PAF

Summer League - PAF vs Clissold Critters - Weds 28th July

Hey PAF

 

Last night Balham saw an epic EPIC game of PAF vs Clissold Critters (last year’s division 3 winners.)

 

PAF was limited to an iron man team of:

Harry

Wendy

Smiler

Strider

JoyAnne

Pope

Nick

And no prospect of any subs turning up…

 

Not necessarily a bad thing – we always seem to play really well as a team when we have limited (no) subs.

 

We started the game really strong and took an early lead, which we then capitalised on by using our patented Brownie zone against them.

Really stepped things up from then on to take the half 8 – 3.

 

Then things got hairy.

 

Critters came out hard from the half, and despite still playing as well as had in the first half, they were just playing better, and our mistakes just built up, giving them point after point.

We managed to sneak a couple of points in, but they brought the game back 9-8, 10-9, 11-10, 11-11. Eeep.

 

Now level pegging, with everything to play for, running low on legs, and low on water, we stepped it up a notch and kept the Critters at bay enough to trade points, with PAF taking the lead only for the Critters to bring it back level again and again. 12-11, 12-12, 13-12, 13-13, 14-13.

 

At last the chance to close out the game was upon us… we only had to get the D and score the upwind point to win.

Unfortunately with the light failing, we just couldn’t make the passes, and I put the disc just too far ahead of Harry for him to get a good hold on it, leading to a turn, and Critters bringing the score to 14-14.

We were into the realm beyond the soft-cap… and needed to win by two, or take it to the hard-cap at 17…

 

We took the next point, only for Critters to return it, levelling the scores at 15-15.

 

Danger Will Robinson! Danger!

 

They pulled to us, we made a couple of passes, Smiler put the disc up the line to me, my man a step behind, Harry open in the endzone, and a flat disc giving Wendy a haircut, straight to him, meant that we were up 16-15.

 

To finish the game in style, without the need for a sudden death point, we needed to make the next point the last of the game…

We pulled to them, they hucked wildly, the disc fell over, and we had possession. All that was left to do was keep the disc all the way into the endzone. Many passes later, and much running later, we found ourselves stood on the edge of the endzone. Wild cutting, and slow clearing meant that there weren’t any options open, as the stall count went up, and up, and up…

 

Then Harry stepped out from the melee of the stack, heading straight upfield, a big fake, the marker bit hard, allowing a pass out, a sprinkle of footwork, and we’d scored THE WINNING POINT!

 

17 – 15. The closest game we’ve played all summer. This is how ultimate should be played. This is what PAF is about. Snatching GLORY from the jaws of Summer League.

 

Awesome. OARsome work PAF. I could not have chosen an MVP from everyone who played. Everyone made greatness possible. Everyone gave it their all. Everyone has sore legs today. With performances like that I am proud to be PAF.

 

Thanks everyone who played.

 

Love,

Nick

Summer League - PAF vs Old Masters - Weds 12th May

Mini-writeup:

First game of the summer PAF weren't as honed as we were at Winter League, and made a few more basic errors than we should have done.

Fortunately, the opposition just wasn't able to capitalise on our mistakes, and we won convincingly 15-6.

Yay PAF!

Things to work on...
Keeping the force (remembering what it should be!)
Catching without juggling the disc
Taking the easy passes - not trying to huck to someone who's marked, or put the disc right past a D-player

More chat from the sideline - helps if they know what the force should be

Nick

Winter League 4 (3 was cancelled) Sunday 14th Feb

Much delayed writeup of last Winter League... Sorry.

The fourth and final Winter League of the season took place on Sunday 14th Feb. As we set off the weather was dry, cold, and cloudy, and we were keen to get into our first game vs Curve.

Curve is one of the better teams in division 2, and they were seeded 2nd to our 7th seed, so we knew it'd be a tough game. What we hadn't predicted was that there would only be 6 of us at the pitch 10 minutes before the game… Cue frantic phone calls, much pondering of sanity, and significant thoughts of ironman. It transpired that Nick Z and Joy had removed themselves from a bus that was going the right way, and decided to start walking in the wrong direction. Pope was simply AWOL and later claimed to have been confused by the alleged existence of Roehampton within London. (He thought it was near Rio and was looking forward to staying for the Carnivale after the matches.) Anyway, Will arrived in time for the game, so we had 7 players, and took to the field to throw the disc at the opposition. They swiftly gave it back, we ran around a little, and then someone ran over a line and caught the disc for the first point. PAF 1 – Curve 0. Great start to the game.

Curve then decided that they were going to win, and went on to take the half 7 – 2. We were still down a Pope and Nick and Joy were lost in the wilds of London. So we grabbed a drink, and went back to playing ironman.

