Editor: Hazard (he/him)
And just like that, in one weekend the Women's League is settled, and the Cup Quarter/Semi finals have been played. Very well done to SMOG for winning the League, to Iceni and Bristol for securing places at Nationals through two remaining League places, and to London Masters and Spice for making their way to the Cup final (and also securing a place at Nationals).
The remaining spots are assigned in the playoffs:
Reading vs SOUL is a gtg* between the two losing cup semi-finalists.
The loser of that game plays the 6th-placed League team (Red) in another gtg.
Sheep, Birds, and Bees vs Uprising occurs for seeding between the remaining Cup teams, with the winner facing the 5th place League team (SCRAM) in another gtg.
The loser of SB&B vs Uprising then faces the 4th placed League team (SYC) in a final gtg.
This results in 4 teams qualifying through playoffs, due to SMOG finishing top 3 and declining a spot.
*gtg = game-to-go, a qualifying game for Nationals
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Other Coverage
The ShowGame are doing weekly podcasts every Friday/Saturday covering all the action
Hogi has been filming lots of games. You can see his watchalongs on Monday on Twitch, or watch the game footage on YouTube
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Structure
The overall championship is the UK National Series. Within it, teams compete for 8 spots at the National Championships. An easy to read graphic is included below.
We have 6 National League teams. They play in a mini-league. Bristol and Iceni gained Nationals spots through this route.
We also have the National Cup, with London Masters and Spice reaching the final to take two more spots to Nationals.
The remaining 3 National League teams (SYC, SCRAM, and RED), the two Cup semi-finalists (Reading, SOUL), and two recovery-winner Cup quarter finalists (Uprising and Sheep, Birds, and Bees) enter the National Playoffs. These seven teams are fighting for 4 spots at the National Championships.
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| Taken from UKU's guide to 2020/21 Ultimate |
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National League
Bristol 14 - 9 SCRAM
Location: Nottingham
Carla Line (Bristol): We knew it was going to be a tough game as not only were we short on legs due to isolation and injuries, but SCRAM were looking very drilled in their warm up! They came out and won two breaks to take the lead. We refocused on our match defense and worked hard to force SCRAM to cut under as we knew they have a strong long game. It was a close game throughout but we were able to pull away in the second half. Shout out to Laurel Piper - all she wanted for her 27th birthday was a win!
Rhona Gordon (SCRAM, she/her): We came out firing and excited, grabbing the first two points of the game, and seemingly giving Bristol a bit of a fright. After a time out we traded back and forth, with a few breaks each way until they cracked on and took half. Alice Beeching played a really fab deep poach that caused us to struggle to utilise the options that we wanted. This, combined with some well placed deep shots, helped them to run away with the game. We could not be more pleased with how our gals played, it was fantastic to see what we’re able to do with more training hours behind us and we were pretty chuffed with our performance. Thanks to Bristol for a fantastic game!
Iceni 11 - 7 SCRAM
Location: Nottingham
Rhona Gordon (SCRAM, she/her): Playing against ICENI has always been so impressive - and now they've picked up some very familiar faces to us so we were extra keen to show them what SCRAM has to offer! ICENI are obviously extremely athletic and have some seriously slick offense - we threw a couple different defensive looks at them and managed to get some turns so we were buzzing for that. They managed to build up the breaks in the first half and we’re proud of the ones that we clawed back in the latter part of the game. Congrats to ICENI on the win, this was a great way to bring the league to a close, it absolutely felt like ultimate was back in action and we are so excited for the rest of the season!
Becky Thompson (Iceni): Iceni came into the game knowing that SCRAM had just played a great battle against Bristol. We knew we were going to have to dig deep and after trading the first few points we managed to pull away to take half. SCRAM’s defence gave us a lot of puzzles to think about and adjustments to make in order to beat it, and they really pushed us with their deep game. We had to be patient with the disc to break through, and we were proud of ourselves for keeping our composure and closing out the game despite a last hard push from SCRAM in the second half. SCRAM is clearly going from strength to strength right now and it will be exciting to see what they can accomplish later in the season! Big congrats to SCRAM on such a great match and we look forward to playing them again!
