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Sheffield Super 7’s Ultimate Frisbee Tournament (March 2011)
![Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College (DSFC)](javascript:PopupPic("/trips/images/ufrisbee1.jpg");)
On Saturday 5th March, Welbeck despatched a squad of players to compete for the first time at Ultimate Frisbee. With just a crash course in the rules, spirit of the game and basic tactics in common, our mix of experiences and lack of concerted playing practise meant that we could not field a winning team, however we went into the competition with the healthiest of desires to have fun and do as well as we possibly could.
A slight deviation from my report might now be helpful to quickly summarise the basics of Ultimate. The sport is played by two teams of seven on a pitch longer but narrower than a football pitch. The aim of the game is to catch the disc in the opponent’s end zone, similar to American Football, however one cannot run with the disc so passing and off-the-disc movement are critical, as in Netball.
We arrived at the tournament and were soon into our first game against tournament favourites Buck’s Fizz (from Buckinghamshire). Outplayed as we were, we were pleasantly surprised at the level of some of our plays. Although we ended up without any points to show for it we took lots away from the first match.
After our first game the team dynamics quickly flourished. We managed to take two points away in each of our remaining four games, and we were made happier by the enthusiastic support of Buck’s Fizz who cheered each of our points in our second game. William Fawcett-Hirst got the opportunity to taste some deeper team play when asked to play for our opposition in our penultimate game and he shone, outdoing himself and scoring four points amongst some excellent play. Rosie Hamilton and Peter Rhodes demonstrated some important and consistent handling of the disc; James Naughton, Andrew Sultan and Tavis Carrott worked hard in the midfield providing short options, and Edward Swingler and Matthew Wallace put a great deal of effort in, sprinting long for the spectacular point option and refusing to allow opposition markers an easy day.
![Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College (DSFC)](javascript:PopupPic("/trips/images/ufrisbee2.jpg");)
After all five matches were complete we were wet, muddy and exhausted but also very content at the fruits of a hard day’s playing and happy at the enormous progress that we had made in such a short space of time.
In Ultimate there is no referee, and the dynamics of the sport rely upon a strong sense of sportsmanship, or 'Spirit of the Game'. As part of this tournament each team rated their opposition on various aspects of this 'spirit', and I am very pleased to report that Welbeck was rated the joint best-spirited team at the event meaning that we were officially awarded as joint winners of the Spirit Prize!
Special thanks go to the VPA and VPP for allowing the trip to go ahead, and especially to Colour Sgt Kelly for giving up his Saturday to give us the chance to go at all.
Peter Rhodes, Nelson 09e
