmingham
Clapham went to Nationals seeking to finish off another dominating season by winning their fourth Nationals title in a row. A first round bye, followed by the elimination of Smash n Grab saw a quarter final matchup against EMO, the newly formed East Midlands team. After an energetic start from the midlanders, which saw them go 1-0 and 2-1 up, they fell to the all powerful defense of Clapham, failing to score on offence all game and losing 15-3 to the dark side.
Meanwhile Clapham 2 went down in their quarter final to a strong Bristol Plastic Factory side, but won all their other games, beating Smash n Grab to finish 9th, winning the plate.
Next up were the local upstarts, Fire of London with their Australian pickup from Worlds. But they showed once again how they were not ready for a strong start from Clapham, as we took a 3-0 lead. We carried the lead through to the second half, and then went on another strong run to walk into the final 15-10
A final matchup against Leeds - we wouldn't have it any other way. Leeds came out strong and Clapham's offence looked shaky for the first time all tournament, and the D line was struggling for the first part of the game. But it was merely a wobble - we started getting easy turnovers and punching them in easily. We won the half 9-6, then went out on offence. Si Hill and co walked the disc in with ease, then didn't go out again as the defensive monsters went out and got block after block - Hickey claiming 6 blocks, Hargreaves also bagging more than his fair share, and it seemed like the whole team was enjoying getting horizontal. The D line was doing so well we had to let some of the O line on to share the glory, and after an 8-0 run Clapham claimed the National title again.
MORE!...? |
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alex + Brummie |
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| Clapham players primed for World Championships |
20/07/2004
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Clapham players representing Great Britain:
OPEN
Rob Alpen
Marc Guilbert
Matt Woods
Simon Weeks
Simon Hill
Alex Bowers
Sam Webber
MIXED
Finn Hughes
MASTERS
Pete Harvey
Roger Thomson
Hale Brown
Wayne Retter
Dave Trovell
Nolan Taylor
WOMEN
Aura MacEnzie
Rebecca Forth
JUNIOR OPEN
Colin Shaw
Richard Jackson
Clapham players representing Ireland Open:
Brian MacDevitt
Malcolm Cannon
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| Bringing home the bacon |
29/06/2004
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Tour 4 2004 - Edinburgh
The scene was set for the biggest showdown in UKU history; with only one tour event remaining, there were three teams with a shot at the title - Clapham, LeedsLeedsLeeds and Chevron Action Flash. Clapham could only muster 22 pairs of legs and so sent one huge pack of hungry wolves north to fight instead of their usual two teams.
First under the knife were LLLeeds 2 - they showed their training well by moving the disc against our zone, but we turned them over easily when they tried to take ground; our transition O mis-fired a few times but it was always going to be a Clapham victory 15-4. The second casualty of war was Chevy, who quickly learnt that they'd have to play their hearts out to achieve a tour victory against a hungry Clapham team - our defenders shut down their cutters, our sideline was more than enough to counter the heckling of Leeds and Fire spectators, and they were crushed 15-6.
Next up were a Fire team hungry after they'd destroyed Chevron with ease, and with the strongest team they've managed to field so far they took to the field against the might of Clapingham - what followed was an ugly brawl, with loads of contested calls and arguments, but in the end Fire did what everyone does against Clapham... they collapsed under the double hammerblows of irresistable offence and unrelenting pressure on defence... Clapham 15, Fire 8.
End of day 1 - Clapham 3, the rest 0; in every game our O gets tighter, our D gets harder, and our sideline gets louder
Sunday morning saw a quarter final matchup against Fire 2, a team determined to make up for the efforts of their first team the previous day. Despite an inspired start, the score went from 3-3 to 15-3 as Clapham's D started getting the blocks they needed, and became ever more stingy on offence - something we carried into the semi with a tired Chevron side who came out fighting, but with the loss of some players to injury and a typically small squad, they lacked the fitness to carry the fight to the clan who ran away with the game in the second half, taking Clapham into the final 15-7.
Leeds squeezed out Fire 15-12 in a tight semi to set up the dream final to decide the 2004 UKU Tour; Clapham vs LLLeeds. Typical Scottish weather kicked in (the worst of the weekend - rain and cross-wind), and a hungry Clapham D line quickly took the game by the scruff of the neck and got up by two. However it was Leeds who hit back, and they hit back hard, turfing Clapham with a hard run of points that saw them take the half 8-5, and at 9-5 it was looking more and more like a re-run of the Tour 1 final. The D line was putting in all the hard work but Leeds were getting the breaks - a Leeds huck completed after two layout bids, some closely contested calls and Clapham drop a disc in the endzone... However we've worked too hard for too long to just watch it all slide away, and after taking the next point the rabid D line was on, hungry for blocks. A huck to Wigsy resulted in a Leeds time out, and Randy encouraged us to switch up a little - we threw a modified junk, and a floaty swing saw Rich Sharman, one of the shortest guys on the pitch, eating garbage over a crowd of Clapham and Leeds players - a few passes later and we've punched in another D goal. Using our modified zone and some huge sideline support, we got the D run of the year - everyone's piling in the pressure on D, we're bidding on everything and getting quick turns on the Leeds goal line (including a Rob Alpen callahan) and on offence we're chilled, with minimal turnovers, and pull the game level 9-9. Leeds score again to take the lead back, allowing our O line back on - they score quickly to let the D back out on the pitch; playing hard man we get more turns, and we're all over them, getting the disc back then breaking the mark with ease to punch it in the corners for MORE goals. Our zone is tight and is forcing throwaways - a swing flies out of the pitch into the stand, and a hammer is handblocked by Ollie, only for Steve Vaughan to pull it down for Leeds. But by now Leeds are worried and our D line can only see one thing - more blocks - as our sideline bayed for MORE! We keep running, keep the pressure on, keep the zone tight, keep using the fast break on turn and keep patient on turn, moving the disc quickly despite the conditions, and before we knew what had happened it was game point, 14-10. One more deep breath, then running out hard from the line, RV getting a block off a huck, firing it straight back to Texas Matt, and all of a sudden Leeds are desperately defending their endzone, but a shot to Hickey finally saw Clapham victorious after a 10 to 1 goal run, earning their rightful place as UKU Tour champions for the fourth season in a row.
See you at Nationals!
MMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEE!
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Brummie |
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| Black Sunday |
03/06/2004
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Tour 3 2004 - Mansfield
Both Clapham teams started slowly at Tour 3 - many of the squad failing to turn up until there were only a few minutes 'til game time... amazingly with such poor preparation both teams managed victories, and although Clapham vs Abstract was unlikely to go any other way, there were more simple errors than expected. Clapham 2 had to pull back to take the first game 17-16 from BAF (starting the last point on D), the score a repeat of the Tour 2 game. The score should have been lot further in Clapham's favour, so hopefully it was just a case of a slow start.
Next game saw CU1 vs Fire, and CU2 vs LLLeeds. Both teams started slowly again, and CU1 were lucky that Fire choked so badly; the game was close fought but Fire couldn't complete a point, and in the end Clapham got easier and easier turnovers as they got into their groove more. A late surge saw Fire pull down some swill, but it wasn't enough to stop the Clapingham machine. Meanwhile Leeds took the half 8-1 from CU2 as Clapham's offence completely broke down. They got enough blocks to win the game, but failed to capitalise and Leeds walked away with it.
Possibly the best game of the day saw Clapham 2 and Chevy fight it out to 12-12 in a gritty game similar to that of Nationals last year, but at the crucial moment Chevron pulled away 15-12. Nolan took a hand block on Harry Golby to get double happiness striking deep, but the loss of Rich to a calf problem only added to the shortness of legs, which helped Chevy pull away to win 15-12.
Clapham 1 took the final game vs Fusion easily after another impressive start from the Scottish team, but even huge plays by Fusion couldn't stop another Clapham victory, even if Clapham's offence wasn't playing great, the defence certainly was, crushing the desire Fusion showed in Eastbourne and converting their blocks the way they had been all day - with remarkable efficiency... "better than the O line" remarked Rob.
Sunday morning saw the loss of Si Hill in an 'amusing' £136 food poisoning incident (or so we're told), and quarter final matchups of CU1 vs BPF, and CU2 vs Fusion. Clapham 2 were hoping to do better than the same fixture at Tour 2 which was a resounding Fusion victory; instead Clapham again were slow off the blocks and although they played well after the first few points, they were unable to pull it back even when the weather turned bad enough for Fusion to make lots of simple errors that didn't seem to effect Clapham's game. Bristol came out hard against a Clapham team that really didn't look like they wanted to play, and ended up 13-10 to Clapham. Then an epic point watched by 5 teams saw turnover after turnover, Bristol getting loads of blocks and then turfing the disc immediately, and even the support of 70-plus players could stop Clapham taking that point and the game.
