MT2 : Burton

Burton indeed - home of Martons. Directly opposite the tournie site was indeed Martons brewery, as Convoy told us many a time. Also the Pedigree was a lot nicer than the carling.
Friday Night saw Convoy drive Nik and I to the site in the Beast. The stupid Sat Nav put us on the M6 Toll, which we were pretty sure we didn't want to be on. Convoy asked us what we should do with the M6 Toll, as we were approaching a junction with the A42 (I think). Nikki piped up:

"Make a Hat"

was the reply.

This cost us £9.00...

Anyway, so we got to the site, and found the camping, which was right in front of the social club where we had both Friday and Saturday parties. We found the rest of Bacon and set up the Blue Palace MkII. Then it was time for a pint. We gathered around a picnic bench on the veranda and relaxed. It wasn't long before we got to playing Remi's game. I think this was the perfect game to play as we had a couple of new recruits in Amy and Ant. This game got us all relaxed and having fun. Mostly the game involved Convoy not computing what Michael could be, and also a lot of Littlerob being a Biscuit.

Convoy also managed to give himself a Biscuit injury, with his Thumb -





We also were that loud annoying drunk team that keeps everyone awake in the evening, which I do apologise for (if anyone ever finds their way here ) . I don't enjoy having to try and sleep through other teams being loud and silly, or mildy xenophobic!

Well, our efforts in the drinking on Friday, did hinder us slightly on Saturday, but not as much as only having 20 legs between us. We had a 9-30 start against Curve, our friends from Clissold Park. This was always going to be tricky, they have some talented handlers and fast runners. It was a tight game with both teams having periods of greatness - I think the lead switched several times as we would go ahead a couple then they would etc. We ran out of legs and lost 13-12 i think

Immediately we played Gallahs - who we had a fantastic game against in Brighton. They were missing Berry and Si Weeks - not necessarily in play, but just weren't there. They played well in this game, as did we, sometimes. Yet another very close game and they ran out 13-11 winners.

After our break, we came up against the youngsters from the Wirral, Catch Those. Yet another team who felt our drunken wrath the night before, yet another close game. Despite going 5-1 up, we found ourselves down going into the end of the game. We battled back and took the win 13-12. This game was memorable for one of their louder players not knowing the rules particularly well, but knowing he was right, no matter what was said to him. Big Rob had a Strip call incredulously contested, despite the disc ending up behind Rob, a few yards away - very difficult to actively do. I'm pleased we won, but I'm now not pleased I didn't follow up my rules discussion with their loud player, as I know he is wrong and I should have taken the rules over to him. Despite this, many of their other players were fun to play against and had some great plays.

Given we finished early, Bacon took the opportunity to hit Burton early for some food. After getting rejected from a fantastically amazing part Medieval English Steak house/part Mexican restaurant, that was empty - and could not possibly cope with 10 people at once. Burton restaurants are mental. We also stopped outside quite a swish Italian, where the waiter appeared as if by magic at the window. spooky. We settled on a generic chain style pub with normal pub food. It were alright.

We made our way back to the campsite and sat around chatting for a couple of hours before finding our way inside as Tom Styles And Steve G began their evening's DJ set. All I can say is that it rocked. It was everything you need in a good night's music, lots of indie, bit of ska, some cheese and a crowdsurfing Big Rob. Haven't been that sweaty on a dancefloor for a long time!

we hit the hay relatively early on Sunday morning (1ish) but not before testing out how flexible Big Rob's pop up tent was. Definite bundle possibilities for when he's in there...

Our first two games on Sunday were back to back - we started against the Trigger Happy-esque Meat Pie. I do enjoy playing against these guys - Shunter, Paddy & Huggy always enjoy themselves and it was a fun game, despite us being schooled. We did pull out some new plays - the Big Bang and the patented 6 -1-6, which almost worked!

Next game was our old enemy THerd (2). We hadn't played them for a while, and their recruitment drives have clearly worked a lot better than ours. They played us off the park, as our legs were gone, with the loss of dave to a hangover and sam pulling up with blisters/a strained whinging muscle ;o) It was a fun game., we worked it round their zone easy enough, we just didn't have the concentration to take it to them. I had a shocker of a drop - Nik threw me a nice roll curve dump on the line which I'd toed in for the catch. I knew litterob was so free for the swing and it was in his hands before it was in mine. I tried to blame it on the girls from The Brown, but I don't think they bought it...

So - we now had the joy of playing for 27th, lower than were we started MT1 unfortunately. However we took the decision that with numerous tweaks and injuries and the risk of more we would forfeit. Mustard were cool with it, but I'm sure we'd have all loved to play, with more numbers. Luckily our decision meant we were on the road when our game was due to play, and the rain set in, so that was a bonus.

