Devon Ultimate

Tour 3 Cardiff: 9th & 10th of July 2011

The Team: Robbie Kyme, Steve Dixon, Tommy Rivers, Simon Smiley, Ben Donohoe, James Barnaveld, Sam Taylor, Ed Hammond, Samuel Joseph Luxa, Joe Bampton, Phil Taylor, Jake Warren, James Freeman, Phil Robinson, Charles Cranstoun, Richard Chubb, Dan Evans.

After blitzing Tour 2 we came into Tour 3 seeded 9th and top of our pool with The Brown Jest Ridiculous and EMO. The pool dreams are made of as we knew all 3 teams were beatable and topping the pool would give us a great shot of getting into the top 8 with an easier crossover on the Sunday morning. Also by being so amazing at Tour 2 we were rewarded with a gorgeous 12 30 kickoff! Dream boat!

We arrived nice and early to be greeted by little sun and a stiff breeze! First game was against The Brown and I wanted to destroy them like we had done in years of old. We started out alright, alright and went in search of our raging hard man D and our clinically smooth O. But by the end of the game we had found neither. Having said that, individually we were model professionals and clearly a better breed of Frisbee player. In the end that was enough to fairly comfortably win us the game.

Next up was Jest Ridiculous and because they were A-Tour newbies and were wearing literally the most minging kit I have ever seen I wanted to ruin them hard!!! But that didn’t happen! We couldn’t quite tap into our famous D and on O we still weren’t flowing the way we knew we could. Their disgusting kit matched their disgusting ultimate and although we didn’t give them the pounding they deserved we beat them 15 - 10.

Straight up after and last game of the day was EMO. We all knew this was our big game of the day! Despite that we came out looking hot but playing like Mongolians and went 4 - 0 down! Silly throw away after silly throw away and still no sign of that Devon D half ended with EMO up 8 – 4. The stern and harsh words at half time were not really needed as we all knew how much of a flying shambles we had been! Individually we all went away and lit the fire within ourselves pppffffftttttt! Suddenly the real Devon dawgs had arrived and for the first time that day we were playing Devon ultimate. Fantastic pressure D from the dawgs Pirelli, Cookie and Dirt Bag finally got the turns we needed and before we knew it we were right back in the game. The hooter went 11 – 11 SUDDEN DEATH! EMO had the disk the wind and the slight hill so we sent out a super STACKED D line. Twice we turned them over with great pressure D but just couldn’t stick it in the box! EMO closed us out 12 – 11. Although we had lost in sudden death the performance left us all buzzing as the second half rally was nothing less than schpadonkadonk!!!

The result meant we had finished 2nd in our group and were now seeded 11th overall. We treated ourselves to Baltic showers which were just not the same without the 80% up to his usual tricks! With Josh Kyme nowhere in sight to persuade us to camp we decided to have a sleepover at James Barnavelds house! Well good! We were supplied with delicious food, played silly eating games and were given quality sleeping space making the evening a huge success! In the morning however poor James and I were greeted by an enormous amount of faff and ridiculous behaviour from Daniel Evans, Eddie Bongo and Simon Smiley.

We eventually arrived at the pitches and after eating a delightful pastry minutes before kick off I was in tip top condition and ready to go ha! At this point I must add we were down to 16 players after losing cookie to injury and Pirelli to BOUELS!!! First game was Fire 2 6th seeds. Gutting for us Luuuuuuuke Ryan had been ridiculously reinstated into Fires 1st team depriving us of our right to smash him up! We started well and were once again playing more like a team. The O line was insanely good and consistently put in the scores that kept us in the game the entire match. But unfortunately we just couldn’t turn them over enough and the Fire boys took the game.

After the game we indulged ourselves with pastries and muffins and went in search of the D3 steamroller as we were intrigued to see exactly what momentum looks like! Instead we found D2 involved in a beaut of a match which I watched with a few others whilst the rest of the dawgs played childish games on the side lines!

Next game was against Tooting Tigers! It’s no secret that we despise these guys and as a result we warmed up hard with the best lead pass drill I have ever observed. We were pumped and ready early. So early in fact that it was quite obvious that the Tigers just didn’t want it! Both O and D lines came out raging and Russian; a deadly combination that Tigers clearly can’t handle and we took the half 8 – 3. In the second half the O was now in full flow as our resets and short play was dream to the eye. On D we flirted with a zone with some success but hard man pressure D is in our blood and was in the end the major factor in the joyous and fully deserved smashing of the Tigers! RUSSIAN!!!!

Last game saw us once again up against EMO and gave us the chance to win back our original 9th. We wanted revenge and more importantly we wanted the game more than them! We came out strong still loving life from the epic victory just moments ago. Charles, Barny and Rivers were playing simple sexy frisbee on the O line while Power, Heff and Guns caused real pandemonium on the D line! We took the half 8 – 4! We knew EMO had both the quality and the fight to come back but we just didn’t let them!

We played our best ultimate of the season with incredible plays such as Dan’s break throw to Barny in the corner of the endzone which sparked a RAPID celebration. A celebration that was only topped by the best celebration I have ever witnessed! After a pitch length put from Meat Train found a wide open Freeman in the back of the endzone the following took place! His shirt was removed and swung around his head whilst he bellowed words suggesting that the boys from the Midlands just didn’t want it! A play, celebration and memory I hope will last me a lifetime! If that wasn’t enough Dan Evans and Simon Smiley decided to go nuts and EMO D was literally crying every time one of them took down the disk for a score. It had all come together in our last and most important game of the season as we beat them commandingly 15 – 8!

The huge win meant that we had won back and finished the Tour 9th. With so many incredible performances over the weekend I decided that my MVP vote went to the team! Dammmmm we are soooooooo gooooooood! As I am sure most of you are aware by now we scored the highest spirit score in A-Tour and the 5th highest score in the whole of tour! Now I know as a team we don’t usually care for spirit much but I think this is something we should all be proud of! To me it shows that although teams may not like us and I am sure that it is still the case they do however respect us! Why?! Because we play HARD but FAIR! Teams can see how much love we have for each other and they can’t help but respect that!

Finally I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you as this season has been soooo dreamy, soooo meaty! I have love, love loved it! So proud of every single one of you because as a team we have stepped up so much! As a result we as a team have recorded Devon’s best ever overall tour standing! Do me proud at Regionals dawgs and see all your beautiful faces at Nationals! DEVON!

All my love,

Jon Cowboy x x x