Generally our flow was really good, and I think we put together a nice set of passes in every point before someone got a bit too confident and threw it away. (And it wasn't always me thanks.) Unfortunately, they were the stronger team, so took it 13 – 4, but I felt that we'd make them work for every point, and that they couldn't just relax and win easily.

Our next game was against Ovathrow (a team we beat in Winter League 2), so we knew that we had the opportunity to take the game to them and make them really work for any points. Bonus for us was noticing that they were missing their star player, which always makes things easier. Anyway, the game was fairly unmemorable, but we played decent solid ultimate not making too many simple mistakes, and generally putting the disc home when we got near the endzone. Final score was something like PAF 9 - Ovathrow 5.

Final Game vs Curve 2

So having given Curve a tough game in our first outing, we thought that Curve 2 would be an easier prospect... Unfortunately it turned out that although Curve was the technically better team, Curve 2 had us for stamina and speed pretty much across their whole line meaning that we'd have to work extra hard. We started out fairly well, and traded the first couple of points to about 2-2, but then they took the game away from us for the next 5 to take the half. PAF were left feeling demoralised and we were unable to get more than a couple of passes together before Curve stepped in to get a D. Despite the feeling of defeat noone gave up, and everyone kept on playing to the best of their ability, not just giving up on D and leaving their marks to get away on O. Towards the end of the game we resorted to huck and D tactics, which saw us score a few more points, but Curve 2 were just too far ahead, and we weren't able to convert enough into points. Final score 13 - 4.

Despite only winning one game of the day, we played two tough teams and held our ground really well against the first team, and then again against the second.

I was very proud of PAF for slugging away in the last game of the day with the rain coming down, and little chance of winning the game everyone just kept going.

Anyway, a great day of ultimate, and if you missed it...

Just you wait until Summer League. (Or Mixed Tour with POKE!)

Nick

Winter League 2 - 6th Dec

Winter League happened on Sunday and PAF were up against Ovathrow for our first game at the respectable hour of 10.35.

The team was at the pitch in plenty of time, and with 14 players, we looked to be in a good position against an Ovathrow team of 4...
By the time the game kicked off they were up to 6, but they were set to play, so we pulled to them and took advantage of the mismatch by scoring the first point. And the next. They then managed to sneak one in, which we returned to take the game to 3-1. About then their 7th player showed up (chap called Manny who is one of the best ultimate players I know.)
But we didn't let that get us down, and decided that it was time to play our JUNK zone.
The zone started off a little scrappy, but we tidied it up and by the end of the game they basically couldn't get the disc anywhere once we had the cup set up.
Awesomely, we ended the game 7 - 4 up.

Next up was RUF.
RUF are a bunch of university students from Roehampton, so they're all young and runny. But we had some young (and not so young) runny players of our own...
We started the game strong, and set up our JUNK zone upwind and downwind, and destroyed their handlers. The cup did an awesome job chasing and pretty much stopped the disc getting off the sideline with a safe pass at all, and didn't make it very far up the pitch either...
In fact, we destroyed their handlers so thoroughly, and transitioned to Offense so well, that we were 7-1 up at half-time.
They never really looked like a threat, and the only point they scored was off a good cross-field pass into the endzone before the cup setup.
Final score 10 - 1 to us.

Our third game was supposed to be against Kent Touch This, but Kent sucked and pulled out at 1am, so we were done for the day.

But the general consensus was that everyone wanted to play some more, so with our 14 players we were good to play 7 on 7 on one of the spare pitches.
Final result 7-4 to PAF vs PAF.

The ultimate was then rounded off with a trip to the pub for lunch. Perfect day.

An incredibly fantastic day of results and I look forward to continuing the PAF record of winning streak next month on 17th January.

Everyone played really well, and I'm really happy with how well everyone did in the new zone, and especially proud of all the new people who kept running all throughout the day.

Awesome. And Oarsome.

Great play everyone and have fun at training on Saturday. I won't be there, but Garrett is very keen to make sure that everyone still remembers how to play zone and our endzone plays, so make sure you're there on time. (That's 11am for those of you who mised the memo, Vannina.;-)

Hugs and Kisses,

Nick

Winter League 4 Results & Report

What a weekend of frisbee we’ve had and a report on WL4 wouldn’t be complete without going back 24 hours earlier to the ‘gentle’ training session we had before the big day. Unfortunately we lost two valuable players in Paul (ligament) and Tigger (collar bone). Punch bag looked in serious pain, but is stable now. I received an awesome quote from Tigger which I hope he doesn’t mind me passing on “Dude, I’m hard as f**k. I’m not even taking pain killers. If this is as bad as it gets…I’m gonna play even harder when I’m fixed”

Gentlemen, we salute you.

Thankyou Smiler, Flash and Sophie for giving up their time to be with the guys in hospital.

WL4

Blue skies and a frosty pitch in the shadows greeted the team as we started the day that turned to be the best Winter League playing conditions in living memory.