All in all we played well enough to win more games/by more, though we clearly traded the wins in for 2 cracking nights of fun. The banter's always good with Bacon. Our newbies Amy and Ant fitted in well, and we'd love to keep them playing with us - both were great - good running, great grabs, good d and extremely calm with the disc. brilliant.

I think we set the tone for the weekend with Remi's game and the mayhem caused by it! Bring on Birmingham in 2 weeks...

The first rule...

The first rule of Bacon is:

• 1. No Cap spiking
• 1. 6+1 = 7, 5+2 = 7, 4+3 = 7, all of which = Biscuit. Not Michael, Mickey, Midget or What Are The Chances!
• 1. Bacon don't lose calls.
  

My mind's gone blank - what were the others?

Fill what's empty

...empty what's full. Scratch where it itches.

This is a pieceof life advice I gave myself sometime ago. I don't remember where I found this out, but I wrote it down on a tiny scrap of paper in my room at my parent's house.

Then as I moved out to live elsewhere, I found this tiny scrap of paper, and I like it's philosophy.

It's simple, can apply to anything, and means I can scratch myself if I'm itchy.

Girls

One point I'd like to make out loud : I only wish more teams could field more girls through a tournament weekend as it generally hurts bacon, as we're quite the female focussed team. We couldn't play the game we wanted to play against MILF at the weekend as their 4th girl was obviously not well.

This reminds me of a game we had against EMU/EMO at the Monkey Foo tournie near Grenoble. They only had 3 women, which clearly isn't enough if we wanted to play 4. This was pointed out to their captain, and he faffed around not finding out what to do (or so it seemed). Eventually they volunteered that they should play with 6 people should we want to play with 4 women. We eventually only did this once (and lost the point too!). My point is that our game plan was thrown out by their lack of players. They brought a distinct advantage to the game by not being able to match what we wanted to do - effectively changing our tactics in the process. We weren't helped by 2 of our 6 men being injured, reducing us to iron man effectively.
In the end they won the game, and rightly too, they played better than us, though I can only think if only...

MT1

well MT1 has come and gone, and I think was successful for the Bacon.

The weekend started well on Friday as we descended upon Kate's Brighton gaff, only to find them in the pub. Damn it, how long's it gonna take louis to get back to let us in. By the time I'd thought that Louis had arrived from the pub on the opposite street corner. Rock on! We proceeded to chat the night away in the pub with more people showing as and when and the drinks flowing nicely. We hit the hay at a sensible time, given we had an 11.05 start.

The room the Cuffster, Fi, Nik and I shared got a wake up call spot on time by a fully Baconed and excitable OHM. Turns out the other, 'young' room were up and very keen to get going on the mixed tour. There's always that nervous pre tournie excitement as we gathered in the kitchen for toast and liquid.

We made our way to the fields nice and early, to check out some of the other teams. Our first game was on a pitch currently being used by a london based cow related team, who happened to have a cow bell that haunted us throughout the weekend. I don't know how it was rung so frequently, I really don't.

our first game was against the Brown. I was nervous for all saturday games as I saw each team we had to play as a potential banana skin. Brown had some handy players, I was impressed with their standard of play in the open tour and thought that could transpose to mixed. However we took control, apart from 2 concentration blips that let them back into the game bringing it from 5-1 ish back to 5-5. We upped the pressure in the second half, until we had our second blip, letting them back in the game as we tried to close it out. Final score 13-10, shouldn't have been so close. This mental lapse would haunt us throughout our tight games this weekend.

Second up were Naoise Murphy, who I was very scared could be an Irish Mixed Worlds squad. Little did I know there wasn't one, and this was a second string bunch of Irish players, over here to play some ultimate. We had gelled well by this time and took the game 13-4 . Lesson learned - Rob has the worlds most obvious 'throw it into this corner' head fake, for which he will expect a blade or a thumber...

Last game of the day was a stormer, against Release 1. Really good close game, with either side able to take it. I think we took a run early on which we didn't give up, despite our best efforts. I really enjoyed playing this game, with all calls worked out fairly and well spiritly. I also had a good chat to one of their handlers on the side about a stall grey area whcih we could both see either side (player catch disc near sideline and runs out, marker starts stalling before he's returned to the pitch, by which time the stall is on 4. a travel is then called on the thrower, who's surprised to find he's on a 4 count before he knew was in a position on pitch to throw. It was resolved to start at 2). I understand the logic of starting while the catcher returns to pitch but personally feel that unless they're obviously time wasting, I wouldn't start that stall.

