Monday 01 September 2008
This weekend saw the final mixed tournament of the season take place in Southampton. Mixed Nationals was attended by 19 teams and the top four from the Tour were represented. Due to Worlds being over, a number of squad members returned to the fold and a crack squad was formed.
The team who lined up were:
Fragile, Dave Grayson, Dave Sealy, Matt Beavan, Giacomo Maltman, James Stanley, Will Cornelius, Ian Bogal
Lianne Elsdon, Francesca Scarampi, Katie Holmes, Isla Grayson, Ali Smith, Abbie Iggulden, Laura James,
and team mascot of V-lo
Saturday The format of the tournament meant we had 4 pool games which included our 'quarter final'. On the Saturday we had the first three of these against High Altitude, MILF and Mythago. Despite slow starts in all but the Mythago game we won these comfortably not conceding more than 6 points in a game. We weren't always clinical but we were assured of the win with some quality displays from every member of the squad. We identified a couple of areas to improve for the next day. Lunch consisted of a nice selection of ham salad sandwiches with mayo or salsa plus extras.
Sunday
Our first game was at 9am against Discuits which was in effect was our quarter final. We started on offence and despite a couple of turnovers managed to put it in. We then went out on defence and managed to turn them on this, and every point of the first half and scored with the first possession, so were up 7-0 at half. After half Discuits managed to get a couple of goals but our defence never relented and we took the game 13-5. A great display of teamwork and clinical offence after the turn saw the game end after about 35 minutes, which set us off on the right track for the day.
Lunch again was supplied with a similar selection as Saturday with the addition of chocolate muffins :O)
The semi final was against Brighton. This team managed to go ahead of us on Tour rankings due to winning the most recent match up. A strong Brighton team showed up and we went in expecting a battle. After trading to 4-4 but we started to repeat the earlier performance managing to shut down their men and build up a healthy lead taking half 7-4. In the second half we were back on defence quickly and racking up the points fast. Our women were excellent and using them to full potential allowed us a comfortable win which the scoreboard said was 13-4 but not sure if this was accurate. Again the game finished within 40-45 minutes so we sat back and watch Herd battle it with BAF to book the other final place.
The final was the match up which should of happened at Tour 3 but due to both teams slipping up it never occurred. We wanted revenge for losing the Tour to Herd and they wanted the clean sweep. This was by far our toughest opposition of the day. We managed to get an early break up before trading out to 6-5 with us starting on offence. A mammoth point then ensued; we made silly turnovers but great defence saw us get it back on our own goal line on more than one occasion. Eventually great work by the handlers worked us up the field for an easy score in the corner. This seemed to be the turning point. The second half we stepped up and despite a couple more long points we always seemed to score them. Big plays were made and the girls backed up everything in miserable conditions which saw them score nearly all our points. The final point we started on defence and a lovely 40yard shot arcing to a completely free woman in the back corner (which no one else saw was on but subtle communication by said woman in the form of pointing with her back to said thrower) claimed the victory 13-8.
So Chevron - UKUA Mixed National Champions 2008.
MVP: Ali Smith (special mention to Bogal for losing out by one vote)
Female MVP of Final: Ali Smith
Winner of 'lets just give her another award for sake of it': Ali Smith
There were a number of highlights from this tournament too many to list: Each player had a moment of sheer brilliance (usually followed by complete incompetence) my personal favourite was our goal difference:
For: 78
Against: 32
which averages at less than 6 points a game!
Congratulations to the team and also to every player who represented the Brand during the Mixed season. We had a lot of laughs along the way and a number of memorable moments. The low point was definitely losing to EMU at Tour 3 and the highlight has to be the entire Sunday of Nationals.
Matt McahMcahMcaMcah