LeedsLeedsLeeds Ultimate

Written by Sally Fraser

 LLLadies went to compete at WCU 2007 this weekend and achieved the best EVER result for the team in Europe! I thought this was certainly worthy of a decent write up so here we go. I make no apologies for the length of the report as I enjoyed reliving the weekend all over again.

 

Going into the weekend seeded 10th we thought that might be a little low, but given that we finished 12th at this tournament and 12 th in Rostock in 2005 I guess it was a fair seeding. We were not sure ourselves how we would go in this competition, especially with a number of national teams using it as a warm up tournament for EUC in August, but we set ourselves the target of a top 6 finish.

 

The women's tournament was run using the Swiss format (which I'm still not that convinced I understand). Basically this format means every score is important as the points you get are for each score plus, if you win the margin by which you win by. So for example, if you win a game 13-8 you get 13 points plus 5 for your margin of victory ( i.e. 13+5=18 points for that game). This is actually quite a nice way to help you focus on a game one point at a time, as even if you are down you still know scores are important regardless of whether you end up winning or losing the game. After each game a league table of peoples points is generated and you play the team with the closets points to you next. This in theory means every game after the first should be more and more evenly matched. In this format there were 5 rounds after which the top 2 teams (points are cumulative so they get added to your previous points) go straight through to the semi whilst teams placed 3-6 play off for a place in the semis.

 

We were all staying at the Dan hostel which was pretty comfortable (compared to our sleeping on the floor of 2005). Friday morning was a leisurely start as we didn't play till 4pm. So in order to be fully energised for the weekend we ate well having a big breakfast and lunch and arrived at the pitches hoping our food would digest a little quicker than it seemed to be doing.

 

Our first game was against Yaka (who were actually the French National Team going under the name of Yaka). We warmed up well and were ready go. Our offence was sweet, using all our plays and we scored easily. The French struggled against our variety of D and we ran out comfortable winners 13-3 therefore putting 23 points on the board and heading the table after Round 1.

 

Next up were Espoo a club team from Finland. I felt a little wary after our battles with Athletico in recent years but this was much more spirited thankfully. It was a much tougher game with the Finns playing their trademark Offence with cuts from the side of the pitch into the middle for lead passes. Again though our own offence worked well and our variety of D caused them problems. We ran out 13-7 winners therefore taking another 19 points onto the board. After this game someone from Espoo asked Hannah, "When did you guys get so good?"At the end of Friday and Round 2 LLL were top of the women's division with 42 points on the board. I thought this Espoo performance was one of our best ever, although Ellie didn't really appreciate the comment as she didn't touch the disc apparently?!

 

Saturday morning bought up a game against Primavera (actually the Dutch National team under the name of Primavera). This team has traditionally done well in Europe, comfortably beating us in Rostock, and disappointingly beating us in sudden death in Florence. We were therefore very determined to play well and prepared well despite the early start, making sure we got breakfast on board and warming up thoroughly and with focus. We then took the Dutch by storm and they could not cope with our hard D and flowing and variable offence whereby we could play short and conservative or score in a two passes! We kept focussed on the fact that everyone point could count and bageled Primavera who were shell shocked by our play. We ran out 13-0 winners bagging a valuable 26 points. When me and Tash went to write our score on the board some watching Italians girls gasped at the result and asked, "You are joking aren't your, no one bagels Primavera?"

 

So are success at the top of the leader board brought the inevitable game against Iceni who had been winning too, although in tighter games and were lying second on the board. This was an intense game with long points due to the level of D being played by both teams and the slightly fraught offence driven by the desire to score too quickly by snatching at things. Our approach to this game was confident and it was close all the way. We just lost out at the last however going down 6-8 but with this close result we still topped the leader board after Round 4.

