[BD] details report on coed 3

[Nancy Stebbing]

Jenny has already listed those present, so onto the games.   We entered the tournament with a newish strategy- get the ladies to handle more often, as they were lower on numbers compared to the men.  So the men could run and the ladies could sit back and watch the fruits of their labour.   Started Saturday morning facing Excessbee, top of our pool.  Although we gave them a scare at Coed 2, we started the tournament in true Red fashion, with our heads up our @sses.  Couldn't play D, couldn't complete more than three passes in a row.  I couldn't throw a forearm to save my life, and personally gave away about 8 points on our endzone line.  A true drubbing at 1-15.  The only highlight was the 'call of the tournament'.  During one point, the sideline players were yelling to 'watch the One-Twos', (in the helpful way that people who are not running their guts out while the players on the pitch are killing themselves do such things)  when Caesar,who was kiling himself to catch up to the Two of the One-Two called back 'I AM watching the one-twos'.   Next game against Shocker- a team supported with Gemma (She who Slept at My House Friday night- huh!!!) and Nicole (splitter!)  and some useful boys from Smash and Grab.  After a slowish start, we played much better as the D began to take shape, we actually started to throw to each other, and our catching improved dramatically.  We were tight until the time cap, and then didn't score again.  8-10 loss, but not such a disappointing performance.   Met Pyramus, bottom of pool, for third game.  They looked impressive on the sideline in that they were all ultra-fit.  But it just goes to show that fitness ain't much use if you can't get the disc to the next person.  Our adjusted arrowhead D (wide arrow, three person wall behind) worked like a charm and our O was relatively unchallenged due to a lack of structure  (but no lack of speed).  12-2 win to remain 12th seed.   As Jen said, we were up for a 5-12 crossover against BAF.  We went in thinking we were in for a thrashing, but with the score tied 3 all, we had a bit of a change of heart.  Our D made their women handlers look like beginners, with rarely more than three passes being completed.  A time-out in the first half was spent having a laugh while they gave themselves a bollicking.  We rattled their players so much that their star players were dropping sitters in their own endzone. 8-9 at half-time, with much swearing and finger pointing being done on the BAF sidelines.  A change of strategy in the second half with their 'big guys': Chris, Merrick, and some other tall bloke who was annoying, taking over their offence and dominating all the way down the pitch left us with just one more point to their 3.  A most satisfying 9-12 loss.   For Sunday, we were on time(!!) for our first game, which was slightly annoying as our opposition was not.  Still the drilling helped to wake us up to face Mootones, an Oxford based team with none of the TeamShark players.  We were winning easily when they unleashed their secret weapon- a player with 'huge tracts of land' and a Madonna-esque B-52 nose-cone bra, a few rolls of strategically placed and wobbling fat, and a tan that makes Frosty the Snow Man look like he just returned from Jamaica- taking off her shirt for the rest of the game. Luckily, none of the men were too distracted, and none of the women looked and were turned to stone.  Final score 15-4.   On to Zoo, a Hammerage/Princess Layout combo (but don't call them Hammerage!!!), seeds 9 vs. 12.  Although we played reasonably, we weren't good enough.  A few too many missed passes,  and our D was ineffective as once they broke through the zone, their quick release of the disc made it impossible for the arrowhead to ever catch up.  And as Jen said- those party horns (or should I say HOOTERS) were annoying.  A 7-15 loss.   Finally, 11 vs. 12 to end the tournament.  Up against a Flyght Club team that had better players than you might expect.  They were beating us up at 3-6, when Stebbo returned from his baby-sitting duties to start hucking.  All of a sudden it was 6 all, then 8 all.  We took the point to win the half.  The hooter sounded just as the pull was going to start the second half- game to 11.  Some quick work on their turnovers- including a point where the Stebbings showed their true disc-hog tendencies (sorry guys!)  One-Two-ing it right into the endzone ended the game at 11-8.  No points for Flyght club in the second half at all.   So, an 11th finish.  We discovered that those teams outside the top 4 had better take us seriously, as we are capable of beating them when we are playing well.  Due to the initial seedings, I think that there were a few teams that finished higher than we did who we could have beaten- although in all fairness Zoo really did give us a spanking.  On to the finals in Nottingham- and this time we'll show up knowing how to play the D.  (In ohterwords, don't come if you're not going to show up for at least one or two practices before the tournament!!)   nancy