The Recap: Women's National League

Editor: Hazard (he/him)
A small note - from this article, we are providing contributors with the option to include pronouns. Please respect these if you do end up messaging any contributors.

Welcome to our first proper coverage for the Women's division! We've also included any reports we have from prior matches. A big thank you to everyone involved, and if you've entered into the Women's Cup please reach out to us to be involved in future articles! 

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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 (Bristol, Iceni, Red, SCRAM, SMOG, SYC). They will play in a mini-league for 3 spots at the National Championships.

We also have the National Cup, with an as-yet unknown number of teams fighting for 2 spots at the National Championships. These spots go to the finalists of the cup.

The remaining 3 National League teams, the two Cup semi-finalists, and one intrepid qualify-the-hard-way Cup quarter finalist will enter the National Playoffs, seeking to be among the final 3 spots at the National Championships.

Taken from UKU's guide to 2020/21 Ultimate

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National League

Iceni  15 - 8  SYC

Location: London

Hannah Brew (Iceni): After a slightly shaky first point, Iceni offence flowed well, frequently scoring deep with well spaced and fast flowing offence. SYC disrupted our offensive looks with some well placed poaches that Iceni managed to adapt to. SYC's goals often came from down the line to continuation shots with both teams playing relatively few strict endzone sets. 

     Defence-wise SYC marked Iceni under, but Iceni quickly adapted and scored from a huck or a quick pop into the endzone after longer down the line cuts. Iceni's defence was focused on hard match defense with key match ups and flashes in the lane to disrupt initial flow. Both sides battled it out in the air which seemed pretty even across the board! Iceni took the half 8-3 / 8-4 (can't quite remember...) meaning SYC had a harder second half. Iceni's small (7 players) but well-oiled offence line got broken once. SYC's offence line were well drilled at moving the disc down the line and hitting middle of pitch continuations. All-in-all a high quality game that utilised the whole pitch and well executed offensive strategy from both sides.

Rupal Ghelani (SYC): Iceni had good deep game, scored lots through hucks. SYC managed to stop a lot of under game and played more small ball. Two different offences. Ellie Taylor and Amelia Kenneth were rapido for Iceni. Megan Brass also had a great game. And Eyan Sham had some great grabs for SYC. Alex Nevitte and Illia Afifuddin also had great games as cutters skying people.

Bristol 15 - 1 RED

Location: Bristol

Carla Link (Bristol): Bristol outnumbered RED having twice the number of players. We used this to our advantage running hard from the 1st point and playing a long game. RED played well against our zone loading the wings. They had great flow when they moved it to the breakside.

Sasha Squires and Ella Knight (Red): Despite the score we’re proud of how Red played. We made Bristol fight hard, turning them multiple times every point just sadly struggled in making that final pass to the end zone ourselves. Shout out to Marina Symington for some amazing runs to the end zone, and to Ellen Phillpot for using her tactical knowledge to help us all to best utilise our strengths.

Iceni  15 - 4  RED

Location: London

Time: Two weeks ago

Hannah Brew (Iceni): We came out strong against RED starting with a break and keeping the momentum to go 5 points up. RED had strong handler movement and clean deep shots from well timed and executed down the line strikes. We focused in the middle of the game to change up the defence to pressure these shots which worked to some extent but RED diverted to strong swing movement which meant we had to work hard to shift across the pitch. Both unfortunate errors and increased Iceni defensive pressure allowed us to generate some more turns and move quickly to go on another run to 9-1. We took a timeout as RED's defensive pressure meant we hit a bit of a wall. After a refresh we came out strong, RED got the turn, but we got the disc back and scored quick. Solid resets and patience from RED got them a goal after a sweet huck. A great grab from RED between a hoard of Iceni defenders took the game to 14-4 and then we took the game 15-4 and accidently played an extra point taking final score to 16-4. RED created a lot of opportunities through well executed handler movement and Iceni were quick off the mark with fast offence which helped us convert those endzone opportunities into points.

    Shout out to Iceni Rookies: Megan Brass for getting bookends, Maeve Crowley for chasing everything down, Becky Thompson getting ever closer to that dump poach block, Katie Flight for setting the Tempo after a turn, Chee Ling Wu for some next level breaks, Hayley Dalmon and Ellie Taylor for brilliant offensive control, Jin Ho for hitting shots through defensive sags, Kat Rowland for wide swings, Kathryn Elsby for top notch D positioning and Katie Light for intense handler defence

Sasha Squires and Ella Knight (Red): Red were a little slow off the starting blocks for this game, still adjusting to playing again and competing against such high level women. As the game went on our movement and accuracy improved massively and we got some really nice flow up the pitch, with some amazing end zone grabs (Shout out to Rosie Hudson) and great commitment to defence (Shout out to Rozzi Chalk). However, Iceni’s stamina, skill and aggressive play helped them secure this victory as they punished every mistake we made and made us work incredibly hard for every point.

