Tour One 2007
Tour One took place in Harlington a few weekends ago and saw an all time high - 3 teams travel from Ireland to take part in three divisions. In the A Tour were Paddy, the B Tour Tour Seamus and in the Womens Tour Biddy. Unfortunately I've no idea of the results of Seamus, although I heard Day Two went better than Day One? - I'm sure we'll hear soon. The ladies were brilliant as seen in Liz's report.From Paddy's point of view the weekend was a success, the only minus point being a bad shoulder injury to Tadhg. With enough rest here's hoping he gets well soon.
So...We were seeded 10th and for Day One we were drawn in a Group with Emo (12), Srange Blue (14) and Discuits (15). First up were Stange Blue from Cambridge. We started well in windy conditions and despite conceding a few scores took half 7-4. I think we bageled them in the second half to run out strong winners, 15-4. Their lack of people probably didnt help them. Tigger played extremely well in this match.The next game was against EMO, who we'd always wanted to play over the years but never had. Lately they've seen a lot of their team move 'up' (get poached) to join other teams and are in transition. We came out firing and strong D got us up early. The O Line worked the disc quickly and we got some zone in too. A strong performance gave us a 15-3 win leaving just the Discuits game to come. Cian got an impressive 6 blocks in the EMO game.The Discuits game was a long, tough, error- and call-ridden affair with both teams fighting hard to win. The tricky wind wasn't helping conditions as we were given our toughest match of the day. Their handlers were strong and despite our O Line playing excellently we could never pull away from them fully. Perhaps the nature of the dogfight-y game got to us, maybe the weather played it's part, and that coupled with their determination meant a tiring game. We played thorugh it though and came out on top as 14-9 winners, and top of our group, retaining our seeding of 10th. Special mention to Dman and BB who, along with the O Line, played huge.
Saturday night saw us go bowling. We drank lots of fizzy drinks, acted like 15 year old knackers and I came last. It was highly entertaining and further established JD's reputation as the King. Super and Dominick have both clearly been practising at length. to the degree it was slightly embarassing. Kielys intimate knowledge of WiiBowling proved useless.
Sunday morning 9.30am, windy, rainy and a game against the wise, late and (possibly) hungover Janitors. We started well, using our pace and warm up to our advantage but slowly they clawed back into the game and used their Zone to good effect. The game was a heated affair, with blood running high, a lot at stake and there were a few close moments! They were dealt with though and the game was a good one overall. Kiely scored the teams 1st ever Callahan in bizarre fashion - he pointblocked a Janitor on their endzone line, the disc went diagonally backwards and another player (Rik Shipley) laid out to catch it but only succeeded in macking the disc up in the air. Rob laid out and caught it for the Irish team's first Callahan of the year! Other than that it was a closely fought, wet, tiring and difficuly game, the type you learn a lot from but are glad to see the back of! We won 14-10 to go 'Top 8' for the first time.
Immediately after the huddle we walked to the adjacent pitch where LeedsLeedsLeeds were waiting for us. This was a step up. Leeds are a top 5/6 team and they showed it especially on their offence which used breakside cuts, handlers cutting long and an ability to hold onto the disc well. We played hard and gave it all we had. We traded for the first few points, then they went on a small run. We pulled them back in though and at half the game was very delicately poised at 8-7 in their favour. The first few points were same in the 2nd half but with the score at 10-9 they pulled away again and their experience won the game. We were tired, having played back to back and couldnt quite cope against their Offence. We fought hard but went down 15-9.
A game break and then we played Discuits (who beat Clapham 2!) for 7th place. We both knew what to expect and we both wanted 7th place badly. They were after revenge, we were after a 5th win from 6 and a step forward to consolidate for Tour 2. The game was well Spirited, tightly fought and ebbed and flowed like the previous battle! They drew level, we pushed on ahead, they'd fight back and then we'd take control. They were making less mistakes and getting more Ds than the 1st game and tired legs and heads were having a hard time. We got it together though and won the game by 3 in the end i think to cap a fine weekend's work.
