The Recap: UK Women's Nationals 2021

Editor: Hazard (he/him)

Nationals is over! Very well done to Bristol for winning the tournament, and to Reading for winning spirit of the game. These articles are simply going to be giving each team a space to write a few thoughts on the tournament, in order of finishing.

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Other Coverage

Full results can be found on the schedule.

The ShowGame are doing weekly podcasts every Friday/Saturday covering all the action.

Hogi filmed some games this weekend. You can see his watchalong on Twitch, or watch the game footage on YouTube.

Ulti.tv filmed a lot of Nationals, and streamed it for free to the public on their YouTube. You can support them and find out more on their Patreon.

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Results

1. Bristol Women

2. Iceni

3. London Masters Ultimate (LMU)

4. SYC

5. Spice

6. SCRAM

7. Reading Women (Spirit)

8. SOUL



The Saturday Pool Games of Women's Nationals


The Sunday knockout bracket of Women's Nationals

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Recaps


1st Place: Bristol Women

Amelia DurbinBristol Women are unbelievably proud to be National Champions. It's been a strange season, and we're delighted that for us - it ended the way we so desperately wanted. It's certainly one to remember. 

The weekend started with 3 games against SCRAM, LMU and Reading. SCRAM came out hot, challenging us consistently, LMU worked our brains hard - making us adjust and try new things and Reading kept us on our toes throughout the game. 

Our semifinal against SYC is one for the history books. Both teams wanted the win so desperately and the emotion on the pitch was palpable. Having had a convincing win against SYC earlier in the season, we were so impressed to see them come out all guns blazing. Their defence was stifling. The game was 50/50 throughout constantly trading. Following a mammoth point, we were able to push away at the end. Many tears were shed from both sides, and every player left everything they had out on the pitch. 

We came in to the final with a point to prove. Following a nasty collision in the SYC game, we were down to 14 players. We knew in order to win, we had to find 5th gear, dig deep, make no mistakes and work together as one. This is exactly what we did. Our team played for eachother; we wanted to win for our friends who deserved to hang a medal around their neck. ICENI didn't make it easy though. Like our semi, the game was anyone's. They worked smart and efficiently. They are an athletic team and we tried to match them where we could. 

Overall, the weekend and season was a whirlwind of emotion; it was filled with elation, but had moments of complete desperation. We are walking away from the win knowing we deserve it. All the training and the hours spent perfecting our play was well and truly worth it. Playing for Bristol is special - and this is confirmation of why we do it.



2nd Place: Iceni

Amelia KennethIceni had a great weekend full of high level games. First up was a youth-filled energetic team in Spice, who really showed up and showcased their skills well which made us change our approach to try to work around their well oiled offence. After trading through most of the game we managed to pull away to win 11 - 9. Next up was SOUL who used the pitch width really well, had some great grabs and made us really think about our defensive approach. It’s great to see a new team on the scene and the final score was 15-2. Iceni played SYC in the last game of the day on Saturday in the late afternoon sun. There were many hard fought points but our defensive strategy seemed to work very well against the SYC offence and we came away with the 15 - 6 win. 

Our Sunday morning kicked off with a unacceptable amount of coffee and a game against LMU. It’s always going to be hard playing the legends who taught you most of your tricks! It was a pleasure to play against these wonderful athletes on the pitch and they pushed us to try new things and really execute the fundamentals well. After a really tight game of high level ultimate, Iceni came out with the win 11 - 9.

The first half of the final was pretty even and we mostly traded with Bristol but they took it away in the second half with some nice flow and break shots that our defence couldn’t shut down. We had a great weekend, were honestly quite devastated to lose the final and it really hurt in the moment but we’ve been reminded why we love this sport - the high level games but also friendships made and sustained. Thanks to all the other teams for their support, the great games (both spectated and played) and thanks to UKU for organising Nationals after such a weird year.


3rd Place: LMU

Chesca WeddellThird place never felt so good! Feels like first! Thank you to all the teams we played over the weekend.


