What Went Down At: University Women's Indoor Nationals 2017/18

Chair: AnnieB (tSG Head of UMWIN Coverage)
Editor: hazard (tSG Uni Editor)
Contributors: gyanhan (Oxford), Amanda Chan (Edinburgh)
Additional Contributions: Becky Greenwood (Loughborough), Alice Hanton (Leeds), Hayley Dalmon (Strathclyde Captain), Kathleen Beekman/Kate Stafford (Edinburgh Co-Captains)

the ShowGame preview 

Full results:

1    [W] Edinburgh 1 (Sc1)

2    [W] Strathclyde 1 (Sc2)

3    [W] Bath 1 (W1)

4    [W] Huddersfield 1 (N1)

5    [W] Aberdeen 1 (Sc3)

6    [W] Newcastle 1 (N5)

7    [W] UCL 1 (E5)

8    [W] Hertfordshire 1 (E1)

9    [W] Glasgow 1 (Sc4)

10    [W] Imperial 1 (E2)

11    [W] Birmingham 1 (W2)

12    [W] Loughborough 1 (N2)

13    [W] Sheffield 1 (N6)

14    [W] Oxford 1 (E4)

15    [W] Manchester 1 (N4)

16    [W] KCL 1 (E3)

17    [W] St Andrews 1 (Sc5)

18    [W] Bangor 1 (W3)

19    [W] Warwick 1 (W4)

20    [W] Leeds 1 (N3)

AnnieB

Hi everyone! First of all, huge congrats to the winning teams, and well done to everyone that played this weekend! Let’s get started.

Give us a quick rundown of how the teams from your region did- were there any big surprises?

Amanda Chan

As Scottish players, we always believe in our region and think we can do well in Nationals but it is not always the case, especially in the Women's division. Scottish Women's team haven't come top 3 in a while so it's nice to see a change. Less of a surprise to be honest, more happy for the results. Not just Edinburgh and Strathclyde, but Aberdeen and Glasgow as well, who came top of their bracket (5th and 9th). As for surprises in other region, I might be wrong and old and haven't follow uni ultimate so closely in a while, I am surprised how well Newcastle and UCL played. They were both 5th in the region but came top 8 in Nationals.

AnnieB

From the reactions of the Scottish captains, I'd say they feel the same way about this result!

gyanhan

I’m surprised Hertfordshire finished at the bottom of the top 8 bracket, losing to UCL in their 7-8 final, as I had pipped them to be a challenger to the top 3. I’m not surprised UCL did so well though I hadn’t expected them to climb thaaat much. They qualified 5th at Regionals because of an unlucky 2v7 cross with Oxford that left them having to qualify through the back door, and hence hadn’t actually played the other regional qualifiers such as Herts/Imperial/KCL. Maybe Herts should be thankful Oxford beat UCL at Regionals so they could get that regional trophy.

Hertfordshire rose from not qualifying last year, to a top-8 finish and Regional trophy this year.
Photo by Sam Mouat for the ShowGame

hazard

Since Newcastle came 4th at UWIN last year, and UCL won UWON outright last year, I’m not too surprised. Particularly since SYC player/GB U24 Alicia Tan is still at UCL (and, as Reddit pointed out, American Ruth Kilsby).

gyanhan

UCL did have a fantastic game to beat Glasgow, their zone was so effective.

Amanda Chan

UCL's breaks were also unstoppable, obviously from Alicia Tan but also from most of their other players.

gyanhan

Imperial did as about I expected, while Oxford had two very close games with sudden death losses to Glasgow and Manchester that left us at the bottom of the pool while winning those two could have led to us being 2nd in the pool. That meant we were stuck in the 13-20 bracket. KCL didn’t have Lauren Bryant around, so again, not surprised with where they finished.  

hazard

Well, teams do rise and fall. But I definitely wouldn’t put Newcastle/UCL at the level of, say, Chichester winning last year (which only a *lot* of inside knowledge meant we could even half-predict).

AnnieB

On that note from hazard- since last year, there’s been some big changes. The top 3 from last year- Chichester, KCL and Birmingham. Chichester didn’t qualify, and KCL and Birmingham didn’t break into the top 10.  Any thoughts on this?

hazard

Chichester had a power year. We’ve been seeing them build up for a while. Now, Amy Watson has left for Southampton, and Beth Hutchinson/Klaudia “Polish” Piwowar/Amber Cottrell have left the uni scene altogether. They were a tall team that could use hammer breaks well. Sofia Hill was the only one I recognised on the team this year from that squad last year. Really impressive what they managed, and Chichester are left stronger for their having been there. They won't be Nationals level again for a little bit though.  The fact that both Chichester and KCL didn’t enter Outdoor Nationals last year may have been an indication their strength was in a few key players though, rather than a broad squad.

gyanhan

KCL are definitely missing their 2 iceni players, while Birmingham despite retaining Grace Owen and Ophelia Byrne, just didn’t have as much depth as they had last year.

AnnieB

Interesting theme coming up here- the presence of club players making so much difference to the Uni results.

Amanda Chan

The presence of club and u24 players definitely make massive differences to uni results. On the contrary, positive side, the top 4 teams all have players from u24/23 and high level club teams.

