Interview with UMIN Div 1 winning captain: Andrew Warnock

Writer/Editor: Hazard

Full Results

Spirit
Preview

Excerpt from Strathclyde’s post-UXIN win interview

Interviewer

Was Mixed Nationals your main hope for trophies for the year? Or do you think Strathclyde can do the triple with Men's and Women's Indoors as well?

Andrew

I see no reason every Nationals trophy shouldn't have Strathclyde on it by the end of the season.

Pictured: A lot of gold medals for Strathclyde
Photo Credit: Iain Chalmers

Hazard

Let's start with a quick introduction. Who are you, and why do you refuse to let anyone else win titles?

Andrew

I'm Andrew Warnock the Strath captain. We got tired of being the nearly team so took our fingers out our asses and used them to throw lots of scoobas instead. Apparently that wins indoors

Hazard

What is the big difference with the Strathclyde team this year?

Andrew

Everyone in the team is one year better and has played together one year longer. It helps we had minimal graduates but having 4 guys and 2 of the girls playing at worlds makes players just a little better. Getting over the hurdle and winning the first Nats title at UXIN helped show ourselves we were pretty sick as well

Hazard

Do you think that playing good Mixed Ultimate helps you play good Men's Ultimate as well?

Andrew

The Strath brand of indoors is played pretty similarly across all divisions so it just means more time playing the systems we run together. But at mixed we let the girls do most of the heavy lifting as there is no team that compares to them at the moment (hence the actual domination at women's nationals). Our guys didn't make things as easy having 3 universe point games on the Sunday. Not that us winning was ever in doubt of course...

Hazard

One small note on that before I move on to your team - how much of a difference does it make not having Women's and Men's in the same venue? Did it give the tournament a different atmosphere to previous years?

Andrew

I think it's pretty obvious the best venues available are in Scotland not even because it's not hard court but also for the fact that you can have multiple divisions in one place. If UMWON is always in Nottingham would it be so bad to always have UMWIN in Glasgow? I could rant for ages how terrible I think hard court is and how having a brick wall surrounding the pitch is stupid but I won't...
Despite being in a different venue to the women, our women's team still drove over in one of their breaks to watch our quarter final, and then we made it to them to watch their actual final. That team mentality is a big reason for Strath dominance right now.

Hazard

#strathclydedominance

So, three sudden death wins - in the quarters, semis and final. (8-7 vs Bath, 10-9 vs Birmingham, 8-7 vs UCL). Could you give a quick rundown of each game, and how you kept grinding out wins against such good teams?

Andrew

We were a little slow to the Bath game and probably underestimated them because they didn't look great on Saturday, but I think in the first 6 points there might not have been any turns. But they got the first break and we really struggled to turn them for the whole game. We grinded till 7-7 and after the buzzer they had possession and we were ready to drive back to Scotland. But they must have felt the vibrations of universe more than us because we forced a throwaway which we converted and we absolutely scraped through that by the skin of our teeth.

Andrew

Birmingham were awesome at the start of our game and eventually went 8-5 up, but we then had a 4 point roll before just about seeing the game out. One of the spicier games I've been apart of but another game we just found a way to win somehow.

Andrew

The final was great fun to be a part of especially as the crowd watching saw UCL as the villains and us as the sort of peoples champions (I heard other people say it so I'm allowed to say that). But again we had a bit of a lull and found ourselves 7-5 down this time, basically because Axel and CJ from UCL are tall boys that can jump. We started to make a comeback then Giorgio Cabrera got a huge D on our endzone which we put in speedily to take it to universe. And after forcing another throwaway from them Mackie sent a blade up to the gods which William Watt plucked out for the win. Maybe not the choice I'd have wanted him to take but it doesn't matter how you win. It's worth saying as well the spirit was really good in that game despite their reputation!

Hazard

Clearly they thought so too - they called it a positive atmosphere despite the stakes in their spirit feedback. Any thoughts on the fact you can now see which team said what for spirit? Or any spirit comments in general?

Andrew

Don't really know why you couldn't see it before. For there to be be anonymity in spirit results completely contradicts the whole point in scoring teams so it seems a logical step. Also means that if there are genuine things that a team needs to address it can be easier to do so. Yey spirit

Hazard

We've mentioned some of your team as we've gone, but is there anyone in particular you think really stepped up on your team this weekend?

