Hi All

Just a quick write up of the tournament in Sutton Coldfield last weekend. Thank
you everyone who was there for making it such a good event, despite the
miserable weather (esp on the Saturday!)... With 17 Junior teams it was the
biggest ever - and I'm pretty confident that record will be beaten next year if
the Junior game keeps growing as it is... The standard of play was higher than
I've seen it before with competitive games all through the final play offs, and
the spirit was good throughout.

I'm not going to write up much of a report, as I didn't get to see many games. I
think it is fair to say that before the tournament the Mowers were the odds-on
favourites to make the final and claim the trophy for the third time, and any of
the teams seeded 2nd to 8th (Air Badgers, Catch Those, Ocelots, Thundercatch,
6FFU, Arctic and NC Hammer) would have liked to think that on their day,
injuries etc notwithstanding, they might be the ones to provide the opposition
for the Mowers in the final and see if they could cause an upset. The seedings,
certainly of the top 8, were fairly accurate; Arctic 2 were the only team not
seeded in the top 8 to take the advantage of the top half/bottom half crossover
on Sunday morning, and broke into the quarters at the expense of Thundercatch.
In pool play on Saturday, Arctic 1 had managed a sudden death victory over 3rd
seeds Catch Those, which ultimately got them out of the semi final draw against
Mowers; instead Catch Those found
themselves in this tough semi, and they were unable to create an upset as the
Mowers cruised through the tournament to the final. Second seeds and last year's
runners up Air Badgers 1 faced the challenge from Arctic 1 in the other semi - a
very tight game that went all the way, with Arctic winning by two points in the
end. In the final, the Mowers demonstrated that they are worthy champions -
despite the best efforts of the Arctic players, the superior experience, skill,
tactics and fitness of the Mowers meant they dominated from the start, and run
out worthy winners, final score: 10-4. They have set the benchmark for Junior
Ultimate in the UK in recent years and are currently a class above the rest of
the field. It will be interesting to see watch the shift of power next year when
they are not around any more (most of the players will be too old)

Final Results:
Champions - Mowers (Birkenhead)
Runners Up - Arctic 1 (Sutton Coldfield)
3rd - Catch Those 1 (The Wirral)
4th - Air Badgers 1 (Exeter)
5th - Ocelots (Chester)
6th - 6FFU (Farnborough)
7th - NC Hammer (North Allerton)
8th - Arctic 2

9th - Thundercatch (Gosport) Plate Winners
10th - Arctic 3
11th - Disco Inferno (Warwick)
12th - Air Badgers 2
13th - Strangers With Candy (Brighton)
14th - Catch Those 2
15th - Evolution (Aylesford)
16th - Arctic 4
17th - Air Badgers 3

Spirit of the Game Winners: Arctic 1

SOTG: Over the weekend, each team scored every team they played on a scale from
1 (Unnaceptable spirit/play) through to 6 (Perfect fair play); a score of 6
could only be given if the spirit was perfect AND the game was a close one where
incidents crucial to the final result were handled as the SOTG rule requires.
Average spirit scores at the end of the weekend for each team are as follows:

5.5 - Arctic 1
5.0 - Strangers With Candy
4.8 - Air Badgers 1 and NC Hammer
4.6 - Arctic 2
4.5 - Evolution
4.3 - Air Badgers 2
4.2 - 6FFU and Air Badgers 3 and Arctic 4 and Catch Those 2
4.1 - Thundercatch
4.0 - Disco Inferno and Mowers and Ocelots
3.6 - Catch Those 1
3.5 - Arctic 3

A score of 4 was judged as, 'Above average fair play: the team can be criticised
for its behaviour in the occasional incident. Otherwise the team behaved very
well. It is a good example for other teams'. Each team scored at least 5 at some
point during the tournament.

MVP prizes sponsored by Lookfly (thank you!)
MVP of the final - Penny (Mowers)
Most Valuable Female Player to her team - Sarah Griffiths (Arctic 4 Capt.)

Lost Property. All wet towels and socks etc were left at the club. Stuff that
seemed redeemable from the mud and slime I have brought home and (where
appropriate) washed. I am away from now until next Monday (9th). I am then
around Tue to Thurs next week. Then on Friday I fly to South Africa for 2 weeks.
Lost property is listed below - if any of it is yours let me know by Tuesday of
next week, otherwise I will look at donating it to charity (and the charity
might be the school I am visiting in South Africa if I can fit it in my
rucksack!)

Photos. I didn't take any. There are some on if you go to www.lookfly.com and
check out the gallery.

I think that is all.

UK Junior Ultimate is looking in good shape - go GB cause havoc in Latvia this
weekend, and in Southampton at the end of the month.

Vaughnie
(TD)

Lost Property

TROUSERS
Helly Hansen black
Umbro blue
Adidas blue x2
Patrick blue
England blue
Bodyglove shorts - white

T-SHIRTS (most of these are fairly muddy/trashed)
Umbro white
Nike white/grey sleeves
Crosshatch Forward Thinking
No Fear vest
white
black
black NC (Candlin!!)

TOPS
Umbro blue
NYC green-ish hoody
grey zip hoody
plain black hoody
Prostar black

COATS
Quiksilver heavy brown coat
black fleece lined waterproof
black fleece
blue England anorak
Regatta blue anorak
Liverpool FC grey waterproof

BOTTLES
Nalgene trail
esporta.com
diadora

BOOTS
Umbro blue size 7
Adidas blue size 8.5 in Umbro bag


__________________________________________________________
Are you a hoarder? Then you'll love Yahoo! Mail with unlimited storage.
http://uk.mail.yahoo.com