National League 2021
Mixed					Women's					Men's
Team	Played	Wins	Losses	GD	Team	Played	Wins	Losses	GD	Team	Played	Wins	Losses	GD
Deep Space	1	1	0	7	Bristol	2	2	0	24	Clapham	1	1	0	8
Reading	1	1	0	4	Iceni	2	2	0	18	Chevron	1	1	0	1
Glasgow	0	0	0	0	SCRAM	0	0	0	0	Devon	2	1	1	-2
SMOG	0	0	0	0	SMOG	0	0	0	0	EMO	0	0	0	0
Mighty Hucks	1	0	1	-4	SYC	2	0	2	-17	Alba	1	0	1	-1
Birmingham	1	0	1	-7	RED	2	0	2	-25	Kapow	1	0	1	-6

The Recap: Open National League and Cup Rounds 0 & 1

Editor: Hazard
A small note - from the next article, we will be providing contributors with the option to include pronouns. We've always considered our pieces to be the start of a conversation, and we hope this will make such conversations flow more smoothly. We're including this explanation both here and in the next article so that people know it is an optional thing we are allowing writers to do if they wish.

Welcome to our first proper coverage for the Open season! While there was one National League game before this weekend, we decided to wait to put it all in one big article. A big thank you to everyone who reached out from different teams as well as to everyone who responded to my requests. We hope you as a community appreciate their efforts.

Rounds 0 and 1 of the National Cup were played in consecutive games for most teams. Teams qualifying from this weekend are through to the quarter-finals, where the real scrap for places begins. Teams knocked out this weekend are knocked out of the whole structure, with no chance for recovery.

We've tried our best to get reports for all the games this weekend but there were far too many for us to manage. Congratulations to BLU, Bristol 1, CU Legends, Devon 2, EDI, Oxford, and Smash'D for making it through to the next round (Manchester vs Lemmings/Steel is still pending). A particular well done to BLU for being the only team to get a bye from the first round to win their round 1 game, it's been a big weekend for upsets! 

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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 (Alba, Chevron Action Flash, Clapham, Devon 1, EMO, Ka-Pow!). They will play in a mini-league for 3 spots at the National Championships.

We also have the National Cup, with 26 teams fighting it out. 20 teams played in round 0, 6 teams got automatic byes to round 1. Up for grabs are 2 spots at the National Championships, which go to the finalists of the cup.

The remaining 3 National League teams, the two Cup semi-finalists, and one intrepid qualify-the-hard-way Cup quarter finalist will enter the National Playoffs, seeking to be among the final 3 spots at the National Championships.

Taken from UKU's guide to 2020/21 Ultimate

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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

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National Cup

Devon 2  15 - 1  Bristol 2

Round 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!

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

CU legends teamlist

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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!

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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. 

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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.

The Recap: Mixed National League + Cup Round 1

Editor: Hazard

Welcome to the 2020/21 season! This is a very unusual season, with qualification coming through the UKU National Series, a series of games played around the country. This new and exciting structure also makes media coverage very difficult - we have games occurring many miles apart, so journalists can't just pop over to a sideline to see how teams are doing.

As such, we reached out to some member of each National League team and each winning National Cup team to ask for a small paragraph on the game. We would love to do this for Open/Women's too, so if you're keen please, please get in touch. Seriously. It's a lot of effort to manage this and we'd love to include the hard work your team has done. Sorry for any team missing, but, well, we all have limited energy right now and we will happily edit this article to include any information teams send after we publish. 

Below is a recap of the structure, with the reports below that. Thank you again to everyone that contributed!

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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 (Birmingham, Deep Space, Glasgow Ultimate, Mighty Hucks, SMOG 1, and Reading Ultimate). They will play in a mini-league for 3 spots at the National Championships.

We also have the National Cup, with 17 teams fighting for 2 spots at the National Championships. These spots go to the finalists of the cup.

The remaining 3 National League teams, the two Cup semi-finalists, and one intrepid qualify-the-hard-way Cup quarter finalist will enter the National Playoffs, seeking to be among the final 3 spots at the National Championships.

Taken from UKU's guide to 2020/21 Ultimate

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National League

Deep Space 15 - 8 Birmingham Ultimate

Location: Oxford

Conor Hogan (Deep Space): Space took half 8-3 but Brum came out riled up post half and stuck in an offensive hold and then 2 breaks, taking the game to 9-6. We sorted ourselves out after that and scored seven points while only conceding two, finishing the game at 15-8. Former Birmingham stalwart Marius Hutcheson had two or three bricks, but then cheered wildly as one of the Brum handlers dropped his last pull. The final score was a one-pass O-line hold with Josh Coxon Kelly whacking a huck deep to Gus Morse (which received a shoutout in the post goal chat from the Brum captain as “lush”).

Harry Mason (Neutral): As the neutral venue for the game was in my city, I'll take the rare chance to add a few words myself. It was fantastic getting to watch a game, and both Birmingham and Deep Space have clearly been training hard. If you asked me for the main difference between the two teams, I'd highlight the pressure applied on defence. Deep Space played very tight D, only giving Birmingham centimeters to throw to. To Brum's credit, they were managing those difficult throws a lot, but it only took a small lapse in offensive concentration for a turn. Deep Space's large squad size may well have helped too, allowing plenty of time to hydrate and recover on a sunny British afternoon. I look forward to hopefully getting a chance to see both teams later in the season, as there were a few small first-proper-game nerves from both sides that I don't think we'll see at Nationals.