Game 1. Gallas 2

PAF were shocked when we went up 1-0. This was the first game and we were winning, weren’t we meant to get going when we were 3-0 down? The game turned out to be a very quiet one with some very good play and flow from both teams. There was some textbook flow as players linked up together beautifully. We nearly lost Helen at one point, but fortunately the day was to be largely injury free, apart from my legs spazzing out on me towards the end of the day. Gallas 2 ended up winning by a couple of points, but we’ve come a long way from summer league when they trashed us. The game was close because we played very well, we have improved and even Gallah’s recognised this.

No idea of score, but we lost by 2.

Game 2.

Oxford

’s team

It looked like this would be a tight game to start with but PAFs superior technique and training shone through. As Wendy said, the biggest thing to take away from this game was the fact that we didn’t lower ourselves to the level of the opposition. We played incredibly well for the win and finished the game something like 10-2 victors.

Game 3.

Chichester

The third game on the trot and there were some tired legs out there, but we still played with composure. We certainly matched them in the middle but their long game and silky hands won it in the end. There was some hard running and some rapid cuts from the flash from the back. Flash by name, flash by nature huhhh (See blackadder).

We lost by a couple of points.

Game 4.

Kent

Touch this

Last winter league this one went down to the death and this game was no different. They edged it in the end as a tired PAF became a little ragged and fell into old habits, but overall it was a creditable performance.

We lost by a couple of points.

MVP for the day was Timon. Closely followed by PAF itself.

THANK YOU

Thank you Pafsters for a brilliant campaign. All the games were close because we were able to put into practice all the things we’ve done in training. We resorted to old habits when we got tired, but the more we train, the more the right techniques will be ingrained into our play so that it becomes automatic.

That’s it for Winter League and summer league won’t start until May/ June, but let’s keep training going to the same high standard. We’ll have plenty of friendly games lined up and perhaps even some mini tournaments.

Our goal besides Summer league domination is a good showing in tour as Poke.

See you Saturday for training at 12.00. Unfortunately I’ll only be there for the first hour or so due to Valentines related activities, but I’ll bring the cones and help set things up.

Winter League 1 Results

Ah PAF...

The glory has returned to us for Winter League yet again this year.

We came, we played, we scored, we indulged in glory.

Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough glory to result in us winning division 2. But we had a fair stab at winning our games.

Galahs 2 (seeded 6th): we lost. Convincingly.

LSE (seeded 1st???!!!) : we won. Convincingly.

LSE lost to Galahs, leaving us seeded 6th for the second round.

After a brief respite for a small lunch, we back on the pitches for 12.30 wondering who we'd get to play. Revolution pulled the lucky straw.

Unfortunately, the straw was not lucky for us, and we lost to Revolution.

Final game: vs ...Fugazees. Another hard fought game.

Another victory for Glory, but not for PAF. Ah well.

We finished 6th. A move up of one position. Huck yeah.

Winter League looks like it's going to be great this year.

Thanks to all who played, and thanks for the wishes of support from those who couldn't make it on to the pitch. Special thanks to Smiler for being such a wonderful chauffeur.

Love you,

Nick

London Winter League : Matchday 1

From the mouth of Dan:

What can I say but…. Glllllllorrrrrrryyyyyyyy!

The scores belie the amount of glory that we covered ourselves in out on the hallowed field of play.

Each game we played our little frisbee hearts out for.

Each game there were some awesome defences (No.2 gets a special mention from me – MID – Mentioned in Dispatches) where we just never gave up, and never gave in!

Each game there were some awesome offences (that foul you did running over that guy was awesome – you know who you are…), er, but point scoring… well, If I may blow my own horn here (aah, that feels better) I must say I enjoyed the feeling of getting most of my points via Hammers! (oh, oh, hammer time!). There were some excellent lay outs, rolls, bacon butties and the kendal mint cake was lethal! My knuckles are still throbbing from it.

The spirit was most excellent. I do enjoy our new anthem -… ba ba ba –PAF! Ah-aaaa…. Saviours of the Winter League! And the Lion’s Tale will be talked about for…er… a bit.

Just like to say – what a wonderful day we all had covered in mud and with that warm feeling inside when playing fun games of Ultimate.

Our scores were:

Pyramus and Frisbee vs Flaming Galahs – 4-10

Pyramus and Frisbee vs Ovathrow – 5-6 (soooo close)

Pyramus and Frisbee vs Equilibrium – 6-9

Pyramus and Frisbee vs UCL – 7-6 (woohoo!) Very, very close game which went to instant death.

Thanks y’all for giving me the horn…

Big mention goes to MGP (Most Glorious Player) Victoria – awesome effort out there in the pleather skirt. Oh, and your Ultimate skills were pretty good too!

 
I love you all

 

Dan