Tour 2 (Ultimate Frisbee Tournament) Cardiff, 1st -2nd July

The Irish u24 Ultimate Frisbee team will be travelling to Perth, Australia in January 2018 to compete in the World u24 Ultimate Frisbee Championships. I have the honour of playing on this team and as part of the preparations we played a warm up tournament in Cardiff against the best club teams in the UK. In a 60 team tournament we started as 8th seeds. We were in a pool with Reading, Clapham and Chevron Action Flash. We were determined to do as well as possible on the Saturday knowing that if we were to come first or second in our group we would be in a semi-final on Sunday morning. With most of us arriving late on Friday night or early on Saturday morning, it was not the best preparation for a tough day of Ultimate. Nevertheless, we started well in our first match against Reading even going 10-8 up but unfortunately we were pegged back and lost 11-10. Our next match was against Clapham, one of the best teams in Europe, so we knew we’d have to play well. We certainly stepped up a gear from our first match but we were beaten by the better side 14-5. Despite the score line we were building nicely for our last game with Chevron. This game was streamed live on FanSeat.com. Again we started slowly but as the weather deteriorated and we found ourselves 10-6 down we started playing zone defence and as if by magic we started forcing turns and converting chances. 10-7,10-8,10-9, 10-10 game to 11. At this point several players, including myself, had played the last 4 or 5 points but we were ready to go out and take the win. Unfortunately we were unable to force the turn and conceded the point to lose 11-10.

Two points was all the difference between a semi-final appearance and fighting to hold seeding. However, the Chevron match seemed like a turning point for the team. We rested as best we could in tents before starting day 2, ready to take 5th place. We started strongly in our first two games beating Fire of London 15-11 and Manchester 15-7 and our energy levels continued in the upward trajectory. We were now in a match for 5th and found ourselves playing Chevron once again. The game was extremely tight with many calls and both teams getting hot under the collar. Eventually we managed to turn the tide and take the victory 10-9 to claim 5th. Due to my study abroad, this tournament was the last I will play with the team before we arrive in Australia in January. There was a huge amount to learn and plenty to improve on. A team to watch.