Next up was the epic crunch match that was rumoured to be the deciding game of the 2004 UKU Tour - LLLeeds vs Clapham. Whoever won this game would effectively win the Tour trophy today as long as they made the final in Edinburgh. The game was well fought, with some special moments (a Clapham disc going to ground was mac'd up by a Leeds player, and Hargreaves ran it down for a 20 yard gain and easy goal; later on in the game Brian got a layout block in our endzone but the disc sat up and a Leeds played toe'd the line for the score), and the teams traded all the way to 12-10 to Clapham, at which point the game changed. Maybe it was the pressure - it certainly wasn't the completely flat conditions - but whatever it was, it saw both teams choke like nothing on earth... neither team showed their quality. Colonel had stepped into Si Hill's considerable shoes, and was doing very well in this tough role, but without Si's influence both teams turned over cheaply, and got the disc back with minimal effort. Frustration showed as both teams made bad choices, but it was Leeds who got the better of this trading. Eventually Clapham got back into the game after a twelve turnover point (mainly on Clapham's goal line - Leeds unable to score and Clapham unable to advance the disc), Clapham finally taking that point to make it sudden death, and in the end it was a stall nine toss pass that was pulled down by Wigsy that saw Clapham lose their first Tour semi-final for three years - a suitably fitting messy end to a messy game in which neither team had shown their quality. Clapham finished the weekend by beating Fusion quickly; Clapham's offence peaking far too late to prevent a disappointing finish.
CU2's semi was equally as galling - they lost easily to a BAF team they'd already beaten in a game best forgotten. But it was their final game which saw heroics. Bristol Plastic Factory were aiming to avoid finishing eighth in order to avenge their earlier loss to CU1 - but a show of smooth offence and gutsy defence saw a ten man Clapham team beat the Bristol crew; Stroke pulled down everything thrown near him, and Ballsy got a bit sick scoring five goals. Bolstered by Gaz making super sub appearances and the calm words of Jo and Rik, Clapham played the ultimate they always knew they were capable of to win 15-12, finally showing why winners do track as they beat off fatigue to go out on a victory.
Most of the team had left before the final, expected to be one-sided. Chevy took a 3-1 lead, but Leeds came back as we knew they would. Chevy took the half, but it wasn't long before Leeds were 14-12 up, needing one to win. We wanted 4 in a row - and 4 in a row is what we got. Leeds had the Tour trophy in their grasp, and they let it slip... Chevy were delighted, so much so in fact that Kenny smashed the trophy (accidental or not?).
So results of 3rd and 7th are the worst for a long time, but the only way is up. A sobering experience for the Clapham massive - but Chevy's victory bolstered our spirits and breathed life into the crushed soul of Clapham Ultimate.
Leeds may top the Tour at the moment - but it's all down to Tour 4... the winner takes it all.
BRING IT! |
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Brummie |
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| CLAPHAM STRIKES BACK! |
18/05/2004
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Tour 2 2004 - Eastbourne
Rob Alpen:
"
[cue deathstar theme]
as much as everyone in uk ultimate hates to see it, clapham strikes back to take their rightful place as dominators of british ultimate. as women and children ran from the sidelines, screaming from the horror of britney getting nasty fly-by blocks, si weeks showing who's boss, and ollie torching deep (again). clapham chose not to blame each other for their past transgressions, but instead pulled together to destroy all that is perceived to be 'good' in ultimate on this godforsaken island.
everyone hates us, we don't care,
YEAH TEAM!
MORE!
"
And so to Eastbourne Sports Park, arguably the top venue in the UK, for Tour 2. Clapham had been beated twice at Tour 1, by new boys Fire of London and in the final to LeedsLeedsLeeds; but then everyone knows that Clapham lose Tour 1... it's becoming something of a tradition in fact, and so is coming back strong to dominate the rest of the Tour season.
The weather was hot, hot and more hot, with no wind (although apparently Si Hill noticed some at one point and gave BAF the downwind offence), and with the lovely new format Clapham had over 5 hours of high quality ultimate to look forward to on day 1. Closest game of the day saw Clapham 1 vs Clapham 2; lots of big D's and big grabs and it went almost to the wire, the firsts eventually winning 15-12?
Next up were Chevy, who hit us hard and took a lead by using big receiver Dave Sealy to their advantage, until a tactical hamstring pull took him out of the game and Clapham fired up their defence, but Chevy continued to score 20+ pass points. Clapham's offence, on the other hand, was clinical in it's simplicity - it rarely took more than a minute to score, and then our defenders wore down their cutters even more; we failed to get many blocks and relied more on Chevron turning over more than we did. Eventually we took the game 15-9?
Final game of the day was Tour 1 winners LLLeeds - and this was the game everyone wanted. And we wanted it far more than they did - their offence looked shoddy as Clapham scored easily and got plenty of blocks, winning comfortably 15-5.
CU2 lost their remaining pool games against the giants of UK Ultimate Chevron and Leeds, which meant that they faced Fusion in their quarter final, and were run hard in an aggressive game, and lost 15-7, setting up a Fusion vs Clapham 1 semi final. Could Fusion maintain their momentum and reach their first tour final?
Sunday's quarter final matchup was BAF, who turned up physically but not mentally and were easily dismissed to 7, most of those being swill caught by big receivers. The semi against Fusion was a completely different kettle of fish - the Edinburgh/Glasgow team came out hard and fast, getting some blocks of their own, and mixing it with some aggressive if unconventional offensive tactics to score lots of points. Clapham took the half 8-6 after some hard work and some amazing defensive plays by Hickey. However Fusion lacked the fitness to compete in the second half, Clapham taking a 7-1 scoring run to claim a place in the final 15-7.
Clapham 2 started slowly in their semi, and had to pull out some determination to beat BAF in sudden death (MORE!), setting up a replay of the quarter final from Tour 2 that saw CU2 victorious. However Fire of London had a far more stacked squad, and were ready for a fatigued Clapham side, and took the game easily despite a big Clapham come back, leaving Clapham in 6th place. Clapham 2 had applied huge amounts of pressure on defence all weekend, getting blocks in their opponent's endzone by running down the near-perfect pulls of Ballsy and Stroke, but sometimes the crucial block was just inches away...
The final saw LLLeeds as the opposition in front of the crowds (who were definitely after a LLLeeds victory), and both teams went out hard. Big blocks and huge grabs were aplenty, and the game was definitely a physical one - two players being carried off pitch and one sent to casualty. The teams traded all the way to 11-10, and then LLLeeds crumbled under the immense pressure - Clapham got some more blocks and Leeds failed to respond, and Clapham ran out as Tour 2 champions by 15-12... but even that wasn't enough for Hargreaves, who decided to get in a lap of victory - or was it just an early track session?
So what are the chances of Clapham giving up the dark side at Tour 3? Not a chance - but we will continue to crush all pretenders to our crown!
MORE! |
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Brummie |
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| Leeds clean up at Tour 1 |
05/04/2004
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Tour 1 2004 - Bristol
Clapham headed out against new boys Fire of London in what some thought could be a match for the final - and despite Sneeks' attempts to make us take it easy, it was not to be - Fire showed their passion through some on-pitch outbursts, most memorably Pete "I thought he was a nice guy" Cotton nearly exploding in Scando's face. After going at a relaxed pace and slipping behind, Roger fired the team on to try to win - in the end though the first game was a 17-16 loss to Fire.
Si Hill turned up in time for our next game against Chevron and was vital in pulling us back from the brink as we slipped behind to the Manc team, going down at half. Suddenly it looked like Clapham wanted to win and some hard D led to easy turnovers and we took the game 15-11.
Final game of the day was against LLLeeds - the game that was meant to be a showcase event, only to be twice rescheduled due to weather and Leeds having lunch... The following game was very close and featured loads of blocks and stupid grabs; the turning point had to be Wigsy's spectacular error of picking up and dropping the pull, resulting in an easy conversion for Clapham, and the game went our way 16-14
Clapham 2 started slow against Hammerage, never really playing the ultimate they were capable of, despite running out easy winners. They had a similar slip against a strong Bristol Plastic Factory team, falling behind 7-4, but that was all they managed - Clapham turned around and took 10 straight points to banish BPF, relying on hard D to win the disc back in the windy conditions.
All they had to do against EMO was come within 6 points to claim the pool as theirs; however at 4-0 down this was looking increasingly unlikely against a strong zone - but once Clapham stopped turning over cheaply and cranked up the D, there was nothing the Midlanders could do to stop another emphatic victory, 15-9 to Clapham.
