Category: University

UWIR 2021: West preview

Ollie Pattinson previews the mega West region ahead of women’s indoor regionals this weekend and predicts who’ll be heading to nationals next year.

The women’s teams of the West region have had one extra week to prepare for the final regional indoor tournament of the 2021 season. The women’s division for the West is always an interesting tournament as it is a combination between the South West and West Midlands and Wales regions in mixed and men’s regionals. This means a higher number of first teams and that teams will face new competition for the season. 

In total 11 first teams will be attending, with many regular high performers and newer strong teams wanting to take their chance to claim the eight Nationals spots (four for Div 1 and four for Div 2). There are also a number of second teams (and one third team) which is great to see following the COVID disruption. With the large number of first teams, the second teams will get plenty of chances to cause upsets and the tournament is likely to have many close battles. With mixed regionals being the first tournament back after the long break, I expect a number of women’s teams this weekend will be looking forward to some rematches and potential revenge. Any spectators should be excited for the inevitable competitiveness and high quality to be seen when the heavyweight teams of two regions come together and battle it out in Swansea this weekend.

Bath

It comes as no surprise that Bath are coming into the weekend with high ambition and lots of evidence to support a top finish. With two first place finishes in the last three women’s regionals and a dominant performance at mixed regionals this year, they want to maintain their ‘best in the west’ title. Bath are coming into the weekend having lost a few star players from previous years but are feeling positive about their new team. They are excited to see development among their players as they face the challenge of the additional universities between them and the first place position.

Birmingham

Birmingham makes for great competition with Bath at this event. Also having a first place finish in the last three years of women’s regionals and a first place finish at this year’s mixed regionals, they seem adamant on continuing their long run of success. Despite missing out on the top three at the last regionals, they rectified this with a fourth place finish and highest from the region at the last nationals. This year the Birmingham team has been working hard to make a strong showing following the COVID break, which has so far proved successful having only conceded a single point at their first BUCS weekend. Having picked up ex-Warwick player Hannah Yorwerth (GB U24s) and rising star Rosie Coward (Reading and GB U20s), Birmingham are sure to set a high standard of Ultimate and present a huge challenge for the rest of the teams. 

Bournemouth

Bournemouth are entering women’s regionals for what I am aware is the first time. That’s a great sign for growth of the club and a huge opportunity for development for this women’s team. While they come into a strong region, the longer break and loss of key players from many teams presents a great chance to come in and potentially surprise some teams. Bournemouth will be looking to come in and make a strong first impression, and gain lots of valuable experience while enjoying their first competitive indoor tournament with their university. 

Bristol

Bristol will be one team this weekend looking to make a mark as a new contender to the top position and they have the results to prove it’s very possible. Making the last spot to nationals last time around seems to have pushed the team to excel. At the first BUCS weekend, the Bristol women’s team saw off Bath, Exeter and Southampton and now have their sights on repeating this in Swansea. With captain Natalie Oldfield (Bristol Womens), leading a strong team of experienced and cohesive players, Bristol want to continue their winning streak.

Cardiff

Cardiff are another one of the many strong teams in the region over recent years. They come off a third place finish at mixed regionals and a fifth place finish at last women’s regionals. Having  just missed out on Div 1 nationals last time, I am sure this year they will have their sights set on returning to the top division. Their two teams are said to be filled with excitement for the weekend, especially the freshers stacked second team. Their first team has a range of experience led by Esther Awcock (GB Junior) and a great passion across the roster, well demonstrated with the addition of Su Yin from Malaysia who set up her own team before coming to join Cardiff. Cardiff will be sure to give all the teams a strong challenge at the weekend, and will aim to repeat the success of the mixed team and qualify for Div 1 nationals.

Exeter

Exeter continues to demonstrate that they have an incredibly successful club at their university. Being the only university attending to bring three teams, the depth of their club is sure to encourage continued success as seen in previous years. Exeter will hope to repeat and improve upon their strong season before the break, finishing third at the last Regionals and an impressive fifth at Nationals. Both the second and third team show potential to cause upsets against teams if underestimated, with the second team being a potential dark horse for the tournament. The first team combines experience and talent, including the addition of Leah Atkins (Air Badgers and GB Juniors) to the many long-term club members bringing fast yet patient play and a range of tactics. Exeter hopes that all of the teams can perform well this weekend, but most of all are excited to finally play one of their favourite tournaments after so many delays. 

