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).
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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.
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