AnnieB

Broad squad- what does that mean for an indoor team? It leads into my next question- why did the Scottish teams dominate this weekend? If you were there, or watched any of the streams, what do you think gave them the edge?

hazard

I think I could actually argue exceptions to that rule on only two teams in the top 10, from Amanda’s point. Both would be in the north though, and I think more an indication of a lack of clubs around to sweep up the talented players that exist, rather than arguing in any way that aren’t of club-level quality. Isabella Barber-Lowell and Tanya Fozzard made up a strong set of three (with Elly While) for Huddersfield, but none of them played club Outdoor Nationals, and I don’t believe the first two ever played high-level Tour, despite their dominance this weekend.

It was hard to stop Huddersfield's top players this weekend.
Photo by Sam Mouat for the ShowGame

gyanhan

The Scottish teams have some sick overheads, while other teams also use them, I think the Scottish players utilised them the most accurately and effectively. Also shoutout to Katie Flight’s insane scoobers, I think she gained a horde of fanboys over the weekend. Bath snuck into the top 3 despite not using much overheads, they play through the speed and athleticism of every single player on the team

Amanda Chan

Broad squad definitely helped. Huddersfield essentially only played through five players, even though they were amazing players and it took them to top 4, but not having the depth might have cost them the 3 vs 4 game. Having a home advantage also helped Scotland. Most Scottish indoor tournaments are held on astro while half/most of the English ones are still on hardcourt, so Scottish team knows how to use the space, both horizontal and vertical better  

AnnieB

I was so impressed at Bath's play- I think last year I got distracted by Chichester and didn't register Bath's strength, but I really loved watching their games!

hazard

I would love to see how Edinburgh got the better of Bath in the semis. Or how Loughborough got the upset win in pool stages come to that…

Becky Greenwood

Throughout the whole season in the lead up to both Regionals and Nationals the Loughborough women have been doing weekly fitness sessions at 7am, so it’s safe to say they were some of the fittest players there.

gyanhan

There was an injury to Georgia Murphy during the Bath vs Loughborough game. Could that have impacted Bath’s morale?

AnnieB

Also, I do think thats why Edinburgh came out on top. The depth and experience of that squad is insane.  That Edinburgh vs Bath game was one of the best I watched all weekend, and it was filmed, so hopefully you will get a chance to do just that!  

gyanhan

Space-wise I don’t think there was much difference, the astro pitches at Ravenscraig weren’t as large as the ones at Alan Higgs for UXIN, but in terms of terrain, that might affect explosiveness/agility on cuts.

AnnieB

So I have quotes from both the Strathclyde and the Edinburgh captains. I'll post these here for people to respond to, and then we'll move on!

“Just that i want to say how proud I am of my team. From watching the final back, I am super proud of the defence especially from the horses. I think that our use of poaching really slowed down the edinburgh girls in and around the end zone. Also a huge thank you to Ro Sham for such an intense final and massive congratulations on the win! They truly deserve the trophy “ Hayley Dalmon, Strathclyde

“ I think overall I was very impressed with the level of play at the tournament. All of our games on day 2 were hard fought. It was a really good showing for Women's ultimate. The final was a great game, intense with high level of play and both sides making great plays. The final being a repeat of the final at Regionals did not totally surprise me. Strathclyde was very strong at Regionals and I think both teams brought another level to this final.”

“And piggybacking on what Kathleen said, I think what really made the difference for us in the tournament, and in the final, was the depth of our team and the determination to keep grinding!”

Kathleen Beekman, Kate Stafford. Edinburgh, Co-Captains.

So, I straight up stole this question from Hazard from the Regionals preview, but I think it should be asked again after this Nationals: Do we think Women’s is ready for two sixteen-team Indoor National divisions?

I'd love there to be another division. As anyone that knows me as a writer and player, I am a huge supporter of the less experienced players being able to compete as much as possible. But I do recognise it puts so much pressure on clubs and for some just isn't feasible right now.

hazard

My vote would be yes, but it does mean we’d have to give up the romantic notion of having everything at one venue. It’s an issue we’re dealing with at club-level for tour too, but I honestly think there’s enough strength in Women’s Uni Ultimate (and enough virtue in giving more teams competitive games) that we’re at that point.

gyanhan

I think the experience would be great for teams qualifying for Div. 2. Though some regions may be quite weak, for eg. two teams from the west finished in the bottom 4 of Div. 1. Just to play devil's advocate abit, would it be worth the organisation, transport, logistics involved?

Amanda Chan

Before going and actually following all of uni nats this year I would say no, but after seeing the strength, I'd say yes. I think Harry basically sums up what I wanted to say.

gyanhan

I would like to see a Div. 2 though :)

AnnieB

If it's worth it for the Men’s teams it's worth it for the Women’s!

Amanda Chan

With Women's being BUCS now, hopefully the uni will give more support and makes organisation, transport and logistics easier.