Keele

Keele university is making their first entry to women’s regionals since 2015 and are incredibly excited to be attending. A lot of work has gone into recruiting women for the club over the last two years and it has paid off with a women’s team who can’t wait to play a tournament together. As a relatively new team, the players are looking forward to the valuable experience they will gain from the tournament (being some players’ first ever) and most importantly want to have fun while doing it. 

Plymouth

Plymouth are entering the weekend following a really strong mixed regionals performance that unfortunately saw them just miss out on nationals. The women’s team also has desires to recreate the success of qualifying for nationals two years ago and will be looking forward to getting another attempt at national competition. Sadly some COVID cases have affected their numbers but they still look to bring a solid team who really want to have fun at the weekend. The team combines experience with newer players which, as it did at mixed regionals, may help them perform better than they first expected. 

Southampton

Southampton proved at the last regionals that they are truly a contender for a top spot at the weekend. An impressive finish of second place and an incredibly close final against Bath showed Southampton and the rest of the teams that they are a very tough team to play against. Both mixed and men’s tournaments this year have resulted in nationals qualification for the first time in years, and the women now take their turn to repeat this success. Captain Abi Cohman (GB Women’s) leads a team split between experienced players and freshers who have really come together in their first BUCS matches, winning two out of three. Southampton hope the newer players continue their incredibly fast development and top players like Dianne Lopez (SYC) and Provi Cowdrill (GB Junior) can bring a challenge to any team they face at the weekend.

Swansea

Swansea have the home advantage for the weekend, but with two teams entered who are both iron-manning they hope to use a big sideline to overcome tired legs. Their second team is full of freshers excited for the experience, while their first team is stacked with experience. Captain Aimee Hawksley (Horsham) will lead the group of five which includes two GB Junior players. Such experience and small team will surely mean Swansea bring a cohesive team and big challenge to the rest of the tournament. Having beaten Bath in BUCS this season, Swansea will know they have the quality to win against teams at the weekend, and will have to hope the limited number of players does not get in the way of giving a strong performance.

Warwick

Warwick are one more team who have consistently thrown their name in the hat for top position finishes in recent years. With fifth and fourth place finishes in the years prior, they may be coming into this year wanting to improve on their seventh place at the last regionals, and fight for one of the top four Div 1 qualification spots. They have lost some key players, but a very impressive second place at mixed regionals means the Warwick women know they have the quality to beat many of the teams and will want to show the South West teams they can do the same to them. Warwick also managed to hold a strong Birmingham women’s team to a tight outdoor game, only losing 5-6. As the only team to finish above Warwick at Mixed, they will come in hoping to get the edge on Birmingham this time around, along with the rest of the teams.

Spectating this event in the past has been one of my favourites, with the wide array of universities attending it can feel almost nationals-esque and produces many entertaining games. A lot of teams are coming in hoping to show the development and hard work of these first couple of months back and use their mixed and BUCS experience to step up a level at the weekend. Although we’ve been back a little while now, there has been an overwhelming sense of excitement ahead of the tournament, with lots of teams really looking forward to this one in particular. There are bound to be lots of games going against the seeding and I predict lots of improvement from the newer teams as the weekend goes on, perhaps making for some shock results in rematches on the Sunday.

All this makes it very hard again to predict, but some teams will be relying on their strong experience to see them through against the array of new competition, while others will have additional challenges following the introduction of top teams from the other region. 

Predictions

  1. Birmingham
  2. Bristol
  3. Southampton
  4. Bath
  5. Exeter
  6. Warwick
  7. Cardiff
  8. Swansea
  9. Plymouth
  10. Keele
  11. Bournemouth

Thanks to all the captains who helped me out with the preview, and good luck to all the teams playing in Swansea this weekend!

UMIR 2021: Yorkshire and East Midlands recap

Tanny Karimi and Sasha Squires recap the men’s regional championships for the Yorkshire and East Midlands region.

After an intense weekend in Leeds, we are here to give you an insight into Men’s Indoor Regionals in the Yorkshire and East Midlands division. 

