Quality or Proximity?

Just had a discussion with a friend about tournament venues.

I made a blog entry sometime ago where I explained that I thought that 'Nationals' should be held somewhere central, in order to be easily accessible to the majority of teams.

The counter argument is that for Nationals the very best facilities should be used, regardless of their proximity.

This year saw Club Open Indoors Nationals and Uni Mixed Indoor Nationals both held in Glasgow, because it's got a really good hall apparently*. The UKUA Nationals (Outdoors) will be held in Southampton, home of EUC 2007, which apparently are also a great facility.

Both of these venues are not central in their location in the slightest, but offer a high standard of facility. There are perfectly good facilities in the Midlands however. Wolverhampton and Coventry have both got good indoor facilities. Birmingham is one of my favourite outdoor venues.

Therefore, should we go for high quality venues at the expense of proximity, or should proximity be the main driver for 'Nationals'?

*I've not been there, just feedback I've heard.

This post was written whilst mostly listening to Marina and the Diamonds.

CMIN 2010

Club Mixed Indoor Nationals was this weekend, held in Coventry.

As predicted Brixton were pushed out of the top four, but not by Kent, Brown or Cowboys, it was Flump and Babushka (DUF) who outperformed their seedings.

Congrats to Discmen, who beat Bears Cavalry in a great final. Also congrats to Bears Cavalry who won Spirit of the Game, which goes to show you can play highly competitive ultimate in a spirited fashion.

Full Results (SOTG Scores)...

1. Discmen Ultrastars (12.5)
2. Bear Cavalry (15) - SOTG winners
3. Flump (13.9)
4. The Babushka Lady's Babies (14.9)
5. Fire and Ice (13.4)
6. The Brown (12.1)
7. Mythago (13.8)
8. Steal (14)
9. Cowboys (13.6)
10. Brixton Angels (14.4)
11. Black Magic (8.6)
12. Kent (14)
13. BearsReloaded (13.7)
14. Lemmings (13.5)
15. Trigger Happy (12.3)
16. Cutty Sharks (13.5)
17. Fugazees (14.1)
18. Bear Minimum (14.1)
19. Discmen Daredevils (11.6)
20. Strange Blue (12.7)

Club Mixed Indoor Nationals

This weekend sees CMIN held in Coventry.

According to seedings, the favourites are Discmen, Fire & Ice, Bear Cavalry and Brixton Angels. I wouldn't be surprised to see Kent, Brown or Cowboys force themselves into the top four, possibly at the expense of Brixton.

I appreciate that seedings are tricky for one off tournaments, particularly mixed indoor ones. Depending on who turns up for their respective teams, expect Strange Blue, Mythago and Leamington Lemmings to shoot up the seedings.

See y'all there!

This post was mostly written whilst listening to Elliott Smith

Barr Crawl...

Well, t'other weekend was Great Barr Crawl in Birmingham.

As always, was a fun tournament, and as always my predictions were wrong.

Dog Eat Disc, which seemed to be made up largely of Team Shark players won the tournament, from their seeding of 29th (or similar!). They beat Bears Cavalry in a hotly contested final. Less hotly contested was the 3 Vs 4, seeing local side Leamington Lemmings beat Leroy the Mexican Turbo Snail. Spirit was won jointly by Hot Snatch and Ovathrow (a team of ARUP engineers).

Looks like uBu2 won the plate (in 13th position), with other notable performances from Arctic 1* (finishing 7th) and Lady Lemmings (managing to compete well in an otherwise 'Open' tournament).

Here's looking forward to Club Mixed Indoor Nationals next weekend in Coventry.

Lemmings 1, 2 & Lady Lemmings @ GBC

* Why do people in the Ultimate world find it so hard to spell Arctic?

This post was mostly written whilst listening to Mumford & Sons.

LUCRE 2010 Results

The second ever LUCRE (Lemmings Ultimate & Cancer REsearch) fundraiser tournament was held this weekend.

Eight teams from across the region travelled to Warwick to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

A massive thanks to all of the kind sponsors who donated gifts to the LUCRE, including Quarry Park Disc Golf, Lookfly, BlockStack, RadSheep, VC, Five, Catch the Spirit, PushPass, Zone, Nicola Green, Inferno Tournaments and DJ Tees. Plus thanks to Duffa for running a fantasy frisbee fundraiser too.