Amanda Chan

I think uni Women's is ready to have two divisions in indoors, but not yet outdoors.

hazard

Assigning across the regions, we would see:

Scotland - Heriot-Watt, Stirling, St. Andrew’s 2

North - Sheffield, Durham, Newcastle 2

West - Plymouth, Swansea, Exeter

East - St Marys, Cambridge*

*The East schedule is offline, so we can't check the final team

Given Newcastle 1st's excellent placement on field, could their second team also have put on a good show?
Photo by Ed Hanton for the ShowGame

hazard

I definitely think the top 1/2 in each region could give a good game. We may end up with some development teams at the bottom. But Men’s Div. 2 has also been like that for a while, in my opinion. It’s also less risky than a lot of moves (new regions, taking away amalgamation teams, BUCS Women’s outdoors) that I feel UKU has tried or is looking to try for helping develop Women’s Ultimate.  

AnnieB

I would be so keen on this option. Alrighty, just to wrap things up. Outdoors is coming up. Do you think the teams in your region will be placed similarly? Who do you think will be the big contenders compared to indoors?

gyanhan

I think UCL will still be aiming for gold this year, they didn't graduate many players from last year's squad and with an extra year playing together they can be even tougher this year. Not to mention they had two teams at Regionals which suggests depth + they had a squad of 12 at UWIN, so their outdoor team should be formidable. I expect Herts, Imperial and Oxford to qualify as well for UWON

hazard

From the west, I expect Bath to do very well. Not just from their finishing position, but because they looked to be strong across the board. Their second team did fairly well at Regionals, and they don’t just have to rely on one star player. Birmingham will qualify and do decently. The final couple spots are more up for grabs.

Amanda Chan

I am not worried about Edinburgh, but it will be interesting to see how the rest of the region plays out. I would love for them to prove me wrong but I think Strathclyde is more of an indoors team than outdoor. I think they'll still do well but top 4 at Nationals will be hard to top. Even though Aberdeen have the types of outdoor players, they don't have the depth and often had to iron women, that could affect how they do. I think Glasgow will do better outdoor compared to indoors, a lot of their girls are playing/ training with GUX. So it will be interesting to see how the 2nd-4th ranking will form among them. For the remaining two spots, I think St Andrews will qualify. But the fight for the last spot among Heriot-Watt, Dundee, Stirling and Edinburgh 2 will be interesting.  

hazard

From the North - I know Durham are planning to enter two teams, which usually means there’s a fair bit of depth across a club, so they’re my tip to qualify where the couldn’t indoors. Newcastle also have a lot of depth, I would be very surprised if they didn’t end up with a place. Huddersfield I’m less sure about. I actually think they’ll do better in mixed - particularly if they can teach their guys not to clog space to allow their strong female players to dominate.  Loughborough will get through if Rupal Ghelani is available - their whole squad is strong, but she was always the one they looked to for the bailout option, and if she gets injured it would be difficult to adapt. Sheffield are similar with Zarah Dixon - although her height won't quite be as dominant in wind (though she'll still be a tough player to stop). As for Leeds, who knows what happened to them this weekend. It depends on which Leeds team we see for whether they qualify. I think for Leeds, not having Rachel Naden was the kicker. Not just for her ability, but also for the mental strength she gave them too.

Alice Hanton

I'm not entirely sure what happened to us (Leeds) either to be honest. It's crossed my mind that the different surface/pitch size may have thrown us off initially. After coming third at regionals I expected to finish middle of the table, but we just didn't play anything like what we are capable of- so many mistakes and we weren't gelling like other teams were. After being trounced several times we quickly lost confidence in ourselves meaning we just couldn't get it together. For me, the only game where we can be happy with how we played was against Sheffield where we looked like a different team (we lost on universe and I believe we could have won if Zarah Dixon was 2 inches shorter!) I'm sure having Nads would have helped as you say hazard- at outdoor nats last year she came on mid-game despite being injured and turned games around. But even without her we should be doing better than this. We should qualify for outdoors if we play properly- it's been a wakeup call for the team that we need to train hard.

hazard

Ok, to finish off. What would your all-star teams be from this weekend? Anyone else is welcome to join in too.  

gyanhan

Katie Flight, Hayley Dalmon (Strathclyde) - they are an incredible duo with so much chemistry so I had to put both in, Kate Gibson (Newcastle), Rupal Ghelani (Loughborough), Charlie Ellis (Hertfordshire),

Amanda Chan

Kate Stafford, Lulu Boyd, Helena Slater (Edinburgh), Hayley Dalmon (Strath), Eleanor Taylor (Aberdeen), Rupal Ghelani (Loughborough), Elly White (Huddersfield), Emily McCabe (Manchester)

AnnieB

So: Rupal Ghelani, Kate Stafford, Helena Slater, Ellie Taylor and Nelly Henzler. Yes, lots of Scottish players #sorrynotsorry. Chosen for speed, and mad D. So many different lines could be written and all would be fantastic

AnnieB

So, another awesome Nationals! Glad to talk through these questions with you all-as always.