Despite some hesitancy on the predictions, the majority came out to be mostly accurate. However, Huddersfield seemed to be the outlier on our predictions, finishing 10 places below what was predicted. 

Loughborough continued to dominate, taking first place and having two teams qualify for nationals. Their five teams meant that their chants were heard loudly across Leeds. 

After their great performances at mixed, Sheffield and Leeds remained consistent, taking second and third place respectively. It will be exciting to see how they perform in women’s to see if they continue this hot streak. 

Despite not qualifying for any national divisions in the 2019/2020 season, York played to expectations, taking the final qualifying position for Division 2 nationals. 

After a strong performance at Mixed Regionals, Nottingham Trent looked set to gain another nationals spot, finishing fourth on the Saturday after winning every game. However, they just fell short of qualifying for Nationals. Hopefully they will see more luck at women’s regionals this weekend. 

An intense showdown was seen between Nottingham 1 and Nottingham 2, with Nottingham 2 coming out stronger, seeding one spot above the first team. With the loss of Sam Gelling from the first team, Nottingham 2 were able to come away with the higher seed. 

Leicester did a brilliant job of bouncing up and down the table. They started seeded third, finishing Saturday seeded 19th. After a nearly undefeated Sunday, they managed to push back up to an impressive 10th seed. The improvement of this team is highlighted in their rematch against Leeds Beckett, losing 7-3 on the Saturday and then winning 10-6 on the Sunday. 

Leeds Beckett came in as the underdogs and they proceeded to go above and beyond to exceed expectations. Finishing an impressive 12th, this can be seen to be a win for them as they have not been seen playing at Men’s Regionals for a while. 

Iron-manning is not the easiest of jobs yet Sheffield 3 managed to perform highly despite their team being mostly newer players. It will be exciting to see these players develop over the year and we hope to see them perform highly outdoors next season. 

Huddersfield 1 were one of the big surprises of the weekend. We predicted them to finish eighth after their great performance in the 2019/2020 season. However, they fell short by a large margin and managed to finish 18th. Not only did they lose some of their key players such as Sam Folley and Dougie Braid (who played for Leeds Beckett), they iron-manned the entire tournament with one lady and four male freshers. Given the difficult circumstances, they should be extremely proud of their efforts and hopefully this is something that they can take away from the tournament. 

There were some great performances across the weekend at Leeds. A massive congratulations to all the qualifying teams. It was really interesting to see how the table was partly defined by teams who had retained more experienced players and how well teams were able to develop their freshers in such a short period of time.

BUCS league preview: Scotland

Nick Byrne takes a look at the BUCS season and who stands a chance at taking home the regional title at the end of the year.

After a year of no competitive frisbee, we are all very excited to be heading back into BUCS competition again. There have been big changes across all of Scotland’s teams with some people moving universities, some big names finally graduating and rumours of a US club player joining the fray. All of this means that it is going to be very difficult to predict what may happen, and who will finish where, but with the help of this year’s men’s captains I have gathered as much information as I can on each of the teams competing. 

Strathclyde

Strathclyde are coming into BUCS this year as the reigning Scottish regional champions. A lot has changed in the two years since the last BUCS league finished, though, and it will be interesting to see how the Dark Horses have coped with maintaining their quality through the pandemic.

There are five guys who remain from the glory days who come into this year with a few extra years of training under their belts. Strathclyde are also benefiting from an exciting group of second- and third-year hopefuls who are itching to get out and make their BUCS debuts after training for so long with no competitive matches. Their captain Laurens Kok, who spent the summer playing and training with GUX, is extremely excited to develop the large group of freshers who have joined Strathclyde this year, and we will hopefully get to see them make their competitive debuts during this BUCS season.

There are a number of players to watch out for on the team this season, most notably the 6’6” Ian Tait and the muscular Aussie Stuart Jinks, both of whom played on the Alba team who came third at club nationals this summer. Gregor Forster and new signing from Dundee Nick Byrne also spent the summer playing with Laurens for GUX and so should have a strong connection.

Finally, there have been three big signings over summer. While their names are to remain a mystery for now, Strathclyde have stolen players from Birmingham University, EDI Ultimate, and from the now-defunct European team Ragnarök.