SMOG 15 - 9 SYC
Location: Leicester
Rupal Ghelani (SYC): What else can we say except SMOG women are exceptionally strong! It's clear to see why they are amongst the best in the UK. Despite all the big names, SMOG's win came from them playing as a complete unit. Every player played their part with their slick offence and confident aggressive deep shots put us on the back foot.
I'm really proud of how SYC performed - it felt like we really finished the league games off strongly. 15-9 against the league winners is a great scoreline! We managed to get turns through poaches and switchy defence, and then some nice up-the-line scores into the endzone.
We are both gutted and relieved SMOG are focusing on mixed. Their women's team has proved they could easily be the best in the UK and would be great to see them add to the talent the UK women's division is building!
Shout outs to Hanna John and Jenny Fielder on SYC for a fantastic performance! And also to Eri Leung and Tessa Hunt from SMOG for putting on a cutting masterclass.
SMOG 15 - 0 RED
Location: Leicester
Sasha Squires and Ella Knight (RED): We went into this game wanting to play our best and survive the heat! We learnt from previous mistakes and tried to get the disc moving early using the undercuts we were given to our advantage, but SMOG's defence made our lives difficult and they punished every mistake we made with a clinical and fast offence. Shout out to the whole team for their immense effort and a great game to end the league on!
**RED have forfeited two games, Devon have forfeited one
National Cup
Reading 15 - 3 South West Ladies
Location: Reading
Hannah Stanton (South West Ladies): We started a little slow off the mark, as we are a team that has not played together before so in trying to iron out the creases, Reading really capitalised on that and punished us for our mistakes.
Yet the game got into a better flow, and there were some extremely long points of play – not ideal on a scorching hot day. Reading had some real class offensive play, and were smart with their cuts. Their horizontal stack worked a treat and opened up their options really nicely. At 6-0 a time out was called by SW Ladies to have a breather (and rethink our plans). SW Ladies provided some decent options from a cutting perspective, yet we could have stayed a little more patient on the disc at times. Then the zones came out, and that slowed the pace of the game. Both teams managed to make it a little harder for each other, with a little more thinking needing to be done to find those pockets of space.
I think what won it for Reading was their commitment to defence, providing good options and their calm hands. SW Ladies towards the end of the game were tighter on their marks and were cutting more efficiently despite the tired legs in the heat, yet Reading’s experience shone through.
Shout out to Isabelle Baylis for some low handed grabs, and Anni Jai for her commitment to the disc every single time.
Charlotte Marriot (Reading): Firstly, we would just like to send our appreciation for the South West Ladies to travel to Reading for the match. They maybe be a compact team with few subs but they drop the intensity throughout our game. The score did not reflect how the game was played, we played the 90 minutes and the heat was tough on both teams, but it must have been difficult with less subs.
Reading came out strong on offense working it through horizontal stack. We started on person defence, using lane poaches to effectively shut down their vertical options, then switched it up to a zone. SW ladies had similar ideas and also played zone, which slowed the game down as we worked it up. South West seem like a young team and so much potential we can’t wait to see how this team develops and welcomes more games in the future!
Our MVPs were Mariana Flores and Rosie Coward showing us how defence intensity should be. For South West we thought the MVPs were Charlotte Hicks and Isabelle Baylis, for handling throughout the game and running hard even with a lack of subs and the heat.
London Masters 15 - 3 Uprising
Location: Reading
Lily Huang (London Masters): It was a gorgeous day, with enough of a breeze to make it interesting. We were raring to go, multiple team members had Frisbee dreams the previous night.
We marched to an 8-0 lead, capitalising on Uprising's turns. In the second half, Uprising had a bit more success finding space against our zone and put some tenacious points on the board. They also had some great deep looks. In the end, years of connections saw LMU to a 15-3 victory.
Georgia Forder and Ola Kulikowska (Uprising): Uprising functions as a skilled pick-up team, and prides itself on creating a space for those women who want to play competitively, but perhaps have not made squads or do not have the time commitment to play with other teams. We had amazing players on the field but as with most pick-up teams, it takes us the first couple points to figure out our play style.
