2011 Winter Practices!

2011 End Of Season awards and results round-up

Last Tuesday we had the annual End Of Season dinner, after a year that saw some excellent results from all the Brighton Ultimate teams. Highlights included two Mixed teams getting 5th/6th at Mixed Tour 1, three Open teams at every Open Tour (we are one of only two clubs to manage that), Brighton 1 getting 4th at nationals and an awesome 8th at the European Ultimate Championship Finals, and Brighton Women improving their result at each tournament.
Mixed Tour 1: BUM1 5th, BUM2 6th
Mixed Tour 2: BUM1 3rd
Mixed Tour 3: BUM1 5th
Open Tour 1: BU1 5th, BU2 21st, BU3 42nd
Open Tour 2: BU1 5th, BU2 26th, BU3 44th
Open Tour 3: BU1 6th, BU2 28th, BU3 44th
Open SE Regionals: BU1 1st
Open Nationals: BU1 4th
European Ultimate Championship Finals: BU1 8th
Women’s Tour 1: 12th
Women’s Tour 2: 10th
Women’s Tour 3: 9th
Women’s Nationals: 8th

Here’s Brighton 1 captain Sion’s write-up of the awards given out at the dinner:

Women’s Player of the Year – went to Bobbi. Aside from the fact she’s a very talented player with great grabs, spatial awareness, and steely determination (her German side I think), she was also commended for firing up a relatively new team with her competitiveness, passion and banter. A well deserved bottle of Cava is on ice for you somewhere in Brighton, (ditto those who didn’t collect).

Open Player of the Year – went to Sion, awarded by Mental for his input into running the first team. His style of managing the team is based on being formless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

Mixed Player of the Year – went to Robbie. Robbie was nominated for a number of awards – he’s had a big impact this year on the club, whether representing Brighton at Mixed or Open. Its early days for Robbie, but already he’s marking out some of the best players both here and in Europe.

Most Improved Male – went to Toppers, (Chris Frame). During the entire season he played both within his ability and at the same time inspirationally; getting some vital D’s at critical moments. Playing within your ability on the first team, whilst also being able to dig deep and bring the intensity needed to make a difference is a hard balance to strike…great job Toppers.

Most Improved Female – went to Alice Wylie. Although Alice is a new player, she’s certainly wily. She showed great commitment to the team and tour this year, and her game has improved hugely, whether on disc or cutting and taking down discs up-field.

Most Spirited Player – went to Megan. The secret to her success is based on politeness, honesty and respect, (taken from nominators feedback), underpinned by a encyclopedic knowledge of the rules, (Robbie, Megan, Callum and YT sometimes play this really fun game. What you do is get a hard copy of the rules and then each person has to think of a pertinent example that applies to that particular rule; if you can’t think of one, your out. Megan’s always last man standing).
This true anecdote does demonstrate something fundemental. You may have good knowledge of the rules, but its fair-mindedness and respect that set Megan apart…someting to think about and aspire to next season. Great job Megan.

Other Mentions – Last, but not least its really important to mention all the people behind the scenes who are committed to Brighton Ultimate. Evil has done a great job this year as treasurer and was especially thanked by all; Alize for organising the event; Tom White for sorting Regionals, Megan for always stepping in and helping in numerous ways; Callum for sorting out the Forum; Rolls and Ala for many good suggestions and ideas throughout the year and Rapo, (with others), for organising SICKO. I’m sure there are many others – apologies if there are any glaring omissions.

Summer practices – Fun Tuesdays!

Fun Tuesdays are back and in full effect despite this so-called “summer” weather… just turn up to Preston Park around 6:00pm onwards every Tuesday. All abilities welcome! We usually practice somewhere in the center of the park – look for all the people throwing frisbees around.

End of winter practices

Winter practices on Mondays in Hove have come to an end as of 21st March – watch this space for updates on when summer practices in Preston Park will start.

Brighton Ultimate at the World Ultimate Club Championships

Between 3rd and 10th of July, Brighton Ultimate’s Mixed team will be in Prague in the Czech Repubic to take part in the 2010 World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC). Hosted every 4 years, the World Ultimate Club Championships bring together the top ranking teams from around the world in 4 divisions – Open (mens), Womens, Mixed (a ratio of 3:4 men:women or women:men on the pitch), and Masters (over 33 years old). WUCC 2010 will be bringing together a total 136 teams (approximately 3000 players) from 37 countries.

In the last 12 months, Brighton Ultimate have won both the UK National Mixed Division Championships and the European Mixed Division Championships, and are consequently the highest-seeded European team in the WUCC Mixed division – seeded 7th out of 40 teams. Over the course of 7 days, Brighton will play around ten 90-minute games. Updates on Brighton’s results throughout the tournament (and hopefully some comments from players) will be posted here on the website and on our Twitter feed. You can also keep up to date with other WUCC news and results on Twitter by following the #wucc2010 tag.

You can hear captain James Houghton talking about Ultimate and the upcoming World Championships on BBC Radio Sussex, and see a couple of short local BBC news clips on our Media page.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Ultimate or want to give it a try, we always welcome new players to our practice sessions (even if you can barely throw a frisbee!). Check out our New Player page to find more info on how Ultimate works and how you can get involved!