Overcoming the usual wind, rain and icy pitches, ABH Open took part in the three London Open Winter Leagues. We had encouraging performances in games against Brighton and Fire and chalked up victories over Strange Blue, Disc Doctors and Thrown. The Railway pub provided solid post-match entertainment and refreshment, and allowed the captain to meet his pre-game promises about beers for victory without bankrupting him.
ABH entered two teams for the first 3 Winter League events... and three teams in the final! The particular highlight was Winter League 2 in December, where our Santa hats (and full costumes including beards in some cases) did not hinder us from am impressive 4th place overall finish.
ABH travelled to the beaches of Poole to play in the famously freezing Frostbite tournament. It was VERY windy (even our 10-person human pyramid toppled over) and there were lots of wayward discs, but we ended up winning some really tight games and finished 5th out of 16 teams, with a fantastic 3rd place in Spirit.
Over the winter, ABH showed our brilliance off the pitch by entering fortnightly pub quizzes all over London. While we haven't quite won the grand 1st place monitary prize yet (it could happen...), we've picked up various 2nd place prizes including a round of drinks, a Sunday roast for four and a giant box of Toblerone. Look out for more pub quizzes in the new year!
ABH entered two teams in London Summer League - ABH North and ABH South. Midway through the season, the teams met each other in an epic battle which North won in sudden death (15-14). Both teams finished in the second division, and ABH North won spirit.
In 2010, ABH entered the three UKUA Open Tour events and the first South East Open Regional Qualifiers. We had a lot of good, close games and played some quality, spirited ultimate, finishing 29th overall at Tour (or 24th if you remove the 5 non-UK teams who entered some events) and with above average spirit scores.
After a very exciting weekend at the beach in Skegness, ABH finished 11th and won spirit at Copa del Soul. Highlights (according to Mike) included Mike scoring lots of points, Mike rocking the stage by singing “More than a Feeling”, and Mike falling asleep half out of his tent during a thunderstorm while wearing a straw hat and ukulele. The rest of the team had a great weekend as well.
ABH sent two teams to all tour events, finishing 21st and 35th overall, out of over 50 teams. Nationals was a particular highlight, where the first team won 6 out of 6 games. The club continued to be a strong presence in the UK mixed scene, growing in fame for spirited play, tasty cakes and the best end-of-game speeches ever.
Cold weather aside, the winter was a great season for ABH - with a strong performance at the oft-muddy but always fun Winter League, plus an 8th place finish at the slightly crazy Frostbite beach tournament in Poole. We braved the outdoors off the pitch as well with some country hikes to fab village pubs, ice skating at the Tower of London, a Christmas gift exchange of the world's tackiest gifts, plus holing up in pubs for CD swaps and random board game fun.
ABH once again braved wind, rain, mud and frost to compete in the three London Winter League events.With a number of fresh faces among the ranks good fun was had testing ourselves against our London League peers from Fire to feisty young newcomers UCL and long term rivals Strange Blue, ultimately finishing in the top 8 with new Club records for size of post-match burgers and number of Calahans scored.
Battling rain, sleet and even the odd bit of snow, ABH Mixed had a great 2010 Winter League – fielding two teams at every event and finishing 6th and 7th overall. The last tourney was the best outing yet, as both teams finished with sudden death victories against strong and good-spirited Herd and Fugazees teams, followed with a strong showing at the post-game pub.
In the face of growing competition in the UK Open Ultimate scene, ABH had a solid open season, finishing 23rd overall (7th in the B tour). Over the course of the season, we played several close games but always finished strongly. Even with a wedding clashing with Tour 2, a squad of 8 held on to a B Tour spot.
ABH sent two strong teams to every tour. The first team came 16th at Nationals and finished 19th overall. The second team finished 29th at Nationals, 31st overall. Highlights included winning some very tight games, some speakers and pump-up music on the sidelines, and the two squads taking over a B&B in Mansfield.
