Right, time for my first bash at a tournament report so if I waffle bear with me

After a frantic Thursday evening of begging for players far and wide and our enquiries as to lowering our lofty seeding had proved fruitless a noble band of 7 pies were sent to Poole with the task of defending 9th position.

When we arrived at the campsite we pitched up Paul deciding to shack up on his own in his new tent with windows and embarked upon a few rounds of drinking bop-it. Before being asked to quieten down and slunk off to bed.

Saturday

When we rocked up to the pitches on the beautiful picturesque Sandbanks beach we noted our first victory of the weekend; the pitches weren't as big as at CUBE! Which was not only a massive relief but also gave serious weight to the argument that Longsands could house a few pitches but that's a discussion for another day

Game 1 vs. Huck and See

First we were pitted against the top seeds in our pool who had some serious pedigree in the competition in previous years. The game started with some long points as they honed the range of their hucks and went a few points ahead. Then as the pies second wind kicked in we got ourselves more into the game, utilising the poach on Em to keep the disc alive punished them into marking true. This opened the game up much more for the play down the middle, which had been cut out by their clever poaching. Thepies then went on to score some nice points with smart safe passing. Unfortunately Huck and See were still scoring, a few Pies aerial D-bids just falling short. With the score at 8-5 the Pies were in the zone but as the hooter sounded to take the game into the cap 3 quick points for Huck and See saw them run out deserved winners. It was a well-spirited game with no calls at all and friendly banter throughout. A good performance against a very good team and gave us confidence for the rest of our pool games.A quick game of spank and the huck and see drop flower (definitely not an indoor call) later and it was off to the sea for a paddle where Taz got bitten by some unknown creature.

Huck and See 11 5 Pies

Huck and See went on to win comfortably in the final, granted they turned it on a little more in that game but still an indication of how well we did.

Game 2 vs. DHB

Most of us had memories of our groups bottom seeds DHB from various places and were gutted to see no Brick who was apparently doing some DIY at home. The game itself wasn't too remarkable, DHB were the better team but the scoreline wasn't quite a fair reflection as the pies turned over a lot of chances on DHB's endzone line. The Pies best score being a slick passing move the full length of the pitch ending in a bit of role reversal with Paul steaming onto a leading pass for a great team score. Anotherwell-spirited game with Taz benefiting from a generous dose of Sunday rules early in the game.

The calls however were slightly less spirited with the 24-assassinationcall resulting in Paul being taken out by a vicious, although well placed, knife. And DHB deciding to make me pay for a good layout score with a combination of Bulgarian red rum and elephant turns.

DHB 10 - 3 Pies

Next came the Fastest man on Sand and Killer Mac competitionsAs the only vaguely willing participant I represented the Pies in fastest man coming 5th out of five in my heat, I’d like to blame fatigue… so I will.

In the Killer Mac line however we fared better, a fine gesture ofsportsmanship/naivety saw Olly walk early for a D from his heat whilst Taz progressed early through each round with a fine display of Mac talent and a copious display of skin culminating in a place in the final 6. The great prowess he had shown in the early rounds escaping him on the big stage bowing out in a highly respectable 5th place after a blatant D.

Then Back to the Ultimate

Game 3 vs. Bell Alien

After frantically scratching our heads for the clever pun we enquired to find their team was named after when travelling to a European tourney they flew over a mountain that looked like a cross between a penis and an alien (irrelevant to the game but I found it interesting). The game was slightly more straightforward with Bell Alien looking quite comfortable in the early stages. The Pies then got going the change of tactics to a 2-3 Ho stack working a treat with George running the middle of the show with the runs that just kept coming all weekend. Unfortunately Bell Alien got a bit of a lucky break with an accidental MAC finding their own player for ascore just as we were establishing our rhythm. After that not even an incredible grab from George on a disc the Aliens thought they had made the D on was enough to inspire the comeback. Bell Alien ran out deserved winners, their quick breakaway on the turnover proving decisive and dumping us firmly at the bottom of our pool with 3 losses.

After burying our most alien-like teammates to hide the remnants of the Roswell crash we played chest hair and age ranking, to be fair they were a damn site better than us at it, but I’ll have a pint of whatever their 38 year old player drinks I swear he didn’t look a day over 25. We somehow got to discussing ultimate experience and after finding their team had a combined Frisbee playing age of 83 years to our 16 we all of a sudden didn’t feel so bad.

Bell Alien 13 – 5 Pies

Game 4 vs. ABH

What does every 7 man ultimate team that has been running hard against larger squads all day want I hear you ask? Another game? Well it’s what we got, having finished bottom of our pool we had to play a crossover with the runner up in one of the lower groups, the winners of this match playing for positions 9-16 the next day, the losers fighting it out for 17-24. Well what can I say, other than it was an amazing game. Every single Pie played fantastic, It was one of those games you dream about where every catch was a good one. The first few points saw George and Olly taking down well some half decent hucks from myself. Then to be honest I don’t know what was in that Bulgarian rum but it certainly did the trick.Georges tireless running in the middle started countless moves which resulted in a hell of a lot of hucks from him Taz and Paul finding me in the endzone and everything stuck. This contrasting to ABH's failure to convert simpler chances. The game not quite clicking for ABH summed up perfectly by one hopeful punt by the Pies into the endzone; 2 ABH players leapt for the D and as the two of them crashed to the ground, there was Taz with the disc having made an awesome grab he had no right to get. The Pies started to tire however and even at least 3 possession saving grabs from Em (getting her first chance to line up against a girl all day) on some tired swings couldn't stop ABH from coming back into the game. As the hooter went the momentum was very much with ABH and the Pies were visibly shattered the final required point proving elusive and not looking like it was going to come, when all of a sudden the ABH defence parted and there was Ben having created himself a few yards of space, the pass went through, was caught, and the Pies had themselves a place in the middle eight.