Sunday morning saw a Fire 2 with lots of big names come out hard against Clapham 1, but they lacked the depth to trouble us and we took the game easily. Then we ran across to see what was happening in the 4v5 quarter final, which saw Clapham 2 vs
Fire 1, the teams trading at 10-10. The arrival of the first team on the sidelines baying for MORE must have helped, because Clapham got block after block on Fire's goal line, and with the unstoppable scoring abilities of Hargreaves Clapham
make 5 scores in a row to take the game 15-11, putting both Clapham teams into the top 4 and relegating Fire 1 into the 5-12 group for Tour 2, and setting up a Clapham v Clapham semi-final matchup. This game was gritty and saw only a single goal upwind, by Clapham 1, which ended up being the decisive difference between the two teams.
Clapham 2 headed into a 3v4 playoff with Chevy, who were slack in the first half as Clapham carved out a lead and took the half. Unfortunately in the second half Chevron showed their class and came back hard, taking 6 points to 2 in return from Clapham. Not even the exploits of Gaz, getting huge blocks on Dave Sealy and some spectacular grabs, could turn the tide - a disappointing finish from being 8-5 up, but nevertheless Clapham 2 will be well pleased with the excellent result of making the jump into the top pool.
Clapham headed into a final in tough conditions, the ground offered little grip and more than a few players lost their footing in the mud. Not to mention the hard wind and rain that came and went, making the conditions very variable. Leeds took an easy turn and converted for the first point, and had more success heading upwind than we seemed to throughout the game. Clapham's D took time to get going, by which time Leeds had already taken a considerable lead. Despite great grabs by Sneeks and Roger, and more than a few blocks by Hickey, Ollie, Wayne and others, it was too little too late for Clapham, and Leeds took the game, and Tour 1, 15-10 as the offence ground to a halt.
Shippers won MVP for Leeds, and clapped his hands in delight at the prospect of winning three trophies - Leeds took the spirit prize too. But what of Tour 2? Will Clapham fight back as they have done previously? Almost certainly. Will Leeds let the victory go to their heads? Probably not. Will Fire be happy with the 6th place they managed? Highly unlikely. Will Chevron or Fusion threaten for the title? We don’t know - but we shall wait and see... |
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Brummie |
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| winter season over |
31/03/2004
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al |
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| False claims! |
30/03/2004
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al |
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| Site back up |
22/03/2004
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| The website should be back up now after an outage of a few days. Thanks for your patience. |
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Roger |
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| practices are now closed! |
09/01/2004
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alex |
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| Christmas festivities |
19/12/2003
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Everyone's invited to RV and Aura's pad for drinks instead - get in touch with pete for details.
We're playing winter league on Jan 4th, then first practices in the new year are Monday 5th then Sunday 11th.
Attendance-taking begins on Jan 4th!
Have a good christmas everyone |
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al |
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| Not only a sport, now discs are art as well.. |
11/11/2003
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Apparently throwing a disc around is considered conceptual modern art now. Check out this exhibit currently on at the Tate Modern. Who knew we were such visionaries!
Carsten Höller (b. 1961 Brussels) lives in Stockholm. His works create communal experiments in which the visitor determines the rules. Included in this exhibition is Frisbee House 2000, a tent-like structure that can be entered, and is filled with 30 frisbees that visitors can throw to each other or, through holes in the fabric, to unseen participants in the gallery. His solo show is currently on view at the ICA, Boston and his work was recently shown at the Fondazione Prada, Milan.
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Roger |
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| Getting Savage |
19/09/2003
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alex |
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| National Champions again |
15/09/2003
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| more to follow! |
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RV |
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| GB storm European Championships, Clapham claim 12 Gold medals |
08/09/2003
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In the final week of August, 5 Great Britain squads travelled to France to compete in the European Championships. Having never previously clinched gold in any division, GB ultimate came of age with some outstanding performances pushing all 5 squads to their respective finals. The scene was set for a great finish and our teams did not disappoint, with masters, mixed and open taking gold, and our juniors and women narrowly missing out (to teams they had already beaten!) but claiming runners up spots. The final haul - 3 gold and 2 silver medals. Go GB!
Honours List:
Alex (Gold, Open)
Doug (Gold, Open)
Scando (Gold, Open)
Britney (Gold, Open)
Hickey (Gold, Open)
Rich (Gold, Open)
Si Hill (Gold, Open)
Si Weeks (Gold, Open)
Guy (Gold, Open)
Voodoo (Gold, Mixed)
Roger (Gold, Masters)
Noles (Gold, Masters)
RV (Gold, Masters)
Aura (Silver, Women)
Maria (Silver, Women)
Bex (Silver, Women)
Colin (Silver, Juniors)
LD (Silver, Juniors)
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RV |
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| Mixed Nationals—2003 (yeah, Whatever) |
18/08/2003
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Saturday saw an over-heated Whatever team win three fairly easy games, to finishing by a lovely three pm. Night-time activites brought a group of apparently rowdy Wetherby locals to entertain those camping, while the city dewellers enjoyed jedi-night hackysack games and a fond farewell Larry party. Sunday witnessed three tough games against Maiden Bungle, GB and Rampant X. The young Leeds squad put up valiant fight but could not handle the increasingly common patient team play of Whatever. In the semis, Whatever faced a serious and vibrant GB team that showed off their hard training well. With Stacey loosing a contact mid-way through the game, GB took advantage with some hot defensive breaks---in the end, Whatever remained cool and composed to finish them off 15-13.
After long deliberation on how to deal with complex moral rostering problems, the final was an all Clapham one, and a brilliant one at that. Whatever v. Rampant X. The start saw a timid Whatever team fall behind early at the sight of a few graceful layout by Bexs and the simple presence of a tall Alex Nord. The pace soon changed, however, as Whatever regained confidence to take the half by one. The second half saw the Duchess of South Kensington, Clapham, formerly of Balham, Ms Stacey (not Alpin—yet) Smith bust loose to take advantage of Rampant’s poaching attempts to huck and score in fine fashion. The final score was a close 15-13…with the MVP going to none other than….The Duchess of South Kensignton, Clapham, formerly of Balham!!!
Whatever—it was fun.
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Ollie B |
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| European Champions League 3 Report: MORE! |
28/07/2003
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The third and final Champions League event of 2003 was held in Copenhagen last weekend featuring the best teams in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Great Britain and Holland.
Both british teams suffered disappointing starts on Saturday morning, Chevron going down 15-12 to Skogsyddans (from Sweden, EUCC 2001 champions) and then Clapham also losing to the Swedes 15-11. Chevron lost out narrowly to the Danish National team before consolidating with a win over HUT (Finland). In the game of the day the host Danish team beat Skogsyddans 15-12, after an attemped 'trick catch' by a swedish player following a pick call failed and gave the Danes the eventual game-winning disc. Clapham closed out the day with hard-fought victories over HUT and the Red Lights, but overall it was a disappointing day for the british teams. Sunday morning saw Denmark vs Clapham at 9am, with Clapham needing to overcome the Danes by 4 points or more to have a chance of making the final. Clapham came out hard and intense D behind a very solid offensive display saw us open up an 8-5 half-time lead which we extended to 13-8 before the danes came back to 13-10 as the pressure mounted. A gritty upwind score followed by quick D-block set Randy up to throw the 10yd pushpass game-winning score, 15-10 Clapham. Chevron saw off the Redlights 12-10 after recovering from 5-0 down and Clapham won the battle of britain against Chev to set up a final against our long-term nemesis from Sweden.
As a team we've suffered 6 straight losses to Skogs over the last 3 years of competition and we knew this was our chance to beat them in a major final. We started well. The D got a block and score on the 1st point, and a couple more defensive scores saw us open up a lead. On offense we were putting it up to the big receivers a lot - Alex Nord and Si Weeks had been dominant against the danes and chevron - but the Swedish defense were coming up with the answers so we scored our goals in any way we could, Si Hill even catching a scoober in the endzone. At 13-9 the swedes upped their defense and came up with 3 straight scores, and after a turnover on our next possession they just needed to convert to tie the game. It was not to be, as Roger Thomson produced a layout poach-block in front of an astonished swedish receiver to recover the disc. We score and it's 14-12, game point. The normally steady swedish offence was clearly unsettled now and a chest-high layout block by Finn Hughes gave us the disc on their goal-line which was easily converted to win the game.
Final Placings
1. Clapham
2. Skogsyddans
3. Denmark
4. Chevron
5. Helsinki Ultimate Team
6. Red Lights
The Champions League 2003 has been a great success for all the teams involved, so a big thanks to everyone who made it possible. It's given a much needed boost to European ultimate, which I hope will continue into 2004 and beyond.
