Second Outdoor Competition Day

On sunday 29th of April we had our second competition day of the outdoor season we had a great time! We had a lot less rain than expected. It  also was the first time for our new team mascot, 10 month old Thijs, to come and watch from his buggy.

In our first game we were up against BeeFrisbee2s who had just promoted from the 6th division. The difference in playing level was to be expected since we just degraded from 4th. Still, we discovered that BeeFrisbee2s managed to break through our zone easily. Nevertheless did a switch back to man defence help deliver us a winning score of 15-5.

In our second game of the day we played against Flying High, a team that we had played on our first competition day and that had degraded to 5th division as well. Flying High came with a slightly stronger team this time and the game that followed was very intense. They started out a little ahead, but during the middle of the game we gained momentum and got to 13-9 ahead. Then Flying High fought itself back which allowed them to win the game 14-13 on universe at the nerve wrecking end!

In our last game we stood against UFO. The development of this game proved to be remarkably similar to the previous one. R’damnit was behind at the start but ahead during most of the game thereafter. However, UFO came back strong in the last 20 minutes and forced us to fight for our win and place in 5th division by point cap.

We are looking forward to our last competition day on June 17th. Until then, we’ll enjoy our Thursday training sessions more and more thanks to the break of spring!

Indoor Tournament 2017/2018 – Day 1

Last Sunday Rotterdamn’it drove to Eindhoven to play the first indoor competition day 2017/2018. Starting in 3rd division would prove to be quite a challenge with 4 players that were competing indoors for the first time. Only 7 players in the roster and 4 matches to go.

The first match against BF2’s from Nijmegen seemed too difficult, some of our players so nervous that they did not want to step on the field. But things started to work and we were ahead most of the game. Only in the last minutes a couple of errors on our part allowed them to equalize the scoreboard 11-11. And this against the team that would eventually promote to 2nd division. Much better than what we expected. 

We faced Panic on the second match with similar feelings, very close match with a good performance from our newbies as well as our veterans. The scoreboard never showed more than two point difference. The final score was 10-12 for Panic.


We would have to play the last two matches with only one sub as Geert had to leave early for some family business. And we did miss him. Playing UTKA in the 3rd match would decide the team that was going to be demoted to 4th division. Not a single moment were the scores with a gap greater than one point, Rotterdamnit leading on the way. But exhaustion kicked in in the last 5 minutes and with less intense defense they ended up taking the universe point (10-11) and keeping the division.

We had no more energy for the last match. Even if we started with a 2-0 lead on Ultimaas, their athletic play was too much for us in the second part of the match, finishing with a bitter 6-12.

Rotterdamnit will play 4th division in December. Nevertheless, We played very solid and managed to give the other teams a run for their money. All our rookies should be proud of their performance and improvement along the day.

Summer training in new frisbee parc

Starting Thursday July 7, 19:00 – 21:00, we will have our summer training sessions for the upcoming weeks at the new frisbee parc (Sportplaza Zuiderpark, Oldegaarde 21 Rotterdam). Free to join for everyone!

Amsterdam – 4th Outdoor Competition Day

R'damnit Ultimate

4th and Final competition day

The 2016 season ended last Sunday in the wonderful fields of the National Rugby Association in Amsterdam. Rotterdamn’it was fighting in the 9th to 12th league (3rd division) after a dramatic lost universe point in the previous competition day that kept us out of quarters. Read more…

