Feb 2007
Wintercup @ Darmstadt
26/02/07 18:32 |
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Wintercup Day 3, Darmstadt,
Germany - Feb. 25th, 2007.
Outcome: 2nd place after Day 3 (six out of seven games won, one tied)
Summary: (Wait, what happened to Day 2? Well, each team in Wintercup only plays 4 out of the 5 days, so we didn't play Day 2.)
The lesson for this tournament is never to turn down a player no matter how sure you are you have enough. Something always happens, and this time it did. In spades. We played through it all, and had an excellent time playing, so the day wasn't a bust-- far from it in fact. Still, we learned some valuable lessons about underestimating one's opponents.
We started off by losing Hannah to sickness. Then after a harrowing early morning drive to Darmstadt-- Brendan must have gotten us there in just about 2 hours-- we settled down to play the fourth ranked team, Lauter Kleine Hechte from Kaiserslautern. The enthusiasm and energy we had arriving in Darmstadt might have been a bit much, as in one of the very first plays Laura was knocked down and out of the match. Things didn't improve much later on, as Michael went down a few minutes later to the exact same injury he had a month back. Fortunately, we managed to soldier on with the sterling help of Christian, a relatively new player from Mainz. The game was fairly well dominated by us, finishing up at 9 to 5.
The second game, against 11th ranked Mainzelmädchen, Mainz's women's team, started off okay, with us forcing a turnover and converting on the very first point. I'm not sure if it was arrogance, or fatigue, or inexperience, or what, but we had a bit of a rough time in the beginning. We couldn't manage to get a significant lead. The women just played too smart for us, using experience and wisdom to match our advantage in height, speed, and numbers. We went to 1-1, than scored to go to 2-1, then they tied it up at 2-2, and then we scored again for 3-2, and so on and so forth until about 6-5, when we stalled out and started giving up lots of discs. This might have had something to do with losing another player, Steve this time. At least he was original, getting himself sandwiched between Martin and a tall woman from Mainzelmädchen on a high jump, twisting his ankle for the first time this season. At 6-5, the women scored, and turned around and scored again. We were now down 6-7. Whoops. While Martin's back was turned as he was coaching us on for the next point to retie the game, I noticed that the clock had just a few seconds on it. I tried to speak up, but I was too late-- the buzzer sounded. That meant we had exactly three passes after the huckoff before the game was over. And we were down by one point. The pressure on, Martin received and I went long as fast as I could to catch... nothing. I turned around and the disc was still stuck down on the other end. I tried running back out of the zone to clear some space for the next cutter, but before I had a chance, Martin snapped off a flick to Brendan, who then threw a sick continuation flick into the zone. Cursing him for what I thought was a sure miss, I went for it anyway. Fortunately, I didn't curse out loud, as I completely misread the disc and it floated into my hands for the game-tying point. 7-7. Whew.
The last game was against Ooups from neighboring Saarbrucken. Ooups is a young team with lots of potential, and was perfectly fresh, playing its first game of the day against us. We managed to not let that get to our heads, though, and with the extra help of one of Mainzelmädchen's mädchen, Barbara, managed to pull ahead early. Toward the end of the game, Brendan and Christian explained to the rest of the team that they weren't needed anymore, making a three point run with subtle variations on the theme of Brendan blocking the disc and then promptly throwing it to a masterfully cutting Christian for the point. Right at the end after the buzzer, we managed to score the point on the third and final throw, finishing the game 11-5.
Team Roster:
Brendan
Christian Hessinger (Mainz)
Dani (couldn't play due to injury, but took some great photos)
Kenn
Laura
Martin
Micha
Michael
Steve
Barbara (Mainz)
Outcome: 2nd place after Day 3 (six out of seven games won, one tied)
Summary: (Wait, what happened to Day 2? Well, each team in Wintercup only plays 4 out of the 5 days, so we didn't play Day 2.)
The lesson for this tournament is never to turn down a player no matter how sure you are you have enough. Something always happens, and this time it did. In spades. We played through it all, and had an excellent time playing, so the day wasn't a bust-- far from it in fact. Still, we learned some valuable lessons about underestimating one's opponents.
We started off by losing Hannah to sickness. Then after a harrowing early morning drive to Darmstadt-- Brendan must have gotten us there in just about 2 hours-- we settled down to play the fourth ranked team, Lauter Kleine Hechte from Kaiserslautern. The enthusiasm and energy we had arriving in Darmstadt might have been a bit much, as in one of the very first plays Laura was knocked down and out of the match. Things didn't improve much later on, as Michael went down a few minutes later to the exact same injury he had a month back. Fortunately, we managed to soldier on with the sterling help of Christian, a relatively new player from Mainz. The game was fairly well dominated by us, finishing up at 9 to 5.
