Are you new to the sport of Ultimate? Whether you’ve got no idea how it works, or you’ve played it casually with your friends before, you’re welcome to join in with what we’ve got going on in Brighton Ultimate.

Currently we run a weekly practice session in Preston Park, starting at 6pm (or whenever you can get there) until sunset, and usually followed by a leisurely pint at the pub. Anyone is welcome to attend, and if you’ve never played before we’re happy to show you the ropes and get you involved.

Click here for more details on what Ultimate is, how it works, and why it’s so awesome.

If you have any questions about Ultimate itself or getting involved with Brighton Ultimate, email contact at brightonultimate dot co dot uk

From Tom White, written on the day before their final game:

A very tight and hotly contested game ending in a [16-14] loss to Duke sums our tournament up. We never managed to properly fire on all cylinders for a whole game, and we seemed to have an unlimited supply of out-of-character individual errors. We had some great patches with everyone the team playing awesomely, and there is a great feeling from all that they wouldn’t want to be playing with anyone else.
Tomorrow we play for 19th. Not where we’d hoped to be at the end of a hard week. But I think it’s pretty much right, and we’re all proud of what we’ve achieved together.

Click below to see all of Brighton’s results.

Pool Games:
Brighton Ultimate 17 – 08 guayota ull (Spain)
Brighton Ultimate 13 – 17 Upsadaisy (Austria)
Brighton Ultimate 17 – 03 Brazzinga (Brazil)
Brighton Ultimate 13 – 17 AMP (USA)

Power Pool Games:
Brighton Ultimate 13 – 09 Credo
Brighton Ultimate 13 – 15 Newcastle Pie Wagon
Brighton Ultimate 08 – 15 Mental Floss Tycoons

17-20 Bracket Playoff:
Brighton Ultimate 14 – 16 Duke

19/20th Place Finals:
Brighton Ultimate 18 – 16 SQOAL

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!

If you’ve never been before, it’s a 16 team mixed tournament hosted on 14th/15th August in beautiful Sussex countryside surroundings on the edge of the South Downs in the middle of the summer, to wind down after an exciting Ultimate season. The cost is a value-tastic £145 for UK teams and £100/€110 for European teams. Click here for more info and to confirm your space!

Meanwhile, Brighton Open had a lot of really close matches, only winning 2 of their 7 games. Despite a low finish of 37th place, they gave their opponents a really tough time and showed that they deserved to be competing at XEUCF.

Check back in a day or two for some photos from the tournament.

You can follow our progress by checking the Brighton Ultimate Twitter feed, which will be updated live throughout the tournament. The final placings will be posted here next week along with a link to some photos from the tournament.

New to Ultimate? Check out our New Player page to get an idea of how the game works and how to play.

Now for some summer league stats:

78 total participating players, including:
44 players who had never played at Brighton / Mohawks practices before, including
31 complete beginners

171 total points scored
54 points for Kohlrabi
45 points for Rhubarb
40 points for Ginger
32 points for Onion

24 total players for week 1
40 total players for week 2
36 total players for week 3
52 total players for week 4 (semi finals)
23 total players for week 5 (final)

9 players attended all weeks:
Waggle, Mental, Priya, Deeny, James Ely, Toby, Bea, Jon, Staff

13 players only missed 1 week:
Jo, Ben Speed, Olaf, Simon Elliott, Craig, Kirsty, Malcolm, Jon
(hair), Alice, Mediocre, Elias, Charlie, Andy

Most consistent team: Ginger (5 attended all weeks, 2 missed only one week)
Special mention: Rhubarb (2 attended all weeks, 5 missed only one week)

Spirit of the Game, as defined in the 2009 rules:
http://www.ukultimate.com/system/files/WFDF+Rules+of+Ultimate+2009.pdf

