Wednesday 22 August 2007
The final tour of the season took place in deepest Wales - well Cardiff to be exact on the 18-19th August.
After the heroics of Tour2 in Mansfield Chevron went into this tournament as one of only two teams who could realistically win the overall Tour title. As this was one of our aims at the beginning of the year the team already had some weight lifted off their shoulders but the desire to win and confidence in the team as a whole had greatly increased. This tournament sore a tour debut for Giacomo and the return of Josh and Jacko into the ranks.
Game1: Fire2
Being gifted with a late start the team seemed fully awake and itching to
start to make tracks to the final. The first game lasted 65 minutes in total
and Chevron were dominating throughout. We seemed to capitalise on their
errors (aided by some awful conditions) rather than getting monster blocks.
Our defence line converted every time and we took half 8-1 and game 15-2.
Game2: Paddy Murphy
A lot of the squad were hesitant about this game prior to the tournament.
The nerves eased somewhat as we watched a 9 man Paddy and Clapham slog it
out whilst we were warming down. They seemed too tired to compete in their
final game of the day and we rolled them 15-5. Again not too much pressure
needed to be exerted but the D line had started to get the blocks which we
new we would need later on in the tournament.
Dave B asks ex-team mate Si Hill if Chevron could have the Tour title.
Picture Courtesy of Mark Earley
Game3: Clapham
As both teams had secured semi final spots this game had only personal
rivalry as the backbone. Being played at 5.30 after dreadful conditions all
day saw the so called show game watched by a merry band from a balcony 20 metres away. The game seemed to have a relaxed air and it showed in the
ultimate. We converted both offence and defence and despite both teams
clawing a little lead it was quickly pulled back. In the end personal
errors cost us. We had two shots at taking the game into sudden death and
didn't convert either. Clapham then scored twice in quick succession. We
had finally given them a game which showed some of our potential although we
all felt we had another couple of gears.
Semi: Fire1
This was now true knockout ultimate. If we won and Clapham lost their semi
the tour was ours, however if we lost then we had to hope Clapham lost to
have another shot at the title. Fire came out of the blocks quickly and
established a lead with some big D plays. The up - down wind at times caught
out both teams, at other times it looked like there was none the offence was
so slick. CB to Clo seemed the order of the day and the old combination
quickly got us back into the game. All players on the team had their
moments of glory but I think personal errors finally cost us the game. We
went down 15-12 I think and with it hopes of the Tour Title disappeared to.
3v4: Fusion
Again this seemed to have a similar feeling to the Clapham game in how
relaxed it was. I can't remember much but I do remember Fusion seeming to
get a few blocks but us somehow taking half. We had a secure offence which
didn't let the conditions affect them and the D must have been firing. A
special mention goes to the O line for working against a solid fusion zone
and reaping the rewards for their hard work. In the second half we managed
to let fusion back into the game with 2-3 points of simple errors. If this
was last season that would probably have been enough for them to secure the
win but the new Chevron team managed to claw back the blocks for both the up
and downwind scores and we took game 15-12.
This 3rd place secured us 2nd overall in the tour and for a team were half the squad had never played in a semi final before that is a very very good result! The MVP for the tournament went to James but special mention to Clo, Josh and Giac who all matched the votes.
Also at the most important tour of the year for Chevron where we needed to play the most competitive ultimate we managed to win spirit! We amassed 12 votes out of a possible 15. I think this is equally impressive as the 2nd place over all in tour and we should all be proud.
Matt Mcloughlin