Student Open Outdoor Regionals 2008
Team: Millie, Trev, Joe, Edd PhD, Edd, Sam, Tom, Greg, Cam, Alex, Ste.
7.40am we meet at uni (Joe is late due to waking up Greg with a "where are you?" phone call -freshers!). We head off in convoy with Joe's girly car, the minibus and Ste's crack dealer white Mondeo. Getting lost in Cambridge found us a Tesco where Edd PhD and I got served by the slowest guy of all time who couldn't speak any English other than 'have it'.
Arrival at the pitches: it is wiiinndddy!! All attempts at throwing are futile and within five minutes due to a combination of over-moisturised hands and the wind Cam's lip had exploded from a disc in the face.
Please forgive me for not remembering the scores - staring at a hospital clock for 10 hours has mind numbed me!
Bears (Warwick)
As always Bears were well drilled and organised resulting in them knowing exactly how to play in the wind. Our lack of playing together really showed through no flow on offence and a poor zone defence. Our arrow zone did improve but gaps in the arrow allowed them to break it. Bears won comfortably but we still did well to hold them off. Plus I almost (so close) point blocked Super Dave!! Final score was something like 9-1.
OW 2 (Oxford)
Finally Jesters started to play some ultimate. With less drops and really good handling we tore their zone apart! We began to get used to our positions on both offence and defence. We won easily with a final score of 10-1.
Fly TNT (Nottingham Trent)
We destroyed them in the first half 7-0 with an impenetrable zone and our man winning the foot race. Joe point blocked the captain and in the process macked it to himself -yeah Jesters flair! TNT did not take this well and began to play harder in the second half getting three scores in a row. A huck down the field was bid on by Joe, his mark and Ste. Joe layed out around his mark and missed the disc and as he fell down Ste leaped to grab the disc and kicked Joe in the back of the head. Not only did Joe face plant he was knocked out cold for a few seconds. We continued to play hard and left TNT angry taunting us saying "where have the real Jesters gone when they scored a point?". Final score no idea - about 10-3.
Strange Blue 2 (Cambridge)
A pretty good team for a second team but again we took the lead early on. Sam sprinted half the pitch a few times for some huck assists from Edd and Trev. Joe dropped almost everything from still being sparko. Again about 9-3.
We ended the day second in the group having won a respectable 3 out of 4 games. After hot showers we headed to the scout hut. We ordered food from the local pub round the corner. I could not wait for my steak and homemade chips I was sooo hungry. Huge plates arrived but what was on them made my jaw drop. It was just a snack - damn minimalist food. Joe had a total of ten chips and Tom had a scoop of some fancy potato. After our measly meal we washed it down with drinks and Rugby + Football. I filled myself up temporarily with some of the gravy from Tom and Edd's lamb shank bitesize meals. By 9.30 I was starving and myself, Joe, Tom and Greg went on the hunt for food. Tom made us walk for miles to find him a chicken chow mein. There were no Chinese takeaways and Tom vowed to set one up and make a fortune. I settled for a pancake roll and chips from a fish & chip shop. Chomping happily on it back at the hut I couldn't any longer once Greg told me my pancake roll was filled with dog sick :-(.
Cam admitted some wierd fetish for wanting to rape everyone in their sleep starting with some girl's back crack. Some lucky bugger was asleep within 2 mins of the light out snoring enough for no-one else to sleep. Greg missed his pillow in the night smashing his head on the floor (waking us up with a bang) so he got no sleep for two hours.
Random Fling (Nottingham)
First game of the day was the crossover. We really wanted to win this seeing as we hate Fling. We started on offence upwind and played a gorgeous piece of flowing ultimate to score our first upwind point. They just could not keep up with us as we kept scoring from lovely handling and cuts to the corners of the endzones. We used a junk zone which really came together to shut them down. We won 9-6.
Aye Aye (East Anglia)
After watching them it was clear they are a well drilled team with really good disc skills. But in this game our zone was really really hot. Trev, Alex and Cam got layout Ds on low discs heading through the cup. We really deserved this win and took fifth place. OW and Haze could not believe we had beaten them! Final score something like 9-4.
OW
They played a rock hard awesome zone against us that we just could not penetrate. Some really good handling meant we kept possession for a long time but just could not get it down the pitch. We had injury after injury with Cam going out with an ankle injury, Trev hurting his knee and Joe getting kneed in the balls. We only got one point but really enjoyed the last few points where we decided to take it easy and hucked it at every opportunity. Final score 12-1 to OW.
The last game of the day against Aye Aye (again) for sixth/seventh position. We had to win to get into Nationals. We had a long break and were feeling tired and very cold. We had to pump ourselves up to get ready for the game - it all rested on us coming out and playing hard. And man did we!! We took the first point after multiple turnovers Trev took an awesome grab down from a dodgy sidearm huck from me. We played our zone all game and Sam and Tom's chase was awesome stopping Aye Aye from having any flow. Joe did a huge layout over JimJimJimJim and ended up getting the guy's head smacking into his back but he managed to play the rest of the match. At half time we were buzzing and so excited at the prospect of winning. Aye Aye came out hard and took three points in a row but a renewed effort saw us take the next points. The last point of the cap meant we only needed one more to score. It was epic, lasting for at least ten minutes. it involved the cup being run ragged, a huck from Sam, awesome grabs from Cam, layout D from PhD Edd and an upwind hammer by Alex for the win. WE QUALIFIED. A really awesome game to end on as Aye Aye were so spirited and we played our best ultimate of the weekend.
Jesters 6th: Div 2 Nationals. An awesome result, I am so proud of the team and really cannot wait for Nationals. I cannot stop smiling at the thought!!
MVP: Greg. He played to a standard above most experienced players we saw over the weekend with truly amazing disc skills and countless Ds and scores. A really solid player who could be relied on to bring down any disc.
Special Mention: Trev. Trev had his fourth year project in on the monday morning and still came and drove the minibus. A level of commitment that really made a difference and is appreciated so much! Good luck with the result Trev!
The minibus and the crack dealer car headed back to Leicester but myself and Joe headed to his parents' house. We then spent from 10 onwards in Chelmsford hospital as Joe's kidney was bleeding internally. He had to spend the night in the hospital for tests and observation. He was not discharged till 8pm on Monday night after a tiring day of waiting for a scan. He has to take it easy and have a checkup in a few months but is doing well.
Really an epic weekend with everyone giving everything they had. Great result guys.
BRING ON NATIONALS.
Millie.