 

Next up the German National Team. This was a tough proposition given the strength of this team historically and the strength of their club teams in Rostcok. However again we prepared well and took the game to the German's but after a decent start we had a dip in the middle which left us 7-12 down. However our desire to score every point and new found self belief meant we dug deep and came back to 11-12. However, the German's finally got the point they needed and took the game 11-13. At the end of this game the German captain said, amongst many other nice things that, " LLL were the team to beat, we were like the Man Utd of the division". The closeness of this game meant we still gained valuable points and came second in the table to Iceni and above the Germans to get a bye into the semis. The Germans had to go play Espoo to win the right the play us in the semi. We joyfully watched then slog it out in their 4 th game of the day and looked forward to playing the eventual winners who turned out to be the German's.

 

Saturday evening  was as you'd expect, party night and we were treated to a boat ride to the party where the food was good and the drink free until 10.30. A good time was had by all and we still had good representation late on into the night.

 

Sunday morning and everyone was in a focussed mood for our game against the Germans. We knew we hadn't played our best against them the previous day but that we had still come close and we felt we could get them this time. This time were didn't have that mid game dip and the game was neck and neck at half. We then got a couple in a row after half and opened up a small lead going into the cap. However, as any good would the German's fought back. We dug in and at 11 all we started on offence. We turned near their end zone and nerves we frayed on the sideline. However, we got the D and scored to take an amazing victory and find ourselves in the final!!!

 

Of course throughout the weekend we had constantly had to re-adjust our goals and we now seriously felt we could win the final. We had to play Iceni again who'd only squeezed past us the day before and we hadn't played out best O in that game. So the final. The crowd started small and quiet but after a few points people had come over to watch and the by half the crowd were noisy and enjoying the game. We'd let Iceni open up a three point lead but dug in and made them really struggle on O. Our D was awesome, but we struggled to score when near the end zone due to Iceni's flooding of the end zone line on D. The final brought plenty of crowd pleasing moments from both sides with Alia of Iceni coming down with an amazing grab followed by our very own Johanna making a superb layout grab in the end zone and then Flea joined in on that action too with a layout score. Unfortunately we could not claw back the deficit this time and we lost 8-12. This was disappointing as I think we know we can beat this Iceni team now but we'll learn the lessons for future games with this team!

 

What I'd like to say personally about this weekend was how fantastically well the team performed as a team for each other. That's not just on the pitch, that's in term of preparing properly for games by eating well and warming up well, by supporting well from the sideline, by encouraging each other all the time and by the effort given on the pitch. This team now really believes in it's self and that's a result of our hard work at training in the winter where we've had good attendance and where people have embraced all the things we've been teaching in terms of plays, calls and things like moving the disc quickly etc.. Tour 0 gave us that much needed belief that we really can compete and beat top teams like Iceni and we took that into this tournament and showed what hard work, self belief and a real team ethic can do. I believe we also came runners up in spirit this weekend which is great and shows we can play both hard and fair! We wish everyone could have been there this weekend, but we are buoyed by the fact we'll be even better on Tour when we have the whole squad.

 

This result I hope will spur people onto to keep working hard on their skills and fitness and attending training because with dedication there is a real opportunity to be top in both Britain and Europe which is a very exciting prospect!!!! Our goals have changed and we are not a team that will be content with a runners up spot!

 

Well done to the whole team, everyone was outstanding this weekend!

 

Results Summary

 

Round 1 Friday

 

LLL 13 v French National Team 3

 

Round 2 Friday

 

LLL 13 v Espoo 7

 

At end of Friday LLL top the women's division

 

Round 3 Saturday

 

LLL 13 v Dutch National Team 0

 

Round 4 Saturday

 

LLL 6 v Iceni 8

 

Round 5 Saturday

 

LLL  11 v German National Team 13

 

At end of Saturday LLL lie second in the division behind Iceni and have a place in the semi finals. Those teams in 3-6 bracket playoff to get into the semi.

 

Semi Final Sunday

 

LLL 12 v German National Team 11

 

Final Sunday

 

LLL 8 v  Iceni 12