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al |
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| Tour Champions 2003 |
23/07/2003
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The tour is now over, with Clapham dominating another year. Well done to the London mob for again quashing any hopes that people may have had after T1 that this year was going to see more teams lifting Tour trophies, with even the possibility of someone new lifting the tour trophy.
Final positions are below:
1 980 Clapham 1
2 887 LeedsLeedsLeeds 1
3 843 Chevron Action Flash North
4 812 Chevron Action Flash South
5 807 Fluid Druids
6 766 Clapham 2 |
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Chris Hughes, DoC |
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| Oops We Did it Again |
21/07/2003
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Highlights of the weekend follow: (add your own comments below)
voodoo's mac-greatest for a score against druids. simply amazing, and even though the druids wouldn't let it stand, it earned us a round of free beers from an apologetic adam bachelor. (rob)
sam's ridiculous huck, misread, re-read, layout trailing edge grab to help us claw back in our almost disastrous first game. (rob)
ally's explosion against chevvy south, owning the game to the point that his body couldn't even deal with it and snapped his hamstring for him. (rob)
the all-out gutsy performance registered by a team who'd never say die. down 9-12, come back to take victory 17-14. great stuff! (rob)
my stall 9 'Hulk' scoober to Hickey for a demoralising score in the semi (Al)
Jon Cater running down a game-breaking upwind huck late in the final, cue crowd celebrations and cries of 'MORE' (Al)
People actually cheering for us - were we the underdogs or something? Very strange and unsettling (Al)
Doug's forehand - on the money all weekend ;) (Al)
Ollie bringing down a great rip in front of stevie vaughn (who would've staked his gran on catching it) in the 1st point of the final. (RV)
Matt woods having a 100% final - I don't actually recall him making an error all weekend. (RV)
Our boys arriving on the sideline in the final. It felt like we went from 2 subs to 42. We then scored 3 great goals in a row. (RV)
Voodoo gets stalled out (ouch!). Rob M shouts "Thats a f****** stallout!" in Vood's ear, and pegs it into the zone scot free. Smorgasbord picks it up and misses Rob by a mile. Voodoo shouts "Thats a f****** throwaway!" everyone cracked up (RV)
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Al |
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| There's only one team in Britain! |
07/07/2003
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A shaky start in the final of Tour 3 saw Chevron North open up a 6-3 lead in front of a cheering sideline who were eagerly anticipating another barnstorming tour final showdown. Alas, it was not to be. Clapham's shutdown defence took away the Chevron's deep game and when the turnovers came we were clinical behind the handling of rob and al combined with the uber-powerful hucking of scando to any one who took off deep. The kid's on fire right now and deservedly picked up his second mvp award over consecutive weekends. On the back of this momentum we went on a 5-point run in the first half, followed by an 8-point run right out of the gate after half. Final score 17-8 for Clapham.
Photo courtesy of http://www.block-stack.co.uk
Clapham 2 produced the performance of the weekend to see off Chevvy South 17-12 in pool play, eliminating them from semi-finals and crushing their spirit in the process. The telephone team went on to forfeit their final game and end up 8th, finishing off their hopes of winning the Tour title. Leeds also failed to make semi-finals, losing to both Druids and Chevron North in their opening pool. We expect them to come back strong in Edinburgh later this month.
Hargreaves scored over 5 points a game on his 1st team debut. Wow.
Photo courtesy of http://www.block-stack.co.uk
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Al |
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| Playing Ultimate with Clapham will make you famous |
26/06/2003
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Scando gets on the beeb site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southerncounties/sport/2003/06/20/frisby.shtml
They even call him Uk Ultimate's Wayne Rooney. Go Scando Go Scando! |
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Ally |
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| A weekend of Whatever transforms a Ballsy into a Smithers! |
25/06/2003
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Whatever, for Mixed Tour 2, had plenty of legs and charged smoothly through all of their Saturday games…ending the day nice and early--leaving plenty of time for Bakewell tart consumption, a sweet shopping cart Barbie-Q construction, and for a drunken SMITHERS to emerge out of the woodworks to dance and take the party in full Clapingham glory!
Sunday started out quite well for a slow and groggy Whatever, taking Blue Arse Flyies in easy quarterfinal game. The semi game, however, witnessed Whatever losing a bit of confidence against Rampant X—going down 3-0 early, and ending the game losing 12-7 (?). BA!
Whatever’s cross over semi-3/4 spot (or whatever you call it) was against the GB team and for the third time this season saw Whatever triumph in fine fashion. After a very close 2nd Tour game against GB, Whatever expected a tough match and were ready for a battle. As a result we came out strong, threw on a menacing zone-D, and dominated for the get-go.
With Clapham players in the top 4 teams this Tour, we all enjoyed a pleasant weekend full of top and spirited games.
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Ollie 'McEnroe' BinJammin |
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| European Champion's League II |
16/06/2003
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Hi there!
Hope everybody got home alright!
And the winner is...
1. Flying Angels Bern (SUI)
2. Chevron Action Flash (GBR)
3. Clapham Ultimate (GBR)
4. Feldrenner (GER)
5. Hardfisch (GER)
6. Red Lights (NL)
results and lost & found at the bottom...
The second edition of the 2003 champions league was somewhat dominated by the Flying Angels from Bern. They won all of their games clearly, pulling away after halftime in the games against Feldrenner and Clapham (both 8-7 at halftime). At the other end of the list, the Red Lights from Amsterdam fittingly [;)] found their spot. Chevron was able to defeat Clapham this time (2nd time this year already), but was clearly outrun by the swiss.
The Clapham - Feldrenner game proved to be one of the highlights of the weekend. While Feldrenner took and early 3:1 lead, Clapham quickly caught up and took the half at 8:7 (I think). In the second half, points were traded most of the time with no team gaining a substantial advantage. When time ran out Feldrenner were up at 13:12, but at 13:13, one Feldrenner player made a crucial mistake and his team wasn't able to get another D. Hardfisch played hard, but were no match for the british teams and for the angels, but played well against their German rivals from Mainz.
All of the teams brought squads of 14 or more players (yes, even we, Feldrenner, are still able to learn from the mistakes we make) so that all of the games were intense and sometimes closer than the actual results might imply.
Apart from a little thunderstorm on saturday, the weather also turned out very well, so that all of the players were able to get a taste of a real (though small) german volksfest on Saturday night. While everybody tried some local wine and food, one Clapham Player seemed to have other things on his mind. Singlehandedly, the guy known as 'Si Hill', roughed up a whole squad of local football players after the women the football players were with seemed to express interest in the young brit. He was witnessed leaving the scene carrying two of the girls on his shoulders, while several others followed him in a trance-like state. Nothing is known of his whereabouts during the night.
Well, so much for now. The next Champions League event will be held in Kopenhagen at the end of July. Feldrenner won't be there because German Nationals are on that same weekend. Looking forward to next year, though.
Cheers,
Juergen
Feldrenner#83
The results:
Saturday:
Hardfisch - Feldrenner 12:16
Clapham - Red Lights 15:06
Chevron - F.A.B. 09:16
Hardfisch - Clapham 07:15
Red Lights - F.A.B. 08:15
Feldrenner - Chevron 14:16
Hardfisch - Red Lights 15:08
Clapham - Chevron 12:15
Feldrenner - F.A.B. 08:15
Sunday
Hardfisch - Chevron 09:15
Clapham - F.A.B. 11:15
Feldrenner - Red Lights 15:05
Hardfisch - F.A.B. 08:15
Red Lights - Chevron 11:15
Feldrenner - Clapham 14:15
You didn't leave much:
1 black hat (for a really small head) with a sun/moon symbol
1 pair of sunglasses
1 really ugly checkered-green hat with a tennis symbol
1 grey t-shirt size l
1 large light blue towel
1 pair of black gaia shorts with te number 33 on the front right leg 1 disc
(Winald/Hardfish) that's it
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Juergen |
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| Whatever didn’t lose the Co-ed Tour II final – so where’s our silverware??? |
11/06/2003
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Due to injuries, holidays and GB training, Co-ed Tour II saw Whatever with a lower
percentage turnout of Clapham players than expected. Picking up a few
random blokes (Ben – Sharks, Dave – Leeds, and two Irish friends of Brian)
strengthened the men’s side but without any women pick-ups available the
women had to struggle with 4 + injured Claida.
With the introduction of peer pools, Saturday’s games were fairly close and
exciting. Play of the day was the first point of the game against #1 seed
Rampant X. RV pulled off a perfect Greatest out the back of our own endzone
with a perfect pass over two defenders to Aura. Shocked Rampant players
hadn’t bothered to mark up again and we scored with 2 easy passes up the
line. This game featured smooth O on both sides but after trading the whole
game, we wound up turning it over on the last point and losing by two.
