Devon Ultimate

Cardiff: 9th & 10th of July 2011.

The team: Sam Hunt, Chris Ayles, Nick Williamson, Melanie Melrose, Sophie Leonard, Sophie Peters, Jamie Banks, Danni Barriball, Kieran 'Tank' Guppy, Stuart Newcombe, Sean Sheep, Matt Jenkins, Bradley Jarman, Mark Lemon.

When the D3 Steamroller set out this season I set out a couple of goals. Try and win at least one (if not more than one) game and try not to be bageled this season. With the Steamroller picking up a dramatic come back win at Tour 1 and narrowly missing out on another come back at Tour 2 would Tour 3 prove a trip to far or would it spur is on to even bigger greatness. Well only a trip to Cardiff would tell. Tour 3 here we come!!

With D1 and D2 not starting till midday it was left to the D3 Steamroller to start the weekend of for the Devon massive. First game up saw us play SharkBear. The team we had the massive come back against at Tour 1. Seeing this on the schedule and everyone in the D3 camp was pumped for the game. Are plan come out strong, take the game to them and rip them a new one, winning our first ever game on a Saturday!! That was the plan. Before the start it looked good they had 8 players, one of them seem to be a complete newbie we were well up for this. Then the game started. This was not the same line up we played at Tour 1 and every play went between 2 players. Try as we might these two players took us apart, we got one on the board but the basically had to A Tour standard players, none of us could stay with them. End score 13-1. On a different note Jam scored the 1 point for the Steamroller and nearly spiked on 2 of there players, whoops!!

Game 2 saw us face up against Abstract, top of our pool. Again only 8 players. With Dara’s input that we are mean to our own team we need to play through the weakness of the opposition. So new game plan who ever is been marked by the fat guy goes long!! This was the plan but we kept making simple mistakes and Abstract converted them. With a strange twist of fate the fat guys lines up opposite Jam. So on catching the pull Jam passes of the Biber and waits for the fight guy to get there then bust long as fast as his old legs will carry him. The punt goes up and Jam is running free into the end-zone, the plan was working. But due to being a wily player Foxy peels off his man a manages to get a finger on the disc with the only way for Jam to get a hand back on it was to put his hand through Foxy’s skull. He thought about it but the disc was lost. Damn that boy. Our offense became more fluid from there but we still made simple mistakes and Abstract capitalised on them. Final score: Abstract 13 - D3 0. First bagel of the season, damn it!! The end of this game saw the sun come out and the rest of the Devon massive arrived!! It seems God like to watch them play more than us.

After a break game 3 saw us match up against Trigger Happy, sport ex-Devon player Tom. So we wanted to put some points on the boards and still push for our first Saturday win. The wind was swirling around and discs on our offense were going astray, Trigger took advantage of this and took an early lead, the Steamroller changed formation and put some points on the board. But the game finished 13-2 to Trigger Happy. Present top scorer Jam with 2, with Lemon chasing him with 1.

The last game of the day brought us up against Team Shark 2. We had watched them play in their previous game and reckon we were in with a chance. Then a collision happened involving one of the team shark players during our warm up. He’s one of their main throwers, so he get’s checked out and he needs to go to hospital so they get the next oldest and biggest player to take him to hospital. So now we have to think of a new game plan!! Damn it. Sharks came out strong. Their line up was similar to ours using youth and experience to their advantage. The wind was still swirling around and D3 couldn’t get things flowing. Sharks took the half with what seemed like not much effort. So with so fluid on board and throwing some strange tactics in mind D3 came out strong and started the comeback. Putting the stack in the back pocket we came out with a 2-4-1 formation using the piston cutters and the big man at the back to boss the zone. Points started coming. Santa finished off a great D3 move in the back corner. Lemon pulled down some impressive discs. Jam added to his tally, Tank got more in to the game with some big takes. Everyone stepped up but it was to late the Sharks took the game 13-8. Damn them!!!!

End of day 1 and we had got our flow back and had found a way to play through the opposition’s weakness.

Sunday brought us a 9am start against YOpen 2. The Steamroller had come up against them at Tour 2 and we had only managed to put 2 points on the board. This would be different. They came out strong and put points on the board using a solid Horizontal stack. A quick time out and we tightened up the D slapping on a clamp on the cutters and strong flat force on the disc. With the pressure upped the turns started to come. D3 started to use the disc safely but the early points against us were to much YOpen 2 took the game by a fair few points but as more teams are starting to say in the post game talks, they are not looking forward to playing us in next years Tour. Final score 15-5 (I think).

So this brings us to game two Sunday against Phoenix. All of the D3 players had wanted a re-match against these guys since Tour 1. And both teams knew the winner gets to play another game! With Dara’s words in mind we went at them, and took a two point lead. Then Phoenix started to fire. Big punts were coming off and our D was no where close enough to put bids in. A quick time out with the score 3-2 to Phoenix and we started to mark up sensibly. Duke and Rob Mann took there fast players. Lemon on the main handler. This proved to make the difference. No longer could they get the big throws out and no longer could their fast guys get free. Turns started to come. The play started to flow. Bradley re-discovered his scoring touch from Tour 2 and clocked up 5 points against Phoenix. Big D’s and interceptions came from all corners of the D3 squad. The hooter went and it was a game to 14. The Steamroller remained calm and let the offence flow and the winning point came. 2 win's in one season!!!! Well earned by all.

This left us with one last game against Man Up 2 and we wanted to have a good go at tem after they played us at Tour 2. We lined up. They no showed. Default win 15-0!!! Jam claims he scored 14 of the point and assisted the last with a greatest out the back. 3 win's in one Tour season!!! Bring on next year!!!!

MVP: Chris Ayles (Bieber)

MIP: This got split a fair few ways between Sophie Leonard, Bradley, Matt and I can’t remember who else. That’s how much improvement the whole squad made.

Jam #0

DTiD