Andrew

Everyone on the team did exactly the role they needed to which is why we were successful. I'll shout out my JTM Laurens Kok though as a 2nd year for being thrown in the deep end and just seamlessly fitting into the team (If you ever see him, please help convince him to ditch Basketball)

Hazard

I know when I asked you after UXIN, you said you saw no reason every Nationals trophy shouldn't have Strathclyde on it by the end of the season.

I'm guessing you still feel that way, but mind if I ask you ranking UWON, UMON and UWON in terms of how confident you feel of taking them home?

Andrew

Builders have already been called to extend the trophy cabinet

Hazard

Nice. Any final thoughts or things to say?

Andrew

3 down, 3 to go

Oh and also it turns out Wonderwall IS the best pre-game song!!

Hazard

It's certainly nice to go into universe point on defence, knowing that today is gonna be the day when they're going to throw it back to you.

Andrew

mic drop

Interview with UWIN Div. 2 winning captain: Erin McGready

Writer: Nic

Editor: Hazard

Full Results
Spirit

Oxford Brookes’ women have made history in being the first ever Division 2 Women’s Indoor Nationals Champions! Captained by Erin McGready, this team really developed and progressed as a team over the weekend, and they couldn’t be any more chuffed. Read on to see what Erin has got to say about the experience...

Despite a small squad, Brookes managed to come home with victory
Photo Credit: Erin McGready

Nic

Tell me about yourself…

Erin

Hi, I’m Erin. I’m captain of Oxford Brookes Ultimate team. I’ve played Ultimate for 7 years. I started playing at school with Evolution, I have previously and will be this year playing for GB. I played for Reading at the World Club Championships last year and have played with Hydra in the past too.

Nic

How do you feel the weekend went for your team?

Erin

We went in to the weekend as a learning and developing team as most of the players are beginners with less than a years experience. As the games progressed we found our flow and challenged some of the better, well known teams which gave us the confidence to come out stronger and compete at a higher standard. Overall, very proud of how all our team played and the results showed this.

Nic

Besides winning, what was the best thing to come out of the weekend?

Erin

The growing confidence of the girls from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon improved massively, which then increased the moral of the team; enabling everyone to play with more determination.

Nic

What were your favourite games and why?

Erin

Exeter - went on knowing it was going to be a tough game. But we came out and played our best offence, hard work paid off. 

Sheffield Hallam - a similar team, with lots of beginner but a great game of Ultimate. 

Surrey - really spirited team, played them twice. Always a fun team to play against. Even in the final, spirits were high from both teams.

Nic

What was the biggest success of the weekend (what went well and was key to winning)?

Erin

Having fun, keeping our heads up, playing to learn and increase experience.

Nic

How did you train and prepare for the weekend?

Erin

Lots of throwing practice, match defence, playing games against our Men's BUCS team!

Nic

How did the women fair against the Men’s team?

Erin

They give us a good run, a fair contested game. They keep us on our toes and making it difficult to defend their overhead game!

Nic

Are you playing outdoors this year?

Erin

No sadly we have not entered outdoors.

Nic

That’s a shame. How come?

Erin

Sadly we don’t have enough girls to enter outdoors, we only had six players on the Sunday.

Nic

Do you have any ideas/advice for any (potential) captains on increasing team numbers and developing the sport, especially Women’s?

Erin

As the sport is growing, numbers are increasing. Also by winning this weekend I hope it will help promote Ultimate as a sport and eventually increase the numbers of women playing.

Nic

As I imagine, your whole team played their part. Was there any particular player that really helped the team?

Erin

Everyone played so well and definitely played their part throughout the weekend. Jemma Chapman was an asset to the team with her strong cuts and great grabs.

Nic

How was the spirit over the weekend?

Erin

Generally spirit was great, nothing too standout.

Nic

Your team was the first ever team to win Division 2 Women’s Nationals, and you played against strong competition. What did winning mean to your team?

Erin

A big confidence boost to go forward. Shows that beginners and a small squad of 6 can push the top teams.

Nic

Anything to add…

Erin

Yes, that’s amazing. I didn’t know it was the first ever Division 2 Women’s Nationals! The team really have made great progression, I am so proud of them all.

The Lowdown: Division 2 Indoors Nationals (Women's and Men's)

Writer: Andy Eck
Editor: Hazard

Disclaimer: Show Game unfortunately only had one writer (me) playing at the whole of UMWIN Div 2, so both, the women's side in particular, are going to have to be more of a series of bullet point impressions rather than an exhaustive report. If you think we've missed something glaring or just want to start a chat about something that caught your eye, please leave a comment below.