Sunday’s games were just as close. After using a seriously unbelievable
layout D by Roger (he ran DJ down!) and some mismatches on the women to beat
Lil’ Shef, we then went on to meet GB Co-ed in the semi. For unknown
reasons, GB Co-ed is a bunch of shrimps (Voodoo may well be the tallest
player) and we won this game on the strength of our hucks to 6’ Sara, Jon,
and Dave.
Finals. We were stoked when we realised we could exact revenge for our loss
to Rampant X the day before. The Rampant women looked tired after their
semi with Cyrille and their men were short the services of Alex Nord, who
they’d had when they played us Saturday. However, a massive thunder and
lightning storm seemingly right above our heads lead to the cancellation of
all remaining games. We split the points with Rampant – but who gets the
silverware is yet to be determined. (Stay tuned to Co-ed Tour III as the
Tour II TD has something planned…)
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Aura |
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| Laugh it up, We Won |
26/05/2003
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A couple of early blocks followed by quick conversions saw Clapham open up a 3-0 lead, and the O team was firing behind Si Weeks and Hickey's deep cuts to take the half 9-5 after only 1 turnover. Both teams had problems playing defence in the windless conditions until Leeds got a break after a Clapham mistake at 12-8. With the crowd behind them and some hard defensive marks they converted the hard-earned turnovers with quick huck plays to bring the game back to 13-12 Clapham. Clapham scored the next point with a 60 yard hammer from Si Hill to Rob before a quick Leeds score followed by a turfed disc on Clapham's next possession brought tied game at 14s. Both teams are making huge plays now; Hickey brings down a huck to make it 15-14, Rodders of Leeds does the same thing at the other end. At 15-15 Clapham work the disc up the field and score off a break mark throw to Roger Thomson. Now Clapham switch up to man defence for the first time in a few points and with the Leeds receivers unable to get open Finn Hughes gets a block on Leeds' goal-line. Clapham pick up and convert easily to take the game.
With only 5 turnovers from us in the match, this was one of the best games ever played in british ultimate - Leeds are a very impressive team and we're looking forward to our next match-up with them.
Clapham 2 retained their top-8 place by winning the sunday-morning crossover game, the one piece of bad news is that Brian broke his collar bone against the Sharks and will be out for a few weeks.
In the semi-finals a raging defensive start saw Clapham jump to a 7-0 lead against our Tour 1 nemesis Chevron South. A controlled offensive performance behind some key blocks saw us punish them 17-6. |
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Al |
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| RV and The Bear star in E4's Banzai betting show |
16/05/2003
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Last night RV and Roger starred in Banzai, E4's crazy betting show, performing 'The Fantastic Frisbee Ding Dong Duel'. Filmed last summer, the clip was finally shown between challenges involving Graham Norton and Mark Owen (such is our fame), and was by far the highlight of the show.
Who won? We won't spoil your fun. Place your bets now and watch the video: 1mb download, 8mb download.
Many thanks to Sean Holden for recording and converting these files.
We were even paid for it and fully intend becoming serious actors now we've made our breakthrough. |
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Roger |
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| 7 and 1 but finish 5th @ Co-ed Tour 1 ... Whatever |
12/05/2003
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Saturday saw some gentle opposition and an opportunity for Hale to “explain” his confusion defence. Some of the highlights were our 3 woman home-girl offence and the battle between Malcolm and Paul for supremacy against Flyght Club 2.
The nights festivities saw Prima chasing a girl in washed out pink jeans, Ally’s sexuality being questioned and Aura ending up in bed with two guys. Thankfully Katri was sober enough to drive Ally’s car home although she couldn’t manage the gears and had to shout Clutch so he could do them every time she wanted to change.
Having finished top of the pool we didn’t get to play a crossover, which meant we rolled straight out of bed into our toughest game of the weekend. When we finally woke up we found ourselves 7-9 down with a game to 11 against Loaf, the criminally miss-seeded Doughboy team. After pulling back to 10 all we failed to convert and then lost it near our line. The best we could finish was now 5th.
Our final two games saw us sail by Cyrille and then the GB Co-ed team with the best ultimate we had played all weekend. Neither team threatened and our strong Zone and quick switch to offence left us wondering where it all went wrong against Loaf…..Whatever
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Malcolm |
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| Clapham claim top spot at EUCL1 |
06/05/2003
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Cambridge played host to the cream of european ultimate this weekend,
featuring Clapham (UK), Chevron (UK), Ragnarok (Denmark), Feldrenner
(Germany) and Flying Angels (Switzerland).
The final standings were:
(placing,team,won,lost,points difference)
1. Clapham 3-1 +22
2. Ragnarok 3-1 +5
3. Flying Angels 2-2 +3
4. Feldrenner 1-3 -15
5. Chevron 1-3 -15
Spirit: Chevron
Clapham won both their games on Sunday to take top spot by virtue of beating
Ragnarok in their earlier head-to-head. Flying Angels had a difficult
sunday after playing some great ultimate on the first day to beat Clapham
and Feldrenner. Chevron started the tournament badly, losing their first
two games before beating the Swiss in a fantastic sudden-death game early on
Sunday. Ragnarok suffered an early defeat to Clapham but toughed it out
afterwards to win their remaining 3 games. Feldrenner started well against
Chevron but suffered in the later games for only bringing 11 players.
We're looking forward to the next event in Mainz, on June 14/15.
Here are the full results
SATURDAY
Clapham 17-10 Ragnarok
Feldrenner 17-14 Chevron
Flying Angels 14-11 Clapham
Ragnarok 17-10 Chevron
Flying Angels 15-11 Feldrenner
SUNDAY
Ragnarok 17-15 Feldrenner
Chevron 16-15 Flying Angels
Clapham 17-5 Feldrenner
Ragnarok 15-12 Flying Angels
Clapham 17-11 Chevron
 |
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Alex |
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| Clapham finish 2nd & 5th @ Tour 1, AND win Spirit of the Game |
16/04/2003
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To quote Adam Batchelor:
"Well done to Chevron Action Flash South for their unbelievable come back against Clapham 1 in the final, 11-4 down was the info I received! Could this be a new style full choke Clapham team? Time will tell!
Just a quick mention - don't abuse the equipement at the tours or the UKU will stop providing scoreboards, cones and water bottles, its just WRONG!
BIG congratulations to Clapham with both teams tying for first place on spirit! so the award went to the club.
Also first time out and the Milkman Squares win the other spirit trophy for the second half - well done!
1 Chevron Action Flash - South
2 Clapham 1 spirit winners
3 Leeds leeds leeds 1
4 Fusion 1
5 Clapham 2 spirit winners
6 Teamshark
7 Chevron Action Flash North
8 Fluid Druids
9 Blue Arse Flies 1
10 Bristol Plastic Factory 1
11 Red 1
12 Smash & Grab
13 LeedsLeedsLeeds 2
14 Atomic Horse
15 Flyght Club 1
16 Hammerage 1
17 Marty McFly
18 Mild Mannered Janitors Most improved team
19 Red Dog 1
20 Red 2
21 North South Divide
22 Skunks
23 Kamayamaya
24 Hammerage 2
25 Albatross
26 Bristol Plastic Factory 2
27 Fusion 2
28 Strange Blue
29 STD Ultimate
30 HuSh
31 Chuft
32 York Ultimate Team
33 Slipdisc
34 Sublime
35 Fat Lady Fluffers
36 Blue Arse Flies 2
37 HawkAye
38 Flyght Club 2
39 Trigger Happy
40 Chocolate Covered Hobbit Nobs
41 Red Dog 2
42 DHB
43 Red Dragons
44 The Milkman Squares spirit winners
45 Flyght Club 3
46 HuSh 2
47 Bristol Plastic Factory 3
48 Jedi
MVP for his performance in the final - Dave Barnard" |
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Adam Batchelor |
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| Si Hill scores a goal in Winter League game |
02/04/2003
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A long play to Fritz had gone wrong, because Fritz caught the disc outside the endzone. Witnesses say this is because Si had thrown deep to him off the first cut, but has a maximum range of 40yds on his backhand so the disc ended up a few yards short of the endzone. Faced with the disc in his hand downfield and no-one to dump it off too Fritz had no choice but to call a time-out.
What follows is simply unbelievable: "We set me up to cut for a dump - which I did - BUT IT WAS A FAKE!" related an excited and somewhat dizzy Si, who then ran up the line for a 5yd backhand from Fritz - "GOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!"
How stupid must his defender feel? Surely it must have been a druid...
Si Hill has since retired from competitive ultimate, "moments like this are like, once in a lifetime" he claimed.