What Went Down At: University Men's Indoor Nationals 2017/18

Chair/Editor: hazard (Oxford)
Contributors: Slender (Sheffield), h.christou (Dundee, tSG Div. 1 Preview writer), AnnieB (tSG head of coverage for UMWIN), Clackers (tSG Div. 2 Preview writer), Alun P (Leeds)
Additional Contributions: Rossi (Glasgow), andrew (tSG Men's Western writer), jonnyarthur95 (ex-Sussex)

ShowGame Division 1 Preview
ShowGame Division 2 Preview
Reddit’s TheNoGame Pool A, Pool B and Pool C previews

Spirit Scores 

Full Results
Men’s Division 1
1 [M] Glasgow 1 (Sc3)
2 [M] Strathclyde 1 (Sc1)

3 [M] Birmingham 1 (WW2)
4 [M] St Andrews 1 (Sc4)
5 [M] Manchester 1 (NN1)
6 [M] Loughborough 1 (YE2)
7 [M] Bath 1 (SW2)
8 [M] Edinburgh 1 (Sc5)
9 [M] Durham 1 (NN3)
10 [M] Oxford 1 (SE1)
11 [M] Bath 2 (SW1)
12 [M] Dundee 1 (Sc2)
13 [M] Imperial 1 (EL1)
14 [M] Liverpool 1 (NN2)
15 [M] Surrey 1 (SE3)
16 [M] Warwick 1 (WW1)
17 [M] Hertfordshire 1 (EL2)
18 [M] Aberdeen 1 (Sc6)
19 [M] Reading 1 (SE2)
20 [M] Sheffield 1 (YE1)

Men’s Division 2
21 [M] Nottingham 1 (YE4)
22 [M] Bangor 1 (WW3)
23 [M] Bristol 1 (SW3)
24 [M] Cambridge 1 (EL4)
25 [M] Leeds 1 (YE3)
26 [M] Sheffield Hallam 1 (YE5)
27 [M] Heriot-Watt 1 (Sc7)
28 [M] Newcastle 1 (NN4)
29 [M] Exeter 1 (SW4)
30 [M] Sussex 1 (SE4)
31 [M] Strathclyde 2 (Sc8)
32 [M] Chichester 1 (SE5)
33 [M] Warwick 2 (WW4)
34 [M] LSE 1 (EL3)
35 [M] Liverpool John Moores 1 (NN5)
36 [M] Northumbria 1 (NN6)
----------------------------
Headlines
City of Glasgow proves dominant, with Uni of Glasgow coming out on top in fierce final.
Birmingham stop Scottish whitewash, indicate that glory days aren’t quite over yet.
ShowGame predictions are most accurate ever - we let writer Haydon gloat a little, and note how hard it is for new teams to break through in Men’s.
Bath 2 beat Dundee twice, claim 11th. Bath 1 claim 7th. Bath Uni claim strongest club award.
Many close games across all the seeds - was this the toughest Nationals yet?
Yorkshire and East Midlands dominant in Div 2

-----------------------------

Division 1

hazard
Welcome to the University Men’s Indoor Nationals chat! We were treated to a fierce weekend down in Ravenscraig. And, we’re going to start at the top, with the all-Glasgow final. While there were a lot of close games, Glasgow were (once they were out of the pool stage) pretty much untouchable in my opinion.

What were people’s thoughts. Did they look like the favourites to you?

Clackers
I thought Strathclyde had enough to beat them.

AnnieB
They really did look like the ones to beat. I don't have a long version of this answer- Glasgow are just really good.

It was very hard for our writers to separate Glasgow and Strathclyde.
Photo by Ed Hanton for the ShowGame

Slender
They certainly looked very impressive when I watched them dispatch Edinburgh in the quarters but I wouldn't say they were the stand out favourites (I feel this says more about the general standard of other teams in division 1 though and less about Glasgow's ability). They've been a team at the top for a good few years now and I felt that really showed, especially with how professional they appeared in the later rounds.

h.christou
I honestly thought Strathclyde would win. I think Glasgow did a great job of shutting them down. Maybe they learned from their Semi-final loss at Regionals, but even that game was super tight.

But yeah agree that Glasgow are good. Always in the podium spots in my head, happy for them that they finally got a gold medal which they've been threatening for a while

Slender
I had to leave half way through the final unfortunately but I heard there was a spirit time out. Did that actually happen?

AnnieB
That did happen! I was streaming the womens final, so I'd also love to know what happened there.

h.christou
Correct. From my understanding there was a little physicality from both teams. Nothing too malicious but Joel Terry called one to discuss it.

Alun P
Joel Terry immediately called his own bad bid and the spirit timeout, but the bid was absoulutely atrocious.

hazard
I was able to ask Glasgow captain Joel Terry about why he called it afterwards. Interestingly, it wasn’t because the spirit was overly bad. He was worried the play was getting a little bit too physical, and just wanted to get everyone on the same side before continuing the game. He’d just been the one to make a play, and I think realised himself that he’d gone too far.

h.christou
A good call before things escalated IMO

Rossi
I was involved in the spirit timeout. It wasn't called because the physicality was unbearable. There is a lot of history of "bad spirit" between Horses and Flung, and it was called because of the manner in which both teams were reacting to and discussing calls. The outcome was that the calls were all well made, that they weren't bids that we wouldn't do in other tournaments, but that they way they were being discussed needed to be amended.

