Tom's Tourney

What is going on with this? Should we likely start looking at buying tickets and what not?

Im not too sure. I was looking at the website earlier and both Irish womens teams are listed but it says that only 16teams are allowed and there is about 24listed.

Does anybody know if this a first come first served thing or what?

The closing date for registration hasn't passed yet (10th January). Presumably the committee will meet soon after that and decide which teams are in (it's not first come first served as far as I know...most tournaments aren't). Heather will get an email in the next two weeks saying if both teams or just one got in.

Fingers crossed!

One got in...

Bit disappointed that we didn't get both teams in. I blame the boys for sending three teams...

Anyway, what's the plan now? Shall we send a massive team and enjoy ourselves heartily with belgian beer? I'm in favour of that. I think the chances of us getting another spot from drop-outs is slim.

All I know is:
That would have to be better than an eight and half person (sorry Brona you are only a half person because of your knee) team for the whole tournament.

Hey girls,
I'm finally getting around to thinking about Brugge...and I'm thinkin of bookin flights in the next few days....

Last year, i got an evening flight on the sunday, which was handy enough to get to after the final, but it did mean leaving in a bit of a rush, and meant that some of the enjoyment of the sunday pm was taken away...so this year, i'm thinkin more towards getting a monday flight.

Now the Monday evening flights are a good bit more expensive than the morning ones...BUT the morning ones are quite early (7am ish..which means being there from abouot 5.30 am).

I'm wondering did any of you get the early morning flights last year, and if so, was transport to the airports an issue...or did you have to overnight in the airport?

Has anyone thought about this yet? has anyone else booked?

Logistics aside.... I cant wait for that weekend!!!

chat soon,
Méabh

How did you get on?

It was amazing!!!!!

Anyone fancy writing up a report on the weekend? For a quick summary we came 12th out of 15, winning 3 games on Saturday (when the hangovers weren't managing to slow us down that much) and challenging the bottom of the top 8 where I believe Tara got our only score of the game. On Sunday (when the hangovers were having drastic effects on our abilities and injuries were beginning to plague the team) we lost kind of badly to a team that we had beaten the day before in sudden death (but they hadn't even attended the party the night before?!). We then lost sudden death to the next team 7-6 (sorry I never remember team names so maybe someone could fill in the gaps) in a nail-biting playoff that saw us go down badly in the first half as we were trailing 5-1 but then caught up to 6-6 after playing probably the longest point of the tournament. Unfortunately we turned close to our endzone and they converted. The first day, I realise I completely neglected, was as we expected; a day to find our footing and get used to playing with each other against very strong teams. We never got bageled though!

Awards went as follows:

MVP- Jen
MSP - Linda
A- game - Katie McGreal

All very well-deserved and a huge pat on the back should go towards Courtney and Ciara for their superb captaining all weekend. The lines were a great idea and it was really fun getting to play with so many different girls.

I cannot WAIT for Windmill!

If someone would like to add more detail to this 'report', please do. I've left out all the parties and details of any particular plays so there's plenty to say!

Well done! Very impressed you topped your 2nd round group. Sounds like a great weekend, sorry I missed it damn exams but looking forward to windmill too! Cool to see that MVP and A-game went to 2 of the newer players, well done

Yeah Ciara and Coutney did a savage job and thank you to Liz and Laura for all the shouting from the sidelines! We were zoned a lot and during our challenge game we managed to work it up the pitch and unfortunately turnover a few times right by the end zone. Courtney’s line (I can’t remember who was on it, tá brón orm!) played man-d and Ciara’s line did zone a good bit so well done to the cup! Mostly Linda, Sparky, Zara and Fiona I think! Our last game was our only windy game which as Fiona said resulted in the London team going up by 4 at the beginning but we brought it back once we got a bit more used to the wind. At the end of the tournament for our warm-down we joined the London team (I think) who had just beaten us for yoga and then Kevin took photos of the team (which I’m sure you’ve all seen!) being tigers and saying various vegetables without laughing or showing your teeth (a drinking game we all found hilarious from Saturday night!) The party on Saturday night party involved lots of beer, the vegetable game, the musical instrument game, dancing on and off stage, Zara and Cormo scoring onstage and lots of topless lads! Oh and we had Champagne Showers I think the first two days and we forgot on the last day so we just drank it watching the finals.