Reading Ultimate 15 - 11 Mighty Hucks

Location: Reading

Ruth Cawdron and Joe Brown (Reading): A very tight first half. Hucks broke early (first RU O point), but RU were first to huck (second O point). Hucks were definitely not out-hucked and did more of the hucking after that with a decent completion rate in a game where turnovers were surprisingly hard to come by given the amount of ultimate that’s been played recently. Two turns a piece at 7-6 took the score to level footing, before RU broke to take half 8-7. 

    After half, RU couldn’t hold, but then broke back straight away and pulled out a few more out. The required the Reading D line to click well, throwing different looks in order to get breaks on the board. Hucks weren't down though - Connor McHale pulled out a massive uphill pull and followed it up with a trademark layout D. Will Rowledge also looked solid, getting some nice Ds in the deep space making RU work the under cuts. 

    On Reading's side, the ladies were looking pretty boss - shout out to Erin McGready for looking powerful on O and getting turns as chase in the RU zone. Sam Wilson showed his pace by overtaking players from both sides to run down the final throw of the match, which was definitely not intended for him given how much ground he covered! However, Reading had been up 14-9 so all credit to Hucks for fighting it out to the end. Time for after sun.

Ben Bruin (Mighty Hucks): It was a fairly even start from both teams, with a couple of expected errors early on. The main difference between the teams was that Reading were moving the disc much more quickly and convincingly (I'd know as I was stalling them all). Hucks struggled to find their usual flow and space deep, and it took until late on to scrape off the rust. Reading then made the most of a few errors and got a few run through to take the game away with too much to rescue late on. 

    Give Hucks another game and I think the margin would be tighter. Unfortunate for SMOG and Deep Space who will get to play us later on 😉

Glasgow Ultimate vs SMOG 1 is played next week. We'll share the paragraph/s on Facebook after the game, and edit it into this piece to keep all the coverage cohesive.

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National Cup

Oxford Ultimate 15 - 9 Zoo Mixed Ultimate

Location: Oxford
Harry Mason (Oxford): Oxford took an early lead going up 5-0, and then held that lead (with some ebbs and flows) until the end. Zoo seemed a little shaky at the start, but once their long game started connecting with some impressive catches they really tightened up. Oxford managed to pull out through in the end, with some great grabs by Kat Rantanen saving the game several times.

Cambridge Ultimate 15 - 1 Geometrically Frustrated Magnets

Location: London
Hannah Smith (Cambridge): A classic case of “the scoreline didn’t reflect the game”. GFM brought a good game but we (Cambridge) just put our foot down. Lots of connecting deep shots. Our women were strong so we played poachy defence to mess things up whilst men were tight and it worked.

Leamington Lemmings 15 - 7 Mythago* (Bristol University Ultimate)

Location: Bristol
Nathan Sanders (Lemmings): Mythago had a shaky start which allowed Lemmings to take a 3-0 lead. This generated some fire inside a very strong Mythago team, and soon the game was tied up at 3-3. Lemmings found a bit of traction, and managed to take a messy half 8-4. A cleaner half from both sides saw the game end 15-7. Oli May was unstoppable on both offence and defence, giving Lemmings the edge.

Earlier in the day, Mythago beat South Wales Storm 15-3 in "Round 0" to earn the right to play Lemmings in Round 1. Nathan Sanders watched for us, noting the Mythago performance as "dominant". He also singled out Mythago player Joe Littler for his strong handling performance.

LeedsLeedsLeeds 11 - 3 Merseyside Ultimate Club

Location: Liverpool
Avril Huter and Daniel Dingle Lovesey (LLLeeds): A hard fought game from both teams, but after trading points early in the game Leeds adapted better to the blustery conditions, managing to work the disc upfield and convert better when near the endzone to take the game 11-3. Although the ending score doesn't fully reflect the closer nature of the game.

Thundering Herd 15 - 9 Flyght Club

Location: Milton Keynes
Sean Colfer (Herd): Herd beat Flyght mixed 15-9 after a halftime lead of 8-3. Flyght had a chat about increasing intensity at half and did a good job of getting back into the game and trading during the second half. Sean Colfer did a great job sidelining considering his debilitating calf injury.

Bristol Mixed 15 - 8 Plymouth Mixed

Location: Bristol
Leigh Williams (Bristol): After a close start, Bristol nabbed a halftime lead with a few quick points. Plymouth took a while to find their groove on offense but once they did, they made a stirring second half comeback, making great use of their talented women. Bristol briefly stuttered but exciting rookies John Fitzgerald, Kate Willis, and Dom Stratton all made big plays on their competitive debuts to ultimately seal the win.

SMOG 2 15 - 5 Black Sheep

Location: ?
We don't currently have a report for SMOG 2 vs Black Sheep

The Brown Win vs Ouseburn

Ouseburn apparently pulled out, so The Brown win by default. Sorry for not asking for a paragraph, feel free to send one describing how you spent your afternoon instead.