Slender

I respect that. I do really love watching games between the Scots due to how intense and physical they get, but rarely seem to go too far.

hazard
For me, that was actually a theme for the weekend. A fair amount of physicality, but only a couple times where it got to anything to discuss.

Clackers
Is that a response to having nice big pitches to move around on?

hazard
One of those time was actually with St. Andrew’s (who had a great weekend themselves). Gabe Schechter had a couple dangerous bids in our game, but he realised that and showed a great instance of avoiding contact at the end (on a place I felt he would have bid at the start of the game). Taking time to check your own play is tough. But yeah, having big pitches (and being on 3G) meant everyone could play a bit more physical, while staying safe.

St. Andrew's weren't afraid to claim the space.
Photo by Alice Hanton for the ShowGame

Alun P

Re: Scottish teams "playing physical" (I hate that term), St Andrews warm up by practicing running through players. I'm sadly not surprised there were some bad bids in their games. Might be something that Scottish ultimate needs to address (there were a couple of nasty ones directly before the spirit timeout in the final, including two Glasgow players denying making any contact after a collision with a very, very audible thump).

Slender
Men's and Mixed nats this year were the first times I've played indoors on 3G and it's utterly convinced me that at the very least Nationals should be on 3G. I feel the bigger pitches facilitate more athletic play and removes an element of "throw to the tall person" the smaller hard courts have.

hazard
Do you think your Regional results would have been different on 3G? And is there a natural advantage for the Scottish in having such a good venue to select their top teams?

Slender
I think having such a good venue nearby is one of a few reasons Scotland is set up to do well at indoors, yeah. It potentially could have had an impact, we stopped Loughborough and forced a turn at a key moment at regs that we might not have been able to do had we been in the bigger endzones.

Alun P

I agree that 3G indoors is great, but repeat a previous comment I've made that it's a totally different game to hard court, and makes a mockery of Regionals results, and hence seeding.

hazard
On that note, let’s turn to the one team to stop Scotland cleaning out the medals - Birmingham (uBu). Men's Captain James Firth had this to say:
Well we came into the weekend confident that we were capable of beating any team in the competition. In recent years we’ve just been poor at closing out tight matches but after a very strong Saturday we felt a medal was definitely within our grasp. We were ultimately disappointed not to beat Strathclyde, the game was essentially won by the toss (with one break apiece) but there was one D point that we got many turns that would have put us ahead, but we just couldn’t convert.
This lead to a very enjoyable third place play off against St Andrews that I feel was a much better game than the final which we won by a couple of points after their buzzer beater put them within one point in the final second of normal time making us close out the match.
We’d seen the showgame preview and were delighted to win a medal that we apparently we had no chance of winning (“medals? heck no”) and that our “fortunate journey” included playing all the other teams that finished top 6, only losing to Glasgow.

h.christou
Yes. I'm sorry lads.

Birmingham were able to strike some fear into Scottish hearts.
Photo by Sam Mouat for the ShowGame

hazard
You had Manchester as the English team up there as well, right?

h.christou
Yup and Loughborough. I called 7 of the top 8 correctly, of course the 1 incorrect one went on to win a medal.

hazard
Well, they came 5th/6th, so that’s not too unfair. Does anyone have any thoughts on how Birmingham managed to pull through?

Slender
They certainly helped themselves with a lot of clutch Ds against St Andrews in the 3rd place game. Though shout-out to Arek Aspinwall for the buzzer beater to take it to Universe. There was a certain inevitability they were gonna put a high one up to him in the dying seconds and he managed to take it down in double coverage.

hazard
The main thing I would say about Birmingham (both here and in mixed) is that they never really got fazed. In our game, and others too, they showed that they were adaptable and didn’t really panic. It’s probably why it’s so hard to pin down their strength - across multiple games, they will have the mental fortitude to help them beat the odds.
Ok, let’s run down some of the other top eight teams quickly. Feel free to add your thoughts on St. Andrew’s managing 4th, Manchester only coming 5th, L’boro in 6th, or Edinburgh coming in 8th - possibly below predictions. I’ll do Bath shortly.

Loughborough Men's Captain Omar Khan:
Very happy with how the weekend went as a whole! With a much changed squad from last year (only three from the team that came fifth last year) I thought everyone stepped up to the occasion. In the quarter we let ourselves down (a bit like last year), but looking at the other matches they were all final-worthy games so I really can’t complain.
I thought the quality of the teams was extremely high, with the top teams having an increased amount of depth compared to last year. There were so many sudden death games it was unreal. That being said I do think our pool in particular was much simpler to navigate than the others (no offense to those teams!) but I suppose we have the U24 program to thank for that!
Scotland dominating is no surprise to me, but I wish we could’ve played one of those 3 top four teams! I finish my uni indoor career on a high!

Loughborough came highest in their pool, and got quite high on pitch too.
 Photo by Alberto Rossi for the ShowGame

h.christou
Flatball in amongst the medal positions isn't a surprise. Maybe lacking a fully fit Gabe. Their handler weave looked weak without him in both their final two games.

hazard
I liked the way they used him as a fourth man in a handler weave though. Was an alteration I hadn’t seen much before.

