UKU National Championships 2024 - Open Division 2
For the second time, Cambridge was represented in the 2nd division at the UKU National Championships.
Regionals
The team had had a hard time at Regionals in Manchester the month before: coming in with a light squad, we had lost a further 3 players before the 4th point of the tournament, including captain Minjoon. Jamie fought his way back to health and we spent most of the weekend with 12 players, but in key games we were beaten by teams with more fresh legs. We still pulled out some wins in the late stages of the tournament to finish 7th.
Game 1 vs Manchester
Manchester came in with a tighter squad than they had brought to their home fixture at Regionals, and were seeded top in the group. The Cambridge offensive Murray line turned over in their first possession as we acclimatised to the rain and somewhat slopey pitch, but got the disc back to hold the score. That would be their last on-serve turnover of the game.
Cambridge utilised the deep game well, with some huge grabs by Ben Warwick-Champion quickly backed up by Josh and Leo. On the defensive Reuben line, Jonny got a footblock followed by bookends with a layout score, and Geo had a massive layout D too.
Cambridge finished 13-7 up.
Game 2 vs Reading
Throughout the season, we had had tight wins and losses with a handful of teams, and reading was one of them. Cambridge started strong with a hold and 2 breaks, but Reading came back, earning some breaks of their own as tight match defence shut down Murray. Murray made them work for every inch, though, with Leo racking up 3 blocks in one point. At 6-5 down, Reuben came on for an O point to give Murray a break - and scored that point, plus the next break to take us to half. Tom snagged a great over-the-head catch of a huck from Michele. We came up D again after half, and closed out the game 8-6 up.
Game 3 vs Sheffield Steal
Steal came in at the bottom position of the group, and had already had a hard loss, so Cambridge came in confident. However, conditions had worsened and the upwind-downwind nature of the game had us trading throughout the first half. Starting on upwind D after the half, captain Willem and D line captain Giddo crossed a couple of Murray players over to get us the break - they didn’t actually touch the disc, but the sheer intimidation factor got us that point and the next. We continued to trade, with some highlights as Tom got his own foot block bookends and Tyler did great work as a deep receiver. Sheffield broke back in the late game, but Cambridge held their cool to win the game on universe point 11-10.
Game 4 vs Fire
We had another even record with the London team this season, and with plenty of familiar faces on the other side we’d been looking forward to this match-up. Fire started strong, scoring the first couple of points, but Cambridge dug deep to stay in the game. Both teams had several upwind scores, but Fire had the lead 10-7 at cap. It was Reuben’s game to lose from here. The D line fought back to equalise the game at 10-10, going upwind for the last point of the day. Cambridge came within a hair’s breadth several times - once throwing to open hands in the endzone but with a misstep causing a fumble, and another easy score for Jamie which was called back for a contested foul in the air a couple of throws before. In the end, Fire finished 11-10 up.
Pre-semi vs Devon
We started Sunday with another upwind-downwind game. Devon started with a break to take the downwind point, and we traded downwind in the early stages. Devon were getting a lot of movement with their IO breaks, which Cambridge fought to shut down. Cambridge got the first upwind point, but Devon soon got it back. At 6-6, Cambridge got another break upwind, then two more upwind holds took us to half at 8-7.
Devon came out strong after the half, taking 2 points on the trot. We traded until our 3rd 10-10 universe point of the weekend, with Cambridge on D going upwind. A power line got the turn and worked it up the pitch until we were knocking on the door. Leo popped a pass which Jamie couldn’t hold on to, but it was rescued by Leo in the endzone with a spectacular layout. While this might have been the score itself, we played on and finished to Ben to go into the semi-finals 11-10 up.
Semi-final vs Solent
The Southern team were favourites to win the tournament, and having won their group, came straight into the midday semi after a lie-in, while Cambridge had now had 2 days of early starts. Solent capitalised on Cambridge’s errors with a great deep game, and Cambridge struggled to adjust to a zone defence upwind. At half time, we were 8-0 down and fearing a bagel.
However, Cambridge fought hard and scored the first point out of half time. We worked the disc well up and downwind, earning a couple of breaks. Despite winning the second half 8-6, it wasn’t enough to overcome Solent’s lead, and we were knocked out of contention for the top spot 14-8. Solent went on to win the tournament.
3v4 vs Lemmings
Another team we’d gone back and forth with all season, most recently losing to them at Regionals. Coming straight on after the last game, we were fired up from the fight in the second half and started with a D roll to go 4-0 up. The trap and FSU zones were working well up and downwind, and despite a couple of points played in hail, Cambridge took half 8-5. Lemmings couldn’t capitalise on their advantage of being 8-5 down (“the most dangerous score in ultimate”), and thanks to some great second-effort plays by Cambridge (Josh scoring off a disc which had been layout blocked, and Jamie taking two attempts to catch a huck), didn’t get back on the scoreboard. Hendrik finished the game with an upwind hammer; Cambridge finished the tournament in 3rd with a 15-5 win.
11th place overall is Cambridge Open’s 2nd best recorded finish (going back to 2001, when the club was called Strange Blue), and the best in the last 10 years. We also won spirit, rounding out our 2nd-place spirit finish at Regionals.
Thanks to Willem and Giddo for stepping in to captain and lead the D line respectively, and to Andy for his gold-medal spirit captaincy. Thanks also to Roshun and Minjoon for their leadership through the season, and to everyone else who pitched in to organise, train, and play with the team.