Heriot-Watt

Heriot Watt have already started this season strong with very impressive performances from their freshers at Tune Up and Edinburgh beginners, getting to the final of both. The men’s captain this year, Angus Cook, is looking to for the team to be going out and playing their best frisbee at each match and hoping to prove that Heriot are a real threat in the league.

There is a good strong core of experienced players continuing with Heriot this season, who will be hoping to utilise the skills they have honed during the competitive break. These players will be backed up by two new players who will really be ones to watch; Gregor and Joao, both of whom are expected to be making big plays and influencing pivotal moments in each of Heriot’s fixtures.

While not the biggest university in Scotland, Heriot-Watt has impressively managed to maintain and build a large squad with a lot of depth, and this should allow them to develop and build throughout the season.

In my view, Heriot are one of the dark horses of this BUCS season and will be an important challenge for anyone wanting to top the league.

Stirling

After winning the division two league before the competitive break, Stirling have earned their way back into the top BUCS league in Scotland and they mean to prove themselves here and have no intention of being demoted back to the second league.

While Stirling have lost a lot of their experienced players in the past few years, they are making up for this with a huge number of new players joining the squad. The depth and strength of this squad has already been proven at all the beginners’ tournaments this season and there is an expectation that this will translate to a strong showing in the BUCS league.

The key word at Stirling this year seems to be ‘potential’. With a young and developing squad there is a lot of opportunity for new players to step up and prove themselves in the top league. The men’s captain, Ethan McKee, has painted a big target on the back of his number 44 Greg Sargaison. Greg will be looking to develop the skills and potential he has already shown to become a big name in Stirling Ultimate and a big name in Scottish Ultimate in the future.

Overall, Stirling have a big task ahead of them to earn their place in the top league next year, but if they keep working hard and make good use of their large squad, they have every chance to take some big scalps this season.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh strongly believe they are destined for a top three finish in the league this year, and they don’t plan on coming second or third.

They will come to this BUCS season as a team brimming with confidence and a desire to finally be the top dog in Scottish Ultimate. While they will have a challenge on their hands to do so, they definitely have every chance.

The main asset Edinburgh are bringing this year is Ireland U24 player Andrew Cleary, who spent the summer playing for Alba and helped them get their bronze medal at club nationals. He will be a very strong addition to the team and will add an element of spice to an already solid and consistent squad. 

Speaking of spice, another player to watch in this year’s Edinburgh squad is William Luty. William has managed to reach a point of such skill at ultimate that he has decided to spend the summer training off-handed just to give some other people a chance. He is going to be a threat on the pitch, no matter what the force is.

It is difficult to say how exactly teams are going to come out after such a long break from competitive university frisbee, but with the confidence and the swagger that Edinburgh are bringing to the league this year, along with the competitive captaincy style of David Mercer, Edinburgh definitely could be a very difficult team to beat.

St Andrews

When asked how he thinks his team will do this year, men’s captain Ben Tang said he didn’t know.

Thankfully he did then elaborate. St Andrews have a very young squad coming into this year with most of their current first team never having played a BUCS game before. Because of this they will be coming into the season inexperienced but with a hunger to prove themselves and make the most of being able to play competitively again. In addition to this I have been told that they are probably the fittest university team in the UK at the moment having had a very strong focus on strength of conditioning over lockdown.

Due to some budget cuts for the team, Saints no longer have a full-time coach, but they do have someone who is studying at “the best university in the UK” (Ben’s words not mine) who will have to draw up the strategies and game plans. The team hopes to be able to show off a range of new systems and play styles which will accentuate their young fresh team and hopefully win them some games while looking cool.

There are quite a number of players to look out for at Saints this year (Ben seemed to highlight the whole first team as players to watch), but not least is Tom Box who an injured fresher once said was “the most explosive player on Flatball”. Kai is still good apparently; Fraser Park is an Alba MIP and so will be looking to bring that kind of dominance to the university stage (also watch out for all his hucks being a travel). Tommy Poskin and Nathanael Fagerson, yes that Fagerson, are going to be big players on the team this year. One is “not in a good place physically” and one is attempting to copy Hannes’ hairline, you will have to wait and find out which.