Congrats to MVP Cian and to MSPs Dman & Perfect. Big thanks to Rickard, Blonde and Tigger for all the support. Next weekend we head to Tour 2 - here's hoping for more success!
For more photos -
http://picasaweb.google.com/earley.mark/TourOne
http://ultimatephotos.org/uk-2007-t1/index.html
So...We were seeded 10th and for Day One we were drawn in a Group with Emo (12), Srange Blue (14) and Discuits (15). First up were Stange Blue from Cambridge. We started well in windy conditions and despite conceding a few scores took half 7-4. I think we bageled them in the second half to run out strong winners, 15-4. Their lack of people probably didnt help them. Tigger played extremely well in this match.The next game was against EMO, who we'd always wanted to play over the years but never had. Lately they've seen a lot of their team move 'up' (get poached) to join other teams and are in transition. We came out firing and strong D got us up early. The O Line worked the disc quickly and we got some zone in too. A strong performance gave us a 15-3 win leaving just the Discuits game to come. Cian got an impressive 6 blocks in the EMO game.The Discuits game was a long, tough, error- and call-ridden affair with both teams fighting hard to win. The tricky wind wasn't helping conditions as we were given our toughest match of the day. Their handlers were strong and despite our O Line playing excellently we could never pull away from them fully. Perhaps the nature of the dogfight-y game got to us, maybe the weather played it's part, and that coupled with their determination meant a tiring game. We played thorugh it though and came out on top as 14-9 winners, and top of our group, retaining our seeding of 10th. Special mention to Dman and BB who, along with the O Line, played huge.Saturday night saw us go bowling. We drank lots of fizzy drinks, acted like 15 year old knackers and I came last. It was highly entertaining and further established JD's reputation as the King. Super and Dominick have both clearly been practising at length. to the degree it was slightly embarassing. Kielys intimate knowledge of WiiBowling proved useless.
Sunday morning 9.30am, windy, rainy and a game against the wise, late and (possibly) hungover Janitors. We started well, using our pace and warm up to our advantage but slowly they clawed back into the game and used their Zone to good effect. The game was a heated affair, with blood running high, a lot at stake and there were a few close moments! They were dealt with though and the game was a good one overall. Kiely scored the teams 1st ever Callahan in bizarre fashion - he pointblocked a Janitor on their endzone line, the disc went diagonally backwards and another player (Rik Shipley) laid out to catch it but only succeeded in macking the disc up in the air. Rob laid out and caught it for the Irish team's first Callahan of the year! Other than that it was a closely fought, wet, tiring and difficuly game, the type you learn a lot from but are glad to see the back of! We won 14-10 to go 'Top 8' for the first time.
Immediately after the huddle we walked to the adjacent pitch where LeedsLeedsLeeds were waiting for us. This was a step up. Leeds are a top 5/6 team and they showed it especially on their offence which used breakside cuts, handlers cutting long and an ability to hold onto the disc well. We played hard and gave it all we had. We traded for the first few points, then they went on a small run. We pulled them back in though and at half the game was very delicately poised at 8-7 in their favour. The first few points were same in the 2nd half but with the score at 10-9 they pulled away again and their experience won the game. We were tired, having played back to back and couldnt quite cope against their Offence. We fought hard but went down 15-9.
A game break and then we played Discuits (who beat Clapham 2!) for 7th place. We both knew what to expect and we both wanted 7th place badly. They were after revenge, we were after a 5th win from 6 and a step forward to consolidate for Tour 2. The game was well Spirited, tightly fought and ebbed and flowed like the previous battle! They drew level, we pushed on ahead, they'd fight back and then we'd take control. They were making less mistakes and getting more Ds than the 1st game and tired legs and heads were having a hard time. We got it together though and won the game by 3 in the end i think to cap a fine weekend's work.Congrats to MVP Cian and to MSPs Dman & Perfect. Big thanks to Rickard, Blonde and Tigger for all the support. Next weekend we head to Tour 2 - here's hoping for more success!
For more photos -
http://picasaweb.google.com/earley.mark/TourOne
http://ultimatephotos.org/uk-2007-t1/index.html
posted by Mark Earley at 4:35 AM
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