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Liverpool Beginners – Captain’s Report

This weekend we got up (really) early and took a beginner’s team to Liverpool. The team was Shane “Energy” Cheng, Cam “Spanish-esque” Humphreys, Tanay “Vision” Shah, James “JL” Lawton, Laurence “Florence” Barton and Callum “The Machine” Machin. Sam (me) and Kris were the experienced players.

Group game 1: Great start to the weekend with a win over Liverpool. We were still trying to get the hang of rules but managed to use our superior skills to score goals and get lots of blocks.

Group game 2: This was a tough game against a Huddersfield team that had a couple of excellent beginners. Lost the game but the improvement that was to continue throughout the weekend was already starting to show.

Group game 3: A good game against a typically athletic Loughborough team. Our team was really starting to build up confidence particularly with throwing flicks which we had struggled with earlier in the day. Lost the game but not by much so finished the group in 3rd place.

So, after 3 quality games of Ultimate it was time to have a shower and relax before going for some food. Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed another game on the schedule. So when we were sitting round in jeans and suddenly asked why we weren’t on the pitch we madly scrambled some kit together and ran on.

Crossover game: Fortunately our guys weren’t hindered by my poor organisation and played incredibly in this game. Cam was a constant deep threat and Florence and The Machine were showing some really solid disc skills. We created space really well and held on to possession to win the game and secure a spot in the top 8!

That genuinely was the final game on Saturday.

Quarterfinal v Sheffield: This was a really tight game, I think there was probably only 1 or 2 points between the two teams for the whole game. Our beginners did brilliantly all the way through especially when being marked by the opposition’s experienced players. Came down to sudden death and Sheffield just managed to hang on to the final pass to win the game. Despite narrowly losing the game, we went into the semi-final as Sheffield had two teams but not enough players! So top 4 spot guaranteed!

Semifinal v Loughborough: Another top quality game against the other Loughborough beginner’s team. We talked a bit about keeping eyes on the man you’re marking and everyone on the team stepped up the defence, creating lots of turnovers. I think we went up something like 5-1, but with only 2 subs tiredness crept in and we lost in sudden death about 7-6. Our team had played better with each game and with a little bit more luck could have made it to the final.

3v4 v Loughborough: A rematch against the Loughborough team we played on Saturday. Unfortunately it was at the same time as the experienced team so the team played with no experienced player and just 1 sub. I hear it was another quality, fun game which ended in a close loss.

Massive well done to the 6 guys. The improvement over the weekend was incredible and finishing 4th is the best of all the beginner’s teams this year 😀 Really looking forward to playing with you all more throughout the year.

Samuel Hawkins

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