Finally, and most importantly, the rumours have been confirmed, a US Club player has finally made the move over to sunny Scotland and will be playing for St Andrews this season.

In all seriousness, I think St Andrews are going to be the team to beat this year, they have a very strong looking squad that won both Tune Up and Edinburgh Beginners, and the addition of a US player will definitely help their chances. 

Glasgow

I have not managed to get in contact with Glasgow’s captain, but I have had the pleasure of playing with a few of their players over summer.

Robert Avontuur is coming in to captain the team on the back of a very successful summer of training with GU. He was one of the most consistent players on his summer league team and is sure to be a big asset for this season’s Glasgow team.

Lewis Grimmer has spent his summer playing on the GUX squad and he will definitely be able to use his height and athleticism to be one of the main players on Glasgow this year. Grimmer will be a difficult target man to beat in the air for most teams, making Glasgow’s deep game a real threat in each of their fixtures.

I don’t know much else about what Glasgow will have to offer this year, but I do know that they have an extremely strong recruitment and training program and that they will have a lot of depth throughout their squad. It will be very interesting to see how they use this coming through.

Prediction

  1. St Andrews
  2. Strathclyde
  3. Edinburgh
  4. Heriot Watt
  5. Glasgow
  6. Stirling

UXIR: Yorkshire and East Midlands recap

Tanny Karimi and Sasha Squires look back at mixed indoors in the Yorkshire and East Midlands region, reflecting on the return to frisbee and what the the tournament was like.

After a long and rocky road with Covid-19, the thought of playing university Ffisbee has been something on everyone’s mind, and mixed regionals did not disappoint. 

With Nottingham 1 winning the last regionals and dominating nationals, it was expected that they would replicate the performance at this year’s regionals. However, Nottingham lost a lot of their top players such as Maya Israel & Joel Miller and fell to eventually finish fifth and make Div 2 nationals, meaning the top spot was once again up for grabs. 

From the start of the tournament, Sheffield 1 took control, performing exceptionally in every single game. A lot of strong players were part of their squad, including some highly experienced ladies such as SMOG players Helen Thompson and Samantha Choo. Sheffield also managed to field three teams for this tournament who all performed very well, especially their third team who had a massive improvement across the weekend, highlighted by the massive improvement in scores in their repeat game against Leicester 1.

Along with Sheffield 1, Loughborough 1 and Leeds 1 also dominated the tournament with both teams retaining their reputations of high performance and consistency. This consistency was well showcased by Loughborough who once again managed to get two teams to nationals, the first team finishing second narrowly behind Sheffield and going to Div 1 and the second team falling more comprehensively to Leeds in the game to go, so heading to Div 2.

Another notable performance was by spirit winners Nottingham Trent. Excellently led by Tauhid Ibrahim, they managed to up their seed by two to gain themselves a spot at Div 2 nationals, beating Sheffield 2 in the game to go, a particularly impressive feat given the new players on their team. 

Overall it was a brilliant weekend and a great way to welcome university tournaments back!

UWIR 2021: Scotland preview

Nick Byrne previews the Scotland region of women’s indoor regionals!

Edinburgh

Edinburgh have managed to get a medal in both regionals so far. The pattern would suggest that Edinburgh 3s are going to get a bronze medal this weekend.

As unlikely as that is, their first team may well be able to do the job. There are a lot of very good players on this Edinburgh women’s first team and it would not be a massive surprise to see them in the top three. 

It is also impressive to see that, in a year where some universities have struggled to even put together one team for this tournament, Edinburgh have managed to enter three teams and that is a real testament to their recruitment.

Glasgow

Glasgow will be bringing a very strong squad to UWIR this weekend and will be playing hard for a gold medal to match their kit. They have had very successful mixed and men’s campaigns so far, reaching nationals for both, and I would strongly predict a Division 1 nationals spot coming their way this weekend as well.

There are a number of standout players on the team, particularly captain Eva Jones who brings both skilful throwing and an impressive threat in the air.

Dundee

While Dundee are going to be bringing a somewhat inexperienced team, they are still going to post a very real threat to the top teams at this tournament and they are desperate to prove themselves and claim a top four spot.

Their captain, Sophie Baird, is going to be a main player to watch throughout the weekend. Her hight, experience and throws allow Dundee to play an attacking style of ultimate which a lot of teams may find difficult to deal with.

