Cape Town Ultimate

Cape Town is sending 2 teams up to the 2009 South African National Championships being held in Johannesburg on the weekend of 3-4 October. Those 2 teams are defending National champions Chilli and CT Winter League winners Zebru, and with both teams having recruited a few extra players to bulk out their line up, they should both be very competitive. If the info I have is correct, the opposing teams will be:
From JHB – Ultitude & Disco
From KZN – Long Donkeys & Prawn Bunny
From across the border – Mozambique & Swaziland

Rumours floating along the Ultimate grapevine suggest that the Cape Town teams will have their work cut out for them in Joburg and so both teams have been putting in some hard training to fight the inevitable altitude burn…

Does anyone have any predictions on the performance of our CT teams at Nationals? Lets hear your comments below…

The 2009 Winter Series ended off yesterday with the league playoffs. The UCT Tigers were looking to knock Chilli from their 3^rd place seeding while the Ambassadors were defending their 1^st place seeding against Zebru in the final.

Finally the Winter Series tried to live up to its name with some ominous clouds and strong, gusty winds. Rain was predicted for later in the day, but luckily the torrential conditions held off until today.

The first game got off to an exciting start with UCT going point for point with Chilli and giving them something to worry about. Chilli secured another few points to take the half time score at 7-4. After the halftime break, Chilli dipped into their deep, dark well of Ultimate experience and controlled the game to the end. Huge credit is due to the UCT Tigers for sticking it out in the league and facing up to the more experienced teams, we hope to see you back for more in the Spring League!

The Ambassadors – Zebru final was a nail biting affair with the gusty wind really hooking around the pitch in a mad frenzy. Zebru started the first point playing downwind and it began a point for point exchange all the way to half time. It became clear that scoring an upwind point would be the key to taking home the trophy. Both teams were trying to get the tactical territorial advantage with some crazy hucks going up, some working and some not! Crazy huck award should go to Wes for a hammer the full length of the field that was almost caught for a score. Zebru employed a zone defence the entire game which the Ambassadors were forced to work around with some slick handling skills. Ambassadors calmly worked the disc around and found safe hands in the end zone to keep the game tightly locked down.

The small group of spectators got themselves into a minor frenzy early in the second half when Ambassadors nearly scored the first upwind point that was taken back for a foul call. Zebru then put their heads down and cleaned up their offense enough to take the first upwind point. With spirits lifted the Zebru defence clamped down and managed to control the game from there ending the game at 12 – 6. The Final was an excellent and competitive end to a very enjoyable League.

The prizegiving was a short and sweet close off to the league. The following awards were presented: Spirit Award - using a new points system, Player of the Series – the total score of assists, scores and awards as voted by other teams over the series, Mud Award – as voted by other teams for commitment, MVP – Most valuable player as voted by other teams, Best Female – using Player of the Series points. And finally awards for the top assists and scores for each team. The results and photos are below, and a spreadsheet of stats is here.

Thanks to everyone that took part and stayed to support the teams in the final. I think the Winter Series was a great success and hopefully next year will be bigger and better.

Winners: Zebru
Spirit: Zebru
Player of the Series: Tim Porter – Ambassadors
Best New Player: So many standouts meant we collectively gave this to the UCT Tigers
Best Female Player: Lauren ‘Lolly’ Bluck – Chilli
Most Mud Awards: Aiden Biccard – UCT
Most MVP Awards: James Moolenschot – Zebru
Team awards
Ambassadors: Assists – Matt Grant & Mike Harber, Scores – Tim Porter
Chilli: Assists – Ant Pascoe, Scores – Leor Williams
UCT: Assists – Nick, Scores – Frank
Zebru: Assists – James Moolenschot, Scores – Darren ‘Pinky’ Rennie