4th Place: SYC

Rupal GhelaniWhen SYC saw the group draw, we were definitely feeling especially nervous for the Spice pool game. We know how talented Spice are, and their talent shone through so brightly throughout the whole game. SYC started the game on a bit of a run putting a few points on the board through some varied offence trying to keep Spice on their toes. After a time out, Spice managed to bring it back with their zone proving very effective at slowing down our offence and causing a few throwaways, and their beautiful breaks and flowing disc skills getting them points on the board. But SYC managed to keep the foot on the gas and the intensity up to take the game. Words genuinely cannot express the love the SYC have towards Spice - they are a talented group of players who are the future of women's ultimate. To take 5th in the country in your first season is incredible and we have no doubt that next year you will be in the top 4. Shout out to Grace Wilkinson and Ciara Moore for leading Spice through the season and weekend, and Amy Van Zyl for being a royal pain to mark downfield for all of our defenders.

Sunday started with the SYC vs Bristol semi-final. This was the matchup we were hoping to happen over the weekend. After playing Bristol in our first game of the national league where Bristol beat us heavily, we wanted to show the, what we were made of. Bristol started on a 3-0 run which meant SYC had to regroup and refocus before going on a 3-0 run of our own. Just those two runs really set the standard for the game which pretty much traded out until the end before Bristol were able to get a couple of breaks to win the game. Carla Link, Molly Wedge, Lynden Chiang and Saskia Kantorowicz were outstanding for Bristol. Carla took control behind the disc and opened up every corner of the pitch with her expansive throws. Molly, Saskia and Lynden were threats both under and deep down field, proving difficult to mark for our best defenders. I'm so so proud of SYC and how we managed to find another gear and give Bristol and tough game, and congratulations to Bristol for being the deserved winners of UKU Nationals. Even with a small team you truly showed why you are a sustainable powerhouse of women's ultimate in the UK.

This season has been very up-and-down for SYC. We started off shaky with two big losses against Bristol and Iceni, but since then have built and grown together through to a National Championship in which every player on the team peaked at the right time to pull out the best performance of the season. We felt like a lot of people had written us off and we had a lot to prove, and every training session we went in with purpose with all players putting in the hours off pitch as well. As a team we'd like to thank Deep Space, Brixton, and Fire for giving us some friendlies and helping us grow as a team. We had a lot of rookies this year and all of them rose to the occasion and standard we set ourselves especially at Nationals, and all of our returning players led by example. We feel very privileged to have been able to play a season of competitive Ultimate, so finally a big thank you to the UKU for making it possible.



5th Place: Spice

Maya Israel (she/her)Nationals 2021 was Spice’s first ever National Championships, and we’re incredibly proud to say we finished in 5th place. We saw Nationals as an opportunity to show ourselves and other teams how far we’ve come in the last few months, after having built a team in 2019 and with our first season being cancelled. 

We began the weekend with an electric game against Iceni, probably one of the most exciting games a lot of us have ever played. We knew this would be our toughest pool game but we managed to step up to the challenge and played some powerful defence and slick offence. Iceni deservedly won 9-11, but given the standard of Frisbee played it really didn’t feel like a loss to us. 

Our second pool game against SYC didn’t go as well as we hoped. Knowing we needed to win for a spot in the top 4 perhaps applied a pressure the team were yet to experience. Before Nationals, we’d never been in a situation where we had something to lose and I think this might’ve affected us slightly. SYC pulled it out the bag, winning 13-8. Their offence was clean and when they got the ball rolling, they kept their heads in the game and held tightly to the lead. To finish off the Saturday, we played SOUL and won 15-7. 

Coming into Sunday, we were gunning for 5th place. Our first game against Reading was a success that led us to the 5th vs 6th playoffs against SCRAM. We knew SCRAM wouldn’t go down without a fight. SCRAM enjoyed threatening deep and used their zone to slow us down, but ultimately we managed to take the win 13-6. 

