Does the disc spin the other way ?

Well, seems Mel is putting me to shame on the blog that I started. Guess thats what happens when you spend all your free time working on your laptop. I am in the busiest phase of the project for me...the build phase ! I'm managing a team of 12 people made up of SAP developers and configurers. We are trying to finalize all the designs so that we can build the SAP EM system and have it ready for serious testing by the end of November. Realistically I should be pretty busy right through to Christmas but things should slow down after that.

Anyway, I'm posting in order to write a little bit about playing ultimate here in Melbourne to answer some questions that have asked about how things work here. As you probably read in Mel's post below we have joined the city league.

My first games were at the "Hat" tournament Mel mentioned which was last Monday. I was on the weakest of 4 teams of guys that night. The top 2 players on each team were probably Open calibre players. The rest of the players ranged from athletic guys with little to no skills to one or two guys on each team who were out for the first time.

The level of play was pretty good at the start of the night...we even managed to run an end zone drill for 4 or 5 minutes without a drop. The "captain" of my team was a guy named Wily who had a subzero jersey. Not sure if he played for them or traded for the jersey at some point but based on skill he could have played for them at some point.

By the second and third game the level of play had deteriorated and it looked like bad league ultimate should look. Lots of hopeless hucks and lazy defense. The fields are in Albert Park which is Melbourne's version of Central Park I guess. It's where they have the Formula 1 Race and also the home of the Aquatic Center. There are tons of various sporting fields and the ultimate fields are layed out on an old field hockey pitch. The ground is mostly flat with the majority of it covered by grass with the remainded just plain ole dirt. The best feature of Albert Park is the view you have of the city sky line at night. Very cool.

This Monday we had our first league game in Division 2. We showed up a bit early but forgot to bring a frisbee so had to borrow one. It was very cold and very windy so it reminded me of a night game in Ottawa's fall league. Our new team assembled shortly before the game and people seemed friendly and athletic for the most part. As it was windy the game was mostly zone D and I was quickly promoted to chief upwind handler...woo hoo ! I travel to the other side of the planet and league ultimate looks exactly the same. Regardless, our team was actually pretty good and more importantly they seemed to be enjoying playing.

We ended up winning the game by virtue of scoring a couple of up wind points while our opponents only managed to score one into the wind. I would say that the level of play in Division two here is similar to tier 2 or 3 on most nights in Ottawa.

The strangest part of the night was the post-game wrap up. Everyone joins up in a big circle with arms around each other's shoulders and then the opposing captains give big, heart warming, speeches outlining the merits of the others team and game. It was a little bit weird.

Anyway, it was fun and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season , seeing what Division one is like, and obviously the warmer weather.