[BD] Womens Indoor Nationals 2003

[Lorrie Monaghan]

Ultimators,   This weekend saw the gathering in Nottingham of the top women indoors teams, all fighting it out to be crowned womens indoor national champions.  As the first day progressed it became clear that this women's tournament was going to be much more competitive than last year with several teams stating their claims to challenge last years winners Fierce.  Amongst the regulars like Space Maidens, Princess Layout, Red and Skunks were new teams such as Mushiono, Pocari Sweat, Nice Bristols, Picnic and Sisters of Chunky who have all emerged to challenge the old order.  Of these newer teams the most impressive performance perhaps came from Sisters of Chunky who took the notable scalp of Fierce on the first day.  By the end of Saturday after some incredible tight and hard fought ultimate which saw Skunks, Sisters of Chunky, Picnic and Red all being knocked out of the top eight and Princess, Pocari, Disco and Mushiono being knocked out of contention for the final four teams emerged to battle it out on the final day: Space Maidens Janet Hawes, Fierce and Nice Bristols.  Lower down the plate competition was taking shape with Picinic, Sisters of Chunky and Skunks emerging as the leading contenders.     But before I go onto the second day a swift mention must be made of the party with the hats and wigs theme.  A fantastic and startiling array of hats and wigs, the best of the latter go to Liz and Spaanks from Mushiono whose realisitic, but still ridiculous wigs meant that I did not recognise either of them to the point that I ignored both of them.  After pondering why people actually owned such wigs and after coming to no clear conclusions, I began to become aware of some of the strange hats some people were wearing.  Perhaps a bit to aware as Warrior, also from Mushiono, managed to stab me in the eye with the sink plunger she had fashioned into a hat.  I special mention has to made to the girls from Floorplay who despite not bringing any hats with them salvaged the situation by going to Burger King and getting some party hats.  After some hard partying came the traditional three pint race, with victory going to Laura and Vick from Fierce who managed to break the one minute barrier with the respectable time of 56 seconds.  Fierce also managed to pick up the party prize for being first in and last out.    Day two.  This day saw the transformation of the Janet Hawes Women, on the first day they could only manage a draw with Mushiono, but the next day is another day as Janet Hawes outclassed Mushi to secure the top place in their group and set up a showdown with reigning champions Fierce.  In a closely contested match up Fierce, with Janet Hawes just edging it to secure a place in the final.  The other semi saw the Space Maidens get the better of Nice Bristols to set up a much anticipated game against the Janet Hawes.  In the plate contest, Picnic, in their first ever tournament, lost out in a close run game to Sisters of Chunky in the semi, and Skunks beat Brunel to face them in a plate final that Skunks got the better off.  In the spoon contest the team with arguably the best name '5 Kinds of Crazy' defeated all before them to win the spoon (or rather the spade) fairly convincingly.   After the completion of this came what everybody was waiting for, the final.  But the Janet Hawes had a tactical surprise waiting for the Space Maidens as they threw a zone from the off.  Despite the good handling skills of Shiv and the tenacious cutting by Alli the Maidens could find no way through and eventually the great link up play between Maria and Sarah meant that the Janet Hawes created an unassailable lead that made them Indoor womens National Champions.  The final standings for the tournament were:   1. Janet Hawes (Womens Indoor Champions) 2. Space Maidens 3. Fierce 4. Nice Bristols 5. Pocari Sweat 6. Mushiono North 7. Princess Layout 8. Disco Inferno 9.  Skunks (Plate Winners) 10.  Sisters of Chunky 11.  Picnic 12.  Brunel 13.  5 Kinds of Crazy (Spoon winners) 14.  Red 15   Floorplay 16.  Mushiono West 17   Mushiono East   MVP of the final: Sarah (Janet Hawes) Thanks to : Bucket, Dene & Dani (food and spirit prize), and everyone else who helped out (loads of you).   Lorrie