Ultimate Frisbee was certainly one of Lancaster’s highlight performances of the weekend. With victories across the board, in both competitive and friendly matches, the team certainly did the university proud.
Friday saw three games involving various teams from the club, including; an indoor friendly, an indoor open and an outdoor open.
Indoor Friendly
The initial friendly game set the platform for the Fish, the team’s nickname, as it was a hotly contested match, in which Lancaster managed to beat York in extra time.
Although the game was not worth any points, both sides showed some solid skills and competitive play which resulted in a 4-4 finish. It was not until sudden death where Lancaster managed to edge out their York counterparts and finish the game 5-4.
The captain of the Club, Will Doole, told SCAN: “It was mainly a development game which involved players with only a year experience. They played with excellent zonal defence and showed great promise.”
This early win in the friendly, captained by Lucy Adams and vice-captained by Ollie Gaskell, certainly proved Lancaster’s ability and gave the Fish a boost of confidence for the games ahead.
Indoor Open
The first competitive game of the Ultimate Frisbee timetable was the indoor open where Lancaster played their way to a spectacular 13-4 victory over York.
The game was being played on the basis of first to thirteen or for 30 minutes, which is normally considered to be quite long with regard to indoor Ultimate Frisbee.
The Lancaster side, captained by Jon McNaughton, opened the scoring with some fantastic throws and fast play; however, York soon equalized in a similar fashion. The Fish then managed to pull away again once more, despite the home team’s solid defence.
Following from this was a time period in which Lancaster looked very likely to score but didn’t quite execute the play that was needed. According to James Thomas this could have been because “the end-zones at York are much smaller than those at Lancaster, so the players are not used to it. Once the game progresses more they’ll know the size more. It happens with any tournament you go to”.
The game continued to be a highly contested match, with both sides showing form, agility and speed. York pulled back to make the score line 4-3, still with the Lancaster side in the lead.
After a near score, Lancaster gave it everything they had and went on to win more points – York were only able to obtain one more to make it 6-4. From here onwards, the away side gained more confidence and stretched out a remarkable lead from what, at first, looked like to be a close game.
One long pass and a chip over the line made the final score 13-4, which probably didn’t represent the tight-nature of the game. Nonetheless, this was another good Lancaster win.
Outdoor Open
In the final game of the Frisbee schedule, Lancaster stormed to a 15-0 victory over the home side in the Outdoor Mixed Open that they dominated from the very beginning.
Despite the temperamental weather conditions, the Lancaster side maintained their composure and played safely to ensure an all-out victory.
From the start, the team instigated solid passing to get into the swing of the game and opened up the scoreboard, quickly followed by another point.
The game was never overly quick, which allowed Lancaster to ensure accuracy even in the wind. This slow play was also particularly useful when the rain intensified causing the pitch and the Frisbee to become incredibly greasy.
York’s next chance came when the away-side were 6-0 up but it was quickly overturned by the excellent defence enacted by the Lancastrian opposition.
Lancaster’s score continued to climb despite the gutsy performance put in by the home side, even to the point where Will Doole caught the Frisbee, used the wet pitch and slid stylishly into the end-zone. This was again followed by more stylish catches as the point difference increased, for example when James Thomas used his height to catch a high pass from his team mate. The match finished 15-0.
Over the entire day, the away side showcased the hard-work and effort that each of their members have put in throughout the entire season. Following on from successes at both indoor and outdoor nationals – the three wins at Roses were undoubtedly the icing on the cake for the Fish.
