Josh Coxon Kelly previews the 2013 UK Open Nationals.
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| Defending Champions Clapham at last years Nationals. Photo Courtesy of Andrew Moss. |
In the top half of the draw Kapow! and Brighton are en-route to a quarter final clash, although it is difficult to see either team stand in the way of Clapham’s route to the final. However – the knockout structure of Nationals is perfect for upsets, and the clarity of the structure will favour the underdogs, as the ever-elusive ‘scalping’ suddenly has huge implications. The continued shift of importance onto Nationals over tour as a priority for UK Open clubs combines with the exposed structure to create a tournament brimming with excitement and competition. With streaming, live scores, an ever vibrant twitter presence and even a wonderfully simple fantasy competition Open nationals 2013 is set to be a stormer across the board.
Describe your team philosophy and playing style:
We aim to win nationals and retain the title.
Everyone contributes to our plays. We don’t try to build our club around superstars, we rather have depth and build victories together. That said, our captains Justin Foord and Richard Harris continue to be huge playmakers for us.
2. Manchester – Dale Walker:
Describe your team philosophy and playing style:
We set our goal this season of making top 8. We came ever so close in Tour with 2 sudden death losses at T3 to KaPow! & Ranelagh, and we have a great opportunity to do so at Nationals. We’d love to make xEUCF, but we’re not hung up on it – if we play well and stay in every game we’ll be happy with our weekend, if we make Europeans we’ll be ecstatic.
We’ve got a great balance between playmakers and solid contributors. Expect to see big things from Santiago Zuluaga, Nick Smith & Adam Irving on offence, with Ewen Buckling & Ben Brierley keeping our D line in the mix. We’ve found all year that our lesser known guys are becoming our main bread winners – an unintended element of surprise but it’s worked to our favour.
3. EMO – Joe Wynder:
Describe your team philosophy and playing style:
Who makes the big plays on your team?
Offence play makers would likely be myself, Galey and Tom Fox.
4. Brighton City – Felix Shardlow:
Describe your team philosophy and playing style:
What finishing place are you aiming for?
Keep an eye out for running machine Roach making a return for the end of the season, Robbie Haines getting multiple crucial layout D’s, and Hayden Slaughter 3000 continuing to surprise everybody all over the field.
5. KaPow! – David Pichler:
Describe your team philosophy and playing style:
We don’t focus on results but on our performance. If we perform the way we want then the results will follow
Fred Shone and Will Martin are playing very well on Offense. Defensively Jake Warren is capable of big plays, and our Portuguese connection of Pedro Vargas and David Pimenta is always fun to watch. Also, watch out for Simon Dathan on our D line. He can lock down the very best cutters and handlers any team has
6. Fire 1 – Alex Cragg:
Going into Nationals it’s all about having no mercy and not giving the opposition a chance at the disc. It’s going to be all guns blazing on D, and considered and concise on O.
What are you aiming for in terms of finishing place?
A spot in the final.
Who makes the big plays on your team?
We try to encourage people not to feel like they need to make big plays. It’s more about the team scoring or getting a block than any individual brilliance. I’m sure the Fantasy Ultimate world wants to see Parslow rack up some stats though..
7. Flump – Ham Roushanzamir:
Flump is all about having fun and developing as an ultimate player. Each player is a big part of the club and everyone is always improving no matter what their experience. Unlike other clubs who focus on drills and running track to improve, we predominantly use board games to increase our team’s confidence and boost team strategy. You should see how much a player’s character builds after winning a game of Resistance. The lessons learnt are priceless.
What are you aiming for in terms of finishing place?
At Tour 1 we were seeded 42nd (middle of C Tour), we have risen all season and are entering Nationals seeded 7th.
Who makes the big plays on your team?
Joe Minns
8. Devon – Samuel Luxa
9. Reading – Graham Byford
10. Chevron – James Jackson:
As I’m sure most people are aware, Chevron’s philosophy has always been to play at the top level with friends and like-minded people, rather than just cherry-picking based on ability. This translates into our playing style which is designed to allow creativity and freedom on offence – we try not to put strict patterns in place, but play by certain principles that allow us greater freedom.
At times this does have drawbacks, when the team isn’t firing we can’t just fall back on basic, strict cutting patterns, but on the other hand when things click it is unstoppable and you see some amazing things coming out of it.
The team is full of players who make huge plays on a consistent basis. On offence, Richard Coward has become a huge asset, who has added great assisting throws to his deep game making him a danger in both directions. Sam Bowen has moved over to offence this year, he is capable of doing some amazing things and now just needs to prove his consistency. We’re also looking forward to Ollie Gordon coming back from his World Games preparations. On defence, Matt Beavan seems to have regressed (or progressed) back to his former teenage-self and has been getting huge fly-by blocks all season, and blasting pitch-length hucks from his own endzone. Our younger D players are a lot more experienced now than a couple of years ago, so guys like Tom Cartwright and Jake Aspin are becoming much more dangerous with the disc after getting the turns.
Though the team is full of individuals who can do some unbelievable things, the biggest strength is definitely in the team as a whole, our sideline will always have injured players on because they don’t want to stay at home.
11. Glasgow – Phillip Webb:
Describe your team philosophy and playing style:
Offence possession, Defence aggression.
What are you aiming for in terms of finishing place?
We set out this year to establish another competitive team in Scotland and encourage participation at tour. Everything beyond that has been a bonus but we don’t see the point in stopping yet. xEUCF qualification is a step too far for now but outside of that we back ourselves against anyone on the day, we’ve surprised a few teams this year with our inability to know when we’re beaten.
Who makes the big plays on your team?
We’re a small squad so everyone know’s there are no passengers on the team and that’s the way we like to play. Everyone gives their all and we win or lose as a team.
12. EMO 2 – Joe Wynder:
Playing style is Calm and Collected on offence, with battling and graft on Defence
Who makes the big plays on your team?
Offence will be run by Veterans Ian Scotland and Matt Stead
Defence Phil Brunson and Nelson Chan both have the ability to make athletic plays.
Just like the first team all of them contribute and work hard for each other, especially as they have such a small squad size.
13. Birmingham – Ben Kings:
Describe your team philosophy and playing style:
We like to play quite a fast flowing game, and are happy to throw the disc around until we can get a big ol’huck off.
Who makes the big plays on your team?
I think we will be pretty happy if we can get into the top 12, but satisfied if we can hold seed.
Who makes the big plays on your team?
Main plays are likely to come from Marius Hutcheson throwing to anyone of our cutters. Though you can expect Carl Bullingham to get on the score sheet often and some big layout D’s from Matt Seabrook.
14. Release – Brendan Thorne:
Describe your team philosophy and playing style:
15. Fire 2 – Tim Burton:
16. Burro Electrico – James Burbidge
Given our late and fortuitous entry to Nationals Burro has lost a few players to other activities (family, holidays etc) and those we have left haven’t been training. We’ve managed to reload the squad to a decent size, but expect a certain amount of gelling to have to take place over the weekend. We don’t have an eye on any particular finishing place, but we play our best ultimate when the pressure’s off. Whoever we’ve got first up should watch out.
If it’s big players you’re looking for they don’t come much taller than ex-ABH mixed player Spoon (Matt Thomas) whose 6’7″ or something thereabouts. Gary Hall has deadly breaks and Dan Ryan combines height, speed, Black-Tide-aggression and a UK discgolf championship in one nasty package.
Time to see what you got! Comment, follow, share as usual! JCK @ tSG.
Devon did it's talking on the pitch!