Cape Town Ultimate

Nationals weekend is finally here!   12 teams will be vying for the top spot in Southern Africa and so who will it be there year?   Chili will be looking to defend their title for the third straight year, but they are sure to get plenty of challenges.   Nationals will be held at Bergvliet High School and starts on Friday night at 18h30 and finishes on Sunday with finals at 14h30.  See here for the full schedule.

The 2009 South African Ultimate National Championships has come and gone and left us with tired bodies and amazing memories. The 2 teams that travelled up to Johannesburg to represent Cape Town were Zebru and Chilli, and here we have a recollection of the weekend performances from the respective captains. Some great new photos have been added to the gallery, thanks to the various contributors…

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Anyone that has great photos they would like to add to the gallery can email them to me: wildcard.enterprises (at) gmail.com

Steve: Zebru
What a fantastic weekend! Zebru went 2-3 (wins-losses) with close losses to Mozambique and Prawn Bunnies. We were slow starters in both games, but I’m definitely blaming our Sunday morning loss on the fact that we won the PARTY! It may have something to do with the fact that Zebru won the… err… ‘late night’ game of Ultimate. But then again, in games like that doesn’t everyone win?

A quick recap of the Zebru games: We started our Saturday morning out in the ‘Pool of Death’ with Dabique (Mozambique), Long Donkeys (PMB), and Disco (J’burg). Dabique was a first game of the morning, and after a quick breakfast from Spar, we were a little slow to start. Dabique featured a mix of highly, skilled, Ex-pat experience players and new local players. We let them get up 3-0, and then 4-1 on the dry, dusty, hard grounds of J’burg. However, we started to click and played great Ultimate the rest of the way. Finally with the time cap going off, the game was tied at 6-6. We pulled to them and managed to get a D, but then I gave it back to them with a bad swing to Sam on the goal line. They were able to stuff it in for the score. This ended up being the deciding game for going to the semi-finals for our pool since the Long Donkeys were very impressive and hungry. The played a flat cup with three guys an average of 6 inches taller than me, and it ended up frustrating us to no end. We ended the day playing Disco, in which we found our rhythm and let off lots of big hucks. The next morning we played a very muddy game with Prawn Bunnies. They definitely took advantage of the fact that we were collectively hung over from the party and got off to an early lead. Being a brand new team from Durban, they are a great addition to the South African Ultimate scene with athletic play and great Spirit. Plus they had Neal playing for them, so how could they lose? We are definitely looking forward to playing them again and out cheering them – which won’t be easy. Nonetheless, it was a super fun game where everyone got their white Zebru shirts covered with plenty of mud from the rain the night before. We finished up our tournament with a win against a strong yet fun Swaziland team. Everyone was a bit tired, but we played some of our best ultimate of the weekend with great flow and passes and defense from everyone.

There was great play from everyone, but where Zebru really shined this weekend was with our Spirit. Sam and Zak, our king and queen of cheer, had a great tournament, and Zak was giving it his all when he broke his hand on defense. Gig-a-lo, I think now is a Zebru staple cheers and we’re going to have to teach everyone else the words. With the help of the whole team, Sam came up with one great song after another to cheer the other teams with. I think we made a lot of new friends and had a great time. And then of course, we rocked the party out. The girls looked amazing in grass skirts and bikini’s and they definitely put the sexy into Ultimate. The guys also looked great, all in Hawaiian shirts and lei’s. Once again, a fantastic and fun tournament! I don’t think I laughed so much in a 48 hour span as I did then. It was great staying in a house with so many Zebru players and so much fun to be hosted by Lionel. A number of players on other teams did mention to me that they were jealous of just how much fun we were having. So without a doubt, we had great Spirit, great Ultimate, and a great time! It was a fantastic tournament and I can’t wait until the next one!

Ant: Chilli
For Chilli, Nationals 2009 was always going to be about defending the title we won in 2008. In the history of the tournament no team had ever managed to claim the prize two years in a row and when we won in Cape Town in 2008 we made it our goal to become the first team to defend the title.

Months of fitness and skills training, analysis and hard work all culminated in Johannesburg on the weekend, in a tournament, that in truth, could not have panned out better for us.
We opened with a repeat of 2008’s final against Ultitude – a game that was clearly the toughest we would experience in our pool. Both teams showed early nerves in the near perfect weather conditions, but despite some bad options early on we came through comfortable winners 9-5. The game saw us reduced to just two women with Jenna ruled out due to illness. Our second game, against Swaziland, which began less than 15 minutes after the first was really fun, with some great skills on show. A stunning layout grab from Dave Needleman set the tone and although a couple of points dragged on for longer than they should have we ran out comfortable 13-2 winners. Durban was our final game of the day, a match-up that saw us face several former Chilli’s in Neal, Bern, Rebecca and Alix. For those who say Chilli are too serious: our six man cup-a-saurus hopefully went some way towards dispelling the myth. The Durban crew had lost earlier to Swaziland but they upped their game against us to score some classy points against our Junk defence that was becoming more effective with each game. We eventually ran out 13-4 winners.

Nerves were present again on Sunday for the semi’s where we faced the much improved Mozambique who boasted a real international flavour with GB and Dutch internationals on their line-up as well as well as a host of lightning quick locals. We had heard all about their long game and the strength of their women and we were prepared. We knew that shutting down their long game would be the key to success. We varied our defence in the semi mixing the tight man-on-man we had been practicing with several junk points. It worked well, but in truth we won the game with our offence, only turning the disc once as we took the half 7-0. We then traded to 9-2 before we reached the cap, in a game where the score did not reflect the close nature of the battle or the effort that went into winning. Lolly, Jenna and Keren featured in some huge plays with our girls showing that perhaps they were in fact the strongest female line-up in the tournament.

