Taken from UKU's guide to 2020/21 Ultimate
--- National League
Clapham 15 - 7 Devon
Location: London Andy Lewis (Clapham): A bit of a game of two halves. First half ended 8-2(?) which saw Clapham take a strong lead with Devon’s O-line struggling to find a run of good form, including surrendering several cheap breaks. Devon’s O-line looked to be a very new outfit compared to pre-Covid times so this was likely one of the first challenges they had faced. On the other hand, Clapham’s D-line had the advantage of suffering little player turnover and having gained some talented new acquisitions.
In the second half Devon found their form, their own new talent meshing with the long-term fish monsters to put in a good showing. Bringing the final score to 15-7 with some hard to defend give’n’goes and connecting on a few deep shots.
Unfortunately for Salty (Josh Eeles) a post-game football match was vetoed for some extra scrimmage time between to two teams. Looking forward to seeing Devon hit mid-season form and possibly a rematch come nationals!
Chevron Action Flash 14 - 13 Alba
Location: Durham Andrew Warnock (Alba): We broke to take the first point and brought a lot of noise from the get go (probs cause we were excited we battered England 0-0 the day before). Both teams D-lines had no troubles getting blocks, with the lack of O-line connections formed at this point of season likely contributing to this. I think the first half traded a few breaks here and there, then the Alba O-line held to take half (with Alba up a break). The second half had some of the lowest-quality high-quality frisbee I've been a part of considering wind wasn't a huge factor (bit blustery but nothing special). A good few 6+ turn points in there, truly one for the fans. Chevron were then up a couple (it was 12-10 at one point), before an Alba break set up universe at 13-13. Chev worked it up to our endzone and some lad that apparently used to play for Clapham (ed's note: Robbie Haines) dropped an open pass for a score. We worked it up well, then threw a 50/50 huck that didn't work. Would have been rude to not turn on universe.
Chev then put it in for the win. I know Chev had a couple key players missing, and with us only having had one full training it sets up a spicy one for nationals.
Devon 1 15 - 9 Ka-Pow! Location: London Time: Two weekends ago Weather: hot af Squad sizes: Ka-Pow!'s Millions vs Devon's 12 Matt Bolton (Devon): The game started with Dev on O and going immediately two breaks in the hole. We then decide what an endzone offence looks like and manage a hold. Our D line goes on a tear to take the game to 4-3, then a second, bigger, tear to take half 8-5. Coming out of half Ka-Pow! put their point on the board and once again stifled our nascent offence 'til 8-8. For the final run of the game the legs win out and Dev take it 15-9. Shout outs for: - Giggs for an absolutely rude over-the-shoulder saves-the-game layout block to kickstart a D roll - Ben Giles generally doing cool s*** for Kapow - a lot of throws I’d written off getting caught by this guy - Max Craven for a jump-intercept to EZ-EZ huck for a goal that might be the best thing I’ve ever seen
--- National Cup
Devon 2 15 - 1 Bristol 2Round 0 Location: Birmingham Ben Bruin (Devon 1): Bit of a scrappy start with a few turns from both teams, but Dev soon started to take control as they forced Bristol under and got several turns. Dev swapped to Horizontal giving themselves more space deep which helped tidy up their offence and take half 8-0. Second half Dev used to trial a few different O and D looks with much success and took it to 14-0. Bristol started to try a few longer options with some success late on to earn themselves a much deserved point, but Dev put their last O point in to take the game 15-1.
V2 15 - 1 Totally Stoked 1
Round 0 Location: Birmingham
Devon 2 15 - 7 V2
Round 1 Location: Birmingham Ben Bruin (Devon 1): Some tired legs showing with Devon 2 and V2 having 7 and 8 players respectively. Dev 2 started strong with an early break, followed by several points of trading. Dev 2 mixed it up with some transition zone to take a few more breaks and half at 8-4. Great start to the 2nd half with a few breaks for Devon 2 taking the game out of reach for V2, but V2 kept fighting and put in a few solid deep shots to hold on their O points. Tired legs were clearly visible in the last couple of points with a few slight over throws, but Dev continued with their consistent and well structured O to see the game out. Overall a very solid and dominant performance from the Dev boys with lots of lessons learnt in some very tough iron man conditions. Imagine what they could do with 8 players!
- EDI 15 - 7 The Brown
Round 0 Location: Newcastle
EDI 11 - 8 YCU
Round 1 Location: Newcastle First half video, Second half video
Cameron Dick (EDI): EDI went up against The Brown and York in the opening rounds of the cup in blustery conditions.
