#2 January
Outline * UCD Beginners
* Rose Bowl
* LMS go North and Win Spirit
* Trinity take on the Brits
* Social
* Ladies Yahoo Group
* Pookas
UCD Beginners......is back! It's happening on the 30th and 31st of January and for the first time ever will feature a women's division. Not only this but there's a twist of no experienced being allowed on the line, the beginner's will take things into their own hands. If you haven't got a team, get in touch with myself or the organisers and we can allocate you to a team for the weekend. Do not be shy!
http://www.ucd.ie/ultimate/DublinBeginners2010/Home.htmlRose Bowl29 ladies divided into 5 teams descended on the grounds of Gonzaga to battle things out in a round robin format. The Black team conquered iron-woman Yellow in the final, tasting the sweetness of revenge for their earlier defeat.
This wasn't just a day of Ultimate however; there was chocolate biscuit cake to satiate the female's greatest desire, heated games of dodgeball during lunch and one brazen beginner who startled the rugby schoolboys in their changing rooms by running a lap of the dressing room.
A special big thank you to Marko who was pivotal in securing the venue and in turn to Gonzaga College for their extremely friendly cooperation and helpfulness.
LMS go North and Win Spirit by Laura McGrath
Yes you read right, LMS took home the coveted Spirit Prize from the
Belfast Christmas Cracker! Woop woop!
Not only that, our team of 6 played a grand total of 9 20min games,
won 5 lost 4, NO BAGELS, finished up in a very respectable 7th place
out of 12!
It was our 1st tournament as a club, we got our first ever win in
Belfast and took home Spirit, cant ask for a better start than that.
All in all it was a hugely enjoyable day (esp when we beat a drunk
UCD, who weren't so happy :-) )
Big thanks to Fiona, Jen, Heather, Lucy and Mandy for travelling up
for it. There were some awesome throws and sweet catches throughout
the day, gotta love indoors....
MVP went to Lucy for pinging break flicks at us, we were scared in the
first game but we slowely got used to them :-D
Oh and we now have a song thanks to Heather, to the tune of "we're
walking on sunshine...we're little miss sunshine OOOooooh". Good
cheesy music!
A very happy Laura
Trinity take on the BritsA line of very brave beginners traversed the Irish Sea to take on the best British university teams in the Women's Indoor UK Nationals. Here's what Claire 'Pug' Pugh, had to say on how things went:
UWIN 2009, Loughborough
Date: 5th & 6th December 2009
Winners: Urielle, Exeter University
Spirit Award: Chichester University
Trinity placed 16th.
We arrived on a chilly winters night to a Church hall in Loughborough which was to be our sleeping quarters for the weekend. We were greeted by Ally and Chef the organisers of the tournament and after warming ourselves up with a quick cuppa’, we set up camp for the night.
Having a team made up of mostly beginners, nerves were high heading into the first game. We were up early on Saturday for a tough but very spirited game against Positive Mojo from Aberdeen. Mojo displayed a strong squad throughout the tournament, with 3 or 4 capable handlers on the pitch at all times and a team full of great cutters. Their outside-in throws and quick, polished cuts made Mojo a threat from the starting buzzer and we did well to only concede 7 points.
Next up to play Trinity were local team Haze, from Loughborough University. This was Caoimhe and my chance to befriend some locals to take us in on the last night! (we were being cheap and staying an extra night to avail of better Ryanair offers!) Another tough game ensued. After starting the game poorly with some unnecessary turnovers, we eventually started to gel more as a team. Even though we got a more fluid offence going and managed to score, Haze clearly held the upper hand throughout the match.
In our games against Fling and Shimmy we played better again, getting more goals. Unfortunately however both teams comfortably beat us.
For our last pool game of the tournament Trinity played Plymouth Picnickers. With their neon socks and “kapow” pants one might fall under the illusion that Picnickers weren’t there to take things too seriously, but while we played well and perhaps had our best game of the day, Plymouth were definitely a very talented team and I’m afraid we just weren’t a match for them.
So by that evening we were knackered! Girly gossip sessions began as we waited 2 hours for pizza… yes TWO HOURS. (the pizza place decided to delete our 1st order when they realised we had phoned from a foreign mobile… they didn’t bother to tell us though!) When our appetites were satisfied we befriended the Scots, Positive Mojo from Aberdeen and Dundee Shooting Stars in particular. Shooting Stars fancy dress effort deserves mention with them going all out as worryingly believable geeks! They seemed most up for the craic and we managed to make a night out of the flop of a party that had been organised (seeing that the organisers and home team didn’t even show!) One of the barwomen in Rain nightclub had family from Sligo though so I charmed her into giving us a free half jug of cocktails! Wahey!
After having a tough day on the Saturday, moral on the Sunday wasn’t too high. However after a really encouraging team talk from captain Rebecca Wall, all of us were back on track and ready to make the most of the day!
Games on the Sunday were more fun in general, now that we were used to playing together and the teams were up against were at a more similar level of ability. We played Fling again and definitely showed improvement the second time around. Unfortunately Trinity’s captain for the weekend Rebecca Wall was injured early in the day and had to captain from the sideline for most of the day.
The game against Dundee that afternoon was very tight, with the teams being well matched, which made for our most enjoyable game of the tournament. For this game, Trinity really got into their stride with steady defence and some really good breaks on offence. We were very unfortunate to lose by a single point. We really probably could have won except for confusion with the clock and the game ended 2 minutes before we expected. Still, a very spirited game was enjoyed by all.
By the last match we had gathered many supporters, including the organiser Chef and some of our new Scottish friends, which was really nice! Trinity were now playing iron man for most of the game against Sussex’s Mohawks because Rebecca was injured and Jenny and Gemma had to catch an earlier flight. While we gave it our all and really played well, unfortunately the Sussex team had one very extremely talented experienced player who we just couldn’t stop and the final result wasn’t in our favor yet again. But it was an admirable last game from Trinity with everyone giving 100 % until the final whistle.
We may have placed last in the tournament but valuable lessons were learnt and much experience was gained. It was wonderful to get the opportunity to see such a high standard of women’s ultimate and hopefully we’ll get the chance to go back and compete again when we have a bit more experience on our side! Trinity did manage to play a small part in the final though with a Trinity disc being used for the game!
Trinity team: Helen Hobson, Caoimhe Quigley, Helen Clapham, Jennifer Sutton, Rebecca Wall (c) , Emma Mc Gahey, Gemma Hogan, Claire Pugh
MSP: Helen Clapham and Rebecca Wall. MVP: Claire Pugh
SocialI think a social is in tall order for the new year, anyone have any places they'd suggest? Or dates that suit? Sometime in late January or early February. Please get in touch. You won't be roped into doing any of the organising (unless you'd like to be), I'm just looking for ideas.
Irish Ladies Yahoo GroupThere have been additions to the member list but not nearly as many as there should be. Captains, please remind the beginners to join or send me their e-mails and I can e-mail them invitations. Also, please forward this e-mail to them.
PookasDon't get enough e-mails for your liking from the women's group alone? Then sign up for Pookas, the mailing list open to all of the Ultimate community in Ireland! You'll never miss an Ultimate related event again (and plenty of non-Ultimate related events too).
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/pookas/That's all folks. However, if you have anything you'd like to see presented in the next women's report (whenever that may be, you may have noticed they're not that frequent) or if you think I left out something, please get in touch.
Fiona
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