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June 30th, 2009 by Andy Feltham

Gallery coming soon.

6:30pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon and i’m finding myself standing in front of 40 people giving a speech. Since 2pm on Friday i had been ’switched off’ from the world and was enjoying a great weekend of ultimate and at no point did i expect or think i’d be standing there at the end of the weekend collecting the trophy. 30 seconds after the speech i remembered all the things that i could have said which included the famous Skunks speech of “This isn’t the trophy we came here for. We were beaten by the seedings”. But then again, this was the trophy we came here for.

And the weekend started as it eventually carried on really. After being able to get away reasonably early we made our way West to Exmouth and ahead of all the traffic we made it there in enough time to put the tents up and explore a bit. Compulsory fish and chips on the sea front later and we were in a pub demonstrating how bad some of us could be at pool.

The first game on the Saturday was at 9am and with it came new kit which looked great. As the day went by we found ourselves either winning really well or loosing really well – nothing in the middle. The one thing that was consistent was how much fun we had. I don’t know why this tournament was any different but the teams here just seemed to be a lot more fun – even the ones that beat us. We had a good banter going with each of them any many ended up supporting us as the days went on. Interwoven with games of haccy, volleyball, and mini golf ( i was rubbish ) the day was so relaxing as the sun beat down. We then went to get some beers ready for after our last game and after two of us being ID’d ( ! ) we made the process more complicated than we needed too. It was worth it however because after the last game we were forced to wait for the cricket to finish while sitting in the sun beer in hand with the team, talking through the days events. Relaxing.

Saturday night was all about us and i think was the differentiator for the trophy. We found the local Weatherspoons type pub, found some food, and then setup shop in the corner of the bar. I couldn’t believe how time went and was even more surprised when the tournament director was basically leading the rest of the ‘party’ out to join us, rather than the other way round. A few drinks later, and a few games later ( das ist gud ) we were the last out of the pub in what had turned out to be a great evening.

Not playing until 11:15 the next day meant we had time to get some breakfast and take the tents down. Winning two games out of 3 on the Sunday meant we finished 5th but the result didn’t matter. I can honestly say that this had been one of the most fun, most relaxing and most enjoyable tournaments i had been to in a long time. And it obviously rubbed of on the teams we played. As i’m playing i can hear cheers of “rawhyde” from the lines. As i go fully horrizontal to catch a stray pass i hear the crowd go wild and regardless of how my body feels, it feels great.

It was the icing on the cake to win the Spirit trophy, especially as for me its the most important trophy. It shows what our club is about and it makes for a much better tournament. I’m feeling a bit broken this week but for all of the above, and for so many other reasons it was all worth it.

June 23rd, 2009 by Andy Feltham

To say i’m rather pleased about this is an understatement. There have been a few things that have put a smile on my face recently and this is one of them. My overall experience with the Swimathon this year hasn’t been a good one but being able to finally see how well i did has made a big different to my overall feeling. To make the image above clear, there are multiple challenges of which i did the Individual 5K swim ( the longest ). In that challenge i was the 6th fastest for my age group, the 19th fastest male, and the 32nd fastest overall to complete the distance. Given that this was with relatively small training and not being able to tumbleturn i’m really, really pleased.

Someone asked me only last night if i would do it again and my reply was ‘Not sure, but not at River Park’. I think my reply today is ‘Yes, and still not at River Park’. Its a shame because so many simple things were missed out from the organisation. I’ve had pester for 2 months now to get this time accepted and registered in the database and considering it was my own timing and that the event should have timed me that was pretty appalling. Together with the communication, the event organisation on the day and poor way of managing sponsors i’m not totally convinced, but now i’ll be doing it again next year! Watch this space for #1!

June 15th, 2009 by Andy Feltham

Gallery

As i get to work this morning, i’m tired and my body aches. Its normally the sign i’ve had a great weekend and i wouldn’t have changed it for the all cuts, bruises, aches, pains, washing and sand to clear out of my car. What was i doing? Well, this weekend i was playing ultimate at the ‘Smack my beach up’ tournament in Swansea, Wales.

Unlike playing on grass, beach ultimate is played with a slightly different sized pitch and with 5 players rather than 7. As you can imagine 25 minute games of hard running on sand is quite hard work and so typically you’d like teams to be 9+ players. We had 6 for Saturday! Fortunatley the weather was kind and after a 12:30 start the games went on into the early evening. Other than a first game loss, the rest of our games had demonstrated how we’d improved as a team over the previous months, often beating teams we didn’t expect to, and playing well together. It was then off to the campsite, ontop of a hill to shower, beer up, tent up, play a bit of hacky before heading out into town. By this time it was about 10pm and Swansea was in full swing. It was quite like anything i’ve ever seen. We had been prepared for it after seeing a local gig down by the beach but the evening was quite something. People everywhere in all kinds of get-up. Police everywhere too. A few drinking games later ( this is a what! ) and before we knew it we were being kicked out of the pub. The day had gone so fast and yet so fun.

Because of a fantastic win the day before ( including a point i’m particularly proud of : awesome pull to back corner, ran down, got the point block inside their zone, then proceeded to score the point too! Yeah MVP! ) we didn’t have to start games until 3:30 the next day. This meant we had time to explore the three cliffs bay and even get a chance for a bit of a swim. Even that was so refreshing in more ways that one. Was great to play around in the waves, surf, and just generally soak up a glorious day. Another convincing win put us in the top 4 and already beaten our seedings. Unforunately what followed were two other games where we didn’t seem to get going at all but none of that spoilt what had already been a really great weekend.

Driving back i can remember thinking over what we’d done and it had been like any other tournament i’d been to. We had played a lot of good quality, hard work ultimate and yet still had plenty of time to enjoy the company of friends and relax a bit. And that is what i love about ultimate. Its not just a sport. When we play we play to enjoy it, and when we aren’t playing, we know how to enjoy each others company. A really great weekend for so many reasons.