Our MVPs were Fi Chang, Caitlin Simon and Lucy Cinnamond for their reliability, spiciness, and grit. The team are also grateful for our Captains Ciara Moore and Grace Wilkinson; and to the rest of the coaching committee for being amazing. Running a team without a non-playing coach is a challenge, and we wouldn’t be able to do it without their hard work.


6th Place: SCRAM

Rhona Gordon (she/her)Nationals for us was such an incredible end to what had been such a weird season. We were going into the weekend knowing how well we could play but also unsure how that would stack us up against the other teams. 

We did our best to come out firing, and we made some very big plays throughout the weekend. Teams managed to wise up to our deep shots which made it a bit trickier for us to make the connections we wanted in places. I think if the season had been longer and we had been able to get more competitive reps in then we'd have placed higher in the hotly contested 3-6 bracket (but I guess other teams may feel similar!). 

Overall though the captains are so proud of the squad, it hasn’t been an easy year and we had a number of rookies that really stepped up. It’s been such a fun season as part of this team, and it doesn’t seem like only a few months ago there were people on the squad who had never met before! We are also extremely proud of being called “Rowdy and Boisterous” on the livestream, and will definitely use that as a recruitment tagline for 2022.


7th Place: Reading Ultimate

Charlotte MarriottWhat a weekend! Reading came into it wanting to gain experience playing against elite women teams and learn. I personally felt proud of a team that haven't played together, and of all ages, coming together and playing some good ultimate. Throughout the weekend we were getting better at knowing what cuts to make, what throws make sense and what each other felt comfortable doing on the pitch. We want to say a special thank you to every team we played, the intensity of the games didn't drop and personally some of the best ultimate we have played in a while (no thanks to Corona). We hope to learn from nationals and build depth within our team to go and have a smashing next season.

The spirit throughout nationals was extremely high we thought. It was good to get back to playing and having the calls discussed, hand signals for said calls correctly displayed and a general positive vibe. Sure we didn't win all the games, but personally we won our personals goals and kept a positive outlook for each game (I guess this may have contributed to us winning spirit, again well done Reading women's team!). A big shout-out goes to Gemma Coleman (fellow co-captain and all around all star) and Ilona Livarski for most spirited players for the weekend and Katja Chan for most improved. I was also great the play alongside Beth Jeffery and Rosie Coward who put 130% into every cut they made. And it always a pleasure handling alongside Cam Spearing. Honestly if I could shout out the whole team I would, I am proud to say that I helped captain the team!


8th Place: SOUL

Ali Thomas: Some of the roster for Nationals had played for SOUL before the weekend, others had not, so, as essentially a pickup team, we eyed our ‘warmup’ games against SYC and Iceni with some trepidation. I’m very proud of how we gelled over the weekend, making some awesome plays and managing to work through the defences and cause trouble for the offences of the best women’s teams in the country. Though it would have been nice to win a game, the amount of fun we had was a victory in itself. Although it's worth saying that we managed to score against every team #nobagels, and ended the weekend with a 7-13 result against Reading that was far closer than our cup game had been, showing how much our team had developed in such a short span of time.

The Recap: Open Playoffs

Editor: Hazard (he/him)

The spots at Open Nationals are now finalised! Well, nearly. Naturally, in this year of all years, there has to be a hiccup. As such, Clapham Legends vs Ka-Pow! has been postponed and will hopefully serve as the hypest qualification match of the year.

That game aside though, we now know that Devon 1 and Lemmings join Clapham, Chevron, Alba, Smash'D, and Bristol at Nationals. An additional well done to Smash'D for winning a nail-biter against Bristol in the final of the cup! To find out what went down, read on for the fantastic words from our contributors.