Our motivation for the first game was to make the most out of a five hour drive and avoid being eliminated at R0. The Brown put up a good fight but we were able to capitalise more on the turn. Winning this game then set us up for a rematch against York, who beat us in a challenge league fixture a few weeks prior. York went 3-0 up at the start before a 5 point swing by EDI. We took half 8-7 and stayed in front the rest of the game. Going forward into the quarter finals I'd say we are gutsy underdogs but looking to take some more scalps in the cup. I'll give a shout outs to Harry Grant for his first competitive Ultimate game ever, and Joe Pennington for his ability to consistently count from 1-10 very well. *Editor's note: I am informed it was Cameron's first competitive game since 2019 after two knee surgeries, so I want to both thank him for his words and give him props for his return to the sport as well.
Tom Wrigglesworth (YCU): YCU started hot going 3-0 up, however EDI responded strongly and quickly levelled the score at 3-3. The majority of the rest of the first half was then very back and forth. The key moment in the game came at 7-7 where EDI scored an upwind break to take the half. From then on EDI finished strongly to secure the win. - Oxford Ultimate 15 - 2 Southampton Ultimate
Round 0 Location: Oxford Harry Mason (Oxford Ultimate): The first game of the season is always tough, and Southampton came out strong with a big shot for the first score. Then, after that, their intensity seemed to diminish as the game went on. Had they managed to keep that or even connect a few more long shots I think the score would have been closer. Adam Bennett was a fantastic reliable player for them, and Hani Pendlebury was stellar as captain. She was also very understanding when we shifted pitches during the game as a nicer pitch with less slippy dead grass became available next to us. Ah Ultimate, how I've missed you.
Oxford Ultimate 10 - 9 Flump
Round 1 Location: Oxford First Half Video, Second Half Video Harry Mason (Oxford Ultimate): Games like this are why I love Ultimate. Flump are a fantastic side and are a regular at UK Nationals for a reason. They came out intense, trying to catch us off the back foot. The game had several ebbs and flows. We started trading. Flump went up roughly 6-4. Oxford came back to take half 8-6. Inevitably, it ended up as 9-9 with next point wins, and Oxford managed to put it in a very boring manner without any turnovers, and a forehand to an unmarked player in the endzone. Tom "Striker" Willshere was a fantastic for Flump as he always was, and it ended up being a bit of a match up between him and this humble reporter. A match-up in which he skyed me several times, admittedly, but a match-up nonetheless. Flump struggled a little bit for the long game when he was prevented from having completely free reign, and Oxford's short, precise play capitalised. Big shout out here to Ian Roper, who has been both our president and a fantastic player for us, and who is leaving on a transfer to Sweden. Best of luck buddy, we're going to be weaker in the next round without you. And also more likely to submit the wrong paperwork.
- Bristol 1 15 - 7 South Wales Storm
Round 0 Location: Bristol
Reading 1 W - L The Void
Round 1 Location: The void Game abandoned, Reading 1 declared the winner
Bristol 1 15 - 8 Reading 1
Round 1 Location: Bristol Game footage Jake Waller (Bristol): Having seen off a spirited Storm side in R0, Bristol arguably had the advantage of a more competitive warm-up game, but still didn't expect to come out of the blocks quite like they did, racing into a 4-0 lead and taking half 8-3. Both teams were bringing a lot of pressure on defence but the Bristol offense had their connections honed in. The second half, as expected, saw a strong Reading comeback, as they grabbed several points towards the end of the game to give the scoreline a more balanced feel before Bristol called a line and held their O point to take the win in a well spirited match. Ross Hurley (Reading Ultimate): We faced a very strong Bristol Open 1s in our R1 fixture. Following a narrow universe-point defeat to them in the Challenge League, we knew that we'd have to bring our A-game if we were going to go through to the Quarters. We dug ourselves a hole early on after some offensive errors, having to call a time-out at 0-3. Bristol continued to be clinical with their O and punish us when we turned the disc. Half at 8-3. We rallied well in the second half and pieced together our offence but the damage was already done. Game finished 15-8. Overall we didn't play anywhere near the level that we know we could/wanted to. In part, I believe that's as a result of The Void forfeiting which meant that we went cold into the Bristol game (whereas they had a game to focus up in their R0 fixture vs South Wales Storm). However, this is of course not solely to blame. Bristol played very well and the better team has advanced. Pete Rowlandson in particular caused us problems from start to finish, difficult to guard and picked up several goals. Hard to stop someone who sprints the entire game. Congrats Bristol, go get a Nats spot! It's a shame that this competition structure doesn't provided us (and other teams) with an opportunity to fix what happened. Here's hoping we go back to a normal Regionals/Nationals structure next season - Clapham Ultimate Legends 15 - 5 Tonbridge Flow
Round 0 Location: Tonbridge Live Typed Reporting Tyla Wilson (Tonbridge Flow): As a new team in our first competitive match against a Clapham team, we knew we were in for a tough time. Getting an early point on the board gave us a huge boost. Going into half 8-3 down we were feeling extremely positive. Flow managed to break straight after the half to take it 8-4. However Clapham's quality shone through and after making multiple inch perfect throws finished the game 15-5.