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Al |
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| Clapham Ultimate win the first ever 'Winter League Finals/Charity Shield/Tour 0' |
01/04/2003
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After the first game it looked like out with the old and in with the new as LeedsLeedsLeeds beat Clapham 1 12-9 on Clapham's own turf. But in the end even that victory couldn't stop an all-Clapham final which Clapham 2 won 15-10.
Full details: http://www.claphamultimate.com/charityshield.aspx |
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roger |
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| Casualties of War! |
17/03/2003
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Following on from Britney's badly broken wrist last month Rob tries to block a backhand huck with his face and get's a broken nose for his trouble.
He'll be playing again next weekend we're sure - and it's bound to be an improvement on his looks ;) |
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al |
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| London Winter League Champions! |
06/03/2003
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The Clapham machine rolled to the 2002/03 title with C1's comprehensive 15-6 mashing of the Druids in pool play at LWL 5. The little purple guys had no answer to our fired-up D and clinical conversion of turnovers. This set up another all-clapham final which went to the wire in muddy conditions - C1 toughing out the game 15-13 in the face of an inspired C2 comeback.
Aura and the Princess Layout girls put on a stunning party in the evening for all Winter-Leaguers - making for a long, interesting, and very messy night.. |
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al |
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| Winter League 4 |
03/02/2003
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| Druids prevented another all-clapham final by beating clapham 1 by a clear margin - we really struggled against their zone and they were clinical about punishing us for cheap turnovers. Clapham 2 came out guns blazing in the final to open up a 4 point lead which the druids brought back to 4-4. After some mid-game trading Clapham scored some crucial upwinders to take the game 11-8. Clapham 1 overturned a 5-1 deficit against Sharks to take the game and 3rd place, 11-8. |
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al |
|
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| London Savage Sevens |
02/12/2002
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Saturday 30th November saw the 2nd London Savage 7s event at the Crystal Palace athletics stadium. Once again we saw some very high quality ultimate played, which culminated in an outstanding final in the floodlights between Toast and Tooting Tigers. Toast pulled into an early, and what appeared to be unassailable lead, then Tooting started chipping away with some fine play and the odd cry of 'rage!'. In the end however Toast's highly impressive outfit took the game 13-11 to go one better than their second place of last year.
Results
Winners: Toast
Finalists: Tooting Tigers
Semis: Fluid Druids*, Chevron Action Flash
*Druids were awarded the wild card semi finalist slot - they had identical points to Clapham but were given the slot due to a spirit score of 26 vs 25. This method of selection may well be altered in the future but it was slightly better than drawing straws...maybe next time a pull competition?
Group stages:
Bristol, Bliss, Clapham, Doughboy, LeedsLeedsLeeds, RS7 (Switzerland), Night Fever, Hammerage.
MVP: Will Parker (Druids) - achieving 3 out of a possible 4 MVP ratings
Spirit: Bristol with 28 out of a possible 30 points
Massive thanks to Malcolm who organised virtually everything this year, and also the assistance of Diane, Kate, Maggie, Shelley and Claida for keeping scores & stats on the day, and lastly for the Silver Bear and Si Hill for their 'cameo' final appearance.
looking forward to next year already! |
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Simon Norris (hammerage) |
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| Winter League 2 results |
18/11/2002
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 Clapham dominate WLII, seeing off the rest of the field in both pools.
Bad weather aside, the second installment of this years London Winter League was a lot of fun. Both Clapham teams stormed through their pools, with the only close challenge coming from the druids against Clapham 2 - the game finishing 14-12.
the final was dealt with in the warmth of the pub. |
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Rv |
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| Savage 7 |
04/10/2002
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Players will be divided into teams of similar strength, 7 players to a team.
Space is limited to 56 players on a first-come, first-served basis – if you’re interested please register yourself by mailing Phil Cooper: Pcooper@iirltd.co.uk, and provide a little info on who you are/how strong a player you are, to help us when we create the teams.
Player fees for the day are £2 per head which will probably all go towards beer.
Apologies in advance to anyone who ends up on Guy’s team.
Any questions please email Phil at the address above.
Hope to see some new faces out there.
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al |
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| National Champs |
26/09/2002
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The D boys turned up the heat in the second half as Chevvy seemed to run out of legs and ideas. An 8-1 streak sealed the game after trading out the opening half.
Play of the game was a layout catch-block by Randolph followed by a crazy huck that Fritz came down with for the goal.
We nearly screwed up in the semi, going down early against Druids then failing to put the game away when we had the chance.
With most of our key players suffering from a huge session the night before we can thank Britney's 4 second half blocks for pulling out a sudden-death victory after being 14-12 down. That, and the druid who dropped the disc when wide open in the endzone on that point :)
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Al |
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| Clapham win at Leeds and claim Tour |
23/07/2002
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Congrats to everyone on a job well done - a rampant performance in the final saw some of our best ultimate this year, and the rock returning to clapham (or Si Hills mantle anyhow).
Tour 4 (Leeds) Open division top 8
CLAPHAM
CHEVRON
TEAMSHARK
DRUIDS
LEEDSLEEDSLEEDS
UNPOCOLOCO
SMASH & GRAB
FUSION
full tour finishing results to follow... |
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RV |
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| Clapham in Copenhagen |
16/07/2002
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We took 15 players, so were short 7 of the Hawaii squad including Aram and some key others.
Clapham 17 - 13 Red Lights
We were 16 - 9 up in a one-sided game but were lazy about closing it off. Gary understudied Aram admirably in terms of arguing with Mikael, but we wouldn't have our games against the Dutch any other way.
Clapham 15 - 17 Skoghyddans
A great game against our Swedish nemeses, much closer than Prague. We pretty much traded it to half, 9-8 Skogs, but we'd received so they were a break up in an upwind/downwind kind of game. Straight after half we got a huge D in the 15 minute point from hell (about 15 turnovers in all) to pull it back to 9-9, and another shortly after to get ahead by a point, but they sneaked back in front and took the game on a high pressure last point with at least one contested foul which was 50/50 and could easily have got us back level. There was never more than 2 points between us, our offence may even have scored more easily than theirs but theirs was a tad better at getting the disk back after turning over. Swampy got an awesome jumping block against Evil Borg, their captain. A much better spirited game than last year's final and we played some of our best stuff at times, and that despite the fact they looked even stronger than last year with their extra Carnegie pickups for Hawaii.
Clapham 15 - 17 Feldrenner
Err - Sunday morning game - do I need to say more? They've never exactly been our strong point and our preparation was less than ideal. 9-5 up at half they were just too German for us to ever pull it back, and we fluffed the odd opportunity we did get. They've got 3 or so great players and work that iso 4-1-2 offence brutally efficiently. Recommend vast poaching on the widest of the back 4 to anyone that plays them. Recommend lynching teammates that haven't even got cleats on with 15 minutes till game time, whatever their excuse. Feldrenner went on to lose to Red Lights 17-14 so technically we finish 2nd out of 5 over the weekend if it matters.
Clapham 17 - 14 Ragnarok
Another slow 0 - 3 Sunday start which we never really pulled back. They're the same as Feldrenner in that they rely on a handful players to do most of the downfield battering; but they're fit, good and big enough to be a really painful handful. We were 14 - 12 down, Britney got one tasty layout D which we scored, Guy got another layout D which we scored, RV ate up a bomb they put up to endzone - then ran the length of the pitch and caught the last of 3 passes in their zone. Can't remember who got the other two, but Ragnarok never made it as far as our endzone again as the dogs of D chewed on their tired legs. It was a clever zoney mind trick that did it....so never fear changing your D tactics even when the fat momma's warming her throat up.
28 platform pressups are possible at the longest train stop between Farum and Copenhagen before the doors close 8 feet from our endzone out the sideline is where RV put the worst pull of the season so far 5 of the best Euro teams were there and it was a great warm up for Worlds 3 people slept in a tree house on Friday night 1 team were very happy when Guy lost a forfeit game and had to be totally silent all the way back to Stansted 0 of us were not shocked when he actually managed it
Happy Wayne? Any of you lot who play those teams in Hawaii are welcome to ask advice about any of them.
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Roger Thomson & RV |
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| Hawaii WUCC 2002 - Group of Death |
26/06/2002
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the group of death looks set....
8 Clapham Ultimate
9 Electric Pig
24 Bonzi
25 Pelpiew
40 TUPA
hmmm, that's one hell of a 24 seed considering that any game b/t epig and bonzi could very easily go either way. throw in european runner-ups clapham and a japanese team. sheesh. |
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Rob Alpen |
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| Tour 3 results |
22/06/2002
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Clapham1 won convincingly in the final against TeamShark, having beaten Chevron in the semi final.