Den Bosch – 3rd Outdoor Competition Day

Rotterdamn’it went to Den Bosch to play the 3rd Outdoor Competition expecting a cold, gray and rainy day. The numbers did not look good to maintain our right to the 3rd Division. The previous evening the team was down to 7 players. At least 4 of these were going to start the day with injuries of some kind (not counting the bruises from the paintball session of the day before).
It was then when Guang (usual pickup) came in and offered to play despite the weather forecast and other plans. That made our team Savage +1. And that sub will prove very relevant in two ways: because some players would need a rest at some point and because Guang played amazing.
We went to the fields feeling like fighters of ‘El Alamo’ or ‘300’ ready to defend our ground in 3rd Division to the last breath. But unlike them we had no intention to ‘dine in hell’.
BeeFrisbee2’s
The first opponent was BeeFrisbee2’s. Coming from 4th Division and only other team having ladies in the roaster made them theoretically the most approachable opponent and the team to beat. We started the match with a quick lead of 5-0. From then on we traded points most of the game. Just in the end we were able to increase our gap to reach 15-6. With an initial victory and our clothes still dry we took shelter.
Ultimaas
The second match up was against Ultimaas. Coming from 2nd Division and looking strong and athletic they seemed too much power for us. But we jumped onto the field ready for the challenge. We managed to keep up against their zone and man defense to reach 7-8 behind and offense. During the recess our strength was starting to fade and the time still to be played seemed abysmal. It was in the second half that their dump pressure and fresher legs started to give them advantage. Our pep talks and very well engineered hydration mechanisms were not enough. Once we were 3 points behind our bodies gave up and we could not keep up with their cuts. They beat us 9-15, masquerading the great effort of the first half.
Blue Spider Dogs
The final opponent was Blue Spider Dogs (a combination of WAF, Blue Fingers and Vertigo) who again looked very masculine, experienced and athletic. We started a trench warfare in which we managed to get our points in offense and control their dangerous long game (our spies reported that hugs gave them their victory against Ultimaas). Our defense became a switching machine that constantly assimilated the gender mismatch getting an incredible amount of turns. We got to half time leading 8-7 and starting in offense. The fear of lowering the level on the second half as last game could be felt. But we kept on going to reach a short advantage of 13-12 under heavy rain. By then our clothes were heavy as lead and our legs ready to surrender. Some of our players were deciding who would stay in the field base on “the less injured” rule. In a point with many turns we had some misthrows and unnecessary drops that took us to 13-13, universe. In a decisive play in front of their endzone, Joep was running free into the break side, Oscar tried to throw an around break that was layout blocked in an impressive move by its mark. A quick counter attack gave BSD the victory. Beaten but very proud we huddled and shared “games like this is why we play ultimate” kind of comments under the rain.

R'damnit

We later learned that having won the universe point would have made us the first of the group. Nevertheless, after a 3 way tight we remain in 3rd Division for last the competition day in Amsterdam.
To all players: ‘Bravo’. Players ‘forgetting’ to sub when others needed it more. Arend, Vincent and Sander run in their cuts and defense until they could not move. Joep worked as a great experienced cutter. Vanessa and Rosa run an almost flawless handling game while Oscar did his thing around them. But all hats off for Guang who not only kept on running till the very end but used the rests between games to go to the cafeteria and work in his laptop. That is why Rotterdamn’it recognizes the great effort he made to help us in our hour of need and is giving him his highest honor, the medal to “his brother keeper and the finder of lost children” and naming him Saint Guang of Rotterdam.
Thanks to all for this epic day!!

Veenendaal – 2nd Outdoor Competition Day

Veenendaal competition day

In the early Sunday morning (when most Rotterdam’ers were still asleep) we started our one-hour journey to the first outdoor matches in the third division this year. Since everyone trusted Joep’s weather forecast of 95% rain chance, we packed a lot of changing clothes (except for Boris). So, we drove with two fully packed cars to Veenendaal, where we arrived in cold weather and were welcomed in a warm ‘sports cafeteria’ with some opera-like music, which did not help a lot with waking up.

DSC_0005

Vertigo 1

We started the first match against Vertigo 1, who were more difficult opponents than expected. Just before half time we were losing 8-3, but caught up to only a one point difference (11-10) in the second match half. Unfortunately, we could not keep the pressure and lost 15-10 in the end. Even though we were a bit disappointed, we were happy that it was sunny most of the time (Joep’s weather forecast was wrong!) and prepared some improved offense strategies for the upcoming match.

DSC_0015

Break time

During the break we boosted our bodies with some nice food, mostly with very nice chocolate-peanuts. Also the music in the room changed and was more energizing, although some of our team members, especially James, were still not entirely satisfied with it.

Veenendaal Tijgers

In the second match we played against the Veenendaal Tijgers. As expected they had a strong defence as well as tall and fast guys in the offense. This made the game already quite difficult and losing one of our players to a very important flight to the States after the first game did not help either, as we were then left with only one sub. Despite all this, we had some nicely played points with a good handler game and a strong defence. This was also influenced by the typical April weather: at some point during the game hail storms were causing less sight, but at the same time also more mistakes of the opponents. But even though we were able to win some points back, we still lost 15-4 in the end.