Southampton's sunny Saturday and showery Sunday saw some suitably sublime play from ABH A. Despite being up against both the Herd and Flump at the start of the game, those results went against us. Victory in every other game saw us hold seed at 9th. ABH B, the only second team entered, finished 19th.
The open team won all their pool games, but missing players on Sunday meant they only improved their seed to 19th. That would place them in a promotion spot at a tour event, and indeed if the two foreign teams had not been there, it would have them 1st in the B tour.
ABH entered two mixed teams into the full set of mixed tours. An unfortunate initial seeding meant the B team had to fight their way to a final seeding of 30th. The A team stayed in the 10-15 pool all season and ended up 14th on points. The weather held up for most of the time, and the sideline support was fantastic.
At the end of Tour 3, ABH 1 came 4th in the B tour and ABH 2 came 16th. Surprisingly good weather in Mansfield meant a lot of drinking, both water during the games, and a lot of other beverages after. A good time was had by all.
In between the various ultimate tournaments, ABH's social secretaries have found time to organise a number of social events. Two CD swaps, an evening of drinking, curry and foosball and a house party in the middle of tour 0. Multiple evenings of fun in excellent company and more on the way. More to come in May, including sloshball and the "70th" birthday testimonial match.
Tour 1 was in Bristol this year and ABH sent two teams to brave the bizarre april weather. The bravest camped by the pitches and were rewarded for their stupidity with a layer of snow covering everything on Sunday. Despite more snow during falling during the games, ABH B gained promotion from the C tour to the B tour, and the a team remained in the top 8 of the B tour.
ABH sent a team to Paga this year to spend easter weekend playing beach ultimate in Italy with parties every night. Not a bad deal. To get some idea of what it's like, watch the blockstack.tv episodes that cover it and look at some the photos.
Steve G (Blockstack): Can you summarise the Paganello experience in 100 words or less?
Dani Wood (ABH): No.
ABH had another great set of results at LWL4. The B team, with a severe shortage of subs and playing iron woman at times, won 3 of their games, only losing to Chichester (who came 2nd in the 1st division at WL1).
The A team beat The Galahs, Herd 2 and Brighton and only narrowly lost to Herd 1 in the final.
ABH had another strong performance at Winter League 2. ABH 1 came 2nd and a badly seeded ABH 2 dominated their pool with an aggregate score of 38-3. WL3 was cancelled, so ABH played a mini-tournament in Hyde Park. ABH 1 and 2 were joined by Curve and Revolution for 3 games of spirited, muddy ultimate. The following weekend brought a clean sweep of wins at the Ladder League event. It hasn't all been Ultimate though, the social secretaries have done great work in organising CD swaps, Bowling nights and of course, the start of season party.
ABH entered two teams into this month's winter league. Apples played in the 1st mixed division, and Bananas in the third. Despite beating chichester, who finished 1st, apples finished 7th with two wins and two losses. Bananas narrowly missed promotion as Galahs 3 picked up some quality ringers.
2007 has been a good year for ABH. The mixed team going from strength to strength in the glorious sunshine and the open teams showing their skills despite the dismal weather. The A team maintained their position as the team to beat in the B tour and the B team demonstrated that sometimes two captains are better than one.
Mixed: 18th at Tour. Finished 10th at Mixed Tour 3.
Open A: 20th at Tour. Finished 3rd at Open Tour 3B.
Open B: 31st at Tour.
Winter League has finished and ABH's open team have achieved their highest ever ranking in a London league.
ABH finished 9th of 26 teams in the highly competitive open division, and took 7th place in the Charity Shield against teams from some of the top clubs in the country.
ABH's mixed team have finished a hard fought winter campaign in 8th position.
We've introduced a number of new players this winter, and with the team really starting to work well together it promises to be a great summer of mixed ultimate.
ABH have attended Mixed Tour in Romsey
Captain Ant has compiled a missive on our trip. Click here to to see what we did, and where we came.
ABH travelled to Bristol to compete in Open Tour 1 this weekend
Ant has kindly typed up a report on ABH's magnificent performance. Click here to read it.
