So what's coming up?

I haven't been terribly active with this blog for a bit, but that's because there's not a lot going on in the ultimate community to bitch/moan about. Instead of anything substantial (although I might have some stuff to say over the weekend), I thought I'd let my loyal readers know what's getting covered in the near future...

- Southern Intervarsity (July 1 & 2). I'm playing in that with University of B-Town.
- East Coast Challenge (July 7-9). I'm attending, mostly to heckle Mike Tarn.
- Youth Nationals (July 11 & 12). Not attending, but there'll be updates as I hear about them.
- Halibut (July 26 & 27). Playing with Goldigaz Revival.
- Australian Country Ultimate Championships, aka Country Nats (August 23 & 24). Playing with Ballarat.
- Shenanigans (September whenever). Maybe. Not sure yet. The decision to go last year was made about 4 days before it.
- Australian University Games (Sept 30 - Oct 4). Playing with University of B-Town.
- Mixed Nationals (Oct 18 - 20). Not sure who with, but I'll find a way to be there.

If you're lucky, I might even do previews for these tournaments, plus news and gossip from the show. Plus there'll be ongoing Geelong League coverage, and the usual ramblings from my brilliant adequate mind.

Geelong League - Round 4

Round 4 action saw replays of Round 1 games with everyone already having played once. Ballabama (I don't recall ever agreeing to this team name) took on Vintage in a top of the table clash. Vintage superior athleticism saw them punish Ballabama's offensive errors and pull away to an 8-5 lead at half. Ballabama got their shit together after half with some impressive huck plays and solid zone D, but couldn't narrow the gap. The "Youth Derby" was more one-sided affair, with Flying High racing out to an early lead over the Yoghurt Slingers and holding on for a comfortable win.

Vintage 13 d. Ballabama 8
Best: Vintage - C. Broad, Pelletier
Ballabama - Rule, Hunt

Flying High 15 d. Yoghurt Slingers 6
Best: Flying High - Nixon, Wells
Yoghurt Slingers - Angelovich, Thomson

Ladder

Team	W	L	For	Against	%
Vintage	3	1	53	35	151.42
Ballabama	2	2	50	46	108.69
Flying High	2	2	46	45	102.22
Yoghurt Slingers	1	3	30	53	56.60

Next week (Round 5)
Flying High vs Vintage
Yoghurt Slingers vs Ballabama

Geelong League

Dan's update on the vic-ultimate email list was more substantial than mine. Here it is....


We have been under lights at Highton Reserve, Geelong for 5 weeks now. We spent two of those weeks continuing to recruit and establish four set teams for the inaugural Geelong Ultimate League season. On Tuesday night over 40 players rocked up and posed for a photo for the local paper to further publicise Highton Reserve as the new Tuesday night hang out in Geelong. As of Tuesday night each of the teams now have a distinctive printed uniform shirt designed and printed by Grunt and some of the local players. Many of the young faces lit up as they received their very first frisbee shirt before the game.

This Tuesday I drove down a little early and ran a free training session at 4pm-5:15pm for any of the players that were keen. This will be happening again next Tuesday, 4pm @ Wandana Oval.

Round 3 was run and won on Tuesday night and all the teams have now played each other once.

Let's have a quick look at the teams...

Flying High (Red)
One of the two really young teams, they are led by Lewis Broad and Peter Nixon. Flying High scored there first win for the season against Ballarat on Tuesday night.
Watch for: Bec Wells running deep.


Ballabama (Blue)
Leave the Ballarat Uni car park at 5:30pm to count down the km's to Geelong each Tuesday. These guys are mostly happy that they have a new McDonald's to hang out at after playing Ultimate. None of us ever really liked the Ring Rd on the way back from Albert Park.
Watch for: First pass of the offence point to go backwards, second pass to be hucked for the goal.


Yoghurt Slingers (Green)
The other really young GFUC team. With Jake-As at the helm this team plays with great spirit. In a couple of years the Victorian university teams will be fighting it out to get Maddy and Ainslie on their roster. Each week they carve it up in the middle.
Watch for: Either Andrew Berry's backhand or Jae Atkinson's flick... probably best to just force straight up eh?


Vintage (White)
A team compiled of ex-GFUC players lured back to relearn their flicks and play in an organised competition. This team has lots to prove to the new generation of young Geelong kids. It's great to see a new old face turn up each week.
Watch for: Dave Pelletier pretending to not be interested in throwing the goal.


These were the scores for Round 3:

Flying High 14 defeated Ballabama 12
Vintage 15 defeated Yoghurt Slingers 3

And the Ladder after 3 Rounds:

Team	W	L	For	Against	%
Vintage	2	1	40	27	148.15
Ballabama	2	1	42	33	127.27
Flying High	1	2	31	39	79.49
Yoghurt Slingers	1	2	24	38	63.16

Note from Simon: "Check out my fucken maaad HTML skillz!"


I probably better go get the Big Wet organised now.

Update on B-Town

It's been a while since I've updated the world on B-Town happenings, so here goes.

The Big Wet
This Satur...tomorrow, actually. The best hat tournament this side of Deer Park. Here's Dan's story about the history...

