Saturday 27th January Fusion West made their way to Manchester for the
first tournament of the season and the Wests debut on the national
scene. The venue was Manchester City football clubs training
ground, an indoor tournament on 3G artificial turf, now hailed as the
future of indoor ultimate. Saturday was devoted to pool play
games with the 16 teams divided into two round robin pools. Seeded 7th
coming in to the tourney the team would have some tough games ahead to
make it to the quarter final stage. With a squad of ten we decided to
choose two lines to play alternate points, the line scoring the least
points ended up with plank punishments.
First up a game
against MFS from Southsea a team made up of Fire players and some
random friends. We struggled to even get a few passes going and quickly
found ourselves 3-0 down no thanks to Lewis's disc skills, Gaz's hard
running and the 8ft monster they had in the endzone. Fusion regrouped
and the Ford Focus line got us back in the game and in front. At the 10
minute mark MFS already looked tired and Fusion took the win 8-7. Next
up Hulltimate, Fusion found their rhythm demonstrating a breed of
offence unseen by most of the onlookers running out 16-3 victors. The
Mole racking up the goals and scoring Fusions first callahan of the
year. By this stage it was clear we were one of the teams to beat and
the crowd were baying for our blood from this moment on. Our third game
of the day was against The Brown of Newcastle, a decent side that we
will no doubt be battling against for A tour qualification at the
upcoming tour 0. They fought hard and gave us a few scares but again we
were too strong over the course of the game, the Far Flung handler
pairing of Shaun and Cos demonstrating the fine art of the one-two to
cruise through their defense on the 'short-ass' line. We won by two
points in the end, i think it was 9-7. Fusion continued their stride
towards the knockout out stage with a comprehensive victory over Man
Chest Hair, final score 11-3 (i think). The penultimate match of the
day put us up against reigning champions Fallin' Skies, a collection of
Aberdeen old boys, familiar foes from university tournaments of the
past. Their patient offense proved hard to break down. So far we had
forced turnovers by pressuring teams in to throwing away but the
experienced Aberdeen side would not succumb so easily. We
traded for the first part of the game until Fallin Skies pulled ahead
by 2 or 3? We battled hard and clawed it back to within a point but in
the end time ran out for the come back to be complete. 8-7 Fallin'
Skies. As Aberdeen had already lost to MFS 8-6 it looked likely we
would finish in a 3 way tie at the top of the group. With the factors
of seperation still to be determined we decided we may need to
increase our points difference to take the top spot. The aim was to be
clinical and efficient in our final game against York. 19-2, in a 19
minute game. Derryk still found time to flare it up a little and throw
through his and his markers legs.
Sunday.
In the end point difference only mattered for results between the tied
teams. It meant that if we won our final group game we would finish 2nd
behind MFS. However the final group game was not as easy as we maybe
expected. Catch those, a team of Merseyside yougsters came out firing,
eager to prove a point and perform a relative giant killing. Having
already played MFS and Fallin' Skies and lost by a single point (or
two) to each they were dying to get the scalp they deserved. And almost
did. After a Tim Kelman point block on the first play of the game we
traded for the first few points then went down with the crowd clearly
behind the underdogs.Eventually we turned on the D machine and ground
out the win through experience and some good old fashioned fight.
Perhaps it didn't help that we'd been up till 4am the previous night...
Quarter
final time and time for Fusion West to again show everyone what they're
made of. This game was full of layout blocks and quite simply some of
the most sublime offence you will have ever seen, Conor relishing his
role as iso and dominating in the middle of the field. 12-3 i think. Our
semi final opponents Jeremy CodHand would be no pushovers. The crowd
had them as favourites having topped their pool against Top Shelf
Sleaze (St Andrews) and pretty much destroyed everyone else. A few
familiar faces from the A tour and GB squads added to their air of
invincibility. This was an intense battle and one of the best indoor
games Fusion West had ever been involved in (out of 9). At 1-0 the
sideline ran on to the pitch to celebrate Fusions first score, at 1-1
CodHand spiked the disc. The tone was set. Relentless pressure on D and
the sort of fluid offence seen all weekend put the westerners up early.
Pwebb made blocks and assists all over the show and Adriano put in some
sweet io backhands as well as showing his skills in the air
against......no one, continuously getting open all game. CodHand never
found their way back in to the game. Fusion make the final, 10-7.
The
final would see a rematch between the young Scots and the aging
Southerners MFS who had beaten St Andrews en route (who had knocked out
Fallin Skies in the QF). MFS were out for revenge but it was Fusion who
took first blood with a pitch length blade assist from Joe Norat.
However, Fusion again struggled for turnovers against the patient
offense style employed by MFS and found themselves a couple points
down. Despite endzone heroics from Shaney (a huge layout grab from a
cross pitch throw) we couldn't claw ourselves back. This wasn't the
best game of ultimate from either side. Due to the late schedule (it
was now 8.30pm) most of the teams had left and the two teams on the
pitch were tiring. MFS won by two. A dissapointing end to an otherwise
awesome weekend but a great start to the Fusion West Season.
Team: Jim, The Mole, Adriano, Timothy, Wing Commander Shaney McShane, Conor, Shaun, Derryk, Cos, Philip.
MVP: Shaun
Dans la maison........