Slender
I'm gonna stick up for Manchester here. They came up against Glasgow in the quarters and won their other Sunday games. They definitely could have got a medal had they not come up against Glasgow so soon. Though I think they were running on fumes by the end of the weekend.

hazard
That’s fair, although a 5-1 loss to Birmingham in the pool stage means I feel they can’t have too much to complain about.
I also like how fumes for Halcyon still sees them come in 5th.

hazard
We had a fantastic game against Edinburgh, probably our best. Unfortunately, it looks like they also had one of their best games against us. I think they took a bit of a knock to their confidence - they were down 7-1 against Strathclyde in their quarter before a three point roll to save face at the end. Some real talent, but couldn’t quite get it working consistently. Although they did have a good win against Dundee in their prequarter.

Slender
They took a bit of a battering against Glasgow in their re-seeding match which might have played into that.

hazard
Ok, onto Bath. Their first team came 7th. Their Women’s team came 3rd. Their second Men’s team managed 11th. Even with Strathclyde’s two silvers, I think that rates as the most impressive club performance of the tournament. We played Bath 2 though, and, being brutally honest, they didn’t seem fantastic. It was first game on Sunday, so I can give them some slack - you can get lucky, but you still need some really talent to get to 11th, even with luck. h.christou, what was your thoughts on Bath 2?

h.christou
A solid team I think. We lost twice for a really bad reason. Arrogance. We expected to steamroll both games and didnt. Once we got frustrated we crumbled. Really terrible from us which I apologised for to them, they didn't get the respect they deserved. Got good fundamentals and offensively decent as a team. Deserved to finish 11th.

hazard
I think I would agree. Even in our game when the decisions were getting a bit rushed, their fundamentals were still remarkably solid. Andrew, reckon we’ll rate Bath a bit more highly outdoors this year?

andrew
Well, they’ve absolutely dominated our region as usual and a great performance at last year’s Nationals can’t be discounted, even with some turnover. No easy victories against them, I wouldn’t take them lightly.

hazard
I’m actually going to take a second to reflect on how impressive Strathclyde’s two silvers are as well, since we didn’t do so at the start. The only unifying theme I could see for the teams was a love of scubas, perhaps too much so.

h.christou
Yeah brilliant effort from that club. A 2nd team in Div 2 doing respectfully well too! They've been doing something right recently...

hazard
Even if Jonny Shaw is asking to be referred to as the Scottish Dylan Freechild, you can’t find much to fault at Strath.

Let’s round out the top half then. Durham managed 9th, and Oxford managed 10th. Oxford had beaten Durham in the pool stages, and I want to blame lack of legs (we brought seven players, and had six for most of the tournament). However, I do think a meeting between the sides could have ended either way any time we played. Alexis Long, Steve Gillman, Dylan Spiers and Will Collier are all high calibre players, in previous years that would have been enough to see you into top 6.

Slender
This a very bold statement I know, but I feel Durham got their tactics wrong. They throw a lot of flat, leading throws to handlers running deep. We (Sheffield) managed to shut that down using help defense at the end of our game with them and I feel better teams were able to punish them when they realised.

h.christou
Yeah Durham didn't seem to utilise their individual abilities as much as they could have. Seemed like some friends who turned up to nats. Those 4 guys are quality players, should have done better IMO

hazard
Once we (Oxford) realised in the first game, I think that is how we pipped them. Durham's tactic turned out to be the right one against a tired team at the end of a weekend though. As for Oxford - we missed Dylan Saltzman leaving us last term. And there’s three/four other guys who circumstance ruled against for various reasons, including probably the best male player in the club (Aiden Penn). I’m incredibly proud that, despite that, we came top half in a tough tournament. And also hopefully kept our spirits up, and our spirit scores a bit higher than at Regionals. We’ll have to wait and see.

hazard
h.christou, any word on Dundee in 12th, or shall we move down the tournament?

h.christou
Maybe a surprise to some but generally we had a decent tournament. No Dickers or Asif. Two huge losses, but our game vs. Sheffield to D-roll a win to play Edinburgh to make quarters. That Edinburgh game we were 5-2 up and lost 8-6. Some horrific drops but a really good game. I'd say around 10th was about right for us, so 12th isn't too far off. We had fun and remained positive amidst some of the bad things.

hazard
Even after managing second at Scottish Regionals?

h.christou
Yes. At Regionals, St. Andrews were without Gabe, Arek, and Chun Lee for our semi. Strath knocked out Glasgow in that side of the bracket. And Edi were without Chris Habgood and Lochlan Fisher. We did well to finish 2nd and it wasn't easy, but can't deny the differences for those teams at Nats

hazard
Ok, moving down the bracket. And I have some awards to give out.

Unluckiest schedule award: Aberdeen. Having the pool of death (Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Reading) meant that, like in mixed, they couldn’t finish higher than 13th. Their women got Edinburgh in their quarter too. I’m convinced someone in UKU doesn’t like Aberdeen.

Wildcard award: Reading. They put up a good result (a narrow loss) against every top half team they played. This included being up on St. Andrew’s 7-6 in a seeding game. Then they crumbled against Surrey and Aberdeen.

