Team List:

Ant, Cookie, Frosty, Nick V, Mike G, Joby, Mig, Neville, Walter, Derek, Beth, Jen, Corrine, Jen, Pearlie, Tessa

Final Placing:

21st out of 24 (up 2 on our seeding)

MVP: Ultimate was the winner.

Bum Sumo Champion: Walter

Saturday

Our first game was against Haze. We only had three girls at the start of the match but fortunately and showing good spirit (or lack of observation!) they didn't play 4 girls at any point. We also lost Cookie after the first point and Nick soon after (Ed: I actually finished the game and played nearly all of the next one), both to recurring hamstring injuries. At least they have a good set of hams between them! We were level at 3-3 after 30 mins, but then it all fell apart and we lost 11-5 I think.

Unfortunately things didn't really get much better after that. The next game was against Lucky Huckers. They were out for revenge after we beat them in sudden death at open tour1. They got it! We just weren't clicking as a team, and I think this started to affect everyone's individual play as well. The final score was 9-5.

Before our last game of the day against Basic we worked on a few handling drills, and this seemed to help a bit, as this game was our strongest of the day. We still lost it though, despite an impressive run of points in the cap, and a couple of very sweet points. Final score 12-7.

It was great to see though, that despite no victories, we did not descend into despondency, but just resolved to do better the next day. It was also quite nice to be finished by 2pm. We stayed for a bit to cheer on the Herd, but despite our support and Joby's remarkably realistic cow impressions, the Herd lost their game.

The evening saw us head into the heart of the new forest, after Nick had used his acute pub sense to suss out there were no great pubs in Romsey. One highlight of the evening was finding the best sweet shop in the world (well at least in Hampshire). Loads of jars of all the fab sweets you got as a kid by the quarter. Nick won the prize for the biggest bag of sweets. We found a considerably higher quality restaurant then at tour 1 and avoided the curry, An Italian with clean cutlery, if a somewhat clumsy waitress, what more could you ask for. An egg on every meal according to Nick! (Ed: this did not actually happen, much to my chargrine)

We then hit the ‘party'. Within 5 mins Beth had described it as the worst party ever. No tart fuel for her to drink, no music and a replay of the day's action courtesy of roadie films, showing her being scored on! We arrived just in time to see this and several other scores against us. They could have showed at least one of our scores. Anyway it livened up a bit once everyone was kicked outside. There was a guitar and lots of drunk people that thought they could sing! Ok some of them could including our very own Nick who led a raucous acapella version of Bohemian Rhapsody! If only there'd been a piano!

Sunday

Sunday started with Nick in stitches after witnessing Cookie's muesli out of the nose trick! Clearly this was a good omen, as we had a much better day. The arrival of Derek and Tessa bolsterer the team, as did the glorious sunshine. Our first game was the crossover to try and get in to the 17-20 spot. We were up against curious bacon and came out fighting. We were playing so much better as a team and as individuals. I'd remembered how to cut again! We gave them a good game but I think the fact they had the more experienced women just made the difference. The final score was 11-8.

Second game was against a team we met a fair few times last season – Salt n Sauce. This was a great game with some great play from both teams and some horrendous play too. I played my worst point for a long time, throwing away at least 5 times and getting point blocked! At least I redeemed myself slightly by throwing the assist to Pearlie, who'd made a great cut, to finish the point! Salt n Sauce showed great spirit when they declined a turnover from the pull in the cap. Unfortunately though this was shortly followed by Beth getting injured when bulldozed by one of their players. We were 6-5 up with a game to 7. We almost took it then, but a drop in the zone gave them the chance to bring it level. What a sudden death point! Not an easy point to watch from the sidelines! There were at least 5 or 6 turnovers. They almost scored from a huck, but the disc floated for so long, and what with defensive pressure, the receiver dropped it. My heart crawled back down my throat to where it should be! We worked up patiently and then a throw, I forget from whom, was caught by Denise for the win. Denise then did very well in the guess your age call!

So the last game was for 21st/22nd place and a rematch against Lucky Huckers. We finally got our zone working and our O. This was by far our best game. The wind had picked up, but we managed to get a few upwind points and win it comfortably 8-4, with the winning point being an assist from me to Walter, who'd got free in the corner. So a great finish in the end and considering the fact that three of our women have very little experience, a pretty damn good performance overall. Full credit to Denise, Pearlie and Corrine for holding their own against more experienced women. Also a special thanks to Tessa, who I'm sure wasn't expecting to be playing in mixed tour the Sunday after she sent me an email on the Thursday asking about ABH practice times!

It was really good to see the enthusiasm at the end for working on our structure etc in practices. I'm sure if we can do this we'll be able to break into the top 20.

(P.S. Ok so the reports aren't any shorter now I'm back at work, but hey writing this is more fun than marking!)

Hugs and kisses,

Ant