Excellent work from Teamshark, reaching their first tour final. Well earned by overcoming Clapham2 in the semi.
Druids remain dis-satisfied with plate (5th)
Whey seemed pretty happy with 13th
Atomic Horse came 21st
Bliss improved their seeding coming 29th.
Spirit of the Game was won by Chevy Mixed.
Blockstack brought cameras, cranes and scaffolds and videoed games.
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RV |
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| Tour 2 results |
18/05/2002
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At Tour 2 in Exeter, a shorthanded Clapham team started as definite underdogs, but fought their way to the final through a series of tough matches.
On the other side of the draw the Chevron team looked clinical and dispensed some of the better top 8 teams by large margins, their team of 18/19 players proving a benefit.
The final was amazing, with Chevron taking a 4 point lead early on, Clapham fought back to take a lead of their own but watched it disappear in minutes. the teams looked deadlocked going into the last few points at 15-15, with the title there for the taking.
What followed wasn't the pretty, tight ultimate we are used to seeing but more of a scramble... the scores got to 16 all, sudden death.
With Chevron receiving the disc with the wind to win it looked academic, but Clapham's dogged determination ensured a lively point and they soon had the disc back. Alex Bowers let go a huge huck into the wind and the crowd held their breath as 4 or five people gathered underneath. For a second it looked as if Clapham had come down with it but the melee proved too much and it hit the turf. Chevron have the disc and wind again to win.
More amazing clapham defence and a diving block later saw the disc being worked methodically back up the field for a simple score and massive celebrations...
1 Clapham 1 (Championship)
2 Chevron Action Flash
3 TeamShark
4 Fluid Druids
5 Clapham 2 (Plate)
6 Un Poco Loca
7 Leeds Leeds Leeds
8 Smash & Grab
9 Blue Arse Flies 1
10 Fusion
11 Whey
12 Red 1
13 STD (Cup)
14 Headrush
15 Marty McFly
16 Hammerage 1
17 Atomic Horse
18 Hammerage 2
19 Mud Culture
20 Flyght Club
21 Kamaya Maya (Bowl)
22 Revolution
23 Slipdisc 1
24 Blue Arse Flies 2
25 Bad Habits
26 Swivel
27 Skunks
28 -
29 North South Divide (Crystal)
30 Trigger Happy
31 Albatross
32 Chuft
33 Butt
34 Uriel
35 Red 2
36 JB7
37 SlipDisc 2 (Spoon)
38 Rats of Nimh
39 Air Badgers
40 Discoordinated
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RV |
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| Tour 1 Results |
14/04/2002
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Thanks for coming to Tour 1 - the LARGEST domestic outdoor tournament in Britain EVER!!!! Hope you all enjoyed it.
Apologies again for the lack of medical cover (physios), my (Adam) fault entirely and a lack I won't allow again.
Lost property is being handled seperately by Matt. Please mail him with any items you may have lost at matteedwards@yahoo.co.uk .
Womens Tour 1 Results
Princess Layout
Mavis
Janet Hawes - Spirit Winners
Divalution
Jane Doe
Open Tour 1 Results
Chevron Action Flash 250
Clapham 1 230
Fluid Druids 222
Un Poco Loco 210
Clapham 2 205
BAF 1 190
TeamShark 181
Smash & Grab 170
Whey 160 one of 3 teams to hold their seeding
Red 1 150
LeedsLeedsLeeds 141
Hamerage 1 130
Fusion 125 Plate 1 Winners
Headrush 1 110
Strange Blue 101 one of 3 teams to hold their seeding
Atomic Horse 90
STD 81 Spirit Winners
Bad Habits 77
Chevron Coed 74
Skunks 71
Mud Culture 69 Plate 2 Winners
Revolution 66
Hammerage 2 63 The equal most improved team from seeding - 20 places
Flyght Club 2 60 The equal most improved team from seeding - 20 places
Flyght Club 1 57
Martie McFly 54
Slipdisc 1 51
Swivel 49
Butt (normally Bliss) 46 Plate 3 Winners
BAF 2 43
Headrush 2 40
Red 2 37
Kamaya Maya 34
Sublime 31
JB7 29
Mohawk Mwnci Magic 26
Rats of Nimh 23 Spoon Winners
Trigger Happy 20
Albatross 17
Shooting Project 14 The team who dropped the most places - 20
North South Divide 11
Slipdisc 2 9
Mute 6
Pyramus & Frisbee 3
MVP of the final - Pete Harvey
Congratulations to Chevron on their first Tour win - may it be the first of many;-) |
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Adam Batchelor |
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| London Marathon |
14/04/2002
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My official time, as published in The Times today (fame at last), was.........drum roll please.........3 hours 24 minutes 9 seconds.
I'm fairly pleased with that.
The whole experience was fantastic and despite my Steve Redgrave style "if I ever say I'm doing another marathon stop me" just after finishing, I've got a sneaking suspicion there might be a similar outcome as after the great man's statement, only without the Olympic gold!
A big thank you to everyone who sponsored me and sent me good luck messages leading up to the day. Anyone who hasn't already sponsored me, it's not too late to donate.
Well that's it from me for now, I'll let you all know how much was raised once I've collected all the money.
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Jamie |
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| Pre Tour Speculation |
27/03/2002
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I note that there are several teams on the Tour 1 list that *I* recognise the names of, but know little more about (Mute; Albatross; Bad Habits; Pyramus & Frisbee), and a few that are previously unknown to me (JB7; Swivel; Rats of Nimh; Shooting Project; Martie McFly)
Greetings, and Welcome to the Tour to you all.
Please, tell us a little more about your team...
Then again, there are several teams that I know quite a bit about, and have heard assorted rumours/observations about - if anyone would care to clarify any answers, we could run a book on predictions on how the year will pan out (i.e. Final Tour Rankings)
whaddyafink?
Are Clapham going to win again?
Will they finish 2nd as well?
How are they splitting their 2 teams - evenly, slightly biased, or definitely biased? Their plans for what they're going to do when they "cross the pond" to Hawaii are rumoured to be pretty intense.
Chevvy now have Open and Mixed teams, and several 'new' players. Is the new look Open team going to give Clapham a run for their money? It looks to me as though the Mixed team (unless it has another name?) isn't playing the u8 Tour?
Will Fluid Druids improve upon their 2001 performances and properly challenge the aforementioned teams, rather than just pushing them hard on a regular basis? They're not planning to travel to Hawaii just for a vacation.
How will inimitable LeedsLeedsLeeds fare?
Several of their players are "missing, presumed Chevvy"
Will TeamShark thrive on their more recent victories over Druids and Clapham teams and repeat these performances? They're off to Hawaii, too.
Where will Poco Loco fit into the picture?
Is there anyone else 'new' on the scene that needs paying attention to?
Smash'n'Grab appear to have lived up to their name...
Red, seem to have been quietly taking any abuse sent their way. Probably running some assimilation or cloning program funded by a dodgy proletariat? |
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Wayne Retter |
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| Winter League Finals Report |
03/03/2002
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1/ Clapham 2
2/ Clapham 1
3/ Fluid Druids
4/ TeamShark
5/ Un Poco Loco
6/ Smash & Grab
7/ Fever
8/ Hammerage
Each team played 7 half-hour handicapped games to 8, the handicap being half the difference between the seedings (half points counting as getting the pull). There were still remarkably few upsets, and those that did happen went some way to justifying the choice of format: Poco beat Clapham 2 by the one handicap point, Druids beat Sharks by the one handicap point and Clapham 2 beat Clapham 1 by the one handicap point. It was fun to try something different, and everyone seemed to enjoy the chance to play all the other teams as a grand finale to the Winter League series - but I'm not sure handicapping is anything anyone should consider in a more serious tournament.
There followed a very amusing Fantasy Final with 3 players from each team battling it out to win beer for their teams. Lewis from the Druids was unanimously voted MVP for his constant scubas and trick catches (only some of which came off it must be said..), but Lee Noble was more consistent and must have won at least 2 cases of Rolling Rock on his own for TeamShark to polish off. The Least Valuable Player award was specially invented and awarded after a particularly awful performance to Guy Bowles of Clapham. How we laughed ;-)
There was supposed to be a spirit award but every team was obviously so torn about who to give it to that noone submitted a vote. So we all won in the end :-) Thanks very much everyone who helped tidy the pitches at the end, and to everyone who's helped in any way at all over the winter, even if only to offer advice or opinions on formats or seeding.
The whole series (5 one-day tournaments) seems to have been a very successful experiment that it would be great to run again next year, especially if we could get the Division 2 running more effectively with a few more teams. All the teams present have definitely improved over the winter and seemed to relish the chance to keep playing competitive disk. Maybe next year there could be a Northern League as well and the top teams from each could meet in a spring SuperBowl?