Men's Indoor Nationals Division 2

Full Results

Spirit

Preview

1. Nottingham

2. Liverpool

3. Reading

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4. LSE

5. Liverpool John Moores

6. Dundee

7. Bath 2

8. Heriot-Watt

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9. Nottingham Trent

10. Swansea

11. Exeter

12. Sheffield Hallam

13. Hertfordshire (Spirit)

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14. Chichester

15. Warwick 2

16. Strathclyde 2

Proving they can even win at venues that aren't Wind Farm, Nottingham took home the Men's Div. 2 trophy
Photo Credit: Nottingham Facebook Page

Going by initial seedings, the UKU initial tournament seedings predicted the eventual top 8 at UMIN Div 2 slightly better than Show Game, 6 to 5. However, our writer Alun Pinder did beat UKU in correctly predicting Nottingham's top finish at this tournament. Nottingham went undefeated, though they had some close calls, just barely managing to edge out Reading in pools and winning on universe vs Liverpool in the final. I could write a paragraph on that final point alone. There were many turns on both sides, but while Liverpool went in big on the explosive passes 1v1 in the endzone from midfield, they could not overcome Nottingham's more methodical small ball approach. Nottingham were perhaps bolstered by a large squad, enough for two full lines or more. By the end of the tournament and with the final point running deep into overtime, the difference in stamina showed.

That's not to say Liverpool had a bad weekend, though they probably hoped for more on Saturday. They held 7th seed in initial pools losing only to Swansea (Huh??? Don't worry, that's not a typo. We'll come back to this.). In power pools they were soundly defeated 10-6 by Nottingham and only just lost to Reading to again hold seed. But that's good enough for Saturday if you're nearly unstoppable on Sunday. They easily slapped Exeter out of top 8 contention in their crossover, and ended Dundee's finals ambitions in bracket play. They then revenge-killed Reading 10-9 on their way to only just miss out on the top spot. The team largely fed the disc to Will Carter and let him direct the offence, often looking to their tall endzone player for quick scores. They had the third best overall seed improvement at +5, and though they didn't get the title this time, they should be happy with that result.

But if you're talking about overall seeding improvement, then you've got to mention Bath 2, who gained an incredible +9 seeds to place 7th at Div 2. They're the best indoor university second team in the whole of the UK. They did better than expected on Saturday, defeating Chichester in pools and Sheffield Hallam in power pools, but their big jump came from defeating Swansea in the 5v12 crossover. It really goes to show the depth of Bath's program. Their 1st team came 5th at Div 1 and the outdoors team has been dominant for a few years now.

Okay, and now we come to Swansea*. Stop the ride, I'd like to get off now, please. This team seesawed all over the tournament. They came in to the tournament 13th which seemed right given their regionals performance. But after pools they'd defeated Hertfordshire, tournament runners up Liverpool, and the original #1 seed Nottingham Trent (all by a single point) to claim top seed. They were then promptly dismantled by Reading and Nottingham 5-11 and 4-11 in power pools, falling to 5th . On Sunday, they went ahead and chumped their crossover vs Bath 2 and plummeted to 12th . They then beat Warwick 2, a team they'd previously lost to at regionals, eventually landing in at 10th overall. This kind of wild inconsistency might be what you get when you run vert, ISO, weave, match D, 3 and 4 man wall, and two or three different zone looks. Maybe focus on a couple of the good ones for next time?

And that's Men's Div 2! Special shout-out to Hertfordshire for winning spirit. And if we're missing something big, the comment section is right there.

*This writer plays for Swansea, but doesn't particularly mind being seen as biased, so criticise away!

Women's Indoor Nationals Division 2

Full Results

Spirit

1. Oxford Brookes

2. Surrey

3. Durham

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4. Sheffield Hallam

5. Sheffield

6. Exeter

7. Warwick

8. St. Andrews 2

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9. LSE

10. Cambridge

11. Chichester

12. Stirling (Spirit)

13. Manchester

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14. Glasgow 2

15. Edinburgh 2

16. Strathclyde 2

Oxford Brookes win the inaugural Women's Division 2 Indoor trophy
Photo Credit: Erin McGready

It sure was convenient having the Women's Division 2 competition at the same venue as the Men's! Again though, since we only had one writer available at these tournaments, this discussion will have to be more of a broad strokes overview than in depth analysis.

