The first round of the 2007 National Ultimate Frisbee League (NUFL) was held in Sydney over the weekend with Sublime performing admirably in our first foray into this arena.

The Sublime team consisted of 11 ‘Core’ players from WA:

Billy (Captain), Jd, Tweely (the inseparable Twiggy and Eely), Thommo, Denyer, Noodles, Tim, Dan, Jerome, Alex

and 5 drafted ‘Free agents’:

Johnno Holmes, Tatts, Ian ‘Crazy’ McK and Tom Walcott from Newcastle and Canberra, and Huy for SA

Day 1 – Saturday 18 August 2007

Scheduled to play 2 games today, we prepared to face off against Heads of State of Victoria in Game 1, and then Game 2 against our nemesis Chilly, also of Victoria.

Sublime took out Game 1 comfortably against Heads of State by about 5 goals in a hard running affair dominated by the hard working Sublime defence and a very slick looking offence.

Highlights of the game were a ‘Crazy’ Mac Callaghan goal in the first half on the second grab at a defensive block, and another Callaghan goal by Timmy D late in the game. Both were the result of hard running and pressure by the defensive team and must have been incredibly demoralising for the less experienced HoS team.

Game 2 against the reigning National champions in Chilly was a much closer affair. Chilly got off to a great start before Sublime clawed back to take half. The second half was back and forth with Sublime eventually taking out the game in a Universe Point 17-16.

Highlight again involved Timmy D, this time he ‘accidentally’ stepped on the foot of a Chilly player (Gooly), resulting in a ‘de-cleating’ incident, with Gooly then throwing the offending shoe at Tim. Only a Delane could get themself into that sort of situation!

Fakulti also had 2 wins for the day with Firestorm and Barefoot both winning one each and and HoS yet to record a victory.

Day 2 – Sunday 19 August 2007

The fields had started to turn to mush by this point and the day was brought to an abrupt and premature finish with only 1 of our 3 scheduled games completed. We were banned from all fields due to the constant rain and the fact they would almost certainly not recover.

We faced off against the highly fancied Fakulti at a suburban baseball pitch surrounded by high chain link fences, giving the impression of a WWF Cage Fight.

We took it to them right from the start, taking two early breaks to lead 3-1.

The defence team worked incredibly hard as did the offence team in what were far less than ideal throwing conditions - finger numbing cold, disc slipping wet, and just windy enough to suck all the heat from your body.

Sublime worked hard and took half at 9-5 before Fakulti started their inevitable fightback. We held them off to lead 15-12 and then 16-14. Unfortunately, Fakulti's big game experience (and 3 Dowle brothers on the same team) started to come through here and they managed to break us 3 times in a row to take the game 17-16 on Universe Point.

So in the words of our great coach Billy Alexander, "Be happy with the result, but don't be content". We certainly wont let the same thing happen in Melbourne.

So NUFL 1 ended with Fakulti on top with 3W-0L, closely followed by Sublime and Firestorm on 2W-1L. Barefoot and Chilly were next with 1W-2L with HoS last after 0W-3L.

So after that debacle it was back to Izy’s place for debrief and cocktails.

NUFL2 is on in Melbourne on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September 2007.

Sublime will be boosted for NUFL2 by the addition of Paul ‘Care to be Stapled?’ Staples. Unfortunately we will lose the hammer-ability of Mark ‘Thommo’ Thompson, and the barely contained aggression of Jerome ‘Pamplona’ Bull. Alex ‘Branches’ Warris who initially was not going to play NUFL2 has again proven he is powerless over peer pressure and will be re-joining us on the fields of battle.

-Noodles

Sublime Team Song (courtesy of http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/)

Badger Badger Badger Badger

Badger Badger Badger Badger

Badger Badger Badger Badger

Mushroom! Mushroom!

Snake

Snake

Snake

Snake

(repeat)

The Sublime Ultimate club is proudly sponsored by Damiani Cabinets – “Need Wood? Call JooD!”