Of Hammers and Bear Hugs

Ahoy Los Hammers. To save me precious blog prep time, and thereby enable much more of my breaks to be spent mindlessly surfing Viewpoint and the NHL trade rumour sites, I'll start off with some truth from Captain Becky:

"What a great game last night! They were struggling to beat our zone defence in the beginning, which enabled us to get a good lead.  Well done! We will have to remember for future games that you are allowed disc space and to call that during the game. Some of the dudes last night were all up in our guys faces. More like a bear hug actually."

Truth, indeed. It was a fun game, featuring some sound strategy (yay), lots of good catches (yay), ace defence (yay) and innumerable wayward tosses from yours truly (…boo). Nick played like a man possessed last night - perhaps showing off for the camera, perhaps buoyed by his post-game plans to take in The Dark Night Rises instead of coming out for a drink (boo) - single-handedly accounting for a good chunk of our points. See also: Dan blew off some steam with a few big runs from his usual handling post; Becky, Maria and Deidre had strong showings - the former with her typical sticky fingers, the latter with their runs to track down some of my aforementioned shitty throws; AND, Chantal and her husband (whose name I didn't catch), gave me a beer, thereby earning Armview Charbroiled Burger Player and Spectator of the Game, respectively, with due apologies to Maria's parents who came all the way from Newfoundland… but sadly, beer-less.

In the end, I feel we provided Maria's parents an accurate representation of adult recreational Ultimate, i.e. a good-natured, often clumsy, constitutional with people I enjoy spending time with, followed by a few drinks and awkward jokes about laser hair removal and superhero villain testicles.

But, what's this? News that our own Mighty Mike may be missing for a chunk of the season? This is sad news indeed. As Assistant Captain of the Bag Of Hammers Ultimate Frisbee and Social Drinking Club, I advise you to quit your job, at least until September-ish. Thanks, Mike - it's for the greater good (everybody, slowly: "the greater good").

Until next week!
-AA

PS: Action pics to follow sometime this weekend.

PPS: Or... now: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muiseam/tags/boh2012/

Becky's First Blog Entry!!

With the wind at our backs and lucky enough to have possession of the disc for the first huck of the game, we were feeling confident about the night. Our opponents came out friendly but showed their extreme athleticism by bolting down the field at extraordinary high speeds.  Fabio and the dude in RED shorts sure worked our guys on defense.   Despite Fabio’s attempt to shut us down we managed to score the first point of the game (thanks to Deidre’s quick hands!) putting us on a high.  We were ready to take on these Zulu Pildrivers.

Our Zone defense seemed to be working for us. The all female cup was something to be reckoned with!  On offence we made some great plays that lead to our second win of the season!  Hats off to our handler’s Gregor, Derek, and Jamie for some really great passes/long bombs. Also I can’t go without mentioning  Jim’s amazing catches (maybe we should all eat Subway before the game?), Maria’s wicked cuts, Mike and Jean’s quickness and Nick’s ability to look good out there thanks to Michelle’s plays. 

We were so lucky to have an official score keeper this game! Chantal’s husband, Raymond, came out to watch the game and kept score.  He became an instant fan.  I will do my best to recruit him for next year!  

Speaking of Chantal, what an amazing catch she did to help us score our 8^th point!

I am still searching through the Ultimate Frisbee rule book for the rule on Crotch Fouls. haha  One was called on Deidre. I personally wasn’t on the field at the time but from the side lines it looked like Deidre tea bagged Fabio.  Ok ok maybe that wasn’t how it all went down. Now that I think about it, it was a girl who called the Crotch Foul.  This still doesn’t make the story any better lol

I am hoping we got some extra spirit points for makings Fabio and best female player (BLUE shorts) chug a whole can of Cools Light Iced Tea beer while we stood around cheering them on/calling the cops to set up a road block. 

 Great game kids! Keep up this momentum for next week.

 Truly yours,

Captain

*MK only did the posting people - I cannot be blamed for anything contained in this entry.

"In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns"

Perhaps not the most famous of the Godfather quotes.  I really did want to use "Leave the gun, take the cannoli" but just couldn't seen to make it work.  Moving on....we played the Disco Godfathers last night.  The evening and game had so much potential to be a great night of disc tossing - sunshine, cool breeze, subs for both genders, and a team that didn't look like arseholes.  Fastforward to 755pm.  We are already down 6-0 to these punks.  We aren't folding though.  We are confident.  They may be young but they aren't THAT good.    And then it all goes to hell.  The girls started as simply quiet and unassuming but then the little French one took over.  So after a couple of stupid calls and rude comments, our call up Jenn, brought in for her grit, toughness and sheer size, took matters into her own hands.  Two fouls later and those girls knew not to mess with us!  Well they still beat the pants off of us (final score was 12-4 I believe) but they were scared.  Like big time AFRAID. 

So I suggest our fierce defence and blocking can be what we take away from last night's game.  It was a good effort by all and it was a nice night for a run.  Thanks for coming out Jenn - we hope to see you again next week!!  And major big plays from Jamie, who clearly doesn't see gender and is perfectly fine with blocking girls and guys in the endzone - and speaking for all women, we appreciate your neutrality - earns him Propeller's Player of the Game.  Mostly because he made a girl cry and that made me laugh.  Joking.  She wasn't crying.  A lot. 

Finally, a return to Freeman's for postgame drinks was the icing on the cake.  That and the story our waitress told about Rocky IV, Demolition Man and Congo.  Not to be confused with our discussions about transgendered lead singers and porn.  Yep.  The Bag of Hammers are all class folks.

Enjoy the sun this weekend kids.  See you Thursday!