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Other Coverage

The ShowGame are doing weekly podcasts every Friday/Saturday covering all the action

Hogi has been filming lots of games. You can see his watchalongs on Monday on Twitch, or watch the game footage on YouTube

Ulti.tv are trying to gather support to produce high quality footage at Nationals and other UK tournaments (released for free to the public). You can support them and find out more on Patreon

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Structure

The overall championship is the UK National Series. Within it, teams compete for 8 spots at the National Championships

We have 6 National League teams. They play in a mini-league. Clapham (1st place), Chevron (2nd place), and Alba (3rd place) gained Nationals spots through this route.

From 26 teams in the National Cup, with Bristol (Cup finalist) and Smash'D (Cup winner) took the two automatic spots at Nationals.

The remaining spots were claimed by Devon 1 (League 4th place), Lemmings (Cup 3rd place) and one of Ka-Pow! (League 5th place) and CU Legends (Cup 4th place).


The Open Playoff bracket. A "W-L" result indicates a team forfeited.

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National Cup Final


Smash'D  15 - 14  Bristol

Location: Reading

Willem Garnier (Smash'D)To be honest, I didn't really know anything about Bristol going into the season other than hearing that they weren't too happy about Devon (the team, not the county) relocating to Bristol. We knew to expect a tough match-up given the teams they had to beat to get here, but had little-to-no information about who their players to watch out for would be.

As it turns out, I personally didn't think any one player on their team stood out as running the show for them, they were just a really well-practiced, solid unit that all seemed very prepared and on the same page throughout the game. Those teams are always a pleasure to play against - and a pain to defend. 

We traded for the first few points, our O-line scored confidently while our D-line repeatedly would manage to force a turn but would fail to convert every time... until Bristol finally managed to get a turn on our offence, and quickly scored the first break of the game. The pressure was instantly on our back, Christian Turvill was frothing at the mouth, and we responded with a run of several breaks in a row to take half 8-5. 

At halftime we set ourselves the goal of never taking our foot off the gas, and aim to finish the game 15-5... Bristol had none of that. They switched up their defensive looks, and continued to give our defence trouble throughout, which meant we never really managed to properly pull away into safe territory like we had done with lesser, more unknown teams such as Clapham Legends and Fire 1. They eventually managed to string a run of several breaks in a row to be up 14 - 13 with two chances to win it... Thankfully, we finally managed to hold to bring it to universe, where our very own Dr. Niall Jackson (MD) diagnosed a Bristol huck with a serious case of "get that weak s*** out of here", slapping it out of the air with no hesitation to save the game. A dubious toe-in at the back of a very non-clearly marked out endzone later, and we were celebrating the cup victory. 

Shout-out to the weather for staying sunny despite rain being forecast for the entire day (sucks to be you Tessa), and to Bristol's Hamza Alawiye for not only being a Warwick Bears legend but also teaching me how to cook rice properly.

Jake Waller (Bristol, he/him): It's a rare privilege to lose a match and still enjoy it this much, and that was testament to the quality of ultimate from both teams as well as their positivity. Smash'D were loud, athletic, and intense from the start (as expected) and I'm proud we kept our heads and brought the fire to take an early, narrow lead. 

Our O line took a while (and a few overheads) to figure out the Smash'Defence, while our D line caused turns throughout. Then came their fire—Smash'D upped their level and romped to a 3 or 4 point lead at half. Starting the second half well inspired us to our own run, and we grabbed the lead late, 14-13. Smash'D held nervelessly, and we were onto universe. Smash'D came out zone and we found a gap through before shooting to the endzone. Two big men underneath it, one in red, one in white, and neither could reel it in. Would our turn make their offence think twice about sending their own deep bomb? Not a chance. These boys trust their athleticism and they ran down a big put for the win. 

Fantastic game overall and hope for a rematch at Nats. Smash'D deserve a big trophy—so that we at least deserve some silverware!


