Glastonbury 2003
Rich Sutton expressed what I think we must all have felt on our first sight
of Glastonbury - that he had expected more mud and more hippies. After this
initial disappointment, however, Glastonbury provided us with everything we
could have wished: good pitches, perfect weather, a late-opening bar, a Tor
up which to walk, and an excellent tournament.
The Strange Blue squad was large, and mostly quite experienced: Matt
Harwood, Olivier Cottray, Rich Sutton, Tido Eger, James Kermode, Tim whose
surname I don't know, George Bles, Alex Harris, Andy Plater, Woody Hartley,
Brian Emmerson, and Barnie Calder. Drafted in from elsewhere to play for
Strange Blue were the excellent and unbelievably energetic Tom Quilter, and
two very nice Australians who happened to have passed through Cambridge a
while before, and so came down from Edinburgh to help out: Wally Crocker
and Jo McClellan. Both played hard throughout the tournament and were great
value off the pitch too. We were hoping to have Mike Schell, but he was
kept at home by a heel injury.
Our first game was against an unmemorably-acronymed team called something
like INLA or SPQR - GDDLA, perhaps? They turned out to be a spirited team
of short girls, and we played scrappy, sloppy Ultimate with weak
positioning and most of our points coming from height rather than speed or
skill. Good cutting from Jo, and Tim removing all the skin from one knee in
a magnificent sliding D, were rare highlights in our otherwise
discreditable 13-2 victory. We got the sense that we had better play a
whole lot better if we were to beat some of the other teams we could see on
neighbouring pitches.
Before the next fixture Matt gave us an endzone drill, which worked well,
getting us thinking and moving properly and as a team after the scrappy
first game. The play was better, with George overcoming a back problem to
do some great endzone work. The opposition (whose name I never sorted out)
was composed of some pretty good players from Flyght Club, mixed in with a
large number of local school kids. It made for a rather one-sided game. For
the last point we played with everyone on the pitch at once - something
like fifteen against thirty. After a long time of what looked more like a
Homeric battle re-enactment than Ultimate, Blue took that point, too,
ending up 13-3, I think.
Mystifyingly, our third fixture was against the Flyght Club people again,
this time without their kid team. The game was much closer, and much more
intensely fought, with accurate, fast cuts from Alex, James and Olivier.
Blue was pleased to finish 7-5 ahead. Tido's well-read endzone D against a
guy who had been having a go at him was a great moment, and the
good-tempered disc-waving taunt with which he completed his revenge
deflated one of the few moments of bad spirit which we encountered in an
otherwise very friendly tournament.
The Saturday night was much as you would expect: drinking, drinking games,
drinking through an improvised gimp-mask, and then drinking, interspersed
with some farcical attempts to throw a disc in the dark, and other such
amusements.
The Saturday clean sheet gave us a bit of a lie-in, and put Strange Blue in
the top eight, playing against the best teams. Our squad, meanwhile, was
smaller, as four of our previous day's good players had left: Olivier, Tim,
George, and Alex. Add some hangovers and a turned and swollen ankle for
Woody to that, and the day looked pretty tough. So it proved. Consistent
hard work and reliability, notably from Tom, Woody and Brian made a huge
difference to the day's games.
The first game was against The Makings. Strange Blue fought heroically,
with really solid and patient handling in the face of very experienced
zone. Blue's energetic, well-timed cuts pulled back quite a few points from
what could have been a very crushing defeat. The Makings won by a
comfortable margin (12-6), largely through their lightning end-zone cuts
and beautifully-placed hucks. In terms of the Strange Blue performance,
however, I would definitely say that this game brought out the best
team-play, the highest reliability, and the most impressive spirit of the
weekend. The Makings went on to win the final of the tournament.
The second game on the Sunday was again a tough fixture. Princess Layout,
like Strange Blue, had won their group undefeated the previous day, and
were very determined to win. Their strong base of top women players was
reinforced by quite a few of their boyfriends, who seem mostly to be even
better, and did not allow themselves to be slowed down by the little pink
skirts and dresses which they were wearing in deference to their team-name.
The game was characterised by slightly silly turnovers from both sides,
followed by hungry defence in fury at the mistakes. The score progressed
very slowly, trading points. The hooter went at 5-5, and the last point was
played all-out by all fourteen players on the pitch, and yelled for by all
those on the sideline. After the usual agonising turnovers, Blue eventually
managed to sneak one into the Princess endzone, giving Brian the
opportunity for what felt like about four minutes of slow-motion, fumble
disc-juggling, ending, of course, in his making the point and giving us a
well-fought victory.
By the time we got to our last game, you could tell that Strange Blue was
tired. Everyone had played hard, and Tom, Woody, Wally and Jo had also
played extra games for other teams. A number of uncharacteristic drops put
us behind fairly early on, and Whey, our opposition, used their large team
to run us to exhaustion. Despite good running from, among others, Wally,
Rich and Andy, and some great D from Woody, they beat us 13-6 or
thereabouts. It was a slightly flat way to end such a strong weekend, but
it by no means devalued the overall achievement of the team. Strange Blue
was seeded high - sixth out of thirty-two - and at the end of the
tournament it had held its seeding after some tough games.
All round, an excellent tournament with lots of fun and lots of good
Ultimate. Thank you especially to Matt for lining it up and providing a
good strong lead, and to Brian who, on and off the pitch, really reached
for the star.
BC