Fiona conveniently managed to leave out the Sharking Award which she won for scoring Kevin Timoney (again) and keeping it from us all until the end of the day.

It was a brilliant weekend and I'm SO EXCITED for Windmill!!!!!!!

So. Incredibly. Jealous!!

I asked Ciara and Courtney to write a report for the weekend and stick it in the "Info Resources" section of this forum. Only place i can think of putting it and will be good to look back on it future years and for enticing players to TT next year. If others want to write reports or have a suggestion of somewhere else to put them then just shout.

Sounds like it was awesome!!

I'm so sorry Katie you're right I did accidentally leave that out.

While we're on the topic, I also forgot to mention that Katie scored one of the Jabba pick-ups who was quite keen to see who had had a threesome in the group while playing Never Have I Ever...

AMAZING weekend! Great to play and party with all of you girls. Some more highlights:

-Jen coming down with EVERY swilly disc
-Zuchini Zuchini Traitor Traitor
-Fiona Mernagh is a very musical name
-Heather providing chopped fruit in endless supply
-Making Jen take off her jeans in the club. No jeans! No jeans!
-Laura's shorts
-The hot circus performer
-Never have I ever been to Brugge....ugh
-Liz threatening to punch Ciara in the face unless she threw a huck
-Courtney's layout in the Iso game
-Sandy's hammers
-The difference between the bass and the guitar in the instruments game
-Our awesome zone D
-The celebrations over not having a 5th game on Saturday
-Soft cheese, medium cheese, hard cheese
-3 WINS!!!
-Mamma Mia
-Kebabs!

And so much more. Such a great time. Already looking forward to Windmill and to next year's Tom's Tourney.

Fiona: I knew that was coming

Other highlights: The Sun!! On Friday
Build me up buttercup
Cowboy (that was really fun)
Brady and I talking to that hot I think Italian guy you guys keep talking about (I can't remember his name)
Drunk Brady and Sparky
The dancing! (until the music got shit)
Never ever on Friday night

wow, wish i could have been there! sounds like lots of fun!

x

'DEADLY BUZZ' AT BRUGE 2009


An Irish Ladies ultimate club team under the name "Deadly Buzz" made the trip to the infamous Tom's Tourney 2009 in Bruge this May.

On our first day we started off with a shameful late arrival from me (having missed my flight on Friday thanks to a 2 hour adventure on the aircoach!), where I heard about the great belgian-beer-fueled fun I'd missed the night before... We put on our flashy new black Deadly Buzz jerseys and started up our warm ups. Before the game started we had our team huddle where Courtney and I, captains for the weekend, reiterated our goals for Tom's Tourney 2009. This team was about developing Irish women's ultimate. The aim behind it being to bring a team of all levels of experience to a high level European tournament, where we could learn from each other and the teams we play, and to give those who haven’t experienced it before, a taste for awesome European Tournaments

We had decided to make 2 lines of 9 players each day, with Courtney and I each leading one. As a massive squad, this enabled us to make sure everyone got equal pitch time, the chance to play in different positions they wanted to try out, and hopefully to encourage better game flow on the pitch. Having never played together before, our first game against Tequila Boom Boom from Italy was a chance for us to find our feet. Not disheartened by the 15-2 final scoreline, we ran some drills, working on what had been our weaker points in the first game. The second game against Copenhagen saw the both lines mesh much better on O and D against the strong opposition. We were able to finish with 5 points to their 14, a vast improvement from the first match. Our last game of the day was against Mainzelmaedchen. It was a brilliant and very close match, coming to a sudden death finale that we were disappointed to lose. But it was wisely pointed out by Laura following the game that when you lose games like that one, you gain the experience to go on and win the next one.