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National Playoffs

Lemmings  15 - 9  EMO

Location: Leamington Spa

Nathan Sanders (Lemmings)A very blustery start to the game saw EMO struggle to move through a zone giving Lemmings the upper hand and a controlling 4-0 lead. Ollie White threw up some hilariously good pulls which meant EMO were consistently starting deep inside their endzone. Not only that, but playing out against an athletic bunch (lead by Will Marshall on chase) who were putting in everything they could meant that EMO struggled to find their form. The middle of the game saw the efficiency of both teams drop significantly, a lot of turns and unforced errors from both sides but Lemmings manage to find the endzone more often and maintain a good lead at 14-5. 

Lemmings were sitting pretty but EMO mounted a strong come-back, channelling their inner Kapow and looking for 10 points on the bounce to see them take home the win. Unfortunately for them 10 proved too many, and Omar Khan manage to squeeze in a gorgeous upwind flick to Dave Cubitt to send Lemmings through to their first nationals in the Open division.


Devon 1  15 - 4  EDI

Location: Winford

Cameron Dick (EDI, he/him)Another 450 mile journey for one competitive UKU game. Conditions were wet but firm underfoot with a clear upwind/downwind split. EDI scored the first point, going a break up against Devon. However, as the game went on our offence was self sabotaging with a few execution errors in the redzone. We had opportunities and should have converted on those better. 

It was the first time playing against a top 4 club for many of our players, so it was a pretty good (albeit gutting) experience for us, but helpful in our clubs development. Credit to the lads for their efforts this season and whenever I'm next stuck in the back of a Seat Mii travelling down to England, it'll be too soon.



A forfeit from Devon 2 meant EDI went straight through to play Devon 1 in the game-to-go.
A forfeit from Clapham Legends meant there was no seeding game for Lemmings to play.
The Clapham Legends vs Ka-Pow! game has been postponed, but not forfeited.


The Recap: Women's Playoffs

 Editor: Hazard (he/him)

And so, the eight top teams who will meet at Women's Nationals have been decided! Iceni, Bristol, SPICE and the cup-winners London Masters will be joined by SYC, SCRAM, Reading and SOUL in Nottingham. Thanks again to all our contributors, and thanks to you all for joining us for this coverage.

In this articles we have reports from the cup final, the playoff games, and also two additional friendlies - including a Nationals preview game of Iceni vs Spice! 

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Other Coverage

The ShowGame are doing weekly podcasts every Friday/Saturday covering all the action

Hogi has been filming lots of games. You can see his watchalongs on Monday on Twitch, or watch the game footage on YouTube

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Structure

The overall championship is the UK National Series. Within it, teams compete for 8 spots at the National Championships.

We have 6 National League teams. Bristol and Iceni gained Nationals spots through this route.

We also have the National Cup. London Masters (winners) and SPICE (finalists) gained a further two spots here.

Now that the playoffs have been settled, SYC (4th place league), SCRAM (5th place league), and the two Cup semi-finalists (Reading, SOUL) have taken the final four spots.



The Women's Playoff bracket. A "W-L" result indicates a team forfeited.

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National Cup Final


London Masters  11 - 9  Spice

Location: London

Lily Huang (London Masters)Swirly wind, on-and-off rain, and Spice offering some preternatural heads up/poachy defence made for a frustrating start for LMU. It seemed that every LMU pass was straight into the hands of a Spice poach. Within the first few minutes, LMU found itself down 5-0. 

The time out at 3-0 didn't seem to work, but the 5-0 time out saw the LMU handlers do a better job of engaging their defenders. The defence held up their end by playing some nice shut down with a few smart switches. Somehow we took it back to 6-5. To be honest, that bit of the game went by in a blur for me. We then traded to take half 8-7. 

There was 2 minutes of halftime, then only 15min left to play. LMU started on offence, but Spice took the first point to tie 8-8. LMU then took the upwind to 9-8. The next point saw multiple turns from both teams. Spice called a time out with 30m to go to score. LMU sandwiched in the endzone with fierce handler marks to deny any resets. We got the turn and possibly a few turns later from both teams, converted to take the morale boosting downwind point 10-8. Spice then answered after a few more turns from both teams 10-9. Cap on. 