Anyway the game finished with a thorough anti climax. with the score at 12-8 (or 9ish to Bacon), the buzzer went. Release scored and I consulted with the Release captain as to whether the game should go to 13 (the normal winning cap) or should we put a 2 point cap on it. He volunteered game to 14, and I agreed, without consulting the rules. Whilst we battled to get to 14, the TD came over and confirmed we were incorrect, and we should have stopped at 13-11 Bacon. after discussion, Release offered the choice to me, take the win, or play on. Obviously I wanted to stop, and not risk the loss, saying that as the incorrect information was volunteered by them, the win should stand. Very anticlimactic and awkward, but I think it was thought a fair result by both teams. The only downside was release had 2 injuries during the extra points and I hope they weren't bad.

We spent the evening on the beach, with a few drinks, playing pebble based games, a favourite being hit the can. Once I'd had my fill of Jee's Southern Comfort and lemonade we had some slight trouble finding more beer, , simply because the cafes on the front wouldn't let us take out (fair enoughly). We found a newsagent selling stella at a premium and took some back to the beach!


Day 2 started with a game against Flaming Gallahs, Berry's team. I thought it would be a good close game between the two, and it was. I enjoyed this game the most out of the weekend, mostly because the banter was quite good (usually is when Berry's involved!). Big Rob had an awesome game, taken down some massive grabs, particularly one against Si Weeks, and a great full grab grab near the back of the zone from a huck from Ben (or Sam?).

Our fifth game ofthe weekend was agaisnt Fugazees. This was our blip. We weren't in focus at the start of the game and lost the first half 7-1, i think. As usual, once we thought we were out of contnetion, we relaxed, started playing well and found our rhythm. The game ended 13-10 to them, It's there for the taking next time. One point to note about this team is that they had over 20 players I reckon. This can count for you or against you - not sure which I prefer...
7
We then had a decent break before our final game, for 15th, against MILF, a Southampton based team, with a good core of Ltd boys who can play it around as much as possible. They could only field 3 girls most of the time, as their 4th had gone down with sunstroke (i think). We made her play for a bit, but it's hard to keep doing that to an injured player. We didn't want this game and let them have it without a fight really. 16th, up from seeded 22, which is a good start.

Lessons to be learnt from this tour are:

Get under the disc when it's in the air
Stay close to your man on D
Use the force effectively against the right oppostion
Believe we can win
Relax

It was a good showing from our newbies - Big Rob took down everything we threw at him, which was fantastic. Sam has got great speed and sweet Ups - though he can get too down on himself when running low on energy. Even at half speed he's faster than some of us oldies! Robin was as solid and dependable as ever - good to have another pair of hands at the back if needed. Rom was great to pick up - her movement and grabs helped us out loads and I hope she can come back.

Patrick was a great pickup, getting involved and helping out when he could. I hope his injury hasn't spoilt his weekend or his UK trip!

MT1 preview

Tomorrow sees the start of the mixed tour season, and I look forward to this every year. Playing with my good friends, mostly Leeds Uni Alumni, for Curious Bacon reminds me of what I enjoy most playing Ultimate.

The emphasis is usually on having a good weekend, enjoying each others company. Our best performances always come when we're relaxed and having fun. My personal favourite game we've ever played was at Brighton Beyond in 2006. We had a quarterfinal against Bristol Plastic Factory. This team was preparing for Worlds in Perth, and had a good number of players there. They had a skilled team, including Ollie, who I love to mark, and the sublime handling of Caeser, who I don't like marking!

I expected us to lose heavily, and I think a lot of us felt the same. This meant we were relaxed and didn't feel the pressure of a last 8 game. Due to this we just played our own game, enjoying the sun and having a laugh. Then we found ourselves 4 or 5 up. Not quite sure how, but it seemed to be working. This buffer helped keep us in the game as Bristol fought back. Eventually we found ourselves in a sudden death winner scenario. Both teams turned over, but the benefits of Bristol's training paid off and they took the win. I honestly didn't mind losing that game. We put so much into that game, once we realised we could win, I was spent afterwards, but happy in the knowledge we'd pitted our best against a good solid team.

Another thing about playing with Bacon is that we are all spread about the country now. Despite having a core of Leeds Alumni, we don't all live/train together regularly, which is usually our downfall in close games. You can't beat the experience of playing together week in week out. We do get the occasional glimpse of this, as we did last year when I often had 4 downfield cutter from our LLLeeds division. They would agree a LLL play between them and I often had no clue what was going to happen downfield, just give it to however looks like they want it first!

We'll have difficulties in MT1 I think purely because we'll all be a bit rusty from not playing together for a while, and we've got some new faces this year, and a pick up seemingly flying in from abroad. I look forward to how his experience will blend with our nonsense!

Report will probably follow!