The second game, against 11th ranked Mainzelmädchen, Mainz's women's team, started off okay, with us forcing a turnover and converting on the very first point. I'm not sure if it was arrogance, or fatigue, or inexperience, or what, but we had a bit of a rough time in the beginning. We couldn't manage to get a significant lead. The women just played too smart for us, using experience and wisdom to match our advantage in height, speed, and numbers. We went to 1-1, than scored to go to 2-1, then they tied it up at 2-2, and then we scored again for 3-2, and so on and so forth until about 6-5, when we stalled out and started giving up lots of discs. This might have had something to do with losing another player, Steve this time. At least he was original, getting himself sandwiched between Martin and a tall woman from Mainzelmädchen on a high jump, twisting his ankle for the first time this season. At 6-5, the women scored, and turned around and scored again. We were now down 6-7. Whoops. While Martin's back was turned as he was coaching us on for the next point to retie the game, I noticed that the clock had just a few seconds on it. I tried to speak up, but I was too late-- the buzzer sounded. That meant we had exactly three passes after the huckoff before the game was over. And we were down by one point. The pressure on, Martin received and I went long as fast as I could to catch... nothing. I turned around and the disc was still stuck down on the other end. I tried running back out of the zone to clear some space for the next cutter, but before I had a chance, Martin snapped off a flick to Brendan, who then threw a sick continuation flick into the zone. Cursing him for what I thought was a sure miss, I went for it anyway. Fortunately, I didn't curse out loud, as I completely misread the disc and it floated into my hands for the game-tying point. 7-7. Whew.
The last game was against Ooups from neighboring Saarbrucken. Ooups is a young team with lots of potential, and was perfectly fresh, playing its first game of the day against us. We managed to not let that get to our heads, though, and with the extra help of one of Mainzelmädchen's mädchen, Barbara, managed to pull ahead early. Toward the end of the game, Brendan and Christian explained to the rest of the team that they weren't needed anymore, making a three point run with subtle variations on the theme of Brendan blocking the disc and then promptly throwing it to a masterfully cutting Christian for the point. Right at the end after the buzzer, we managed to score the point on the third and final throw, finishing the game 11-5.
Team Roster:
Brendan
Christian Hessinger (Mainz)
Dani (couldn't play due to injury, but took some great photos)
Kenn
Laura
Martin
Micha
Michael
Steve
Barbara (Mainz)
Wintercup @ Kaiserslautern
05/02/07 11:12 |
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Wintercup Day 1, Kaiserslautern,
Germany - Feb. 4th, 2007.
Outcome: Top ranked after Day 1 (four out of four games won)
Summary: Go team! Wintercup Day 1 at Kaiserslautern was an absolute blow out. Not only did we win all our games, we won them convincingly. Our worst point spread was 3 points, and our best was in the double digits. We continued the progress we had made at Haan, but this time a bit more maturity and an easier line-up of opponents gave us a high confidence level, so even the occasional mistake never got us down. Not that there were that many mistakes-- good solid disc work, precise cutting, and almost no dropped discs were certainly the defining characteristics of the day. We were feeling so good about our play and ourselves, I think we could have taken on the world.
The day got off to a bit of a rough start-- but not at the hall, just getting there. Brendan had had some trouble finishing Saturday night's drinking by 11AM Sunday morning, and yours truly got the convoy lost at the very first turn. Still, we gave ourselves plenty of time, and we wound up getting there exactly one hour early.
Kaiserslautern had an excellent hall. Nice, airy, and well lit by the sun. They even had a secondary hall where we could practice throws and drills before the first game. We took advantage of this to do a quick dump drill, which worked admirably. Not one single dump was dropped the entire day, and in fact very few passes at all were missed.
The first game against Ars Ludendi from Darmstadt started off with a bang. Not the good kind though— the foul kind. The first minutes of the game were peppered by foul calls, none of which were particularly dubious. Still, it got a bit much, so after the third or fourth foul call during just one point both teams relaxed a bit. The rest of the game was easily in our favor, and we swept on to a 14-5 victory.
The second against Porta Partisanen from Trier started relatively evenly. Trier wound up finding three pick-up players so that their 6 players wouldn't be utterly dead at the end of the game, giving them 7 men and 2 women to our 5 men and three women. They gave us a bit of heartburn over one or two particularly nice full-field throws for a point. In the end, Ultimate deLux pulled away but it was a good battle. So good and seemingly close, in fact, that for five minutes afterwards, Steve was utterly convinced that Trier had won the game. (We did, though-- 12-7.)
