Devon Ultimate

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

The Team: Paul Minchell, Jo Lewis, Richard Hammond, Greg Mann, Andrew Reed, Joshua Meeklah, Afrow Peat, Adam Levi, Ollie Manning, Richard Wootton, Katie Deards, Philip Richardson, Craig Redmond, Eddie Roberts, Dane Kerkin

This was it! Our final Tour of the Season and we had worked so hard to work our way up the seedlings; from sixteenth place to now fourth! Our aim initially was to finish top of C-Tour until the schedule came out and we realised that should we win all our Saturday games our cross over on Sunday morning would be into B-Tour, so that was it! Our new aim for Tour 3 was to cross over into B-Tour and finish the season on a high.

Saturday morning’s first game was against Yopen 2 – we had played them at Tour 1 and only beat them in sudden death; but that was some other Tour, some other time. Now we were seeded first in our pool and they were seeded last and we had improved so much since then to know that the game was ours to take! But in true Devon style, we started out of the blocks slowly and they scored the first point and the next and before we knew it they were taking a comfortable lead. Soon the score was 5-1 to them and we knew we had to wake up if we wanted to win the game. And wake up we did! Stepping up the gears, firing on all eight cylinders, we destroyed their zone and went on to win 11-8.

Unfortunately our next game was immediately afterwards and it was against Limited Release 2. We had met Ltd. On many occasions in the past and the games had always been close and enjoyable, but not this time. They came out hard and tight and took a very comfortable lead. Furthermore, they insisted on crying foul, travel and pick at any occasion they could and thus continually disrupting out flow. By the half we had managed to fight back and it arrived with a 5-8 lead to them. But in true Devon style again, it’s after the half that we really begin to claw back. And thus despite their poor spirit, we managed to rise above it, push harder and their fatigue began to show (they too were playing back-to-back games) and we took advantage of that. Pushing harder we scored 5 in a row and just kept pushing and by the time the hooter had blown to signal the end of the game we had taken the second half 10-2 finishing the game 15-10 overall and post importantly within time, so no need to continue and play a cap. Phew! Because we were shattered by now.

Sheffield Steal were next on our agenda and we knew that they had beaten Ltd. Release 2 in sudden death so we knew the game would be another tough one. As always, the other team scored the first point and were starting to take the lead. There was a real fear that they would take our seed as top of the group. No, we just shut them down and finished the game 15-5 to us and within the time (again!).

So we finished Saturday top of our group and our reward was an early morning B-Tour cross-over against Lemmington Lemons who were 7 seeds above us. Off to shower we went in what I can only describe as a first ever for the Llanrumney Playing Fields; freezing cold water! Usually it’s unbearably hot, but not this time, not this time.

Sunday morning and Lemmings it was. We lost the toss so had to wear our black tees, apart from Hammond who only had what could be described as an Under Armour with a poorly printed on Devon logo. We played Lemmings at Tour 2 and they had beaten us convincingly so again it would be another tough game. They came out firing, with the skill and agility of a B-Tour team and their consistent training throughout the season was visible. But we managed to pick up our game and there were points where we too looked and played like a B-Tour team, but we couldn’t match their consistency and their perfected drills and they managed to beat us. However we didn’t just lie back as we did at Tour 2 and allow them to take the game and we limited their win to a mere 5-8.

Unfortunately our aim of crossing over to B-Tour was over, but our secondary aim of finishing top of C-Tour was still in hand. We had Flump next who were currently seeded first so we were desperate to claim their spot. We came out hard with the Eddie “Shadow” Roberts chasing and taking down any manner of disc to help us take the lead and finished with the final point to win with him chasing down the disc against a Flump player whilst shoulder barging each other and for him to catch it ending the game 15-8.

First seed was now ours; we just needed to defend it against our arch-nemesis: St Albans. We had played them twice at Tour 2; beating them the first time but losing to them the second time, so we knew this game could go either way and it would undoubtedly be tough. We didn’t start in true Devon style, but instead took the first point, and then the lead. But tiredness soon set in and St Albans applied a dynamic zone which made it harder to work against and a few careless individual mistakes meant we turned over a few too many times and thus they fought back and claimed the victory 14-11 and leaving us in second place.

MVP of the weekend went to Richard Hammond.

Although we didn’t win C-Tour coming second was still a great achievement for the team who played so well and fought so hard throughout; coming from 16th up to 2nd – best finish on Tour yet! We finished the Season on a high and had there been a fourth Tour, we would’ve been promoted to B-Tour and had the chance to demonstrate our skill there. As such, we have a year to develop, train and prepare and have an even more successful season next year.

Until then, thank you Devon 2 for an incredible Season; it’s been such a pleasure captaining and playing with you.

Afro Peat x

Devon #87 & Club President