More turns from both teams, Chesca Weddell has a target painted on her ankles--multiple discs die at her feet. We graft to get the D back. Stopped play on the sideline from about half pitch, LMU on offence. Jenna Thomson calls reverse chariot. Then says, "take a moment to think about what that might mean". The sideline echos it but has no idea what it might mean. Luckily, cutters all go deep, defenders all follow, leaving Catherine Gainey standing open in the middle of the pitch. Jenna tosses it to Gainey, who tosses it back to Jenna, who got eyes from Sophie Beavan and found her deep in the endzone. Game LMU 11-9. We all remember to breathe again. Lots of stand out moments from both teams!

Maya Israel (Spice)Our game against LMU was a tough loss, but perhaps a great lesson on mental toughness. We took a 5 point lead over LMU at the beginning of the game. Our defence was strong and I think perhaps LMU had a bit of a slow start. After our 5th point, however, and a couple of time outs, something in LMU switched. They had a great 6 point run comeback, taking the score to 6-5. After that, points were traded until half (8-7), which was scarily close to the end of the game. After half, LMU continued on their roll, taking two more points before the cap, which made it a game to 11. It was a hard fought final, with a lot of incredible layouts on both O and D, but ultimately, LMU took the title 11-9.


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National Playoffs

SYC  15 - 7  Uprising

Location: London

Rupal Ghelani (SYC)Firstly SYC want to shout out to Uprising to say thank you for helping us get this game organised. We were all concerned about travelling given the current COVID status however we are glad that together we managed to come to a solution and that wouldn't have been possible without Uprising's help! 

The game was very wet and very soggy and practically took place in an ongoing cold jetwash. So credit to both teams for dealing with the conditions admirably! And shout out to Barnes Sports Centre for letting us continue to play despite questioning our sanity to do so. 

SYC started out playing zone hoping to encourage Uprising to take one too many passes, however Uprising dealt with our zone handily with some really nice over head looks - perhaps one of the best offenses against our zone all season! We then had to switch to match defence and managed to get our offense going as well as capitalising on some unfortunate slippy drops by Uprising to break quickly and utilise the deep shots. SYC took half, but Uprising came out storming after the break and put a few of points on the board. SYC then managed to get our heads back into it before taking the game 15-7. A thoroughly enjoyable game despite the conditions! A HUGE shout out to Freya Lenton from Uprising for being a formidable cutter and bringing down lots of high discs!

Georgia Forder (Uprising)A massive thank you to SYC for organising the pitch and our games with themselves and Brixton. Before we started, we knew this game was going to be tough. The weather was not what you’d want for any game. I’d imagine I’m speaking for the majority of players when I say that we practise in all weather, but have never played in rain like we were experiencing that day. 

Despite that, both teams came out hard. SYC had put out a zone and despite some fabulous handler movement and fantastic cutting and grabbing by Freya Lenton, we were unable to continue for a score. After 2 great scores by SYC, Uprising took a time out to relight our intensity. #fireitup We came back and scored off our time out and after a couple more points, the score was 4-2 to SYC. SYC took half but Uprising came back with a couple more points to boost the score. We had finally found our groove and the points started to become longer, with both teams revving up defence. With SYC’s slick offence and the rain easing up for some deep shots, SYC took the game 15-7. I’d like shout out a couple more Uprising players - Katie Barraclough for non-stop cutting, Han Booth for some excellent handling and Suzy Qu, who had some solid switched-on defence - me and Ola were still talking it about later that day!


Reading  14 - 2  SOUL

Location: Reading

Gemma Coleman (Reading): Knowing that we were through to Nationals due to Red’s forfeit, Reading came into our match against SOUL looking for an opportunity to simply play a bit more fun ultimate as a team before Nottingham. The match started in speccy fashion, with the first point being scored off a full-stretch layout grab by Elspeth Newlin due to a fadey huck from yours truly (thanks Speth). 