Clapham Ultimate Legends 15 - 7 Brighton City
Round 1 Location: Tonbridge We don't currently have a report for this game, so here's the team list instead.
- Smash'D 15 - 2 Red Ultimate
Round 0 Location: London
Smash'D 15 - 9 Fire of London 1
Round 1 Location: London Chun Lee (Smash'D): It was a very intense and physical game from both teams, we started well with two breaks but neither side really pulling away until the end. It was 15-9 in the end but take nothing away from fire, they are a team with a bunch of good players. This was the sort of game you expect to find at Nationals, it is a shame that only one of us could go through to the next round. Dan Hillman (Fire 1): Alright I’ve stopped crying now, Smash’D looked really good. Super clinical and already seem to have a lot of chemistry. Think they made two unforced errors all game. It will be interested to see how far they can go! Spirit could’ve been better from both teams but only as expected in a season-decider.
Shout out to Kevin Ou keeping us in the game with two ridiculous layouts! - Fire of London 2 15 - 9 St Albans
Round 0 Location: East London David Clegg (Fire 2): A very tight start to the game against St Albans, Fire 2 taking half at 8-6 with multiple breaks for both teams. Fire 2 came out of half very strong and pulled away in the end to win 15-9. The difference between the two teams came down to great athleticism in depth for Fire, as well as a bigger squad who have been training hard together. Very well spirited game, featuring a lot of St Albans alumni on Fire and Fire alumni on St Albans. Shout out to Nick Houghton of Fire, very free open on offence and came up with some great defence as well.
BLU 15 - 14 Fire of London 2
Round 1 Location: East London David Clegg (Fire 2): Straight into the game against BLU which was played at an exceptional intensity throughout. BLU went out into a 5-1 lead, using a zone to bog down Fire’s flow. Adjustments on offence and hard hard graft closed the gap for 8-6 at half. BLU came out of half strong again (having moved on from the zone) and took the lead 13-10. Perhaps being telepathically aware that they were alone in flying the flag for the club by now, Fire put on another run of D pressure to take the game to universe at 14-14. Eventually we left ourselves too much to do, with BLU taking the win on yet another deep disc. Tough loss for Fire having put in a great team performance, couldn’t recover from there early failures in zone defence. Shout out is a cop out and goes to the entire team and sideline who kept the intensity way up and can be very proud of the performance. Another day and we’d fancy our chances. - Sheffield Steal 5 - 15 Lemmings Round 0 After a covid-fiasco just days before our first game, we were finally able to meet Sheffield in Nottingham for a cracking game. It appeared we came out of the gates a tad quicker than them, which took us an early lead, taking half with 8-3. From here, Steal started to put the burners on and had us working a lot harder for our points. In what came to be a 15-5 win for Lemmings. It was great to see Will Marshall on the pitch for us in what was his first real competitive Ultimate game, and he kept a level head and continually made the right decisions in the heat of the moment.
Manchester 10 - 15 Lemmings Round 1 The lead up to this game was fraught with covid, traffic, and accidents… But despite this, both Lemmings and Manchester put on a good, tight show in what came out to be a 15-10 win for us. The early game was very back and forth with the lead being traded for a good few points. However, at 4-3 to Lemmings, we locked into a lead that we refused to drop; while tight, it was what would eventually get us through to a big win. Both teams knew there was a lot at stake and that could be seen by everyone's performance on the pitch. I have to highlight both Oli May and Alex Greer’s matchup/performance (for Lemmings/Manchester respectively); it was exciting to watch with the two of them clutching at each other for every play regardless of the final score.
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