The first year for UWIN Div 2! It took awhile, but we're all glad it's finally arrived. The experience gained at nationals is sure to filter back to the individual regions, creating a positive feedback loop where teams get stronger every year. The women accustomed to attending Division 1 Nationals should beware. In three or four years, I could see many of these teams developing strong programs.

What struck me about these women's teams was that they were all built in fundamentally the same way. That is to say, most if not all of the teams relied on one or two core handlers who were clearly a cut above the rest of the team to set up big gainers downfield to less experienced players and then get free for a quick, easy dump pass. The two teams in the final, Oxford Brookes and Surrey, were particularly good examples of this. Although I'm not sure, as Show Game was unable to write a preview for Div 2, I believe the captain of Oxford Brookes (Erin McGready) is their only player with multiple years of competitive ultimate experience. Not only that, if I'm to believe what I've been told, she cobbled together the team out of some of her netball teammates! It's just incredible that they've managed to get to Nationals, let alone win Div 2. Amazing work.

Similarly, Camilla Spearing of Surrey has built the entire team from the ground up over the past two or three years. Without a women's team and the then new BUCS league preventing her from playing in the Men's outdoor league, she was forced to build a team herself and it's clear her efforts are paying off. In the final, Surrey used a slick ISO to weave play to try to put the disc more frequently in the hands of their star players. Unfortunately, they suffered from rushing the pass at the endzone and in the end weren't able to complete as many points as Oxford Brookes.

Scotland had a rough weekend at Div 2 with Glasgow 2, Edinburgh 2, and Strathclyde 2 finishing bottom three. Although Strathclyde has gone from strength to strength this indoors season, winning the triple crown of Women's, Men's, and Mixed, Scotland have suffered something of a reversion to the mean this season overall. Their mind boggling 11 bids to UWIN Div 1 and 2 will be reduced to a still impressive 8. They'll be disappointed, but you can't keep the Scots down for long. We'll see them challenging for those bids again next year.

And that's Women's Div 2! Special shout-out to Sterling for winning spirit. Comments encouraged.

Why I'm not covering BUCS league this year

Writer/Editor: hazard

So, the title says it all really. For the past couple seasons, I've been one of the main people helping cover BUCS league. I've been organising writers, editing/writing articles, and putting countless hours into it. I do this because I enjoy covering Ultimate, and I enjoy playing Ultimate. I had my misgivings about the BUCS league initially, but I wanted to try it and keep these feelings private since I have a fairly public persona in coverage.

Having now tried it for a few years, I feel that pretty much all of my original misgivings have been confirmed, and some have been added. So I'm now done. I'm not playing it, I'm not covering it. I'm putting my energy elsewhere.

Before getting on to why, I want to make something clear - I've nothing but admiration for the UKU volunteers and employees who put countless hours into organising such things. I think it has benefitted some universities. I would very much implore some athletes from those universities to start writing, because you will bring an enthusiasm to coverage that I do not wish to try and fake. This article is about my personal feelings towards it, and why I don't want to support it anymore. The reason I'm making this public is that I know a number of people with similar misgivings, and I've heard some Women's teams say they'd like BUCS, since it "seems to be working for Men's". In my opinion, it isn't. I feel this argument needs to be made publicly.

I'm also aware UKU sent out a survey about BUCS league and are trying to get feedback. I wish them all the best, and hope those reading this filled out that survey. While my personal preference is still for tournaments, steps to restructure the league in certain ways could well address many of my issues. Again, my complaints are not against UKU, but against the league in its current form.

Here are my arguments:

1. I don't think leagues are good for the community
In tournaments, you spend a lot of time hanging out with your team, and you play a lot of different teams. Quite often you end up chatting with people, recognising faces, and accidentally making friends. Having a league system stops this. I've have asked around a lot, and I've struggled to find any examples of teams socialising with each other before/after games. It's a case of turn up, play, go home. In my eyes, this makes us more a collection of teams than a community. Particularly playing for a university that doesn't get much spare time to go to other tournaments, this makes things seem very distant.

2. The emphasis on Men's Ultimate
In both coverage and training, a lot of focus has to be given to Men's Ultimate. In one way, this isn't a bad thing - there's lots to cover and if we had resources, we could do weekly updates. However, Men's isn't the only division. I know some universities do split the funding between Men's and the other divisions, and try to distribute training time equally. I know some that use it as an excuse to pretty much sideline the Women's and Mixed divisions entirely. We have limited time in the year, and I personally would much prefer to spend it playing Mixed or a mixture of Mixed/Men's. Or even to have some time to go and sideline at some Women's tournaments. The way Ultimate approaches gender still requires some work, but I still think it's better than many other sports, and we should be wary of anything that might work against that.

