Taken from: http://www.londonultimate.com/winterleague/results_lwl4.html Final League standings: http://www.londonultimate.com/winterleague/results.html Sorry it's late, been a busy bee. The Charity Shield and LWL Finals will be taking place on SATURDAY March 6th. Sorry for the late notice that it's on the Saturday not Sunday, but 2 foreign teams visiting have made things more difficult than usual to plan. Seedings and pools to be announced as soon as we have final confirmations but expect 1st games to start at 9am sharp. This was our biggest LWL Matchday in the 3 years we've been running: 21 teams in 3 divisions on 2 sites in South London. Thanks for coming down you guys! Division1 (by LWL Chairman Wayne Wrecker): Final rankings: 1 Clapham 1 (Track) 2 Clapham 2 (NonTrack) 3/4 Fire 1/Fire 2 (aka Ledgington) 5 Smash&Grab 6 HammerageNSD 7 Ltd Release 8 Flying Bisch The Clapham Ultimate teams dominated Division 1, in terms of both numbers, fielding over 35 players for the day; and results, winning their pools with ease. The Fire (fka Ledgington) teams finished second in each pool, having both been defeated to scorelines of approximately 15-8 by their Clapham opponents. One or other of the Fire teams always seems to have one shaky game, and this event was to prove no exception - Ltd Release, the geo team centred in Southampton, "showed that we belong in the top division with a really close fought match. Not exactly pretty, but it went to the wire (Simon Williams)". Fire were victorious by roughly 8-6, but had to take control in the cap to achieve this. Smash&Grab, victors over a Fire team in a previous event, thought they may be able to stage another coup, this time over a Clapham team "It was 4-3 with a chance for S&G to make it 4-4" but it was not to be "... but it didn't happen. Soon it was 13-3" S&G were happy that they "took 4 of the last 6 points", and then went on to defeat Ltd Release "First blood to Brighton in the battle of the South Coast (Ali Findlay)". HammerageNSD were defeated convincingly by both of their Clapham and Fire opponents, but had a "great see-saw battle, both teams making a big effort and some really long points (Simon Norris)" against the Italian visitors, finally achieving victory by successfully converting "a point block on the goal line" in sudden death. Unfortunately, their efforts to secure the victory against Flying Bisch may have finished HammeraeNSD off for the day - for the first time, their game against S&G was somewhat one-sided, with S&G winning comfortably. The Flying Bisch had a hard day, and though having several close fought games recorded no victories. We trust that they enjoyed meeting different teams and styles of play, and LWL's hospitality, and look forward to seeing them again soon. The Clapham teams elected to play each other in the Final ("Don't play with Fire..." ;o) ) and go all the way to 15. It proved to be their toughest game of the day, the Tracksters trailing for most of the first half, but managing to rally to take the half 8-7 from 5-7 down, and then stay ahead to victory by a couple of points. Almost everybody repaired to the Windmill on the Common for refreshment and relaxation, as is traditional at the end of a days of Ultimate on Clapham Common. Division 2 (by LWL Div 2 co-ordinator Nicole Roberts): Final results: 1. Red Dog 2. Strange Blue 3. UCL 4. Discuits 5. ABH2 6. Holloway Hammers 7. Pyramus & Frisbee (+ celebrity) 8. ABH1 Pool play started pretty exciting SB pulled it out of the bag coming from 7-4 down to win 11-7. ABH2 eased into the day playing PAF, who at the time only had 6 players including 2 beginners. UCL then came out pumped for the match against ABH2. This is always a huge grudge match, with no love lost at times on the pitch. The lead changed hands, and it was 7-7 game to 10. The cap lasted 35 minutes, with UCL coming up top winning 10-7. There was many many unforced errors on both sides, but UCL just seemed to want it a little bit more. SB then had a comfortable win over ABH2, who were a little demoralised and ran out of legs as the score changed from 4-4 to 12-6. In the other pool, although a little hazy on the score, ABH1 found it hard going against all, and Red Dog managed to emerge fairly comfortable victors of the 4 teams. In the final games, Red Dog finally beat Strange Blue, 11-5, making up for their losses against SB at the other winter leagues. UCL finally fired on all cylinders to beat Discuits for the first time in the season, ABH2 had a comfortable victory over Holloway Hammers and Pyramus and Frisbee beat ABH1, who were missing some speed on defence. The highlight of the day, however, is the star appearance of the 7th player for Pyramus and Frisbee. Realising they were a player short, a quick phonecall to an old school buddy and along came the 7th player. Who was..... Louis Theroux!!! Yep, from such shows as Louis meets Paul and Debbie, Louis and the Hamiltons he has now turned his hand to ultimate!!! Hurrah! Maybe now we'll get some more publicity for the sport (can everyone imagine Louis meets Adam