Cutty Sharks Ultimate

London Winter League 4

Feb 2011
London

After a very windy day, around 20mph constantly if you're interested, in west London Winter league has finally come to an end. Thanks for all that played, I've had a great time. For those who missed yesterday, or those too focused on their O and D here's a rundown of what happened.

Sharks 8 - 4 Curve
Sharks came out hard for this game taking some strong upwind points with great cuts from Salks, Fran & Butters. Everyone worked hard to backup wayward discs and our D was tight which Curve struggled to break enough to get a real advantage. We worked the disk well upwind frequently only for Curve to pick up the disc, hucking it downwind right on their end-zone line.

Sharks 4- 8 PAF
PAF worked us hard with a Junk zone and although our handlers managed to move the disc about we really struggled to swing it enough to get their cup running hard. PAF had some strong upwind points, their handlers really forcing us to work hard on D. Sharks however fought back during the middle of the game with a quicker transition from D to O and back, we also worked the disc around the zone a lot better which brought us 3 quick points, but unfortunately it all came a little too late.

Sharks 8 - 9 Choke Hazard
I really felt Sharks where the stronger team in this game dominated by the wind, we really worked the disc well upwind and scored quickly on every downwind point, but when the wind eased for 5 minutes and it was to Choke's advantage as they took an upwind point which won them the game, during the rest of the game they struggled to work the disc more than 1/3rd of the way up the pitch showing the effectiveness of our arrow-head.

Sharks 7 - 9 St Albans
Sharks worked the disc well to take the first point as a great upwind move paid off, but every time we managed one St Albans also followed up with an upwind score. The St Albans handlers worked the disc well around our zone but frequently when the disc moved up the field the Sharks where onto it getting a D, however their fresher legs and strong women meant they could get a few points in a row towards the end of the day when our transition from O to D slowed.

Although the results didn't go our way enough everyone seemed to be smiling for most of the day.

Thanks to Nathan for sorting everything out and well done Luke and Fran for their first competitive captaincies.

Frostbite
January 2011
Dorset
Some Sharks fancied a day at the beach, and found the perfect excuse - Frostbite 2011. Going to a beach tournament on the south coast in midwinter was only for the hardiest and most exceptionally foolhardy Sharks, and so a team was assembled quite quickly - With a couple of token pickups. Once we actually got there, there was a consistent 20mph wind (+15mph gusts) across the beach, with a mix of cross and up/down wind pitches.
The pool matches were all on up/down wind pitches and were more or less won by the toss, excepting our first game against number one seeds and now 5 time champions MILF, the only team to manage an upwind point against us. The match did contain a rather nice layout from Martin which earned a look of ire, as the throw didn't need to go out that far and low. Despite this, they beat us with a distinct point margin of 11-3.
Matches against HML and Reading Dragons (6-7, Dragons won) were both very hard fought, with our zone controlling the tempo more often than not when playing downwind, with Sharks taking a victory in the last pool game against HML (5-4, Sharks won) to take 9th, perfect position for plate!
High spirits were not to last as we finally got onto some cross wind pitches, where the savage wind made the points long and the throws short or aimless, and often both. Despite efforts to string more passes together and get some flow, both Bournemouth Ultimatum and HML both managed to bagel the Sharks despite our remarkably strong D, with layouts coming from Sharks most unexpectedly and for great effect. It was on one such occasion that one of our pickups dislocated his shoulder and had to be taken to hospital to feed his morphine habit, this being his second such injury in a handful of months.
The last game of the day was against TQ9ers, back on the up/down wind pitch. Having lost the toss, we set ourselves for a hard game, and that's exactly what we took to TQ9ers. While on D, no point lasted less than 5 minutes. We ran and intercepted and forced stall outs, working the disk as much as 3/4 of the way up the pitch before finally turning over, more often from the wind than anything else. On O downwind, Sharks scored in less than a minute every time. It finally ran to a 3-4 defeat for the Sharks leaving us to improve on our seeding by 1 place.

