Our first pool game of the day was against 2nd Seed
Mohawks 1 (Sussex), a great team who we know well. We
knew this was going to be our hardest game of the
first day and we went in fresh with nothing to loose.
There was a strong cross wind and we decided to hit
the Mohawks with our trademark brownie zone. The tight
D contained their efforts to dump and swing the disc
and we were soon causing turnovers all over the place.
We took advantage and scored quickly on the break,
with Jesse putting up some accurate long discs to
up-field cutters. Thrown looked to be the dominant
side at this point, but not for long. Mohawks started
to work the zone with some crafty scoobers and hammers
over the top of the wall. They moved smoothly up the
pitch and there seemed little we could do to stop them
as they took the lead. Thrown regrouped and made some
adjustments to the zone, sticking one member of the
wall a bit further back to stop the over-heads. Jon
and Eric carried this out to devastating effect
putting a stop to the Mohawks brief resurgence. Midway
through the game there were some hairy calls as
Mohawks felt the tension build, these were resolved
satisfactorily. Adnan and Nick easily found a way
around or through the Mohawk’s attempted zone cup and
flow from the up-field ensured we kept the score-board
ticking over, we scored the final two points to win
the game 6-4. This was a historic win for Thrown and
gave us an excellent chance of securing top spot in
our group and second seed on day 2!
We went into our second game against Scorpions 2
(Surrey) feeling confident and well warmed up after
the first game. They struggled to string more than a
couple of passes together against our various zone Ds
and we easily converted turnovers near their endzone
into scores. We were reasonably clinical and won the
game 11-0.
The third game of the day was against Disc Doctors 2
(Imperial). Having not hung out or played with
imperial as much as we should have this year we didn’t
know exactly what we’d have to deal with. This was a
team comprised wholly of freshers but they were all
reasonably athletic and liked to throw some crazy
shit. We took the first few points easily. This game
was played on a different pitch to the first two and
points were played up wind / down wind. We found this
challenging and were turning over more than we would
have liked. Things started to look a little shaky when
dD brought down a wild huck for a score. Unable to
replicate our demolition of Surrey 2 the frustration
was showing a little. Some hard brownie D and calm O
from the handlers Dan and Nick steadied the ship and
we cruised to win 11-2 scoring two Callahan points
along the way.
Our fourth and final game or the first day was against
Kent Touch This 1, a cool team who are always a lot of
fun to play against and hang out with. We knew that if
we won this match then we had made it to Nationals
(Div 2)! We had seen Kent take the first two points
off the Mohawks in an earlier game and had to give
them the respect they deserved. Once again we used the
brownie zone to great effect. Adnan and Dan proved
virtually unbreakable in the chase positions and Tim,
Louis and Jesse brought down absolutely everything
that went long. We got the turnovers we needed and
converted with some pretty slick O. Our man O looked
surprisingly good with plenty of pace and flow notably
from Eric and Louis, whilst our zone O was calm and
confident with Ed English and Adnan swinging around
the cup to Kyle, Jon and Kaleigh popping. We dominated
and the final score was 9-3. Despite this scoreline
this game showed weaknesses in our endzone play,
something we had to address before our games on the
second day.
Overall this was an amazing first day performance. We
had put ourselves in a great position for Sunday.
Our first game of the second day was against 3rd seed
LSE our archrivals. We had already beaten them once
this year at MadK’s Ladder League thing but didn’t
know what to expect from their full strength squad.
Needless to say that the majority of their players
were not LSE students but then again we have a couple
of star pick-ups ourselves! We immediately hit them
with our brownie and they dealt with depressingly well
working the disc patiently up the pitch. We were
sloppy on our O points and weren’t patient enough
again their zone. Our heads dropped and morale took a
bashing thanks to LSE’s enthusiastic celebrations. We
switched to man D with a straight-up force this reaped
rewards in the form of turnovers but once again we
just couldn’t convert and we lost quite badly, the
final score 11-2. Notable positives from the game
included some tight man D from Ed resulting in at
least one run through D and a score with a huck to
great long cut from Louis.
Our second game of the day was for 3rd position
against Brunel 1, a strong team with a reputation for
hard man O and D and consistent disc skills. The game
started off with a mammoth downwind point for us. Our
brownie seemed to be working again and Brunel turned
over a few times. The point seemed to be full of
calls, all of which I must add were dealt with
excellently showing great spirit from both sides.
Unfortunately Brunel got a few good breaks and managed
to get the score. This turned out to be something of a
turning point in the match. Brunel coped with our D
better on the down wind points and they scored fairly
easily. The confidence they gained against the zone
allowed them to score one more upwind break.
Nevertheless Thrown continued to play well, I was
particularly impressed by the way we handled their man
D; we got some good flow going against a team renowned
for their speed and intensity – Kaleigh, and Eric in
particular provided top class up-field cuts. Kyle
scored with a layout grab that was called out,
discussion ensued but the score stood. The final score
was 5-2 to Brunel. I think we played very in this game
showing glimpses of the great all round team we have
the potential to become in the next few seasons.
Our final match was re-match against Mohawks 1. The
game was for 4th position and another chance to play
for 3rd. This was our last shot at Div 1 nationals. We
were tired but still up for it. Mohawks were
strengthened by the return of their captain, Gash.
They were ready for us and our zone and took the first
point easily with good long play. On our downwind
point Mohawks managed to get the turnover and showed
great patience against our brownie scoring the point
without too much trouble. With our zone cracked
Mohawks went on to score several more easy points
before we mixed things up with a bit on man D. Once
again we proved a match with our man D but just
couldn’t get everything working on O. A notable
exception was Adnan’s stunning sidearm huck to Jesse
who took off for a massive layout score. We managed
one more point but Mohawks had gained their revenge!
The final score 9-2 to Mohawks.
Although this was a slightly disappointing way to end
the weekend we can be exceptionally proud of our
achievements (both first and second teams). We have
qualified for div 2 nationals two years in a row and
proven ourselves a match for some of the top teams in
the southeast! Our focus should now be on success at
Nationals, I cant wait!
Many Thanks to everyone who played for thrown this
weeked, i had an ace time.