The final saw us face up to Long Donkeys for our fifth encounter in three tournaments. A fantastic rivalry has developed between the two teams and we always enjoy playing them. The Donkey’s always give as good as they get and we knew they were desperate to win. A tricky breeze came up shortly before the final and we after receiving the first pull we were turned and they opened the scoring with an upwind point. We countered immediately with consecutive scores and we traded to the half. Both sides played zone defence. PMB broke us by repeatedly hammering over the top while we got them shifting with some patient dumping and swinging.
We took the half 7-6 and scored a crucial upwind point immediately after the break with Chris sprinting the full length of the field to grab a floater at the back of the zone. We bagged the follow-up downwind point and suddenly we were leading 9-6. Subtle adjustments to our junk meant hammers over the top were no longer an option, while our relentless moving of the disc saw a tiring Donkey’s go to man meaning we could play our favoured direct style.
To be honest, I cannot recall the final score, I think it was 12-8. The final point and the win signaled the completion of our mission, to defend the title and keep the trophy in Cape Town and we were all elated. SA Nationals has now been held on 7 occasions and it has always been won by a Cape-based side. It was also a triumph for high quality, competitive yet spirited Ultimate. I think the final demonstrated how well conflict can be resolved between two competitive sides who are both hungry to win.

A big thanks to all the sides who participated. Those who were there to play hard, those who wanted to party and those who were about learning and building and experiencing all the different facets Ultimate has to offer. For those that fall into the latter category, hopefully, on some level Chilli can be an inspiration. When we put the team together in 2006 we had three experienced players, a vision and a host of beginners. We came last. But the team stayed together and grew and the following year we reached the semi’s. Then came 2008 and 2009 and the wins we had set our sites on back in 2006. The bulk of those new folk that played their first competitive Ultimate back in 2006 are still with us and the core of the team has remained unchanged for several years – it makes a big difference.

Like Nick Cage in a bad treasure hunt movie, I have discovered and dusted the cobwebs off my old hard drive and recovered my video editing project from Nationals ‘06.
Yes, its beyond overdue, and might be outdated to the point of antiquity, but that makes it even more cool to watch. See some old legends in full action and see some current legends looking younger, fitter and with more hair. Witness the scraggly beginnings of teams that  grew to dominate, awesome full game footage, many magic game moments and off-field extras…

This was a labour of love and I want to share it, but to help cover cost of discs, boxes, printing and postage the prices are as follows:

Single DVD R50

Pack of 5 R200 (R40/DVD)

Pack of 10 R300 (R30/DVD)

To place orders email me at: james[at]wildcardsa[dot]co[dot]za

James M

Can’t remember if you were there? Click here >> 

Nationals stats are uploaded here: Nationals 2008 Stats. Check out the final standings, pool results, assists, scores, top combos, MVPs and Spirit rating.

Well, Nationals has been and gone. And what a Nationals it was! It’s taken about two weeks to get pickup games back up and running, nevermind the knees and feet that needed recovering!

Read the report in the local press here, as well as a podcast with Brent, Asanda, Phindile and Max on the state of Ultimate in SA.

Congrats to Sweet Chilli who emerged unbeaten and the new National Champions with a convincing win over Jo’burg’s Ultitude in the final.

A big thanks to all the organisers who helped put together a most successful tournament. The weather was perfect, the fields were fantastic and the level of ultimate in SA seems to grow and grow. Thanks too to the teams who came down and made it the success that it was. We had teams joining us all the way from PMB, Mozambique, Stellenbosch, Khaya, 2 teams from Jo’burg and 3 CT teams. An especially exciting new first time appearance was a LoveLife team made up of the top LoveLife players from around the country. Watch out folks – the way LoveLife is taking ultimate around the country, they will be the national champions in a few years!

Now that Nationals is over, the next big thing on the calendar is World’s in Vancouver in August!

It’s getting closer!

There’s less than a week before … (drumroll)… Nationals! Are you ready?

If you are new to Ultimate, come along and see what it’s all about. Will the trophy stay in Cape Town, or will the upcountry teams wrestle it away?
Here’s some nb info for the players from the organiser-people:

• Captain’s meeting at 08h00 on Saturday. First game starts at 09h00. Last game slot on Saturday is 17h00 – 18h00.
• First game on Sunday is 08h00. The final will take place 16h00 – 17h00.
• All players to please bring a white shirt to use as alternative strip
• A team lunch pack will be provided on both days
• Supper will be served at 19h30 on Saturday night
• The party theme for the Saturday night party is 80s sports. A personalised cup will be given to each player in 80’s dress. This personalised cup will grant the player free access to a keg of premium beer. As Martin Whiting always wears 80’s gear, he will automatically receive a cup.
• As mentioned, beer will be available (free for 80’s dressers). A cash bar is NOT available so please bring additional drinks that you may require. We will hold the tournament on school grounds so please be respectful in this regard.
• There will be changing rooms and shower facilities available so bring your party clothes with you
• Official SAFDA discs (R120), Nationals 07 boot bags (R40), official SAFDA caps (R50) and stickers (R10) will be on sale so bring some extra cash.
• Reminder: Captain’s meeting at 08h00 on Saturday. First game starts at 09h00

Put it in your diaries now and be there!