A Division 1 spot if definitely going to be up for grabs for Dundee, and no matter what these girls will gain a lot of experience from the weekend and will show themselves to be a real force to be reckoned with in the next few years.

Strathclyde

Strathclyde have had a dominant women’s team over the past few years and are coming in this year with another super strong team. While there are a few other very strong women’s teams this year, the Dark Horses will still be confident of medalling.

Caroline Charnley and Erina Brown are the two players to really watch, both having played for SCRAM together in the past and played on this university team together for a number of years. Caroline’s speed paired with Eri’s grabs and the chemistry that they have together are certainly a winning combo.

St Andrews

The Saints ladies look to be putting together one of the strongest women’s teams that have played at university level for a while. These girls already have a gold medal from mixed a few weeks ago and it would be difficult to bet against them getting a second this weekend.

Katie Trimm, who was recently selected to play for the GB women’s indoor team, is going to be a dominant player at the tournament. In addition to that I could probably give a shoutout to every player on that team as they all bring a lot to the tournament.

The Saints are definitely going to be the team to beat at the weekend.

Stirling

The Blazettes have had a decent recruitment year and so will be bringing a number of players who are looking to develop their game for the future. This gives all of their players a chance to establish themselves and show off what they can do without any pressure this weekend. Due to the setup of this year’s regionals, there is a very high chance of being able to qualify for nationals which further takes the pressure off this inexperienced team and allows them to work and learn and develop themselves. Hopefully someone will be able to come out and establish themselves so that we will be talking about them as the big name leading into nationals next semester.

Overall

While there are not as many women’s teams as we have had in the past at these regionals, and that is a real shame to see, the quality of the teams entered means that this is still going to be a very exciting tournament.

There is a fairly realistic chance that we may see a St Andrews v Strathclyde final for the third regionals in a row, a matchup which currently stands at 1-1, so this would be a very exciting matchup to watch.

Also, this week Stevo is no longer the TD and so we may actually get to find out who wins spirit without any funny business.

Prediction

  1. St Andrews
  2. Strathclyde
  3. Glasgow
  4. Dundee
  5. Edinburgh
  6. St Andrews 2
  7. Stirling
  8. Edinburgh 2
  9. Glasgow 2
  10. Edinburgh 3

UWIR 2021: East preview

Magnus Oakes and Arjun Bhushan take a look at women’s regionals in the East and London region.

After a highly successful and very well spirited UMIR we look forward to the last regional indoors tournament of the year: UWIR. With 18 teams attending and a wider regional pool to draw on it will be very exciting to see how this tournament turns out. With five Div 1 and four Div 2 nationals spots on the line this looks likely to be a hotly contested tournament with quite a few exciting rivalries to watch.

Brunel women are coming off exceptional play at UXIR and will have high hopes for this tournament. Their match against Imperial this tournament is one to keep your eyes on as it may play an important role in deciding the narrative of this budding rivalry between the two schools. Their women were especially great and isolating players at mixed so it will be exciting to see how they perform without their male counterparts.

Cambridge is looking to continue their streak of nationals qualification at the last regional indoors tournament of the season. With a few players who weren’t at UXIR they may have a surprise or two for the teams who might think they know the Cambridge team well. It’s a regional tournament with Oxford in it so Cambridge are looking to continue from their strong performances at fake Varsity last year and beat Oxford.

UEA are again a team to watch at this tournament. Their dangerous zone and players who are basically walking highlight reels mean that they are undeniably a threat to whoever they go up against. Hopefully they bring the enthusiasm and amazing spirit they normally contribute to this tournament too.

Imperial unfortunately weren’t able to secure nats spot at mixed or men’s, so at this tournament they’ll really be gunning for a nationals spot. Despite their women’s team being littered with some international level players, they’ll be adopting a spartan mentality going into this tournament and looking to end their indoor season strong.

KCL are looking to make it three-for-three in winning regional tournaments but will certainly face stiff opposition here. With a selection of powerful cutters and handlers they must been seen as a favourite team to place highly in the tournament but may find it difficult to replicate the success they had in men’s or mixed. With a recent loss to UCL women outdoors it seems that they may face a tougher road to the final here than in their other competitions.

