Tournament report - Ross on Wye 1996

Strange Blue, strangely old, strangely new, consisted of the following
squad: Adrian Lane, Andy Plater (Saturday), Al, Darren (visiting Al),
Sue (visiting Al), Phil, Natalie, David, Alice (from lunchtime
Saturday), Ian, Ralf from Bedford (half a game) and Fred from Bedford
(a few games on saturday), Karsten(sunday).

Saturday

We were in pool A with Shotgun, Funky Monks, Sharks, GB women, and
Pucas (Dublin).  We were seeded 5th out of 6, but Pucas turned out to
be a really strong team, beating Sharks and GB women. We played Monks
and Shotgun on the trot in the morning and then Sharks after a break,
then GB women and Pucas. We lost all our games, but played well most
of the time, getting 4 points against monks and 2 against shotgun
(plus several additional turnovers).  Our games against the other
three all felt evenly matched, and with a bigger team than the eight
or nine that we had, we might well have got a different outcome. We
lost Phil to headache and Andy to knee trouble in the 4th game.

Highlights:

Swim in the river at the end of a very hot day.
Ian's two layouts in the last game.
Alice's first point block, also in the Pucas game.
Tara (GB women) catching a point in the end zone while two huge Dublin
men collided alongside her.

Ashley's report on Saturday:
Everybody was really swetty and smelly.after the tournament
we went swiming in the river.we got sorta naked,especially
alfred,butt i did not look.
                                                               ashley
Sunday

The big event of the morning was the Shotgun/VH game, in which shotgun
were 7-1 down, then 8-2 down at half time. Then they came back to 8-8
and won 11-10. Classic. Indeed, one might say, completely normal. An
eruption between Rob and Arum (Rob complained about grunting noises
mde by Arum) was diffused in the following point by two generous
admissions of fouls by shotgun.

First game: Superfly - we won 14-7
Second game: Tribal desire - we lost
Third game: GB women (again!) - they put a zone on us but we learnt 
 pretty quickly and after a few points we were managing to work it 
 most of the way up to the end zone (several times per point!). 
 We whittled down their lead to a very close final score. We lost. 
 But my feeling was that in this last game we were playing really well,
 and had gelled together as a team.

Final position: 20th out of 24. 
GB juniors were in the plate final and came 10th. Plate was won by Pucas
(who were the bottom seed in our pool)

I think the good news about this tournament is that there are *so many*
good teams!

The shotgun / UTI final featured another shotgun comeback from 6-1 down. 
Spirit winners were Superfly.