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August 23rd 2002 A quick update to let you know how the Finals turned out last night: Division One Final: Strawberry Jam 12-3 Thummer Lovin' Strawberry Jam are 2002 league winners Bad Habits win the plate Cloud 9 win spirit More info to come (like official final placings, full spirit points listing, etc), so check back again next week for a full post-mortem. For now let me just say thank you all for playing and I hope you all had a good time this year. Have a great bank holiday weekend. Ciao for now.
August 21st 2002 Finals and Party info are now online. It all happens tomorrow. Click the ad to find out about it all.
August 16th 2002 More news regarding Division 2. Albatross, Playthings and Bad Habits all won their games on Thursday, putting them into a three-way tie for the top of the division. Using the rules explained in yesterday's posting, which I'll say again are those that we've used every year (everyone must surely know these off by heart by now!) they finish up on points difference as follows: Bad Habits...+3 points This puts Bad Habits and Playthings into the plate final next Thursday night. That's it for now. I'll be doing one more posting to remind everyone about finals and party plans for next Thursday. Until then, have a good weekend.
August 16th 2002 You've probably heard all about this on the mailing list, but in case you haven't, I decided after much consideration that we should stick with the WFDF tie-break rules that we have used in past years. A basic summary of these follows:
These rules have turned out to be pretty relevant this year, as Divison One did indeed end in a three-way tie, with two amazingly tight, hard-fought games at Clapham Common on Wednesday. Ace Trucking Company came out very strong against Thummer Lovin'. A win for Ace Trucking would avoid a tie-break situation and put them in the final without question, so they were understandably gunning for the game. Thummer Lovin' on the other hand were determined not to let their unbeaten record slip, so fought back all the way. I don't know precise details of the game, but ATC took it right to the wire, taking more points off Thummer Lovin' than any other team in recent weeks (Little Mohawk managed the same scoreline back in the first round). Thummer Lovin' just held on to win the game 15-13. Meanwhile, next door, a similar struggle was taking place between Strawberry Jam and Whey!. Jam made their customary slow start, taking the first point but then losing the next four. The nose-dive then continued well into the second half by which time they were trailing 11-6 to a team who were playing far more sensibly and consistently. But perhaps Whey's shortage of subs started to tell. Jam switched to force-middle after getting burned time and again forcing one way, and generally stepped up their D to launch a late comeback and take the game 16-14. Meanwhile, in the other Division One game... nothing happened. Venus Funk Trap, who've had difficulty with Hawaii absentees recently, found they could not turn out a team and were forced to default their game to Little Mohawk. An unfortunate and unforseen turn of events. This puts Strawberry Jam, Ace Trucking Co and Little Mohawk into a three-way tie. Strawberry Jam and Little Mohawk come out equal on points difference (+3 each), with Ace Trucking trailing on -6. Strawberry Jam then go thru over Little Mohawk due to the result of their head-to-head game. This leaves us with a Thummer Lovin' v Strawberry Jam final, next Thursday. On the subject of finals, it was agreed with the teams involved that we should stage a Plate Final on the same night, on the adjacent pitch at Regents Park. Division Two is so hotly contested at the top that it would be a shame to decide the plate winners on the basis of a potential three-way tie. We'll know who's in the plate final after Thursday's results are in. Lastly, but by no means leastly, Division Three was wrapped up on Wednesday night, with a win by new team Axis of Apathy over Pyramus, giving Axis the division three title. Congratulations to all the newer teams in the League - I appreciate how tough it can be to stay motivated in your position, and I hope that you've enjoyed playing this year. We'll see you at the party!
August 10th 2002 The results page has been updated with the latest scores from the week just gone. As you'll see there are a couple of very significant three-way-tie possibilities. Division Two is almost certain to end up in a three-way tie for first place between Playthings, Bad Habits and Albatross, and there could conceivably be a similar tie for second place (and therefore a place in the final) in Divison One between Strawberry Jam, Ace Trucking Co, and Little Mohawk. I realise I haven't published clear rules on how ties are to be decided, and although I thought I knew how we were going to work it, a few issues have come to light recently that are making me re-consider the whole thing. There's no one system that you can't poke holes in, so I'm going to weigh up the pros and cons and let you all know what we're going to do later this weekend. I should also mention that there may yet be a Division Two final for the plate. Ooh, it's all getting quite exciting!
August 7th 2002 The traditional (and legendary) End-of-League Party is now sorted. It takes place immediately after the league final (Thursday 22nd August @ Regents Park) in the downstairs room at The Albany. The Albany is directly behind Great Portland Street tube, near the Green Man, and only four or five minutes walk from the pitches.
Entry is by ticket. I will be handing out tickets during the final, so make plans to come to Regents Park and watch. The room at the Albany isn't that small, but it's only licensed for 100 people, and I'm only allowed to print 100 tickets. So it'll be kind of first-come-first-served. Get the date in your diaries now.