1.1. Ultimate is a non-contact, self-refereed sport. All players are
responsible for
administering and adhering to the rules. Ultimate relies upon a Spirit
of the Game that
places the responsibility for fair play on every player.
1.2. It is trusted that no player will intentionally break the rules;
thus there are no harsh
penalties for breaches, but rather a method for resuming play in a manner which
simulates what would most likely have occurred had there been no breach.
1.3. Players should be mindful of the fact that they are acting as
referees in any arbitration
between teams. In such situations, players must:
1.3.1. know the rules;
1.3.2. be fair-minded and objective;
1.3.3. be truthful;
1.3.4. explain their viewpoint clearly and briefly;
1.3.5. allow opponents a reasonable chance to speak;
1.3.6. resolve disputes as quickly as possible; and
1.3.7. use respectful language.
1.4. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but should never sacrifice
the mutual respect
between players, adherence to the agreed-upon rules of the game, or
the basic joy of
play.
1.5. The following actions are examples of good spirit:
1.5.1. informing a team-mate if they have made a wrong or unnecessary
call or caused
a foul or violation;
1.5.2. retracting a call when you no longer believe the call was necessary;
1.5.3. complimenting an opponent for good play or spirit;
1.5.4. introducing yourself to your opponent; and
1.5.5. reacting calmly towards disagreement or provocation.
1.6. The following actions are clear violations of the spirit of the
game and must be avoided
by all participants:
1.6.1. dangerous play and aggressive behaviour;
1.6.2. intentional fouling or other intentional rule violations;
1.6.3. taunting or intimidating opposing players;
1.6.4. disrespectful celebration after scoring;
1.6.5. making calls in retaliation to an opponent’s call; and
1.6.6. calling for a pass from an opposition player.
1.7. Teams are guardians of the Spirit of the Game, and must:
1.7.1. take responsibility for teaching their players the rules and good spirit;
1.7.2. discipline players who display poor spirit; and
1.7.3. provide constructive feedback to other teams about how to improve their
adherence to the Spirit of the Game.
1.8. In the case where a novice player commits an infraction out of
ignorance of the rules,
experienced players are obliged to explain the infraction.
1.9. An experienced player, who offers advice on rules and guides
on-field arbitration, may
supervise games involving beginners or younger players.
1.10. Rules should be interpreted by the players directly involved in
the play, or by players
who had the best perspective on the play. Non-players, apart from the
captain, should
refrain from getting involved. However for calls relating to
“out-of-bounds” and “down”, players may seek the perspective of
non-players to assist them to make the
appropriate call.
1.11. If players cannot agree what occurred in a play, the disc shall
be returned to the last
non-disputed thrower.

Enjoy your Ultimate everybody, wherever it takes you. Hope to see you
at practice!

Felix

Week 1

A fantastic turnout saw all four teams competing in games of 6v6! There was plenty of slipping & sliding around during the exciting matches – Ginger (was: Onion) were leading Kohlrabi (was: Lettuce) by a few points, but an awesome last few minutes with big throws and layout scores from both teams saw a huge comeback by Kohlrabi to win 11-10.
Mental Ben’s Rhubarb (or ‘rhubarb rhubarb’ as they like to be called – formerly Carrot) team showed huge improvement during the course of their game against Onion (formerly Beetroot), but in the end the more experienced Onion team with Mediocre & co won out, 10-8 over Rhubarb.

Results:
11 Kohlrabi – Ginger 10
8 Rhubarb – Onion 10

Players for this week were:

Kohlrabi:
Waggle
Dylan
Bobbi Pink Shorts
Ben Speed
Lisa
Jo

Rhubarb:
Mental Ben
Milan
Olaf
Malcolm Thain
Priya
Angus

Onion:
Mediocre
FeTu
Andy
Charlie
Staff
Rosie

Ginger:
Deeny Dom
Toby
Bea
James Ely
Alice
Jon

Week 2

Last Tuesday evening saw Waggle’s Kohlrabi team take another sudden-death win, this time 9-8 over Onion led by Elias & Dougie.

Meanwhile Mental Ben’s Rhubarb (rhubarb) team earned their first victory, 14-9 over Ginger, led by Deeny Dom.

Next Tuesday (4th Aug) will see league leaders Kohlrabi taking on fast-improving Rhubarb, and Onion facing Ginger in what will no doubt be a sharp encounter. I’ll see you in Preston Park – get there before 7pm and stake out a couple of pitches worth of space!

Results & current team lists:

9 Kohlrabi – Onion 8
14 Rhubarb – Ginger 9

Kohlrabi:
Waggle
Ben Speed
Anthony Deng
Jayne Ede
Margaret
Oliver Simpson
Helen Dale
Tom White
Edgars
Bobbi Pink Shorts
Lisa
Dylan
Jo

Rhubarb:
Mental Ben
Milan
Olaf
Priya
Spike
Cat
Simon Elliott
Craig
Kirsty
Dan (not Olaf)
Alex
Malcolm Thain
Angus

Onion:
Mediocre
Elias
Dougie
Andy
Charlie
Staff
Sofia Pipera
Pirate
Rob Cave
Bre
Jenny Fry
Rosie
FeTu

Ginger:
Deeny Dom
Toby
Bea
James Ely
Jon
Kath
Jenny Toms
Jon
Simon B
Alice