Paddys to Brugges!

Last weekend saw all 22 of the Ireland Open Team travel to Brugges for Tom's Tourney 2007. We were drawn in a group with Disc Devils Twente, Mooncatchers and Revolution'Air. Our first match was against Disc Devils on a threadbare pitch at 11am on Saturday. We started well against the young, hard-running team and went on to close out the game 10-3. Next up were Mooncatchers from Brussels who had a couple of lively players but were missing the bulk of their team. We played much better than the first match, with the Defence and Offence scoring at will and won 15-3. The last game of the day was at 3pm with the sun at its peak against a good team from Paris, Revolution'Air. It was a tough game with turns aplenty and they played a fast offence that us Paddys in the sun found difficult to contain. We got stuck in though and ground out a tough victory 9-6 in the end (I think).

The saturday night offered a BBQ followed by a cocktail juggling circus act thingy which was good craic. We ate massive kebabs and chips drowned in more sauce than you'd use in a week, played cards, drank some tasty Belgian beer and went back to the hostel, in convoy of course - we rented about 12/13 bikes :)Sunday morning began with a new group made up of 4 teams, us, Revolution'Air, Wizards (winners of their group) and Ultimate Vibration. We played Wizards at 11am and it was a big game. Both sides played really hard D and quick simple O with lots of longs scores and breaks. We started well and made them fight for every point until we drew away. From 3-3 we won 4 of 5 points to go 7-4 up.But they fought back hard and as tine was called equalised meaning that the scorer of the next point would be the winners. They came out and capitalised on a turn to take the game 8-7. Needless to say we were gutted. The next game was an hour later against Ultimate vibration from Paris and to mak it into the 1/4s we had to win it. We started strongly and continued getting big blocks and converting them. The French team were very solid on Offence but we wanted it that bit more and won out 9-6 to line up a 1/4 final against CUS Bologna - La fotta.The Bologna game was a funny one. We started well, so did they and there were lots of turns but we couldn't convert the big points. We gave it everything, as did they, and in the end maybe the 3 close games took it out of us. A couple of late scores and we couldn't claw back - they won 8-5 in a tough, scrappy fight of a match played on a dustbowl. Not much more to say, except that if we'd beaten them (and we couldve) who knows where we'd have come...

Sunday night was great craic - a lazy afternoon in the 25+ degree heat, a few brews and watching the ladies play in their last game of the day. Some quality sunset mack lining and some food then back to the hostel for more cards. A few of us and all the girls made the bus journey out to the party where a ska band put on a great show. One lad even jumped off the stage through a hoop. Can't ask for much more.

Day Three saw us play OUF from France in a 5-8 semi which we won convinvingly.13-3 was the final score. It gave us a chance to have another bash at the Wizards for the title of 5th place! Both teams were fired up and played tough D against patient O, but it the Wizards who started stronger, making us pay for a few drops to rac into a 3-0 lead. One time-out later and we'd drawn the score back to 5-4. Alas, the tank was nearing empty and some tired mistakes were quickly used to give the Swiss a 9-7 win.All in all it was a superb tourny.

Spirit went to Gentle in the Open Division and OB in the Womens. The Open Division was won by Bologna-La Fotta after they beat Belgium Open in the final while the Womens was won by Yaka of France who fought back from 5-3 down to win by 3 or 4 against Copenhagen. There was an Irish Womens Team called Deadly Buzz in the Womens Div and they did brilliantly - I'll leave that story to them :)

Here's the photos:http://picasaweb.google.com/earley.mark