August 2nd 2002 After two first round games each, it's still anyone's league in the top division. Thummer Lovin' maintain their unbeaten record after beating Strawberry Jam, and look likely to end up as one of the finalists. The other slot is still up for grabs however. As predicted, the Cloud 9 v Bad Habits game was a corker, with the teams taking it in turns to open up a useful lead. Bad Habits eventually took the half 8-7, then lost their way and slipped three points behind at 12-9 down. But Cloud 9, playing iron man for most of the game, suddenly found they no longer had an answer to BH's supply of fresh legs, and scored only one of the next seven points, conceding it 15-13. Playthings vs Huck & Hope was an equally close game (also ending 15-13), but I'm afraid I wasn't watching it! If anyone wants to write a short (less than 75 words) report about their upcoming games, please send them in as soon as you can after the game and I'll put them up here. Now for my traditional word about start times. With the light fading earlier and earlier, please can you do your best to make sure that you have a team there and ready to play at 7.15pm. The second-round games are generally much harder fought than first round games, and it seems a shame that crucial matches end up getting decided in half-darkness. Aiming to arrive at the pitches at 6.45pm would seem sensible. Don't forget that you may lose a point every two minutes if your team is not ready to play at 7.15. Stay tuned for post-final party news.
July 30 2002 Round Two got underway pretty successfully last week. If there was an "upset", it was Strawberry Jam's defeat of hot favourites Venus Funk Trap. VFT never quite managed to pull it together until they were trailing by several points, eventually finishing 15-9 down. Notching up a slightly unexpected extra win puts Jam back in the running for the final. There's been a little confusion about the results tables in divisions one and two. Please remember that you carry forward one result from round one into the second round. So the played/won table will always show that you've played one game more than you'd think from the results underneath. I'm happy to say that there were no footballer problems at Clapham last Thursday, so it looks like that whole situation has blown over. Good luck with your games this week - there are no clear favourites in any of the divisions yet, but I'd say that Cloud 9 vs Bad Habits could turn out to be the one to watch. Don't forget that if you want to play some more, we have a pickup game booked at Regents Park on Thursday evening. Also, good luck to everyone heading out to Hawaii for the World Club Championships. Follow your favourite team's progress at www.hui2002.org
July 20 2002 The schedule for Round Two has now been sorted out - you'll find it in the Results section. I won't be distributing it on the mailing list so check out the web page, print it out as a reference, and make sure all your team's players know when and where each fixture takes place. I've checked it through for mistakes, and it all looks okay to me, but if you find any anomalies (like you're playing twice in the same week) do let me know. All teams get a further four games each, except for the Division 3 teams who get two more league games each. If you're a Division 3 team then the pickup games are mainly there for your benefit - if you go to the pickup game any week that you don't have a scheduled league game then you will still get four games. The pickup games are of course open to all players, including people not currently playing on a league team. The pitches are booked and paid for, so let's make use of them. The games should provide an opportunity to play with a few new faces, pick up a few tips, have a few laughs and a few beers etc. Okay, hope you're having a good weekend. I'm going back to repointing my brickwork. Oh the joys of home ownership! See you next week.
July 19 2002 You may have heard by now that we had a bit of an incident at Clapham Common last night. This was the most disturbing encounter with a bunch of footballers yet, and was only resolved when the police stepped in (though even they had a struggle with these guys). I'm not relating this with the intention of scaring any of you away from Clapham Common but I know people who weren't there will be wondering what happened. I have also had some feedback from the council staff on how they'd like us to play it if it happens again. Here's what happened. I'd had a couple of reports of trouble on a Thursday night at Clapham already. Last night we had games scheduled on both of the pitches there, so it seemed odds on that we were heading for a problem. I eventually rolled up just after 7pm (sorry, I had hoped to be there earlier) to find about twenty football players on our lower pitch, some having a kick-about, others arguing with the Pyramus and On The Pull players. The Clapham groundstaff were there too, and had driven one of their pickups onto the middle of the pitch in an effort to stop the football game. Ignoring the groundstaff, the footballers went 'round intimdating the Ultimate players by picking arguments and firing the odd football at my head whenever the opportunity presented itself. All credit to our lot for keeping their cool in the face of a barrage of abuse, and even death threats (what really appalled me was that these were aimed specifically at our female players). These were pretty big guys and they seemed to be itching for a fight - overall there was a pretty nasty, threatening atmosphere, and if things had kicked off then we wouldn't have stood much of a chance, and I'd probably be writing this from a hospital bed right now. Thank you to groundsman Hector and his workmate, who could have abandoned us to our fate, but instead seemed pretty outraged at what was going on and stood their ground. They called Lambeth's Parks Department manager who drove over from Brockwell Park. He arrived about the same time as a couple of police officers. I explained the situation to the police and the Parks Manager confirmed to them that we had indeed booked the pitches (though I did wonder whose side the police were on for a while - we almost had to produce a royal decree signed by the Queen before they would believe what we were saying). The police then took up the argument with the footballers and we retired to the sidelines to let them get on with it. A good twenty minutes of arguing later the footballers grudgingly moved a whole hundred yards over to Eagle Pond (which is a nicer patch of the common anyway, I'd happily have the Ultimate pitches there if there was room) and got on with their kick-about there. We eventually got our game underway just after 8pm. I spoke to the chief groundsman Nick Souter this morning to get his take on the situation. Commendably, his view is that the council is in charge of what sports are played when and where on the Common, and will not have such things dictated to them by a bunch of thugs. He suggests that we should carry on with our games as scheduled on the currrent pitches, and they will continue to back us up, getting the Police involved again if necessary. With round two starting next week, we have two games scheduled for every Wednesday and Thursday at Clapham from now until August 15th. I will be there again next Thursday evening to keep an eye on proceedings. The Thursday footballers may turn out to be all bark and no bite (hopefully), or they may decide to make an issue of it once again. Either way, we're going ahead as planned for the time being. If you're there on a Thursday night, and we run into similar problems (there may be no trouble at all, but just in case), here's some suggestions:
Thanks for bearing with me. Hopefully this will be the last time we'll need to discuss this issue, and we can get back to actually playing some Ultimate. Keep an eye on the results pages for the Round Two schedule, which should be posted over the weekend.
