So overall a disappointing final finishing position of 15th, but some great games nonetheless. We had decent, competitive games against all three medallists in the Mixed Division, and nearly beat one of them to make the quarters.

Overall MVPs for the week were Sally Fraser and Christian Nistri.

Thanks to Dan, Sasi and others who sorted the kit out - Leeds shirts were highly sought after for trade all week long!

Day Six

Leeds were left playing for 13th. Our first game was against the French Canadians Dis'Chords. It was a fairly physical game with some cynical fouls from them. We took the half 9-4 and looked confident. In the second half Leeds just couldn't score on offence and the Canadians came back at us and took the game to 13-13. They then took the lead for the first time in the game with the cap at 15. After a few turnovers from both sides Leeds took the offensive point to make it sudden death 14-14. Both teams had several chances to score and Leeds missed out with Dis'Chords taking the game. Really annoying loss.

The final game of the tournament for Leeds was against another North American team Joyride from Canada. This was a very competitive game and Leeds worked through the defensive zone to take the half 9-4. Leeds were fired up on defence and got numerous blocks and converted the points. Leeds were also clinical on offence and took the game 17-7.

MVPs for the day were Tara Jewell and Joe Graves.

Day Five

After finishing fourth in our power pool we had set ourselves up with a game against Slow White (Boston, USA) to move into the quarter-finals. It was a very windy day and the pitch orientation meant it was going to be a very upwind-downwind game. Both teams started scoring their downwind though the Leeds defence made the opposition work a lot harder for theirs. Slow White were gifted an upwind point when a disc going to ground hit a Leeds' foot and fluttered into the endzone for a score! The Leeds offence replied with an upwind huck from Joe McGrath to Christian Nistri to get their first upwind. Leeds took the half 9-8. The defence came out and got a block and upwind score to go a break up 10-8. We continued to trade points but we let Slow White score upwind again a couple of times to take it to 13-13. Unfortunately Slow White then took the game 15-13. Gutted!

Our loss to Slow White meant we were playing for 9th. After coming so close to Worlds quarter finals the team as a whole couldn't generate the necessary motivation to beat Chad Larson Experience (Mid-West, USA). We had a terrible first half although played a lot better in the second half but was never enough to win the game. Score was 17-12.

MVPs for the day were Liz Edye and Joe McGrath.

Day Four

Putting the previous days losses behind us Leeds came out strong against Brass Monkey from the Bay area. Once again we rtraded points for the first half but were let down slightly by our offense in the second half. We lost 15-10 but were left feeling more satisfied with a good performace against a strong team.

So our last game of the day became a crunch game. If we lost to Blokes and Sheilas (Canberra, AUS) we'd be out of the tournament. Leeds' defence came out firing and dominated the Australians, winning the first half 9-3, including a completed worlds greatest pass by Phil Milburn-McNulty. Maybe it was complacency because we were over-confident, but we let the B&S come back into the game in the second half. They pushed us all the way to 15-14 down, but we confidently walked the disc upfield for the (slightly) upwind score to take us to sudden death. The Leeds defence then did their job and got the game-winning block and score to take us into the top 16 of the tournament.

MVPs for wednesday were Sophie Watson and Phil Milburn-McNulty.

Day Three

With three victories under our belt, Leeds topped their initial pool and moved into the top half of the tournament. In our second 'power' pool we were to face two Austrlian teams and two top North American teams.

First up were Team Fisher Price from Vancouver. They came at us first with a junk defense which we handled pretty easily. We traded points for the first half, with Christian Nistri and Phil Milburn-McNulty getting some big blocks on their Furious George players. After the half however, the Canadians showed their class and stepped their defence up a gear. We finished with a 17-10 loss.

Second game of the day was against Bootius Maximus, the top seeded Australian team from Brisbane. Leeds played okay but always seemed a step behind and numerous errors were punished by the aussies. This was a really disappointing loss for Leeds.

MVPs for this day were Anita Beck and Richard Shortridge.

Day Two

Just one game today against 'Freakshow' from Singapore. They were seeded pretty low but had a number of American ex-pats and are obviously used to the heat (it hit 37 celsius today!).

Their defence didn't pose us many problems but their long game was good and we pretty much traded out the first half. A slight change of Leeds tactics in the second half and we got our blocks and closed out the game 17-9.

MVPs for the day were Christian Nistri and Cath Moore.

Day One

So it turned out that our first game was not against India after all... The Australian authorities didn't let them into the country! I guess not all of the aussies are as welcoming as the ones we've met here so far.

We started instead against the 'Restless Flycatchers' - a team from Adelaide. We won this game fairly easily - the final score was 17-4.

The second game of the game was at 1630 against 'Camelot' - these guys are the Canadian national champs. The Leeds defence began the game well going a break up. We traded with them for a while and they bought it back against us, but our defence fired again to take the half 9-7. In the second half the defence continued their run, including an unbelievably low layout score from Matt Hodgson to save an overthrown pass. We went 14-7 up before letting them score a few easy points. We finally finished the game 17-11.

MVPs for day one were Matt Hodgson and Sally Fraser.

Leeds played a couple of short training games on Thursday night.

First up were Sublime - the local Perth team ranked 2nd in Australia. Leeds started on defence and promptly scored. We then traded scores with them before getting a couple more breaks and after half an hour finished the game 6-3 up.

Next up were Joyride from Canada. Typically North American - 2 obvious fouls called by us were greeted with outbursts. A much more physical team - something we need to get used to! We failed to break their zone in the first couple of points. Our defensive line went on and scored, but unfortunately the game had to end at 3-1 down as the promised floodlights never came on...

Still, some pre-tournament nerves settled and now everyone is gagging for more play!!

Opening ceremony this afternoon, and then we kick off tomorrow against India and another Aussie team.

The final LLL squad travelling to Australia looks like this:

Anita Beck
Helen Bowker
Ruth Crawford
Hannah Easter
Liz Edye
Sally Fraser
Tara Jewell
Cath Moore
Milla Stockley
Sophie Watson

Jaimie Cross
Mark Fulford
Joe Graves
Matt Hodgson
Joe McGrath
Phil Milburn-McNulty
Christian Nistri
Barry O'Kane
Rich Shortridge
Chris Stephens

Introductions...

This blog will chart the progress of the Leeds Mixed Ultimate Frisbee team as they take on the world's best at the World Club Championships in Australia.

See the links on the right-hand side for more information on the World Club Championship Tournament, the sport of Ultimate, and the Leeds team.