TEAM NAME : DEATH THROUGH THE MOUTH

Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to play in a 2-day Ultimate tournament called the Melbourne Hat. For those of you that are not Ultimate players, a hat tournament is where you sign up as an individual and rank yourself as a beginner - intermediate or advanced player. After everyone has registered, names are drawn from a hat and in this case 24 equal teams are picked and the tournament begins. I was pumped to enjoy a break from the kids and get some serious playing in after winning the Division 1 championships on Wednesday night (yeah Milo!)…then came the weather forecast – GALE FORCE WINDS. For those of you that are not Ultimate players, these are NOT ideal playing conditions. Wind makes a complete mockery of the sport. So fast forward to Saturday morning, the alarm sounds and I look outside, knowing by the light intensity in our bedroom that I was not in for a treat. Not too much wind but TONS of rain. I get to disc central, meet up with a few people I know, then get assigned a blue shirt and a team who for reasons I do not understand named itself Death Through the Mouth. At first glance, our team did not look like much…a few of us looking less fit than we would like (myself at the top of the list) but we managed to hold our own. The rain persisted for the entire day, the field was a mud pit, my team had a few super layout players which made the day very exciting to watch, we won our first 4 games and lost our 5th by one point. By the end of the day, the winds had picked up so much that winning the flip at the beginning of the game to decide who starts with the wind became the MOST critical play of the game! Not bad, we made it to the top bracket for play the next day. That night there was a tournament party – the theme BOND, JAMES BOND!
I went with a few girls and the costumes were pretty good – Odd Job, people painted themselves gold, one painted herself black to represent Ms. Fields who died covered in oil in Quantum of Solace (I think?), and many others. I was a generic bond girl but got some compliments – mostly because people had never actually seen me without my baseball cap on . A few of our players “won the party” – meaning they were drunker and messier than everyone else. These same players arrived late to the game the following morning (I was impressed that they arrived at all!). The weather was MUCH better, still a little windy but it was Melbourne after all, and the games looked more like Ultimate than the crap we played the previous day. We started off very slowly and lost to the eventual champs of the tournament in our first playoff game. I played one more game, probably my best of the tournament (we won), then I had to leave early to catch the Wiggles concert (my teamates were of course VERY jealous – NOT!) All in all, a very positive experience, despite horrible weather! It took me at least a week to be able to walk again however, so I am not sure how this whole competitive ultimate thing will pan out…I'll keep you posted!