Batchelor???) Another succesful year of wind and rain fuelled ultimate, see you all in the sun! Thanks to everyone who's helped me out, especially Thundering Herd and Dan. Nicole Division 3 (by LWL Division 3 co-ordinator Rob McGowan of Thundering Herd fame: Final results: 1. DiscDoctors 2. Limited Release 2 3. Thundering Herd 4. UCL 2 5. Mohawks Division 3 contained 5 teams, 2 of which had not taken part in LWL so far this year. The first of those was Limited Release 2 who had made the journey up from Southampton along with Ltd Release 1 to impart some South Coast seasoning to the London Winter League gumbo. Their first game was against Thundering Herd who were, quite simply, outclassed by the solid passing and movement of LtdR2 who were fielding a number of veterans to the game. Their level headed and precision based game earned them a deserved 13-2 victory. Though sportingly, LtdR2 tried to argue that the game was closer than the score suggested it was fair for all to see that The Herd got dealt a lesson in how to play. On the other pitch, the other newcomer to the league - UCL2 - were squaring up against another South Coast team, the Mohawks from Brighton's Sussex Uni. From the looks of things, this was a game played at frenetic pace with screams of 'huck' frequently echoing around the common. UCL2 emerged as comfortable victors in the end though from the looks of the post game calls, both teams had a lot of fun. The second round of games saw Herd play the Disc Doctors and LtdR2 play UCL2. Fresh off their victory in the first game LtdR2 wasted no time getting to grips with UCL2. Living up to their 'Huck it' mantra, UCL2 repeatedly launched some long discs but the calm and controlled play of LtdR2 (who by all accounts had a couple of GB Co-ed players) dealt with these quite ably and they never looked troubled - I think winning the game 13-0? The Disc Doctors were facing 4 games in a row so it is no surprise that they started slowly. The Herd got 3 quick points before the Doctors, now starting to warm up properly, started to play some great Frisbee and took control of the game. Their speed and disc skills caught the Herd grazing at a number of moments and they emerged worthy 13-4 victors. I'm afraid I didn't see any of the games in slot number 3 as I was off getting some lunch! However...Disc Doctors beat UCL2 and LtdR2 beat The Mohawks.... Game slot 4 had the Disc Doctors playing the Mohawks and Thundering Herd play UCL2. With The Disc Doctors playing their third game on the trot there was always going to be a danger of them starting to run out of steam. Mohawks made them run hard for all their points, but in the end the experience and team cohesiveness of the Doctors won through - it was a good example of how knowing your team mates and how they all play can count as an extra man on the field and really help you win. On the other pitch, The Herd were facing up to UCL2. After going 0-14 in the league up to this point, The Herd finally stampeded to their first victory in a close game which wasn't decided until the last few minutes when the Herd managed to clinch a 9-6 victory. Commemorative "Herd: Winless in 2003/2004" discs now no longer be available. If you thought we were keen before, you should see the effect actually winning a game has had... The last games were: Disc Doctors v LtdR2 and Mohawks v Herd. In probably the best game of the day, Disc Doctors caused an upset to the LtdR2 team that had been comfortably dealing with everyone they had met up to that point. The skills exhibited in this match clearly proved them to be the best two teams in the division on the day with both teams using their experience to use the wind to their advantage. They were both very evenly matched and it's a pity LtdR2 wont get a chance for revenge next month as Disc Doctors take a well earned trip up to Div.2 The Herd managed to get their second WL victory against the Mohawks despite some great play from their captain Rollo. The Mohawks never gave up and their play, especially from the women on the team should see them on good stead and I expect they'll quickly become a force within the division. It is worth noting that for many of the Mohawks team, this was their first ever tournament and they should be happy with the way they played against some of the more experienced opposition. Also, UCL2 were sporting a number of players for whom this was their first WL experience and the general impression I got from them all was that they loved it - another reason to thank Roger/Wayne/Nicole et al for the hard work in organising it. And... we managed to fit six more or less full size pitches onto our usual space at Wandsworth - though getting there early pays dividends as there were a number of disappointed footballers and family groups looking for a space on that particular patch of the common! Click here to <http://www.londonultimate.com/winterleague/results.html> see the league table after Matchday 4 __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pootle.near.me.uk/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