July 15 2002 I'm back from my travels (which were a lot of fun, thank you very much) and I've at last caught up with all the results from games while I was away. The results page has been updated. The final first round games happen on Wednesday and Thursday this week, and there's loads of potential for interesting three way ties. Groups A and B could both end up with three way ties for the first three places - Playthings need to beat Thummer Lovin' in Group A, and Cloud 9 need to win over Ace Trucking in Group B. Suffice it to say that in the event of a tie it goes to points difference to decide which two teams go up... but we'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it. There's even a potential two or three-way for second place in Group C, if Albatross beat Whey! Also taking place this week is the fight to avoid "relegation". Maybe a better way to look at it is that two teams are guaranteed their first win this week. Congratulations in advance! Needless to say, please let me know your results as soon as possible. I hope to have it all sorted out and a new schedule posted over the weekend. Because I can't really sort the schedule before all the games are over, it's impossible for me to say what day next week your team will be playing. For now, please try to keep both Wednesday and Thursday night free. Twelve out of the fifteen teams will be playing next week, so chances are that means you. I'll probably be down at Clapham with my camera on Wednesday. Those of you going to Regents, good luck with the footballers (sorry, but RP have not answered any of my calls today). Please read my suggestions about dealing with things there - you'll find them in the "previous news" section.
June 28 2002 Games seem to be going well, without a single default so far in spite of the occasional problem (see below). But first, a slight change to the published schedule. Regents Park tell us we can't have two pitches next Wednesday, so I've moved the Wed 3rd's Strawberry Jam v Huck & Hope game to Thursday 4th July at Clapham Common. Hope that's okay. Issue of the week seems to be the customary problems with football and softball players. I can only reiterate that the pitches are booked and paid for, and we're entitled to use them. I was hoping to be able to send the team contacts copies of the booking confirmation from Regents Park and Lambeth Council, but I still haven't received written confirmation from them myself (despite asking several times). I'm working on it. Until then, try some of these tactics:
Unfortunately I'm going to be away from 2nd to 10th July, but I will get on the case again as soon as I get back.
June 19 2002 Almost everything on the site has now been updated for 2002. You can find the schedule, results, new maps, the 2002 Team Info Pack (on the stuff page), and I've even archived last year's results. More bits and pieces are on the way. League games got started last week with the first two matches at Clapham Common. Strawberry Jam beat Cloud 9 (who look strong this year, but were short of women for this game, with Pip Hilson making a fantastic job of playing for two). Thummer Lovin', who look a lot like the Hammerage team of last year, took a comprehensive victory over Pyramus. Things really get under way tonight and tomorrow at both Clapham and Regents Park. Results here as soon as I get them. Don't forget to send me your spirit votes - see the team pack for more info
June 17 2002 You can now download this year's Team Info Pack as a PDF file. You'll find it on the stuff page. Look out for big website updates in the next couple of days.
May 29 2002 At last, I can confirm that the league is happening. We have two pitches at Clapham Common, and two at Regents Park (but at a new location - flatter and closer to the tube too!). First games are set for Wednesday June 12. The rush is on now to get teams entered and draw up a schedule. If your team is entering, I need the following info from you a.s.a.p.: Team name (anything'll do for now if you haven't decided on one yet) Name of your team contact (person I will be contacting if there are sudden schedule changes etc) Team contact details - e-mail, postal address and phone numbers (daytime, evening and mobile if poss). Your choice of home ground - either Clapham, Regents Park, or "Both". I will endeavour to schedule as many games as possible "at home" for your team, though you will still get the odd game at the other venue. If your team members are fairly evenly split either side of the river, you can always have "both" as your home ground, and I'll try and split your games 50:50. Some kind of roster, even if it's incomplete at this time - this will help me with seeding. I'll be asking for a more complete roster from you closer to June 12. As I mentioned before, (see the April 19th message) I anticipate that the team fee will be going up again this year. At a guess, I think we're looking at something like 190 per team, assuming everyone gets a similar number of games as last year. Overall site updates are underway, but if you need more info about the league right now, everything is largely the same as last year, so the 2001 info on this site is still relevant. Look forward to hearing from you all very soon. |
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