FOUND:
One light brown Cahart t-shirt - let me know if it's yours.
LOST:
"a cut-sleeves white t-shirt with SEXI written in an orange square at the back and a green square at the front?" Britney's (who else?) - Marc Guilbert [m_guilbert@yahoo.com]
STOLEN: MY CLAPHAM ULTIMATE #1 TEAM CAP LAST SEEN BEING HALF-INCHED BY WAYNE RETTER AT THE AWARDS CEREMONY! It's an irreplacable piece of team kit and I'd really appreciate any information leading to it's recovery. Please. Pretty please. It smells, I love it more than you, please help us be reunited.
Oh, and each team got a frog :-) |
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| London Winter League 4 Report |
10/02/2002
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Another cracking day of outdoor ultimate on Clapham Common saw more upsets than ever (3 out of 16 games) - and one team took £50 off me for beating a Clapham team! Well done TeamShark for winning a keenly contested pool game 10-7 against a far-from-understaffed Clapham 2. I'm sure you'll send the photos round Britdisc soon enough...
1/ Clapham 1
2/ TeamShark
3/ Clapham 2
4/ Fluid Druids
5/ Un Poco Loco
6/ Smash & Grab
7/ NightFever
8/ Red
The final saw the Clapham 1 team, having beaten the Druids 13-1 in the game before, come up against a Sharks team full of confidence after their historic win. But lightning never strikes twice and the Clapham team were in the mood to show their teammates just why they were the first team; the Sharks suffered a 15-3 battering they won't forget in a while, and the Clapham coach went home happy that the military-grade practice schedule is starting to pay off handsomely (at least for half of us..).
Un Poco Loco fared much as expected, retaining their seeding - but they didn't manage to get past the Druids in pool play as they'd have liked to. Smash & Grab and NightFever both beat the midland visitors Red, who had been seeded 6th and would have been relegated had this not been the last in the series!
The London Winter League Final is on Saturday March 2nd so that we can share more than a few beers afterwards rather than worrying about work the next day. More details to follow soon. A month after that it'll be Tour 1 somewhere; it's going to be interesting to see how much good the Winter League has done the participating teams.
Why anyone was playing indoors over such a beautiful weekend is beyond me
:-) |
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| London Winter League 3 Preview |
07/01/2002
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This Sunday 13th January sees Matchday 3 move up a gear to having simultaneous Division 1 and 2 games on opposite sides of London. Heavyweights down south, flyweights up north - just like it should be ;-)
One team will fall from grace and be relegated from Div 1 for Matchday 4,
and one team from Div 2 will be promoted to mix it with the best on the
Common that same day.
COULD ALL TEAMS PLEASE CONFIRM THEIR ATTENDANCE IMMEDIATELY TO ME VIA EMAIL. Thanks.
Seedings for Division 1 on Clapham Common:
1/ Clapham 1
2/ Clapham 2
3/ Druids
4/ Sharks
5/ Red
6/ Smash & Grab
7/ Hammerage
8/ Fever
Please be ready to play at 10.30 sharp. Let's debate formats later in the week, but 3 games may make more sense than 4 given the weather.
Provisional entrants for Division 2 on Regent's Park: Cloudthings DiscDoctors BadHabits Sublime Mohawks Hammerage 2 (50/50 at the mo) Un Poco Loco
If we get one more team to sign up we could get an 8 team Division 2 - with a nice 8 team knockout format to decide the winner. Any takers? Lewis has kindly offered to be Division 2 co-ordinator again for this event. What a nice chap. |
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| London Winter League 2 Results |
24/11/2001
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Clapham hegemony continues unbroken. Hammerage get revenge on Fever and beat them in the only seeding breaker. Sublime play well and give Fever a run for their money in the relegation game. We all laugh at Fabian.
10.00am Captains meeting: shambolic as usual.
10.30am 1st round: Clapham 1/Sublime(15-4), Clapham 2/Hammerage(15-8), Druids/Fever(15-4), Sharks/Smash(13-3). 12.00am 2nd round: Clapham 1/Sharks(17-14), Clapham 2/Druids(17-10), Smash/Sublime(15-5), Fever/Hammerage(11-14). 13.45pm Finals round: Clapham 1/Clapham 2(12-15), Druids/Sharks(15-11), Smash/Hammerage(15-9), Fever/Sublime(17-13).
15.30pm Muchos beer and Arsenal vs Man U: Muchos beer vs drinking frisbee players (2-1), Scum vs Scum (3-1).
Full point totals will be revealed when I've normalised the scores and done the maths. Please let me know ASAP if you think I've got any of the scores wrong.
For Matchday 3 on 13/1/2002 we're moving to sync'ed Division 1 and Division 2! Div 1 will continue to be on the holy turf that is Clapham Common, Div 2 will be on Regents or Hyde Park. Red will replace Sublime in Div 1, and the list of teams we're hoping to get for Div 2 is: DiscDoctors Cloudthings BadHabits Un Poco Loco Mohawks Pyramus and Frisbee
One of whom will be promoted to Div 1 for Matchday 4 in February, taking the place of the Div 1 loser. There are still at least 2 places going in Div 2 on 13/1, please mail me if your team would like to take this unrivalled opportunity to prepare for next year's outdoor season.
Cheers all, enjoy those sports hall burns ;-) |
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| Introducing the London Winter League |
11/10/2001
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Indoors Schmindoors! In a bid to keep outdoor ultimate alive over the winter Clapham Ultimate, the Fluid Druids, TeamShark and Smash & Grab are delighted to bring you the 'London Winter League'.
There will be 5 or 6 one day tournaments in the London Winter League: 2 before Christmas and 3 or 4 afterwards. Each event will have 6 or 8 teams attending so that we can play sensible formats - switching between pools with one crossover game or direct knockout or 'double elimination', depending on the number and quality of teams attending, the weather and whim of the founder team captains. We'd like to get 8 teams as often as possible to give as many London teams as we can a chance to participate and we're also happy to receive entry applications from teams outside London who want to maintain some competetive contact with the real game.
1st date Sunday 28th October. We know it clashes with the Warwick Bears reunion but there were no other dates. 2nd date Sunday 25th November. We know it clashes with Leeds Indoors but you make your choices in life.
Scoring mechanism for Grand Prix points accumulation (still being finalised and debated but won't change too much): 10 points for every game win, plus the goal difference accumulated in that game. Goal difference points to be doubled in the semifinals (and/or 3rd/4th
play-offs) and quadrupled in the final.
Finals Day:
The top finishing teams will be invited to another one day event at the end of the winter season for an all action finale. In order not to discourage teams which may miss 1 or 2 events we may take the best 3 or 4 results, to be finalised by the founder team captains at some later date.
Relegation, Waiting Lists and Qualification:
Given we *may* have more than 8 teams interested, and to spice up the action, we'd like to introduce the concept of relegation and qualification. If we have an 8 team tournament any teams finishing in the bottom 2 non-founder teams *may* be relegated out of the next event if sufficient teams want to enter the next event. Consultation with the fouder team captains will decide how teams will be allowed to play back in -> either through seeding, our desire for the best competition at these events, some kind of qualifying game, random chance or a waiting list.
Price:
To be somewhere in the region of £30 per team per event to cover marked pitches and other tournie stuff. There will be prizes and other silliness as ideas roll in (feel free to submit!).
Other points:
1/ Games to one hour or 13 probably as we've got to squeeze in 3 or 4 a day each depending on format. 2/ We'll play the penalty shoot-out format ending in the event of a tie. For a bit of a change, excitement, to try it out - and so that Chevron might come down and give it a go. We may well play some of the events with other trial rules - like the 'Callahan goal' (suggested by Wayne), where catching an opposition pass in their zone is a goal for your team; or the 2 point rule if behind halfway. 3/ We will have a bad weather cancellation process in case of extremely poor weather. Rain and wind is not extremely bad weather though. All of us have played big games at Worlds in wind and rain - and practice in those conditions is important (and fun). 5/ Myself, Wayne, Milky and Nolan constitute the 'London Winter League Committee' and all our decisions are final and binding. Even if we decide to give a team bonus points for playing in wetsuits or something similarly stupid. 6/ Milky from TeamShark has suggested we should move venue and play some in Oxford, some in Eastbourne. But London is so nicely central for 90% of the constituency - I'm not saying we're completely averse, but the rest of the committee will need some persuading: this on ice for now.
Whaddya fink? Are you interested? Let me know if your team would like to enter either of the pre-Christmas dates. Reply quick as there aren't alot of places going and first come first served may apply where we can't decide between teams. |
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