DUFFA Hat 2009

This weekend we trundled up the M6 towards Didsbury, Manchester for the second ever DUFFA Hat Tournament. DUFFA, or Didsbury Ultimate Frisbee For Amateurs, are a nice group of people who put beginners first and the emphasis on fun.

Naomi (Terminators) throws a flick past Ewan (Decepticons) in the Epic Plate Final. (Photo: James Selley)

I was lucky enough to be at their inaugural tournament last year, which was a blast, and this year's was even better. OK, so Sunday's weather was average, but there was loads of cover. As another blog has written, this Hat tournament had 'gone the extra mile' in its efforts, which materialised as smiles on people's faces.

Hat tournaments are a great chance to meet new people, and as Amy said, she "made new friends and got to know existing friends a whole lot better". It's a great opportunity to play alongside people you've played against before. It allows beginners to learn a little bit from playing alongside more experienced players, and it gives those more experienced players a reminder of how fun 'fun' frisbee really can be.

The fancy dress party with a Heroes and Villains theme. (Photo: James Selley)

A congrat's to TD Alan Heckman (and Duffa Helpers) for a great tournament, the addition of a 'theme' made it all the more interesting. Not quite sure if Good or Evil ended up winners, I have however, still got "DE-CEPT-I-CONS!" ringing in my ears.

Prop's to Runners-up Jedi, Tournament Winners The Avengers, Plate Winners the Terminators and Spirit Winners The Decepticons.

See you all there in 2010!

This post was mostly written whilst wearing a safety green coloured singlet.

Review: Open Tour 2

Well, my predictions for T2 weren't entirely accurate!

Congratulations to B-Tour winners Fusion West and C-Tour winners Flump. There were quite a few surprise teams climbing up the rankings. I anticipated Lemmings and Flyght Club having a tough time, but in fact they both climbed 9 places on their original seedings, finishing fourth and seventh respectively. Devon also climbed eight places to be promoted up into A-tour along with Burro Electrico and Fusion West.

It was Curve and Limited Released 2 who will join Flump in the next B-Tour event, climbing seven and two places respectively. Also well done to Staffordshire Oatcakes for winning spirit at the B & C-Tour event.

The post was written whilst mostly listening to the Velvet Underground.

Open Tour 2

Well, it was Clapham who emerged victorious at Open A-Tour last weekend, but who's likely to finish top of the pile at the seemingly forgotten about B & C-Tour in Birmingham this weekend.

Fusion West will want to put right what they got wrong at Tour 1, but there are lots of other teams in the top half of B-Tour who feel they should have been playing at Brighton last weekend rather than in the midlands this weekend. Kent Open, Janitors, Bristol, Steal and newly formed Burro Electrico will all fancy their chances at promotion (or whatever's happening for T3/Nats). Second teams from top clubs Brown, EMO and Brighton will all be looking to create a few upsets also. ABH are likely to fall a few seedings unless their last minute recruitment drive discovers some quality pick-ups. At the bottom half of the table midlands clubs Lemmings 1 and Flyght Club will be looking to avoid dropping down into C-Tour.

(schedule here: http://www.ukultimate.com/system/files/BC.T2-2009.12pitch.16B.18C.pdf)

Talking of the C-Tour, Mustard must feel that they've got a point to prove and will look to dominate the tournament, not quite sure how they've ended up down there. Flump will also be looking to climb back up into B-Tour after fielding a relatively inexperienced team at Tour 1 in Chiswick. A few new teams have entered halfway through the Tour season, including GB Under 17 Open and Lemmings 3. As teams are getting larger and larger, there are increasingly more and more clubs entering two (or more) teams into the UKUA Open Tour. This year there are about 13, these include Fire, Clapham (+ Tigers), Fusion, EMO, Team Shark, Brown, BAF, Limited, Strange Blue, Lemmings, Kent, Brighton, and Devon. In fact, Limited Release fielded three teams at T1 and at T2 relatively new team, the Leamington Lemmings, are fielding three teams also.

It'll be interesting to see which of the second teams finishes highest. After Brighton 1 finished above EMO 1 and The Brown at A-Tour, it'll be interesting to see which second team will finish higher in the B-Tour (not counting Fusion). There is lots of scope for bragging rights across the B & C Tour, will Kent, Lemmings and Devon's first teams all be able to finish higher in the B-Tour than their counterparts in the C-Tour?

I've got no idea at all about who's playing for who this weekend (other than ABH's plea for players on BritDisc) but I thought I'd have a go at predicting the top spots regardless, nothing quite like ill-advised pundits predictions...

B-Tour
1st - Fusion West
2nd - Kent
3rd - Mild Mannered Janitors

C-Tour
1st - Flump
2nd - Mustard
3rd - Strange Blue 2

Good luck to all involved this weekend, he's hoping it's sunny, although as the Ashes are on, it's pretty much guaranteed to rain.

> This post was written whilst mostly listening to Johnny Foreigner's "Arcs Across the City".