LMU were a slick and well-oiled machine when it came to offence and defence. They comfortably sprinted around the pitch and their tenacity on defence put the pressure on Uprising to get our throws and cuts right. LMU had put a loose cup around our handlers and tight defence on our cutters, making progression down the pitch hard and then capitalised on our errors.
After LMU took half at 8-0, Uprising was ready to show that it wasn’t going down without a fight. Coming out on defence, Uprising threw a zone that turned the disc quickly and scored shortly after. In the second half Uprising started to find our stride, but LMU were beautifully skilled with the disc and took the game 15-3.
London Masters 15 - 3 Reading
Location: Reading
Lily Huang (London Masters): The wind died a bit for this next game, opening up the field massively. Reading played an impressive up-the-line look which flowed into a deep huck game, against which we threw a few different defensive looks. They've definitely got some speedy cutters, who they trust to get the disc even with a defender on their backs. There were some calls of "touchable D" from our leadership. We did manage to get a few run through D's, capitalising on smarter matchups to mark out their favourite receivers.
There were some standout plays, including a reaction bid from Alice for an endzone disc that was just a bit far for her (but damn, did the bid look good), and a box out from Sophie Beaven where she snatched an errant scoober from the waiting defender's jaws. This was a game that saw LMU using all of its players, making space for each other, learning teammates favourite throws, and perhaps most importantly, solidifying our cheer. What a great day of ultimate.
Charlotte Marriot (Reading): Coming into this game we knew it was going to be tough, we saw the big names they have and knew it was going to be challenging. We thoroughly enjoyed being pushed, getting creative. Their offense was switching up which made playing against it difficult as once we figured it out they were on to the next, much credit to them! On defence they could use poaches in the lane and an arrowhead zone to slow us and made us work through. I am sure they wouldn’t mind us saying that we played well against them just maybe struggled to complete our end zone play. I am proud of the teams efforts in that game and was great to see people who don’t play regularly together, coming together and adapting to different situations on the field. They played with class and were a wily team, we can see them going far in nationals and we wish them all the luck!
MVPs were Ruth Lowe and Gemma Coleman, who gave us a masterclass in how chilly offence plays off. For LMU we thought the MVPs were Jenna Thompson and Claire Sharman, who gave us inspiring frisbee to play against.
Uprising 15 - 3 South West Ladies
Location: Reading
Hannah Stanton (South West Ladies): Another tough game on our hands for SW Ladies against an experienced team with some real class players. Yet we brought our game a bit quicker this time and put a point in bringing the game to 2-1 not long after the start.
Our zone was not as effective to start off with, as Uprising found the pockets of space and had hucks for days, so we stuck with a strong match D. However, against their zone, we worked it well between handlers, finding our own pockets of space to work it up the pitch which paid off as we gathered a couple of points this way. We also had a few stunning long shots from our guest player Charlotte Hicks, and fortunately Isabelle Baylis was on the receiving end of one to give us a point – pitch perfect you might say.
Our defence became stronger and our cuts became better as we started to become more comfortable with each other, but Uprising had the edge on us. Their horizontal stack opened up their play, and the long shots were just too much to handle sometimes. A pleasure to watch, but difficult to play against!
Shout out to Charlotte Hicks and Melanie Melrose for their cool and collected safe hands on the disc!
Georgia Forder and Ola Kulikowska (Uprising): I think the heat on Saturday was a massive factor when playing our 2nd games. The Uprising vs LMU game finished after an hour of gameplay, so each team had 30 minutes less play time and more time in the shade than Reading and SWL.
Both Uprising and SWL showed they wanted this win for a spot at playoffs. The first couple of points were quite tight, with the score 3-2 to Uprising after around 15 minutes of play. SWL handlers were able to throw where they wanted on the pitch, and Uprising’s zone wasn’t able to stop their comfortable movement through the middle. We switched to match defence and worked hard to put the pressure on and make turns. Uprising took half around 8-2. After half, SWL put the pressure on to slow our game and had some lovely deep shots into the endzone. Both teams played valiantly in the heat and the final score was 15-3 to Uprising.