And, toughest cookie award: Sheffield. Seriously, when half your games are sudden death losses and you’re still fighting hard, I’m impressed.

Slender
Yeah it sucks losing in sudden death, let alone in doing it five times. Not many of our players have played at this level before though and I think that showed, we really lacked an ability to close games out and didn't hold our nerve enough. It COULD have been a very different tournament for us but it's an experience we can learn from and a target to improve on for next year.

hazard
Right. Let’s have all-star teams from Slender, h.christou and myself then. Either five or eight players from different teams.

Slender
Gio Cabrera (Strathclyde), his layout D got Strath to the final. Arek Aspinwall (St.Andrews), Steve Dixon (Manchester), Chris Habgood (Edinburgh), Adam Vaslet (Birmingham), Ernest Simons (Heartfordshire) and a Glasgow player (a lot of them played amazingly and I can't really choose between them).

h.christou
Based off of the performances I saw (i.e. the crunch games when it mattered). Joel Terry, Iain Campbell (both Glasgow), Cameron Mackie (Horses), Arek Aspinwall (Flatball), Jeremy Hill (uBu). Didn't get a watch of Manchester or Bath. I'm sure they have players in that discussion too

Gio close to making my list too...

hazard
For myself:
Joel Terry (Glasgow) - he was on fire in the final with D’s and grabs all over the shop.
Arek Aspinwall (St. Andrew’s) - there was not a more effective endzone shot in the tournament than the ones taken to Arek. Really impressive
Sam Finley (Glasgow) - Glasgow couldn’t have asked for a finer traitor from their local rivals. Solid on D and O.
Oli Grey (Manchester) - May have been keeling over by the end, but incredibly good player on pitch whenever I saw him
Gio Cabrera (Strathclyde) - Workhorse of the team. I think covered more yards on pitch than any of the other horses.
Alexis Long (Durham) - He’s solid and quick. I view him and Gabe as similar players, but I’m only having one shorty on my team and Lexi is that bit more consistent for me.
Andrew Bunting (Oxford) - Personal bias. But he’s one of those player who doesn’t play club, so you only know him if you play with him. Never angry, always tall.
Hannes Ludewig (St Andrews) - Again, tall, well spirited. He held himself well, and didn’t seem to put much of a foot wrong when I saw him.

Division 2

hazard

Ok, Div. 2 finally, and it seems to have been dominated by the Yorkshire and East Midlands region. Nottingham win another Div 2 title, With Leeds and Hallam 5th/6th.

Alun P

Shout out to Div 2 YEM, all in the top six for spirit as well as placement #bestregion

Clackers
I managed to predict both finalists in the top 8, which I'm pleased with. But Nottingham barely put a foot wrong all weekend. Also Bangor as well, they started off in the same group as Bristol where they lost their initial encounter, but managed to take the win in the semifinal where it mattered.

Alun P
Nottingham were good. I wasn't actually blown away by them, but that might be because they've been playing the same way forever, and I remember when it was Brodie and Tom Tounge and Ben Poole running those shapes. They played their game, and really the only way of stopping them is just to outrun them, which we (Leeds) did, and I guess no-one else could.

hazard
Bangor looked very strong. Ed Simpson and Dom Knight were strong at the back, and Hari Tidswell was a good receiver for all their shots. Nottingham just looked like a strong team too though. I don’t think they’d quite have made top 12 in Div 1, but I think they’d have been disappointed for not doing so.

Alun P
Extra thought on Nottingham (not that I’m bitter and dwelling on it): in the past I’ve described their play as formulaic or predictable, which I think leads to them performing better at Nationals than at Regionals, where teams have seen their play before, whereas at Nationals having a set pattern to fall back on might help with possible nerves when up against better teams or strategies you aren’t used to. Or I might be overthinking this. 

Clackers
They were very close to losing to Cambridge in the semi.


hazard
Were we surprised to see Bristol take third then?

Clackers
I was a bit sad, but not surprised. I've learnt to expect anything with Div 2 results

hazard
It did seem like Cambridge had a strong side for Div. 2. James Richardson still survives from the Cambridge team that did the double, Niall Jackson is a two season veteren of Fire 1, and Canadian Adam Borchert was a good pick-up. I think it says a lot about Div 2 that a team like this can still not come away with medals.  Also, I personally know Henry Mattinson is great at catching knives, although I'm not sure Cambridge used that to it's full ability.

Did we catch Heriot-Watt at all? I'm sure a lot of the Scottish were predicting they'd win the division comfortably.

Clackers
I caught a couple of their pool games, where they performed the best out of everyone in the division. No idea what happened against Cambridge.

Cambridge don't seem to have much idea what was happening in the match either.
Photo by Sam Mouat for the ShowGame.

Alun P
The one glimpse of Heriot I got (vs Cambridge), it looked like they were in one of those places where nothing goes right. Every 50-50 seemed to go against them, all the little errors were from them, that sort of thing. Not sure why.

Clackers

Heriot-Watt are very tall but for some reason can't capitalise on this

Alun P

The one blade I saw them throw was, ironically, to the shortest guy on the pitch, fairly well marked. He got a hand on it, and promptly dropped it. It was that sort of game.

