THIS WEEKEND’S sporting activity was dominated by the York Indoors, a two-day Ultimate Frisbee event with teams competing from Manchester, Lancaster, Nottingham, Newcastle and York.
The tournament, which is in its sixth year, contains 16 teams in the Open Division, including mixed gender teams and a Women’s Division.
A magnificent sporting tournament, with music blasting from huge speakers, woolly hats resembling strawberries and pandas, tiger onesies and dazzling pyjama bottoms on display, the event had a fun yet competitive atmosphere with crowds of enthusiastic supporters. Players demonstrated excellent skills, admirable fitness and a certain level of balletic grace that goes hand-in-hand with the sport.
The Women’s final was between ‘Some Girls’ (a team made up of York alumni) and ‘Pies’ (Newcastle University’s team). The sides fought hard in the final, Beth Piastra demonstrating her dedication to victory by smashing into a wall in order to make a fantastic catch. The home team came out on top and York’s captain was delighted with her team’s performance: “It is the first time this team has ever played a tournament together and it’s great to walk away winners!”
In a York-dominated Men’s final, ‘YOPEN’ (York’s Open Division team) faced ‘Some Team’ (York graduates). YOPEN were victorious with their 7-5 win, Jamie Smith, the current Vice-Captain of the York first team, was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the weekend.
As Ultimate Frisbee is self-officiated, any disagreements are resolved on pitch. The ‘Spirit Prize’, voted by the players for the players, was awarded to ‘Randoms’ for the Open Division and shared between York and Nottingham Trent in the Women’s, the teams received a smarties cake for their good-sportsmanship.
Club Treasurer Steve Eyre remarked that “it’s been a really fantastic two days. Some particularly great news was that York beat Lancaster this morning 9-5, which bodes well for this year’s Roses competition”.
The club has got a busy season ahead, with the Women’s BUCS regional qualifiers at the beginning of February and the Outdoor Open in the beginning of March, which the club are hoping to host on campus.