DSC_0037

Break again

The second break was quite long and everybody was almost asleep or just chilling. But the most important topic was the soccer game Feyenoord-Utrecht that started in the evening of the same day. Luckily the game started late, so we were able to get through Rotterdam without traffic and could still watch the game at home. Most importantly however, Feyenoord won and Rotterdam did not get trashed completely!

UFO 2

The third and last match of the day was against UFO 2. After losing the first two games, the only possibility how to stay in the third division was by winning this game. The match was very nice and spirited with an attitude to play for playing’s sake and only some calls, which were valid. So the game was a lot enjoyed by both teams, especially by our team, since we won the first game of the whole day (15-9). However, we had one last important duty to fulfil after the game had ended: we needed to eliminate some confusion in the opponent team, because James is not Oscar, but James.

DSC_0031

So…

Overall, we had a challenging but nice second outdoor match day. We ran a lot due to a little number of subs, the weather was sunnier and less rainy than expected and we were able to practice/improve some offense strategies as well as to adjust our defence to each single opponent team. And once more our team represented the women of the open outdoor competition, since we had the only two ladies on the line within the whole third division.

Promotion to 3rd Division (Matchday 1, open outdoor)

Sunday the 3rd of April saw the first proper day of spring this year. With the sun shining and low levels of wind, it was the perfect day for the tournament, hosted by Tilburg’s Flying High.

The four teams were well matched and most of the games were evenly contested. It was surely only by the shear intimidation of our spirited war-cry that allowed us to finish the day with 3 wins and no losses. Kudos to the BFrisBee2s whose spirit, grit and determination ensured that each of their games culminated in a universal point whilst playing savage for the entire tournament.

Teamfoto
Continue reading “Promotion to 3rd Division (Matchday 1, open outdoor)”

Introduction trainings in April

IntroTraining

In April we welcome inexperienced players to join our introduction trainings to learn the basics of Ultimate Frisbee FOR FREE.

EVERYONE WELCOME!!!! ALL GENDERS, ALL AGES, ALL PHYSICAL CONDITIONS !!

See you in out natural grass fields

When: Thursdays 21 & 28 April @ 19:00
Where: Max Planckplaats 300, Rotterdam (100m from Binnenhof metro station)

Well spirited Air Force 1

Rotterdamn’it drove early to Arnhem last Sunday with great hopes of doing well in the second bracket of the indoor competition (9th-16th). A solid team of 7 composed of Arend, Stoyan, Peter, Vincent, Joep, Deepak and Oscar. For once we had some height in our team.

Our start in quarters was not as we hoped for against the Vellesan Speedy’s. Lack of precision in offence was a constant over the match, which combined with low intensity in defense, lead to a well deserved 11-8 loss.

During the long long break between matches we learned a nonsense card game from Peter. The rules and the direction of the play kept on changing as our master saw fit. Great fun though.
Before the semis, and putting the playing cards to better use, we planned a zone defense to put to the test in the coming games.

We felt a bit down after having played our first match well below our level. We were ready to prove we could be better. Our next opponent was NUTS, against who we lost out last match of the previous competition day. Unlike our previous match our offence clicked and we had flow in our attack. A successful zone gave us some turns early in the game to gain a lead that grew until we reached a final score of 11-3. The point difference was big but it did not feel that way on the field. Always very nice to play against the Amsterdam university team.

A somehow shorter but still long brake after it was our turn to face the Veenendaal Tijgers for the 3rd time this season. I cannot tell the scores of any of the previous games, but they have always very close matches with intense defense being the key to the game. This time was not going to be different. This game was played in the main field with quite a crowd watching (or talking or reading, but you know, present) which gave an extra sense of relevance to the game. We started solid on offence and managed to chip away some break points. This short lead was maintained during the game with great offence and very focused defense. For once we were winning some air battles against a team that masters the high discs (Peter and Arend owned the skies). Final score was 7-12 for us, closing this season in a 13th place, the best we could do after losing our first match.

On the bright side, we ended up 9th on the spirit ranking, which over 40 is not bad at all.