Participation Ribbons For All!

O, the two sweetest words in the English language: d-fault!

With only four members showing up for last night's hotly contested battle of third tier teams, HUJ were forced to concede the match to their outnumbering opponents (i.e. us). Someone pointed out that prom season may have contributed to the poor turnout - I say, where are these kids' priorities? In my day, when you committed to a co-ed rec sports team, you wore that responsibility like a ball and chain - proms or Disney vacations or emergency surgeries or Cheers series' finales be damned. Pfft.

So not to waste our field time, the teams were split up and a friendly scrimmage ensued. We gave them Bryan, Michelle, Becky and (new) Sarah; they gave us a workout. Quickly evident - had HUJ shown up, it may not have been the cakewalk some of us were expecting. Case in point: that frosted blond kid who ran half the length of the field for a long put, only to go completely horizontal, grabbing the disc with one hand, and finishing with a somersault on landing. Then he crushed a Nalgene bottle on his head and gave the closest female a long, gross, tongue kiss. It was impressive.

In the end, the scrimmage was close (unsurprising as we were essentially playing against ourselves) and more competitive than might have been expected - witness Derek nearly face-planting into the giant metal soccer net after racing neck-in-neck with a HUJ gazelle into the end zone. Most everyone got to touch the disc, with Dan and Bryan both making some exceptional plays - the former laying out to catch an errant toss of mine into the end zone, and the latter chasing down a great pass from (new) Sarah to end the game.

And then the Hammers made their triumphant return to Freeman's, where I was poisoned by whatever manner of biohazardous material lives in their antique draft lines, and Bryan made friends with a pajama-wearing VLT jockey. Ahh, home sweet home.

Happy Canada Day, folks. Rest those quads and calves.

Conditioning.

I feel I must decline to accept the player of the game award on the grounds that I was so woefully out of shape that I essentially became a spectator as soon as they got by our supercup. I stayed fresh for the cut that yielded the point by abandoning much of my defensive responsibility. I think the award should go to Aaron for the effort required to overcome his fatigue and suppress a verbal expression of the vulgarity that churned within him like a bubbling cauldron of obscenity.

One to grow on...

Bag of Hammers math:

Getting slaughtered + opponents who weren't dicks (other than that one chick) + a beautiful evening + good post-game turnout at the bar = success!

The game itself wasn't as lopsided as the score would suggest. Lots of long points and we built an awful lot of surges. Said surges, however, almost always sputtered near the end zone. Many props to Derek for hanging on to our single point of the evening as he tumbled to the turf.

The other guys were more experienced than we were, as a whole, and that was the difference. Well, that and the fact they didn't drop anything. Sweet Jesus that whole team must play with glue on their hands...

Anyway. Lopsided final score but a good run for everyone. Thanks to Jason for coming out (and spending more time horizontal on the grass than vertical on his feet). Thanks to Sarah for returning to help the cause - rumour has it she might become a perma-Hammer.

Propellor Player of the Game award goes to Derek for the catch noted above as well as instituting the revolutionary 5-1-1 defence. Once the disc passed the five-man front, the opponents resembled the Nazis (but not really), greedily advancing up the field as if it were Czechoslovakia in 1938... but for extended periods, the front line of the 5-1-1 caused Discs of Fury to become Discs of Furiouser. Honourable mention to Sara S. for stellar-as-always play (and for not yelling at me after yet another ill-advised hammer).

Mixed reviews for Michael's as a post-game spot. The place was empty, food was poor-to-average, service was iffy and drink "specials" were far-from-special. HURL sponsor be damned, I felt no allegiance to that place...

As noted last night, I'd like to make Saturday afternoon & Monday evening get-togethers (I won't call them practices) regular. It'll be good 'n social stuff, it never hurts to practice throwing and God knows, if we get enough folks, we can even look into employing a strategy of some sort.

Stay tuned...

A Delissica-ous evening...

The Hammers (eventually) showed up, ran around in the sun, had a good time and collectively noted the improvement from our opening week efforts. Good show.

Special credit to Michelle and Becky for playing the entirety of the first game, which we led 3-2 for a while despite our 7-vs-6 shorthandedness. Disc-Array, sadly, caught on to our "unique" version of the zone and subsequently scored more easily. The final score (9-4?) wasn't indicative of the talent level, though. I'm confident that if we lined up against them next week at even strength, we'd win. With style.

Heather showed up toward the end of the opener, which boded well for Game 2. We even managed to scrounge up a sub for the girls during the intermission. Then the Rajon Randos turned out to be exactly what we needed - a good-natured team with some athleticism but no experience playing together. In other words, it was a confidence-booster.

Hammers kept making the right cuts and showing off good hands and we built some pretty points. We hopped out to an 8-1 lead and everyone tried handling a little more, which will only help later in the summer. Fantastic stuff, all 'round. An 11-4 final, I believe.

Propellor Player of the Game goes to Becky for always being open in spite of hardly having a sub all night. Honourable mentions to Ryan, Chris and Aaron for continually making sharp cuts and husslin' on D. Congrats as well to all our relative newcomers, as I say with confidence that we'll be fine this summer - progress was that obvious. Final props to Derek for actually playing points with his hands stuffed in his shorts and to fill-in Sarah for inspiring a new Hammers uniform (pink tanks and off-the-shoulder tops for everyone!).

Good times at Freeman's ensued. Our server Delissica (yes, Delissica) started poorly by spilling Sarah's girly drink on Michelle's Marc Jacobs purse-thingy (who brings a fancy purse to ultimate?), but redeemed herself with hustle in the face of a surprisingly busy Thursday crowd. The apparent Scotch-guarding of the bag helped in no small measure.

This morning the sun continues to shine brightly over HRM. I like to think it's in no small part to a sparkling team effort last night. Last call for Caribou at the Paragon tonight - team-building over drinks?!?

And So It Begins

If I had to use but one word to describe last night's affair, that word would be "messy", which is suitably apt for the field conditions, our opponents' beards, Derek's MC Hammer-as-pirate pajama pants (?!), the bushels of cold wet disgusting grass later found between my toes, Tim's heaping post-game plate of bacon poutine and - last but not least - the play of the game. Yes, if you discount the five or so other adjectives buried in the previous run-on sentence, all could be described as "messy".

As for our play - first game messiness was to be expected, so don't get down, especially as this was the first ever Ultimate game for at least three Hammers. Plus, the thick fog, near-freezing temperatures, slippery grass and gusting winds obviously exacerbated things.

That being said (eesh, I hate that phrase), there were many positives to be found - Kevin caught everything thrown his way, including our first point of the season; the lack of experience of some of the newbies is clearly compensated by their athleticism; Dan seems to know what's up, is a positive communicator and is dedicated enough to play despite having a ~one week old back at home; I only swore out loud once; our females made it through the entire game, sans subs, in one piece (to be confirmed); the other team was good enough to offer a rematch; and our play was largely unaffected by the BP oil spill.

So, again, don't get down. Things will improve, I assureth. Next week let's work on those elusive "short, quick passes".

PS: And for future reference, a dog running loose on the field is apparently not an omen of good luck.