The Pies having beaten what was probably on paper a superior sidewith a combination of desire, hard work and a little bit of luck. After both speeches went on about some of my grabs (very flattering, but next time say something nice about the other team George!) we showed them how to eat Pies and they squirted us with super soakers under the pretence of some sort of Frisbee related game.

Pies 11 - 8 ABH

Then back to the Campsite to dig sand out of, well you know where sand ends up, and get dressed for the party the first few of us piled onto one coach to be joined by the others shortly after. The party was at a reasonably classy looking bar, which somewhat surprisingly hosted a bikers Tuesday amongst its theme nights. Having been issued with drink discount vouchers all the focus was on the food. Ben especially ready to lead an assault from the hungry hoards on the unopened buffet, when it did open however was well worth the wait, some odd combinations of food on offerbut good food and plenty of it. They then cranked up the music, somewhat of a token effort on the dancing front from the Pies until Me and Taz led the whole room in a rousing rendition of the YMCA routine… at least I think that was adulation from the crowd. George however spent the majority of the party dozing in a well-deserved rest. We piled back on the coach to the campsite at 11:30 and headed home for some sleep, another tiring day awaited.

Sunday

Game 1 vs. Club Seal

When the game was due to start Seal only had 4 players, more were due but had apparently been caught out by a raising bridge that there was no sensible explanation for needing to cross. We decided to give them a few minutes and if no-one showed we would play them with 4’s, the chance for 3 subs making that offer not entirely selfless. As we lined up, player number 5 arrived, soon followed by 6, 7 and the rest, dang, our one opportunity to make numbers count gone. This game was all about O plain and simple, with the exception of one clever intercepted poach from Paul early on I’m not sure if a single turnover was forced. They ran us hardtheir long game yielding results especially as we tired, a change oftactics to a flat force slowed them down but wasn’t enough to stop them trotting out 12-8 winners.

A quick game of killer Bop-it which didn’t really capture the imagination of Club Seal and a game of Slap Slap Bang rounded things off. The O was nice but we knew our D-must improve.

Club Seal 12 – 8 Pies

Game 2 vs. Basic

Our next game saw us against a sizeable squad of very tall, very quick and very athletic Brunel lads flying under the basic flag. Our D improved from our last game with George getting a good point block and Ben getting a good D towards the end but they simply out-ran us. And were comfortable winners Our cause wasn’t helped by a few of the passes we were getting away with in earlier games not quite coming off. Paul’s break-side hammer, which had been a great supply line all weekend catching the increasing wind twice.

Paul got them back however with a master-class in beach bouleafterwards not even needing his second boule to win the call. They then challenged us to a frisbee penalty shootout which we lost 4-2, the highlight of which being a deft fake from Em leaving the keeper stranded.

Basic 12 – 2 Pies

Game 3 15th 16th final vs. Bristol Plastic Factory

When talking to BPF before the game we found they had followed the same pattern as us having bottomed their pool maintaining their middle group status with a tough crossover win and then losing a few more to join us in the battle for 15th. They were a team we had seen a fair bit of over the weekend and you had to respect their co-ed spirit regularly playing full lines of women, they had more women than we had players, unfortunately they also had more men than we had players, so we had a feeling the freshness was going to be with them. With this in mind we knew we wouldhave to start well and so chalked up a bit of an early lead with the 2-3 Horizontal stack really honed by this point Olly and Ben both making great runs for the continuation passes. BPF woke up a bit then and we started trading, their women playing some very slick stuff through the middle and their main receiver a constant thorn in our sides. As expected their numbers started to have an effect as we tired but when the hooter went the Pies rallied for one final push taking two unanswered points one an acrobatic layout into the endzone from George the other a good take from Olly on the edge of the endzone before floating a simple pass into the endzone for the win. They then introduced us to shadow laying and beat us on the Pies call, always a shock with Taz on the final leg before both teams piled into the sea for frolics and a MAQua-line.

So a hard fought and well deserved 15th place for the Pies in their first of hopefully many trips down to Poole for the magnificent Beachfest. So many thanks to-

George – Non-stop running in every game he barely dropped or threw away a single disc all weekend and his ability to turn on a sixpence at speed meant a fantastic showing to sign off with before he departs for New Zealand MVP

Taz – A solid display of handling from Taz with great commitment on both O and D showing he’s lost none of the disc skills in his injury lay off and adding that little flourish of style you need to truly play beach ultimate

Em – Very solid display of handling, some great grabs, effortlesslypassing round blokes twice her size and an uncanny knack of finding George as the stall count got high contributed to a great weekend from Em.

Ben – The utility man playing in every position and looking comfortable in all of them but his best play coming as the continuation cut on some of our slicker passing moves down the middle. A good outlet when things were looking tight none less so than in the winning point against ABH.

Olly – As ever with Olly a lot of running a lot of enthusiasm coupled with a willingness to learn saw him grow in confidence and influence with every game, his disc reading especially improved allowing him to get those grabs he loves talking about. MIP

Paul – As ever with Paul a calm head at the back good possession play with Em and Taz at the back and a fantastic supply line for those further down the pitch. Add into that some great grabs and some intelligent D and you have another great weekend of Ultimate.

And me, Mike