Spice 15 - 1 Sheep, Birds, and Bees
Location: Coventry
Maya Israel (Spice): We had a relatively quick first half against Sheep, Birds, and Bees, taking it at 8-0. Our coaches were really pushing us to have a calm offence and to always take the easy, open throws, reducing unforced errors, and I think we really tried to put that into action in this game. When SB&B turned, we really did not want to give up the disc under any circumstance. In the second half, both teams were feeling the 28 degree heat, so there were more mistakes on both sides: a few misthrows and general miscommunications. SB&B managed to get a score on the board near the end of the second half, but we were able to take the game 15-1.
Katie Bottomley (Sheep, Birds, and Bees): As a new team (bringing together players from Black Sheep, Merseyside Ultimate and Manchester University), ‘Sheep, Birds, and Bees’ had a tough first game against a very well drilled Spice team. Spice's defence was tight, while their fast-paced offensive flow was pretty much unstoppable in the first half, and they quickly reached 8-0.
Through the second half Sheep, Birds, and Bees managed to settle and find a bit more cohesion within the team, forcing a couple of turns and making Spice's defence work a bit harder. Our efforts were rewarded with a point late in the game to avoid the dreaded bagel, but Spice thoroughly deserved their 15-1 victory (and everyone appreciated an early finish in the heat)!
SOUL 15 - 4 WILD
Location: Coventry
Hannah Pendlebury (SOUL): Having heard that WILD had been having trouble pulling together a team in the run up to the tournament, we had absolutely no idea what to expect from this game. In the first half we took an 8-2 lead, as WILD were a little lacking in confidence and our deep shots were working well, but during the second half WILD's youth and tenacity came through.
Massive shout out to the player in the Uriel shirt whose run through D's seemed to put a fire under her teammates - not that anybody needed any extra heat with the weather! The conditions started to get to us, but we managed to close out the win thanks to our early buffer.
Spice 15 - 1 SOUL
Location: Coventry
Maya Israel (Spice): We watched some of SOUL’s game against London WILD and could see that they had a few particularly athletic players, some strong handlers and were very willing to take on deep options. With this in mind during the game, we played our zone a lot which worked well for us. The SOUL handlers would get a few pops through the middle, but when forced to look at the deeper options we managed to take a lot of their throws down. We took half at 8-0*.
After half it definitely felt like a tighter game, even if this wasn’t reflected by the scoreline. SOUL stepped up their defence, managed to score a point, and our offence were definitely made to work harder.
Shoutout to Lucy Cinnamond and Maya Israel who were our MVPs on Spice for the day!
Hannah Pendlebury (SOUL): Knowing that we had made it to the playoffs, it was quite hard to find the energy for this game. Spice were fresh as daisies having dispatched Sheep, Birds, and Bees pretty quickly, and they had a much deeper roster than us in terms of both quality and numbers (we were 3 players down from the first game).
All credit to Spice, they were extremely understanding about our delayed emerging from the shade to the sidelines and came out hard, playing to win every point and getting a bucketload of run-through blocks in the first half. We snuck one past their defence early on*, but trying to keep up with their athleticism made it just a little too hard to put together those final few passes for any further scores.
However, this was a great learning opportunity for us as Spice played zone to exploit our uneven levels of experience, and their side stack allowed some of our players to try force-middle match defence for the first time ever. The latter allowed us to extend some of the points in the second half and it felt like a much more even match as we dug deep, but our offence struggled with the classic, "smooth offence for 3/4 of the field, then turf it". But a really enjoyable game against a very exciting team!
*ed's note: there's a slight discrepancy between what the half-time score was in these two reports.
Sheep, Birds, and Bees 11 - 9 WILD
Location: Coventry
Katie Bottomley (Sheep, Birds, and Bees): Sheep, Birds, and Bees’ game against WILD was a pretty even match up, lasting just under 2 hours! With little to separate the two teams as they traded points, WILD showed really great spirit, particularly with a close scoreline and both teams toiled in the afternoon heat. WILD kept running hard throughout, in spite of their small number of subs. However, in the end the extra legs and shorter first match allowed Sheep, Birds, and Bees to score the final point of the game and secure their place in the playoffs!
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