CUBE 2008
Team: Richard J, Benson, myself and 4 guys from Hull.
We set off at midday on the Friday in my car, looking at about 8 hours driving, plus breaks. The last miles, after sunset between Dundee and Aberdeen was a killer, but we arrived at a bar attached to a hotel and found our host, an awesome guy called Russell. The Hull guys weren't going to be able to arrive until about 1am or something, so we headed back to Russell's house and watched TV and slept. Russell stayed up until about 3 waiting for them before giving up and falling asleep himself, spectacular effort there.
Game 1 v FarFlung 2 (Glasgow) 5-0
The Hull guys arrived at the pitches, they'd crashed somewhere else in Aberdeen overnight after arriving at like 4am or something. Anyway, the game was quite comfortable. The sand was rrrrreally cold and intermittent rain made running awkward, but we all worked out how to play together reasonably quickly.
Game 2 v Phoenix Knights (Grey College, Durham) 2-7
They were very good. Jaff (who plays with Red, formerly at York, and who was in Aberdeen working the previous week and hung around for some games on Saturday) joined us, and dropped my (basically) perfect sidearm huck. But ah well.
Game 3 v The Brown (Newcastle Open) 2-3
These guys had stepped in after GB Masters had bailed out, which was good of them. We took a 2-0 lead, but couldn't quite hold it.
So, we finished 3rd in the pool, with a crossover to go into the top half.
Game 4 (XO) v Blaze (Stirling) 1-7/8
They were really good, ended up playing in the final, so there's no concerns there. We played this on the other pitch, which was more slopey and the sand was deeper, so it was less painful but more tiring as your feet sank a foot down if you tried to push off. Bottom 8.
The party was a ceilidh, which is organised Scottish dancing, so everyone's doing the same thing, so no-one looks like a numpty without trying extra hard. The ceilidh band packed up at about 11 by which time everyone was shattered from it, so there wasn't a whole lot else happening. One of the Hull guys was feeling rough so that was the end of the night for most of us.
Game 5 (QF) v RUF (Roehampton) 8-0
Another comfortable start to the day, we forced them into mistakes by just keeping on their shoulder. They got really close to scoring a couple of times so on another day they might have threatened, but this one was alright.
Game 6 (SF) v Positive Mojo 3 (Aberdeen) 7-1
The hosts' thirds had beaten their seconds in their quarter final so we knew that complacency would be a really bad thing, especially as they had the whole sideline as well. Back onto slopey deep pitch for this one, but it was fine again. They were solid handling back and forth but lost a bit of confidence after we got a few points and we pulled it away. Rich did an awesome backwards backhand huck most of the length of the pitch, from which was the assist I scored from (yeah, sometimes I score points). That was a sweet throw.
Game 7 (F) v The Brown (again) 5-3 (or something)
I was a little concerned as the game approached, as 3 Hull guys had wandered to the carpark and hadn't returned, and with a minute to go they appeared over the dune. I got hold of the megaphone (every awesome tournament has a megaphone) and asked them to hurry up a little, and they did. We played a little better than the previous time, and kept our noses in front to take the plate trophy.
Woooooooo!
Edd