LSE are something of a dark horse. Not competing in any of the other indoors tournaments, it will be interesting to see what sort of a team they bring.

Oxford’s men performed very well at their regionals and their women must be looking to replicate their success. It will be interesting to see if they can get revenge against Sussex who dominated both mixed and men’s regionals against Oxford. Some of the players on these teams will have played in a game that generated extremely low spirit scores at mixed, so that may be something to watch going into this tournament. Additionally, it’ll be exciting to see Cambridge and Oxford’s 150-year-old sporting continue to play out.

Both Chichester and Oxford Brookes had success in only their mixed regionals so we can expect both teams to be looking to replicate that success in this final regional tournament.

Portsmouth narrowly missed out on a nationals spot at mixed indoors and won spirit with a very impressive 12.57 average. To perform well in a tournament and win spirit always says good things about a team’s chemistry so we believe they are a team to watch.

Watch out for Surrey’s women at this tournament. With a strong existing squad including Claudia Carnell and Eve Magawon from Guildford Ultimate and massive pick-ups in Iceni veteran Hannah Brew and GB Junior Eleanor Stratton, this team is experienced and is confident in their ability to take home some silverware.

Sussex are looking very strong going into this tournament. Matching Kings with a two-for-two record at indoor regional tournaments, the match up of those two will certainly be an exciting one. With a few exciting international student additions, their fast-paced offence and flexagon defence will present a definite challenge to all the teams at this tournament.

UCL have qualified for Div 1 in the previous tournaments this year, and their women will look to be no different. This time they’ll be bringing some new faces and pickups to this tournament in hopes finally taking home a trophy. With third at mixed regionals and second in men’s regionals, they’re looking for a first place finish at this tournament.

Overall, due to the combination of regions that is occurring in this tournament, this is a harder one to call. With that in mind we predict the first teams will place:

  1. Surrey
  2. UCL
  3. Kings
  4. Imperial
  5. Cambridge
  6. Sussex
  7. Oxford
  8. UEA
  9. Chichester
  10. Oxford Brookes
  11. Brunel
  12. Portsmouth
  13. LSE

UMIR 2021: Yorkshire and East Midlands preview

With men’s indoor regionals this weekend, we’ve got some previews for you! Here Sasha Squires and Tanny Karimi talk about the huge Yorkshire and East Midlands region.

With the last men’s regionals just over two years ago, ambitions to perform well this weekend will be prominent. Many of this year’s experienced players will have been freshers the last time they played so it will be interesting to see how they have developed during COVID and whether seedings remain accurate. There are five nationals spots available, three to Div 1 and two to Div 2 so there will be a number of first teams who miss out.

Showing consistency across all divisions, Loughborough 1 and Sheffield 1 hold top positions in the table and it is predicted they will continue to perform highly in the men’s division as they did in the mixed division. Impressively, Loughborough have managed to field five teams this year so it will be exciting to see the development of their less experienced teams across the weekend. We’ve even heard rumours that there are bets circulating around whether Loughborough’s fifth team will beat their forth team. 

Leicester 1 are currently seeded third after an excellent performance in 2019, but with many of that team having now graduated, will they be able to hold their seed and perform as well as they did in the last open regionals? 

Nottingham Trent exceeded expectations at mixed regionals so there will be pressure for them to perform highly this weekend. With the addition of some ladies to their team, their tactics may vary to other teams which could provide them with an advantage over other teams.

In the middle, we have York who have a history of narrowly missing out on nationals so we can imagine they will be playing extra hard in order to secure a spot at nationals. York have also entered two teams so it will be interesting to compare the performance of their first team to their second team, and maybe even see a play-off between the two! 

Unfortunately, COVID has meant that quite a few teams are not playing this year including Sheffield Hallam, Bradford, Hull and De Montford. However, we have seen the addition of Leeds Beckett so it will be exciting to see how they perform as a new team across the weekend and whether they up their seed. 

We are really excited to see how all the teams connect and develop and whether there will be any surprises in game play across the weekend! 

Prediction

  1. Sheffield
  2. Loughborough
  3. Leeds
  4. Nottingham
  5. Loughborough 2
  6. York
  7. Leicester
  8. Huddersfield