The City that Rhymes with Fun - Part 1 of 2
This past weekend I played a tournament in Regina, SK. May long weekend has traditionally been the date for the annual Regina Riot (formerly Boh-down) co-ed tournament, but it was moved to a later date this year to avoid the infamously unpredictable (and usually crappy) May Long weather. But still, people wanted to play this weekend, so a men’s tourney was arranged in its place. Teams came from Regina, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton; I played on a team thrown together of men from General Strike, Chaos and MOFO.
After pulling into town late Friday, finding our billets and getting a half-decent night of sleep, and being surprised by a massive gameday breakfast from our billets, we headed to the fields. Weather was, alas, no improvement over years past. Cold and windy. No rain, at least.
First game was, on paper, one of the easier ones. The opponent was Regina All-Stars, a team made of some of the better men from Regina other than those on their touring team, Mangina. We came in expecting to win, and we did, 10-6. However, it was perhaps less convincing a win than we’d hoped. We made adjustments for the next game, expected to be a more competitive match.
Next up was EMU (Edmonton Men’s Ultimate… it’s an acronym!). EMU had done pretty well last year, finishing first at Flatlands in round robin play and going to nationals as the third seed before stumbling due to injuries. However, they were a bit of a weaker squad going into this tournament – one carload of players evidently thought one of the others had a car available – and out adjustments from the previous game had been effective, and we took the game 12-7.
After that game, a short break for lunch. We were feeling pretty confident and loose after two wins and lollygagged though a warmup. The next game was against Mangina, hated rival of the General Strike players on our squad. Last year they beat Strike at Flatlands to take a higher seed into Nationals, then finished two spots ahead of Strike at Nats. Strike guys were looking for revenge, but would not find it. At half we trailed 7-1, identifying a lack of intensity as the problem. We turned it up with a goal of winning the second half, if not the game. We managed to pick up the play and do a lot better, but it wasn’t enough to win. I don’t recall the final score, though I believe we did win the second half to make it somewhat less embarrassing.
The final game of Saturday was against Guns, a thrown together team of men from Saskatoon. Many were from Prairie Snatch, Chaos’ rivals in the coed division. Another game we should win, and furthermore we had decided to make this a statement game – we had to prove we were better than we’d shown Mangina. We started slowly, trading points and then taking a small lead. The game stopped for several minutes on a prolonged argument – one of their players had laid out for a catch and appeared to land elbow first on the goal line. He then got up and spiked the disc. One of our players yelled “turnover!” and sprinted downfield as the opponent protested that he had scored the point. Eventually we resolved the play by giving him back the disc at the goal line. They turned it over and we scored on D. Eventually we pulled away and won. I wasn’t sure if bad feelings were lingering after that argument, but they seemed amicable by the end.
Saturday play was over, and that meant one thing – time to prepare for the party. Our team scattered to find showers where possible, then regrouped at the billets for a massive barbecue. A healthy round of pre-party drinking, then off to the rugby clubhouse at the fields where the party would be held. Being a men’s tournament, we expected a sausagefest at the party. But the hosts had somehow manged to do the unthinkable and nearly even out the gender ratio at the party. Not sure how they did it or who these girls were – we didn’t recognise many from ultimate – but it was much appreciated by the single players on our team. The party dragged long into the night and eventually everyone found their way back to the billets for a few precious hours of sleep.
After pulling into town late Friday, finding our billets and getting a half-decent night of sleep, and being surprised by a massive gameday breakfast from our billets, we headed to the fields. Weather was, alas, no improvement over years past. Cold and windy. No rain, at least.
First game was, on paper, one of the easier ones. The opponent was Regina All-Stars, a team made of some of the better men from Regina other than those on their touring team, Mangina. We came in expecting to win, and we did, 10-6. However, it was perhaps less convincing a win than we’d hoped. We made adjustments for the next game, expected to be a more competitive match.
Next up was EMU (Edmonton Men’s Ultimate… it’s an acronym!). EMU had done pretty well last year, finishing first at Flatlands in round robin play and going to nationals as the third seed before stumbling due to injuries. However, they were a bit of a weaker squad going into this tournament – one carload of players evidently thought one of the others had a car available – and out adjustments from the previous game had been effective, and we took the game 12-7.
After that game, a short break for lunch. We were feeling pretty confident and loose after two wins and lollygagged though a warmup. The next game was against Mangina, hated rival of the General Strike players on our squad. Last year they beat Strike at Flatlands to take a higher seed into Nationals, then finished two spots ahead of Strike at Nats. Strike guys were looking for revenge, but would not find it. At half we trailed 7-1, identifying a lack of intensity as the problem. We turned it up with a goal of winning the second half, if not the game. We managed to pick up the play and do a lot better, but it wasn’t enough to win. I don’t recall the final score, though I believe we did win the second half to make it somewhat less embarrassing.
The final game of Saturday was against Guns, a thrown together team of men from Saskatoon. Many were from Prairie Snatch, Chaos’ rivals in the coed division. Another game we should win, and furthermore we had decided to make this a statement game – we had to prove we were better than we’d shown Mangina. We started slowly, trading points and then taking a small lead. The game stopped for several minutes on a prolonged argument – one of their players had laid out for a catch and appeared to land elbow first on the goal line. He then got up and spiked the disc. One of our players yelled “turnover!” and sprinted downfield as the opponent protested that he had scored the point. Eventually we resolved the play by giving him back the disc at the goal line. They turned it over and we scored on D. Eventually we pulled away and won. I wasn’t sure if bad feelings were lingering after that argument, but they seemed amicable by the end.
Saturday play was over, and that meant one thing – time to prepare for the party. Our team scattered to find showers where possible, then regrouped at the billets for a massive barbecue. A healthy round of pre-party drinking, then off to the rugby clubhouse at the fields where the party would be held. Being a men’s tournament, we expected a sausagefest at the party. But the hosts had somehow manged to do the unthinkable and nearly even out the gender ratio at the party. Not sure how they did it or who these girls were – we didn’t recognise many from ultimate – but it was much appreciated by the single players on our team. The party dragged long into the night and eventually everyone found their way back to the billets for a few precious hours of sleep.
posted by Druski at 10:34 p.m.
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