The Reward

Hi all,

Sorry this has taken so long to put another post up. Been travelling around Europe and only just gotten home. The blog itself didn't really live up to the hype do to a lack of updates from the other teams and perhaps a complete lack of time to provide any other information other than the sparse updates that were done late at night before sleep. Seems funny that in a six day tournament with, at a maximum of, three 45 minute games per day that there is no time for anything else, but that was the case.

From the Mixed team point of view we were meeting 30 minutes before game time, which meant getting ready for the game up to an hour before that. Then warmups, then the game which almost always went to time cap and therefore was more like 55 minute games. Then the spirit circle, which was generally a lengthy affair, which was followed by a long stretching routine, sometimes preceded by a cooling swim. Normally we would have lunch straight after finishing our game routine, or dinner if it was a late game. If we played in the hellish 1 or 2pm timeslots generally there was only time to fill up water, go to the toilet, reload the sunscreen and then get back to the fields for the next game.

With games nightly at the Arena, people after dinner were always keen to leave immediately to go watch them. Otherwise there may have been physio appointments or the allure of some regenerating beers at the Beach Bar. Although I can gladly report that the seriousness of the tournament was not lost on players, and my maximum drinks per night (during the tournament) was three beers. Considering that it takes at least 10+ for me to notice feelings of euphoria (see pre-tournament party), I'd say it was a sober experience. Often we were in bed by 9:30pm, again something I would never do at home, but we were here to play as best we could and rest is important. The early bed was also indicative of the heat inside our accommodation where we had no airconditioning or airflow. Club 105 (Cupcake, Sarah, Notty, myself and Henry) moved all five of their beds out onto the balcony to sleep under the stars which made a massive difference for effective sleep. At least until the sun came up....

Anyway, here's what we were playing for at WCBU 2011:

Brings a tear to your eye doesn't it?

Also, there's some good media floating around peoples cameras. Would love to collect it all and put it somewhere (maybe this blog). Here's a few examples:

In the coming weeks there should be our streamed games, each Aussie team had one, will be formatted and uploaded online for your viewing pleasure. They were commentated by the crew at BlockStack.tv (hi Tom). In the meantime I only have one link to a very short passage of play by the Mixed team:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ_v_ZWJjoE (way to go Lila).

Here's your latest Australian Ultimate medallists, The Aussie Breakers of WCBU2011:

 And because you've been good readers, here's a couple of photos of me flying around the place on the beach. Thanks to Richie for taking these great photos, one of which (the bottom one) is definitely going to win AFDA photo of the month...

Thanks for reading, see you next time (when Australian sends a Masters team).