3. The travel time
For me, travelling is the worst part of any Ultimate. So the fact that you can travel multiple hours for one game seems really inefficient. Let's set aside that Bangor and Newcastle are in the same league, so that fatigue/availability decides the winner (rather than whoever is actually the best team). Travelling is just draining, and is bad from an environmental perspective too. It can require extra club members to give up time on multiple occasions just to be drivers, since many university players are too young to hire a minibus. And travelling a long distance just for a blowout game is just depressing either way. In a tournament, you're guaranteed at least a few good games for your trouble. No such guarantee in BUCS league.

4. Division 1 Nationals is very far away from the best 16 teams
I know UKU are aware of this and trying to fix this, but the method of deciding the top teams is decidedly broken. Nationals is supposed to be a showcase of the very best of university Ultimate. The fact that in one weekend the Women's division got a far better approximation of where teams should finish than the Men's division managed over an entire year shows something is very broken. In my eyes, there are a few reasons for this (the imbalanced regions, the lack of correction for this imbalance, how a team plays on Wednesdays don't reflect how good a tournament team they are, etc.), but the overall point is my focus here.

5. Promotion/Relegation
Being on the team that won Division 2 Nationals and got demoted to Division 3 obviously hurt. But consistently 3-5 teams are fighting in the second leagues who would do decently in the upper divisions, but instead play a lot of walkover games. I admittedly didn't play every league game when my team were in Division 3, but I only played one game that had a margin closer than 10 points - and that was against the other team to get promoted that year. Aside from the clear relegation of teams that shouldn't be relegated (which hurts their development for a whole year due to a lack of close games), the path to promotion is arduous and silly. Having a separate cup with randomly drawn knockouts for Nationals qualification will again exclude some good teams from Division 3 Nationals. I know teams which have had to decide whether to focus on the league (promotion) or the cup (qualification). This gives far too many games in my eyes, and gives teams tough choices they shouldn't have to make. Also, the fact that one lower division in a region can be way stronger than another is silly too. What annoys me most is I feel there is a way this could work within the league structure - no cup, and a one day tournament between the top two teams of each lower league to decide promotion and Nationals. You can adapt this to give a chance at fighting for Division 2, to decide whether teams should actually be relegated or not, etc.. Many variants on this exist, and I feel quite a few are better than the current set-up.

6. Spirit
While spirit is certainly being recorded, the BUCS league doesn't have any public record of spirit that I can see, and I can't recall any spirit trophy for BUCS league last year. Given how important spirit is to our sport, the fact that spirit seems to be being sidelined somewhat isn't overly positive. Hopefully it is just something that took a couple years to get round to - the fact UKU managed to push for spirit submissions on the BUCS website at all is good - but my personal experience in BUCS is that spirit is treated more secondary in league matches than in a tournament.

And, a subjective one to finish:

7. I don't care if it makes us like other sports
For me, one of the only convincing arguments for a BUCS league is that it gets more money. This is not nothing - it helps teams pay for coaches or subsidise members. But it is quite often conflated with "it makes it more like other sports", a reason I wholeheartedly do not agree with. Ultimate was born out of a counterculture. It is no coincidence we are the only team sport which is self-refereed. There is a Bruce Lee quote: "Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.". This is what I feel Ultimate should do. There are absolutely things about other sports we should copy, whether in tactics or in training. But just adopting a structure which (in my eyes) adds nothing to either the enjoyability, the competitiveness, or the quality should be one of those things we discard.

--

Thank you for reading this. My original draft of this article had other reasons (Not every student getting Wednesdays off, the fact I feels it hinders development, and having different regions for indoors/outdoors, lower teams not getting any chance to play better teams, etc.), but I decided to cut it down to pick only those reasons which applied more universally and were less subjective.

I've decided to take the rare step as a University student to decide to actually focus on Mixed this year. I wouldn't encourage others to take this step unless you really wanted - I've had the privilege of playing a lot of years of University Ultimate, and UKU put in a lot of work for your benefit. Whatever opinion you hold, just remember: we all care about our sport, even if we differ on the best way for it to improve. Be polite, and remember, even online, there is a person at the opposite end of all words.