Santas Surrey Slingfest
December 2010
Guildford
Sharks rocked up to the brand new surrey sports park feeling confident about a tournament they were returning to for the second year in a row. While the snow fell outside we started with a game against rough sleepers a team composed of some of the best players Brighton has to offer. We sucked it up got on pitch and took a 3 point lead. We then traded for a bit before rough sleepers started to pull level and then ahead due to so awesome grabs. Rough sleepers ran out winners but only by a point or two. We did enough to wake the balcony up and they soon realised Cutty had turned up to play. A close game against Brunel followed with us unfortunately losing in sudden death. 5-6. Our final game of the day was against a Swansea team that had decided not to turn up. Walk over and a win to end the day.
A Saturday night party featuring reindeer, angles, dotball and an awful lot of blue followed.
We started the Sunday with a a game against a surrey team who had spend a large part of the previous evening telling Nathan the different ways in which they were going to beat the sharks. Fired up and ready to go sharks took it to the scorpions and shut them down. Massive D work against the main surrey handler as well as making sure we beat the man to the line every single time meant we won the game by a 4 point margin and started the day confidently. A cross over loss against the team in 5th meant we got a chance to play against Swansea, we kept it chilli and took our chances against a 4 man end zone wall. Keeping possession and scoring when we could gave us the win
Plate semi final pitted us against army of the goat boy. A team with several familiar faces we played hard and took the win
Final games of the day in the plate final was against the same surrey team we had beaten earlier in the day. The crowed was behind the surrey team and the balcony was awash with heckling for some of sharks more well know player. We came out fast and hard. Surrey had nowhere to hide and it showed. Every single shark wanted the win and we soon pulled away. Hammers, layout bids, collisions with walls at speed and an ability to score every time we put the disc in the zone was just unstoppable. We ran out 11 – 2 winners. We collected our trophy and went home happy with our work and only a little bit broken.

Ladies Day
November 2011
Stoke on Trent

After a rough start involving London Midland trains trains loosing our booking and a late night drive to Stoke Cutty Sharks woman were ready to take on 7 other teams in Stoke.
Other teams were: Dirty Olive, Warwick Bears, Big Girls, Discettes, Lincoln, Evolution and pick ups. With captain Katie requesting that we all bring homemade cakes we were set for the day.
Great Start to the day with a 5-3 win against evolution and 5-2 win against Discettes saw us move to second place in our pool with Dirty Olive still to play. While confidence was at a high and sugar levels even more (from all that cake we were eating) . However, dirty olive true to their reputation gave us a hard fought game with a final score line of 3-8 to Drity olives. After a bit more 'pick me up' cake the cross overs were underway with a game against Lincoln. I am happy to say we won this game 9-3. That left us in 3rd place, with a chance to play Warwick bears for 2nd. After watching them play throughout the day we knew their set plays would be hard to breat down and with a score line of 2-8 to the bears, we now know the answer to who would win in a fight between a shark and a bear. Our final game to hold our spot in 3rd position was once again against Evolution. These young and enthusiastic girls had picked up their game over the day but so had we and our final game finished with a perfect replay with Sharks winning 5-3 once more.
(Finished 3rd)

Ruf & Tumble
April
London
Ruf and tumble has turned from a 24 team event to a small and intimate 9 team indoor tournament featuring teams predominantly from the south east.
Playing in a round robin format Cutty Sharks finished 3rd which was nice.

Paganello
April 2010
Rimini
13 sharks travelled to Italy, the was sun sea rain wind Frisbee and some very fine Italian hospitality. A great 5 days which proved paga is everything people say it is. We won one game but took it close in others. Over whelming memories will have to be bunny bar tenders, wind so strong the big top almost blew away, fountain swimming, local sharking, misbehaviour in the dark, broken ribs and more sand then you could shake a very big bucket and spade at.