Friday night was the bbq with lovely food (although Sparky wasn’t happy with her lack of meet, announcing herself to feel she had been “seriously shafted in the meat department"). This was followed by an entertaining circus act performed by 2 men. The show was followed by a massive and never-ending game of Never Have I Ever, and then a sing-song led by Kevin Timoney. (“Fiona Mernagh” being the only lyrics to every song we sang... her name works with everything!)

Saturday proved Shoulders was right on the mark as we won our first match of the weekend on Saturday morning against the Sistas from France with a score of 7-6. The morning was nice and windy so despite the mild hangovers we decided to play some zone D. This worked really well, and was very effective thanks to the skillful way the younger girls picked it up, some having never before played zone! Naturally Sistas also stuck a zone on us but with calm skilled handlers like Katie McGreal (she'd been holding out on us!! ;D ) and great cuts from downfield from the likes of Brady and Jen we managed to keep the scoreline matching point for point. Though no one had heard the buzzer, and thus didn't realise it had come down to sudden death, we racked up our first win with a lovely pass from Courtney into the endzone with a savage catch from Jen. A brilliant first win of the weekend. Our confidence boost from the morning saw us go on to do the same thing all over again in sudden death, winning our 2nd match against Gronical Dizziness 7-6. Our third game of the day was against a team called Tramuntana. We played our strongest match of the weekend and with impressive O and D, winning the game 13-6.

Having been told that we had a maximum of 4 matches on the Saturday, Courtney and I decided that we would play the challenge match against a French team called Pin-up. The challendge matches were organised by the TD as a chance for teams in the bottom pool to get into the top 8. We were tired, but having traveled there to play competitive matches and learn from great women's teams, we decided we should challenge. With Shoulders, Liz, Fiona, and Heather G out injured, we were short key players. The French team was very strong, as was the wind, so we struggled with our offence for the first time that day. We played hard D and managed to give them a good (if high on turnovers) game. The 11-1 scoreline reflected the issues we had with converting on the endzone line however. A little deflated we headed back for the hall, intending to go watch Munster v Leinster. Upon arrival, we were informed that we actually had another match, which we were not looking forward to. However, having topped the bottom half, we were scheduled to play against the women's team who had pulled out the week before the tournament J

Feelings of relief and kebabs made the evening better, before we headed off to the party.

The party started off with excellent beers and the vegetable game. People were falling off their stools with laughter, especially when Tommy “the traitor” joined in at the end. The musical instrument game followed before we all headed downstairs to take over the dancefloor (and later that night, the stage...).

Sunday morning hangovers and injuries meant our lower pool quarter final against the Sistas (who we had beaten on Saturday, and who decided not to attend the party!!) did not go as well as the day before. Tired legs and lack of concentration saw us lose 10-3. Our last game for 11th/12th place was against ISO, the second team of the amazing Iceni, and although we started off badly down 5-1, we fought our way back to 6 all (that matching point being the longest one of the entire tournament, with top sub-offs because of injuries!). It seemed our sudden death winning streak was at an end as we lost 6-5 after a rusty throw saw us turn close to our endzone. So overall, we finished off in 12th place (out of 15), learned loads, and had an amazing time exactly as we planned!

A great weekend, with great girls and great promise for Irish women's ultimate in the future!! Thanks to all the girls for giving it their all.

MVP- Jen
MSP - Linda
A- game - Katie McGreal

We would, however, like to note that these awards could easily have gone to anyone on the team, seeing amazing catches from Brady and Sparky, massive improvement from Tara and Zara, layouts from Fiona and Laura, huge encouragement from the sideline from Liz and Heather G. The way the team came together and everyone contributed was more than we could have hoped for!

Ciara and Courtney

Great tournament! And great report :-) I forgot about Sparky getting shafted in the meat department....hehe

Ciara - you should also post this in the Info Resource section of the forum - there is a specific thread for tournament reports.