Six years ago a group of teenagers out in the Victorian country side town of Creswick learned about Ultimate Frisbee and formed a team for themselves. This young group were smug until they realised they had no one to play against. And after scrimmaging themselves countless times they decided to build a team to beat up on over yonder in Maryborough. In time the Maryborough team began to breathe smack back down upon the Creswick team. The Creswick team would have none of this, and hence spoke forth: "let us not be smacked about by this Maryborough collection of hounds, let us instead play Hat format where we may once more reign supreme". And with those prophetic words the skies opened up and the discs rained down from above and the Creswick players and the Maryborough players and the players from out of town each laid a little piece of smack down on one another in the spirit of the game. And thus, a tournament was born.

Live from Hammon Park all day tomorrow.


Geelong League
The league is up and running in Sleepy Hollow with four solid teams competing for the inaugural title. BUUF looked early favourites, winning the first two games (against GFUC Vintage and Yogurt Slingers) relatively easy, but lost a close one (14-12) to the Lewis Broad-led Flying High on the Tuesday just gone. Should be a great season. Runs through until mid-July.


Southern Intervarsity
Despite the set back of not having anywhere to train, BUUF's squad is starting to take shape for the Uni Games season. With AUG being in Melbourne this year, the cost shouldn't be a barrier to getting a decent team together.


Australian Country Ultimate Championships
For the first time, a tournament for the small town folk where they don't have to endure the smackdown from Nationals-players-filled big city teams. Running in Bathurst over the weekend of August 23rd and 24th, Ballarat's team will be making the trek with one aim in mind - winning!


Goldigaz Revival at Halibut
Not really much of a Ballarat thing anymore, with only 6 of the 21-strong 2006 WUCC squad still living in B-Town, but Mark "Woodley" Isherwood has rounded up the some of the band for a reunion tour at Halibut 2008. With any kind of luck we might get a spirit score higher than 0 this time around.

It's like Urbandictionary

Dear BUUF Newbie,

You may have noticed that this sport seems to have it's own lingo. And you may be perplexed occasionally as to what some of the terms we yell refer to. Here is a guide to help you out at the next training or game.


Backhand: the way people normally throw the disc.

Bid: an attempt to catch that didn't work, but looked really awesome.

Blade: a throw that's more vertical than horizontal. see: Mixed throw.

Break: what you're not allowed to let the thrower do.

Brick: a spot on the field to start play from when...actually never mind, you shouldn't be getting the pull anyway.

Chilly: (1) don't pick up the disc (2) the enemy.

Clear: get out of the way. Just run to where the disc isn't.

"Crocodiles, not lobsters."/"Two hands for beginners": Stop trying to catch the disc like a tennis ball.

Cut: run somewhere where your defender isn't standing.

Drop: stop stall counting and back off. see: zone.

Dump: you don't always have to throw it forward, you know.

Forehand: the other, fancy looking throw that you can't do yet.

Force: stopping the thrower from throwing to one side of the field. NO! NOT THAT WAY! THE OTHER WAY!

Gratuitous: totally not necessary.

Hammer: a third, really fancy throw that you don't have a license to do yet.

Handler: the people on the team who use their throwing abilities as an excuse to not run.

Heckle: the opposite of encourage.

High release: those throws that Woodley does that are really hard to catch.

Home/away: Home is the side of the field where your bags are. Away is where they aren't. It's nothing to do with which direction Ballarat is.

Huck: every third throw.

Layout: something you don't need to worry about unless we're playing up north.

Man D: see that player I'm pointing at? Never leave their side!

Mark: (1) defending the person with the disc (2) what Woodley becomes when he is sober.

Mixed throw: a phrase coined by Dan Rule to describe any throw that deviates from a straight line by more than three metres.

Pick: a stoppage of play that gets called when someone forgets who they are defending.

Poach: what Troy does on defence.

Pommy: same as puppy.

Popper: someone who makes lots of noise against a zone defence.

Puppy: same as pommy.

Read: to be able to judge where the disc is going to land.

Sky: catching the disc in the air over someone else.

Spirit: a score given to your team by your opponents that is an arbitrary measure of how much of a dick you were/weren't.

Stack: the bit in the middle of the field where players who don't have the disc gather.

Zone: the defence that we switch to when either a) the other team can't throw very well, or b) their receivers are running too much.


If you have any questions, ask Greta.

Regards,
Simon (angry guy with the headband)

The Unwritten Laws of Ultimate

Law 1
When sending the disc back after a foul, it will never reach the original thrower on the first attempt.

Law 2
90% of endzone plays called during a time out will result in a turnover.

Law 3
i) If a team's sideline players are counting passes out loud, the zone is going to transition to man.
ii) If only one player is counting, they either didn't hear the play or don't get the concept.

Law 4
A team's performance at the party is inversely proportional to how much they talked themselves up during the day.

Law 5
A player who calls more than three picks in a game has had the rule explained to them for the first time in the last week.

Law 6
i) Calling a D line when your team is on O is surprisingly effective.
ii) Calling an O line when your team is on D will result in the other team scoring.

Law 7
If no one remembers the score, it automatically becomes 7-7.

Law 8
The second pass in a Ballarat string play must go backwards. The only exception is when the first pass goes backwards, in which case the second pass must be a huck.

Law 9
The player on the other team wearing Skins is either the best player or the worst player. Never in between.

Law 10
The volume of a player's voice during a foul argument is directly proportional to how full of shit they are.


I'm sure there's more.