UKU Mixed Tour 2
April 2010
Weymouth

I don’t remember much I think we finished 33rd winning the spoon. We played games against GU1 and GU2, curve, flump mythago. A good weekend even if it was a little bit cold at times.

UKU Mixed Tour 1
March 2010
Cardiff

Well Tour 1 is over and i have finally recovered enough to tell you all what happened.

We all turned up at roughly the same time on Friday which was late in the day only to be told that 1 of the rooms was unusable. After much discussion we were allowed to stay there which saved a lot of effort but by this time the bar was shut so i wasn't that happy!

We had been seeded as 37 which was 2nd in our pool. If we won our pool we would move up a division otherwise we would be top in the division below for Sunday.

First up was Free Hugs. A team quite short on numbers and top level experience. We played solidly winning 13-1.
Next was a big rest followed by Sheffield Steel. This was the game to win in our group. Everyone gave everything with our new Arrowhead Zone working well and some long disks being brought down by our new tall guy Jack which meant we can out winning much to their surprise and disappointment.
This meant our next game against Lemmings 2 was a must win so we didn't throw away our hard work. We were tired having given everything in the last game but dispite some dodgy moments we won fairly well.

3 wins from 3 put us top of our group and up to the dizzy heights of 36th.

Sunday was a later start and first up was Principality of Sealand 2. They are Scottish for those who don't know and well drilled. We gave everything in this match which was epic. We were leading and then they pulled it back. Then we lead and they pulled it back again. It went into the cap and unfortunately they had more legs and didn't turn over to end up winning by 2.
This took a lot out of us but we had ABH 2 to play. As always it was a great game but our women were falling quickly wth injury and the boys were all tired. We didn't save enough from our last game and they pulled away to win.
Finally was Oxford Mixed. It was a fun game but we were all pretty much dead and they won.

Overall it was a great weekend and we were all pleased with the results and the way we played. Next time we need more players but hopefully Julia will be back and Nicky available. Well done to everyone as it shows our winter training paid off but there is still bigger and better things to work towards.

Mixed Indoor Nationals
March 1, 2010

First off was a game against Brixton Angels who played with consistency and careful O, beating us 9-1. We were pleased with our performance on defense but some ill-judged decisions and rushed play on offense meant we didn’t capitalise when we had the opportunity. This served as a good warm up game.

Next we were up against The Brown, who put out a solid performance to take the win 11-4.

After this we started our third game with an excellent performance against Bears Reloaded. Particularly impressive was Jayne’s ability to find some space and score and we went 4-0 up. Unfortunately we then lost concentration and threw it away, meaning that Bears took the game 5-9. Disappointing as this was a game we could have won.

The last of the first round group games was brilliant - a really close game. We played really well as a team and scored 3 in a row. Unfortunately half way through there was a loud crack as Toby’s knee gave way - meaning we’d lose our steady handed handler for the rest of the weekend. Get well soon! The final score was a 6-7 win to Steal but we could walk away pleased with our performance, knowing that on another day the score could be reversed.

This put us third into a mini pool of 3 for the last set of group games. We were drawn to face Mythago (first in the group) and Discmen (second).

Mythago showed their superiority in the fastest game we played all weekend - this seemed to be over in a flash! We were beaten by their speed both at running and throwing, which meant they broke through our zone. Walking away from this 8-3 down was nothing to be ashamed of.

By this time it was mid afternoon and we had a massive gap until our last game of the day at 7pm!

Finally we emerged from the bar area to play Discmen, determined to give them a run for their money. We pulled out all the stops and went up 5-2. Next we went out with a killer zone, for a ridiculously long point. Discmen kept the disc safe but try as they might they couldn’t score for nearly 10 minutes! This delay effectively won us the game as they ran out of time to catch us up. Special mention should go to Ian for his motivating sideline, without which all the chasers would have given up! Final score was 5-4 to us.