The third against Frau Rauscher, Frankfurt's women's team, was a blowout of sorts. We played our women as much as possible to try to even things out, but the difference in size, speed, and experience between the two teams brought a flurry of points. We wound up 15 to 3 at the end. Maybe next time we'll have enough players so we won't have to field four veteran players against a beginner's women's team.
The fourth against Main umwerfendes Frankfurt was clearly the hardest. We started off by losing the toss, and then the point. We tied the game back up, lost the third point, tied again with the fourth point, and on the fifth point forced a turnover putting us ahead 3-2. After that it was neck and neck with us ahead by one point, and just once getting ahead by two, before almost giving up the lead a few minutes later. However, around 10-9, we rallied and slowly pulled ahead to a three-point lead, finishing 14-11.
Thanks to all who played. It was a great day. Along with the eight deLuxers, we reinforced our position as Mother Tongue's little home away from home, welcoming Wayne Ziants a second time into our flock. Special thanks goes out to him-- Mother Tongue's mother, so to speak-- for picking up with us.
Team Roster:
Kenn
Brendan
Ines
Thierry
Laura
Micha
Dani (couldn't play due to injury, but took some great photos)
Steve
Wayne Ziants (Frankfurt)
Outcome: Top ranked after Day 1 (four out of four games won)
Summary: Go team! Wintercup Day 1 at Kaiserslautern was an absolute blow out. Not only did we win all our games, we won them convincingly. Our worst point spread was 3 points, and our best was in the double digits. We continued the progress we had made at Haan, but this time a bit more maturity and an easier line-up of opponents gave us a high confidence level, so even the occasional mistake never got us down. Not that there were that many mistakes-- good solid disc work, precise cutting, and almost no dropped discs were certainly the defining characteristics of the day. We were feeling so good about our play and ourselves, I think we could have taken on the world.
The day got off to a bit of a rough start-- but not at the hall, just getting there. Brendan had had some trouble finishing Saturday night's drinking by 11AM Sunday morning, and yours truly got the convoy lost at the very first turn. Still, we gave ourselves plenty of time, and we wound up getting there exactly one hour early.
Kaiserslautern had an excellent hall. Nice, airy, and well lit by the sun. They even had a secondary hall where we could practice throws and drills before the first game. We took advantage of this to do a quick dump drill, which worked admirably. Not one single dump was dropped the entire day, and in fact very few passes at all were missed.
The first game against Ars Ludendi from Darmstadt started off with a bang. Not the good kind though— the foul kind. The first minutes of the game were peppered by foul calls, none of which were particularly dubious. Still, it got a bit much, so after the third or fourth foul call during just one point both teams relaxed a bit. The rest of the game was easily in our favor, and we swept on to a 14-5 victory.
The second against Porta Partisanen from Trier started relatively evenly. Trier wound up finding three pick-up players so that their 6 players wouldn't be utterly dead at the end of the game, giving them 7 men and 2 women to our 5 men and three women. They gave us a bit of heartburn over one or two particularly nice full-field throws for a point. In the end, Ultimate deLux pulled away but it was a good battle. So good and seemingly close, in fact, that for five minutes afterwards, Steve was utterly convinced that Trier had won the game. (We did, though-- 12-7.)
The third against Frau Rauscher, Frankfurt's women's team, was a blowout of sorts. We played our women as much as possible to try to even things out, but the difference in size, speed, and experience between the two teams brought a flurry of points. We wound up 15 to 3 at the end. Maybe next time we'll have enough players so we won't have to field four veteran players against a beginner's women's team.
The fourth against Main umwerfendes Frankfurt was clearly the hardest. We started off by losing the toss, and then the point. We tied the game back up, lost the third point, tied again with the fourth point, and on the fifth point forced a turnover putting us ahead 3-2. After that it was neck and neck with us ahead by one point, and just once getting ahead by two, before almost giving up the lead a few minutes later. However, around 10-9, we rallied and slowly pulled ahead to a three-point lead, finishing 14-11.
Thanks to all who played. It was a great day. Along with the eight deLuxers, we reinforced our position as Mother Tongue's little home away from home, welcoming Wayne Ziants a second time into our flock. Special thanks goes out to him-- Mother Tongue's mother, so to speak-- for picking up with us.
Team Roster:
Kenn
Brendan
Ines
Thierry
Laura
Micha
Dani (couldn't play due to injury, but took some great photos)
Steve
Wayne Ziants (Frankfurt)