Clackers

Maybe playing on hardcourt is more their style

hazard
Leeds seemed to only narrowly miss out on the top spots too. Alun?

Alun P

There was a general feeling that we were possibly the best team at Div 2, except for five crucial minutes at the start of our quarter with Bangor, in which we dug ourself a 3-point hole, and although we dragged it back to 5-5, we couldn't find the turn on universe. Top job by them, though. I took a bunch of beginners for a BUCS game against them last Wednesday (only first years and postgrads with a very relaxed attitude to their degree can spare the time for that drive), and they were a pleasure to share the pitch with both times, although I've now seen enough of the back of Ed Simpson to last a lifetime. Across the whole Men's Indoor season, we lost a total of three games by a combined three points. Personally gutted to leave another Div 2 Nationals with the only win over the eventual champions but no medal (UXIN 2016/17 with leicester, beat Aberdeen in power pools, chumped bracket, how familiar), but at least we smashed the 5th place bracket to finish a load of uni careers on a high. 

hazard
Anyone want to mention any other top-half teams?

Alun P
Newcastle were (for me) our toughest game, Bangor excepted. Thier weave play was relentless, and if they'd had another handler, they could have turned some tight losses into wins. As it was, the sheer ammount of running they asked their top four players to do started to tell, and their D fell off hard towards the end of both games.

hazard
What about Sussex? Going from silver medallists to 10th in Div 2 is a real drop. Does just Ash Yeo make that much of a difference?

Sussex didn't seem as intimidating as they were last year.
Photo by Ed Hanton for the ShowGame

Clackers
I didn't catch them much, I thought they looked ok, but most teams did

jonnyarthur95

It was pretty much an entirely new squad, with only two players this weekend with indoor medals from last year. One player is big but very much looks like a rebuild year for the boys.

Alun P

Mohawks looked good, but lacked any real standout players, and started to get a bit snappy with each other when we got ahead of them. Having two of their guys run headfirst into each other probably didn't help either.

hazard
Ok, let's end with the two debutants to the scene - Liverpool John Moores and Northumbria. Both showed some promise, but ended up at the bottom. Was it just inexperience at this level that caused the drop, you feel?

Clackers
Both teams used zones in Regionals to win, which they were unable to use here. LJMU did quite well though, and only missed out on being in the top 8 by 1 point, from there they may have just lost energy.

hazard
Chichester were Men's debutants last year on a wild card spot, and I think the experience showed as they pushed higher this year. Reckon we can expect good things from LJMU and Northumbria next year (or even outdoors?)

Clackers
LJMU don't have an outdoors team, and by the sounds of it their future next year is bleak. However Northumbria has a more solid foundation, and next year they can use this experience to do well in the future

Alun P

Northumbria had a confident 3-1-1 iso play, they suffered a little bit from getting Jonah-ed, and also from deciding to bring out a zone on the 3G, which went about as well as a fart at the cenotaph.

Alun P

For the other bottom three team - LSE threw some beautiful IO shots, but not much else. 

hazard
Sweet. Well, in which case, I'll say well done to Strathclyde 2 for winning the Div 2 battle of the second teams over Warwick, and move to close. Any final words and/or All-Star Div. 2 team?

Alun P

I reckon Leeds had more injuries occur in our games than any other team. There were the two Mohawks, one of whom was definitely concussed, one LSE guy who got his feet tangled up and something in his ankle went bang, and for us, Nath Salter re-aggravated a hamstring and dropped out after five points, and Rupert Daniels dislocated his shoulder against Nottingham. Rumour has it he was performing an overly vigourous "The People's Elbow" on the defeated carcass of GB's George Gayton. Or landing badly, but that can't be true, surely

Clackers
Div 2 is always a close contest, and only a few goals going a different way would have led to vastly different results throughout the division. No one was undefeated, and everyone won a game.

Alun P

If you want my stab at a TotT: Nic Peters and Jonah Leake (Leeds), Dom Knight and Ed Simpson (Bangor), Ed Hanton (Bristol), Ross Nugent and Fred Davies (Newcastle), Joel Miller (Nottingham). Hugely biased towards the teams I played, but between our games and sidelining the women, I didn't see much else.

Other shout-outs to Newcastle's third handler, who I don't know by name (bigger bloke, not the one who looks like a smaller Fred), Harry from Bangor, who was near unmarkable, George Gayton, who still does all the little things so well, and some damn impressive big things too, and Liam Reddy, who put on a great throwing performance against us, only to have his enormous turning circle repeatedly abused.

hazard
Good work all. Big thanks to all my contributors, and particular thanks to Annie and Clackers for giving up their weekends to go and provide coverage for everyone, which you can find on the ShowGame's Facebook page! Also to Alberto Rossi, Will Foster, Danny Strasser and Henrik Young for fliming. Then again to Tonks for coming up all the way just to take photos (and all the other photographers too for giving up time to take photos and edit). No thanks to Haydon for being so resistent to commentating, which he then of course proved great at. A lot of work goes in behind the scenes, but we think it turns out worthwhile. We hope you appreciated our coverage, and catch you at the next tournament!