A massive £670 was raised for Cancer Research UK, well done to all involved.

The Legendary Leamington Lemmings LUCRE Limn Lion Award (yes, I like alliteration) was won by Chris Batey of uBu (I'll get a link to his drawing up soon).

The spirit prize was won by host club, the Leamington Lemmings.

The plate final saw young side Ex-Uriel (whom were mostly actually Ocelots) beat uBu. The final was contested between the Leamington Lemurs and Duffa. The Manchester team were a point up with thirty seconds remaining, but Lemurs pulled it back in time, forcing the game into sudden-death. An epic point followed, finally being won by the Leamington side to win the LUCRE 2010 Trophy.

Final Standings:
1st - Leamington Lemurs (Winners)
2nd - Duffa
3rd - Leamington Lemmings (Spirit)
4th - Evolution
5th - Ex-Uriel (Plate)
6th - uBu
7th - Aston Hornets
8th - Bear Force One

This page was mostly written whilst thinking about updating the LUCRE website

Wrong Again

So my prediction for the LUCRE Winners was (kinda) wrong too.

Leamington Lemurs (the other Leamington Lemmings team) won the Tournament, beating the Lemmings in the semi-final. Duffa were the other finalists, whom Lemurs beat in sudden-death.

My other tips, saw Ex-Uriel win the plate, uBu were sixth and Bears eight (in the eight team tournament).

Moral of the story, I probably shouldn't do the seedings at any future tournament.

This post was written whilst mostly listening to Marina and the Diamonds.

Unofficial UK Ultimate Calendar

I had JB asking me about upcoming tournaments, so I showed him my Google Calendar, and there was loads of tournaments he wasn't aware of, they're not on the UKUA Calendar either. So, I decided to embed the calendar in this blog below.

I wouldn't trust these dates 100%, but they're what I'm using to plan with.

If you've got a tournament you'd like added, or one amended, then let me know the details.

Oh, it'd be ace if everyone could keep the proper UKUA one up to date.

This post was written whilst mostly listening to Plan B

First Prediction - Wrong

WIndoors was this weekend, I had predicted Bears 1 would win, in fact they were beaten in the final by Vice (in sudden death I think), well done to them. Joke Paws weren't fourth in the end, they were seventh, but picked up the spirit prize. Brixton Angels won the Plate and Leamington Lemmings won the spoon.

Surprise of the tournament was local school side Evolution, finishing high up in thirteenth place. Reckon they stand a great chance at winning LUCRE if they play as well as they did at WIndoors.

This post was written whilst mostly listening to TTT&C Covers.

January Tournaments

WIndoors or Warwick Indoors is this weekend, it's where all of the Ultimate playing graduates of Warwick University reunite and play some indoors. In addition to all of the old Bears players they also invite along a couple of local teams to make up the numbers. For the first time in years, the Mexican Horse Bandits haven't entered, I think they have won it pretty much every year for the past every years! Bears 1 are looking pretty strong this year, and I'd be surprised if they didn't win it on their home turf. Expect Joke Paws to finish fourth, standard.

Next weekend is LUCRE or Lemmings Ultimate and Cancer REsearch (what is it with all these acronyms?!). That's held in Warwick, unlike Warwick Indoors, which is held in Coventry. Current Champions the Leamington Lemmings will have to be on top form to retain their crown. I think that nearby team uBu from Birmingham University have a great outside chance to win this one, although there will be stiff competition from (ex)Uriel and a young Bears team.

Great Barr Crawl is at the end of January, hosted in Birmingham (it's a busy month for Ultimate in the Midlands!). Bear Cavalry will fancy their chances of last years success and retaining their title, however, they'll have to watch out for Leroy the Mexican Turbo Snail, Arctic 1 and Stourbridge, who will all fancy their chances.

Keep up to date with Ultimate in the Midlands at THIS facebook group.

This post was mostly written whilst eating salted pretzels.

MWL3 Cancelled

Midlands Winter League 3 is cancelled due to frozen ground.

Good, I bloomin' hate WL, playing in the cold and sleet.

Instead I shall be mostly warming myself and relaxing.

This post was mostly written whilst listening to the Paolo Nutini album, which is surprisingly OK.