We arrived Sunday morning ready to go. We were aware of the importance of the first game; we needed to win to hold 14th seed and a loss would mean finishing in the bottom four. We came out with a super strong zone to go 5-0 up at which point Strange Blue decided they needed a timeout. It became obvious that their new home boy tactic had some effect against our zone and they took 2 points. Most memorable from this point were some fantastic cuts from Eve to the corners which earned her some scores and a lovely cross pitch throw from Nikki to Ian in the end zone, which contributed to us beating Strange Blue 8-3 and holding 14th.

The next crossover was against Cowboys who’d just given up their 6th seeding to Mythago. We made a good start to the game with our zone, going 2-1 up but Cowboys quickly adapted to this with some very fast plays. We suffered from a lack of communication and some throwaways, went 2-4 down and never recovered. A well deserved win by Cowboys who took the game 8-2 and we dropped to 15th seed.

Our second chance against Bears Reloaded presented itself in the last game of the weekend. We traded points and played some great ultimate. When the buzzer went the scoreboard read 4-4 so we played on for sudden death and the Sharks scored! Initial jubilation turned to disappointment when it was realised after much discussion that the actual score at the buzzer was 5-4 to Bears, so instead of winning by 1 we’d actually lost by 1.

We finished 16th in the country, effectively. Not bad right?!

Kent Tri-Cup
November 4, 2009

Last weekend the Cutty Sharks went to compete in the first ever Tri-Cup hosted by Kent Ultimate. The idea of the weekend was that teams would play a number of matches across three surfaces; grass, beach and indoors.

First up was a beach game against Kent. Some unfortunate delays on the DLR had left Sharks with only 5 players for this game. Kent used their numbers to their advantage and won the game 6-3 which, while better than could be expected, left the team feeling a little deflated. Pesky DLR.

Next up on the beach were Kent Legends - a team of Kent university alumni. Legends used their experience playing together well and their quick plays meant Sharks fell to their second loss of the weekend. After a brief break we were back on the beach against Disc Boars, a Kent based school team with a couple of teachers thrown in. Sharks’ experience showed both on the disc and on D and we took control of the game from the start allowing us to record our first win of the weekend.
Our final game on the beach saw us pitted against Devil Wears Gaia, a team with a heavy Fire of London/Thundering Herd influence. As expected, Devil ended up as winners but they gave us a good opportunity to test our zone against a quality team. Our move indoors brought us up against Gryffindor, a mixture of GB, Clapham and Brighton players, which made for some stiff competition. We got 3 points on the board and played some good ultimate against very talented competition.
We took what positives we could from the Gryffindor game and moved on to face Winpole Ultimate. Our zone slowed the game down and allowed us to play at our own pace, however against a team where no player was under 6ft we lost out in the air. Winpole finished well ahead on points but our tight zone D had made them work hard for every one.
We finished Saturday with a game against Hu? We came out furiously from the start and our stifling D and well-worked O gave us a 12-2 victory. A comfortable win for Sharks but not an easy one. Holloway kept playing for the whole game and did so with good spirit and smiles on their faces. This brought to a close what had been a very enjoyable and well-run day.
Sunday did not go as smoothly. Having woken to a grey but relatively dry morning we arrived at the pitches to be met with high winds and rain that was rapidly increasing in strength. Undeterred we took to the field. Although soaked to the skin our strong D and steady O proved too strong for an under strength and inexperienced UCL team and we ran out 8-0 winners.
With the rain seeming unwilling to abate, the decision was made that each team would play only one match outdoors before returning to the relative warmth of the sports hall for their final two matches. Our penultimate game pitted us against Kent again. After 18 minutes of hard ultimate the scores were level at 6. Unfortunately Kent managed to take the final point and come out winners but Sharks had performed well.
The final game of the weekend saw us line up against Kent Legends. They never really got into the game and we kept putting the points away. The final play of the game ended with a no look scoring pass to the end zone, a great way to finish a great weekend.

