In a weekend of high stakes, York University’s Ultimate Frisbee team proved a force to be reckoned with at the Open Indoor Regionals tournament in Sheffield, yet narrowly missed out on qualification for the nationals.
Saturday saw a mixed bag of games, with losses to Sheffield and Lancaster, but confident victories over Chester, Liverpool 2nds and Leeds 2nds, leaving the team third in their pool, and still with a chance of qualification going into Sunday’s games.
The early morning crossover began well for York 1sts, taking an early lead of 2-0. However, Newcastle showed themselves to be the much stronger side (later qualifying for division one), and the game ended 9-5 to Newcastle. York 1sts managed to hold seed coming in 11th in the 25-team tournament, while York 2nds won every game on the Sunday, finishing 21st.
The squad, led by captain Jamie Smith, has fantastic promise, but York’s late starting term means that training time is often cut several weeks shorter for the Open division than many of their top competitors.
Nevertheless, Lancaster’s surprise failure to qualify for nationals, alongside a fantastic game against York on Saturday in which Lancaster scraped a win in the last 20 seconds, means that this year’s Roses competition will be a hotly contested affair.
When asked to comment on the result, York’s squad captain Jamie Smith said: “Our teamwork has improved over the weekend and is something that we will carry through to the outdoor season. We can take our close game with Lancaster as a sign that we stand a good chance indoors at Roses, although our strength should be the outside game.”