We alternated between zone and match defence, taking advantage of our tall, speedy players to cover the unders and back ourselves to hunt down long shots. It took most of the first quarter for both teams to get a handle on the breeze upwind, which was light compared to the forecast for the day, but wrecked havoc on a number of leading forehands. SOUL started to flow towards the end of the first half, but couldn’t quite connect in the endzone as Reading took half 8-0. 

In the second half, SOUL’s handlers Hannah Pendlebury and Rebecca Lindsay helped run their structures from the back, whilst Abi Cohman provided some great options downfield. We managed to play through both match and zone looks from SOUL, with special credit on offence to Beth Jeffrey for always being a threat in the end zone, Izzie Collins for using pace and height to get free all over the pitch, and on defence to Cam Spearing for some sneaky run-through catch D’s. Thanks to SOUL for battling floods and thunderstorms to make it to the match, and giving us one last hit out before the August long weekend!




Due to RED and Sheep, Birds, & Bees both forfeiting games, SCRAM and SOUL qualified automatically.

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Challenge League

Iceni  14 - 7  Spice

Hannah Brew (Iceni)We have been waiting to play Spice all season and were super excited that they'd conveniently arranged the cup final at Jenna's school, making it only small trip to see the final and then get the pleasure of playing Spice. 

From the get go-we focussed on Spice's smooth down-the-line to lead-pass offence. We took around 3 or 4 defensive points to have an impact on this style of play really focussing on our handler defence. After adjusting slightly, it took Spice a few points to switch onto this, until they started taking on the swing options much quicker in order to attack the handler space laterally instead of forwards. 

They then threw the same back at us with handler defence that made the throwing lanes seem tiny, which really made us be conscious of how much width we were using. This resulted in a time out of the classic "pull it together and just swing the disc" variety. I think Spice's success on D came down to energy and effort and that's exactly why we were looking forward to playing them! 

Once they got a bit more slick at this we turned to a handler sag zone trying to separate the upfield from the handlers which resulted in some hard throws for Spice around and down the line. Iceni struggled to be consistent outside the endzone as Spice forced us to take countless passes and squished us into the not so fun places on pitch! All in all I think it was a well executed game from both sides with Iceni just pipping Spice to the post on those last few passes going upwind. Glad to be playing a great team in some wind and a bit of rain - perfectly recreating Nationals in August...

Maya Israel (SPICE)We’d been wanting to play Iceni before Nationals, so were grateful they travelled up to our Cup Final game against LMU. Coming into the game, we’d just lost the final. I think this had two effects. Obviously, we weren’t running on fresh legs and were feeling frustrated after the last game, so I think that led to more errors than we would have liked. But I think Spice players appreciated a less pressurised game after the last (even though we still wanted to win and give Iceni a good game). When Iceni got into the game, their offence was incredibly slick. They loved up-the-lines and used their long game really well. They took half at 8-4 and continued pushing on until the end of the game, winning 14-7.


SYC  15 - 2  Brixton

Rupal Ghelani (SYC): We love playing Brixton! And this time was no different! Thank you to Brixton for coming down and playing us and Uprising - and for bringing the good weather with you. Brixton's clinical offence meant we had to be hot on defence throughout, with the Brixton handlers making some really nice swing passes and up the line cuts. Brixton got us on the back foot and worked the disc up the pitch quickly on offence, but had some unfortunate drops closer to the endzone. SYC managed to generate some turn overs and had tidied up our endzone since the first game meaning we were able to work efficiently off a deep shot. Shout out to Emma Pickens and Alana Calne for taking control of the offence. And to Tessa Jalink for some tasty shots to break through Brixton's zone! From Brixton shout out to Georgia for huggggeeeee layout grabs and to Rose for tight shut down match defence



And, to finish, here are the Reading and SYC Instagram posts celebrating their wins this weekend.


World Games 2022 Recap

The World Games are now over. Great Britain played very well across five games, with many incredibly close score lines (all but one was with...