We believe Cutty sharks finished 11th from 16 having won 4 and lost 6.

Mixed Tour 2 - 2009

The Cutty Sharks had their best ever finish at a Mixed Tour event in Manchester. We played well in windy conditions on Saturday to finish 3rd in our group of 5 and ensure we were out of the bottom 8. First game on Sunday was the 30 vs 35 playoff between ourselves and another London team, the Fugazees. We played superbly in the much calmer conditions to take the half 7-4. A slow start to the second half however meant the opposition leveled up and we eventually got to a Sudden Death point after the buzzer. 10 all, game to 11. Unfortunately the point ended against us which meant a disappointing end to what had been the best game the Sharks have ever played.

We were then straight on against ABH2 and had a super slow start after an exhausting first game of the day and no break in between. We managed to get one point on the board eventually, but then disaster struck. Emma Webb was going for the disc in the endzone and collided with one of ABH’s male players. They both hit the ground, but Emma came out worse for wear with her leg broken in three places. Everyone on the Sharks, and lots of other players from ABH and other teams playing around us wish her the best of luck - she says thanks :-)

Our final game was then against the Staffordshire Oatcakes and they got a convincing win. After our epic game early on in the day we just didn’t have the energy to keep on fighting and they won about 13-5.

A great weekend for the Sharks, but with a very unfortunate event in the middle.

Sunburn 2009

This weekend saw Sharks play at the Sunburn tournament on Bournemouth Beach. We turned up for the first game at 9am Saturday for the first of 5 pool games. We saw ourselves playing Rawhyde, Eastern European Ultimate (from York University), Bristol, Shake and Bake and Discgusting.

For those that didn’t see the weather forecast for the weekend: heavy wind, the occasional spot of rain, the odd sand storm. In each 25 minute game on Saturday neither team scored more than 5 and barely anyone scored upwind. We didn’t score upwind at all. More than one game was won/lost on the toss, and we didn’t win a single toss, which meant we also didn’t manage to win a single game.

Day two didn’t start much better, having just arrived at the beach after a heavy rain storm. We once again played the Eastern Europeans (they’d lost their crossover earlier in the morning so we had to play them again). And then, a good thing happened - the wind didn’t stop, we didn’t start playing any better but we won the toss!! And then we even scored an upwind point, which was swiftly followed by an upwind point from them. However, we didn’t let them score any more, and we won the game. The first win of the weekend, and a good one to win as we traded our last place (24) for their 19th.

Next up was the Fugazees. They won the toss and also strung together two upwind points to win fair and square 4-0. Congratulations again to those players that were on the pitch for the last point which lasted at least 15 minutes! Our final game was against The Bournemouth Ultimatum. We won the toss, and the game, to finish 19th place.

A fun weekend was had by all, but the weather was terrible and the whole thing kind of absurd. Not quite the sunny weekend on the beach we had planned - but there’s always next year!

Mixed Tour 1 2009
The Cutty Sharks ventured to Cardiff for Mixed Tour 1. We finished 40th at the weekend, out of 43 teams. Although this was at the bottom of the table the standard was very high across the board and we’re really pleased with the result.

We had a bit of a slow start on Saturday morning but by the end of the day we were playing much better and scored our first win against Lemmings 2. We also won our crossover on Sunday morning against Herd 3 which meant we were out of the bottom three. We had two further games against Galahs 2 - where we came out strong, but faded towards the end - and Cottonopolis, which we lost in Sudden Death in a gripping game which either team could have won.

The team came on HEAPS over the weekend and we’re super-chuffed. Well done everyone!

Ruf & Tumble

Last weekend the Cutty Sharks went to the RUF and Tumble indoor tournament. On the Saturday we won three games and only lost one - to the eventual winners, let it be noted! Everyone ran hard and played well despite being distracted by Dick’s unusually massive hair. On Sunday we lost three games and drew one of them but overall we finished 6th out of 20 teams. Hooray!