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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Second indoor competition day 2015/2016

After our successful tournament on the 15th of November, the second Indoor competition day came upon us much quicker than anyone had expected. Despite the good team cohesion and the home ground, the anxiety was high as we were not sure if we can match our performance against a much tougher opposition.

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Our first game was against our friends from Force Electro, who were set to test us to the limits as the favorites to win the competition. Despite the formidable opponent, we played our own style and our offense was unwavering. We kept our composure for the first 25 minutes of the game and turned this into a neck and neck opening to the tournament. With only few minutes until the end, the game was tied at 6:6 and it looked like it could go either way. Unfortunately, a few lapses in concentration cost us dearly in the final minutes of the game and Force was able to convert a few quick points in succession to get to the final score of 7:10.

Despite the loss, we were heartened by the fact that we played as equals against a supposedly superior team. As it turned out Force Electro went undefeated throughout the day and we came the closest of all teams to beating them. The great opening gave us wings and we swooped through the second game against WAF1. It was a very spirited game in which we continued to play our fast-paced handler offense and dominated the game from very early on. Despite WAF1’s best efforts we took the win home with a convincing score of 12:4.

Our next game against Veenendaal Tijgers Open was by far the closest and most competitive game of all that were played today. Through the day we could see that the Tijgers were really practiced at playing Indoor style and showed some incredible hammers, scoobers and blades as well as some sick layouts. We were definitely in the position of the underdogs, but we showed that dogs can also bite. We held our own on offense and we pushed them to the limits with our energetic defense. We both fought fiercely for every single point and as a result neither of the two teams went ahead by more than 1 point at any given time. The game went back and forth until at 10:10 the siren sounded with R’damnit in possession of the disc and the chance to finish off the golden point. Unfortunately, we were denied a hard-fought victory by a momentary loss of focus and a stray scoober that the Tigers pounced on to make it 10:11.

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The closing game of the day was against Spinners1. Even though it was a physical game with relatively more body contacts, calls and stoppages, it was also a good one. Throughout the first half of the game we gained a lead of about 3-4 points and managed to maintain it. It seemed that during the last 10-15 minutes of the game we didn’t have the legs to press our advantage and to make the score line even more convincing, so we were content to keep playing point-for-point until the end. The final result was 10:6.

In the aftermath of these 4 games, it became clear that our promotion from division 4 was well deserved. Even though we came in to the tournament as underdogs, we managed to dominate 2 of the teams and to give the two best teams in the competition a run for their money. If anything, we proved that when we come together and play with energy, confidence and desire to win, we play as equals even with the best of teams. We are confident that no team in Division 3 will underestimate us the next time that we meet on the field.

First indoor competition day 2015/2016

Big news everyone! Yesterday R’damnit went undefeated (4-0-0) in the first indoor competition of the 2015-16 season. We were joined by Tilburg’s own Flying High, NUTS, Vellesan Speedy’s, and Panic.

Indoor 2015/2016 day 1

I think I speak for all when I say that it was a physically demanding competition; but, what we may have lacked in youth, we certainly made up for in offensive chemistry and tireless defense. Here are the quick stats:
R’Damnit (15) – Flying Hight (7)
R’Damnit (9) – Vellesan Speedy’s (8)
R’Damnit (13) – Panic (7)
R’Damnit (11) – NUTS (5)

Although the point differential increased in the latter two games, it does not reflect the intensity of the matches — (this is especially the case for NUTS, who despite scoring the least against us, was probably the most capable of exploiting our defense).
Thanks to everyone for showing great spirit and bringing some high-caliber ultimate. If we continue this trend R’Damnit will become a solid club team.

R’damnit first round Open Outdoor Competition

Last Sunday on a very sunny pitch in Berkel-Enschot the first round in the 4th division of the outdoor competition 2015 kicked off. Everybody (14 frisbee fanatics) on time, coffee&cake, streched and properly warmed up. Ready for our first match against the organizing team Flying High. That warming up paid off. With a good offence and a pressure defence we took the lead by half time leading 7-1. Second half Flying High woke up and took some points back but not enough to get our victory in trouble. Ending in 11-5.

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Continue reading “R’damnit first round Open Outdoor Competition”

Mixed Outdoor Competition Day 2

The joint team between Force Elektro and R’damnit went to the fields of Rijswijk last Sunday 15-09-13 to take on the third division. Our first match of the day was against Meer Ultimate Graag (MUG) from Haarlem. Sure, MUG has not been a club that long, but all their players were looking feisty and intimidating during their warm up, so we prepared ourselves for a fight. Our team had a good connection from the start of the match and took an early lead. Terrified that MUG would channel their inner champion at any minute we fought on. Our wariness proved founded after a three point run by MUG. Luckily we were able to shut them down once more and took victory with an impressive 15-5 victory.

Our second match was against the organizing team of Ultimus Prime. Given the friendly rivalry between FE and UP, we were once again ready for a serious match from point 1. UP was missing some of their strong players but still put on one hell of a fight. At half time many of us were genuinely surprised to see that we had an 0-8 lead… that couldn’t be right. Trying to rest our poor 5 guys (we had to play each match with only 3 women on the line), we set up both a confining zone and a trap zone on alternating points. Although the confining zone had some success, our trap zone was a small disaster given the lack of wind and our lack of practice at that particular zone. Despite the toll on our energy (at least for the women) the zone took, we still managed to maintain our lead and took the win at 15-3.

We prepared for our match against UTKA by watching the exciting (and lengthy) end of the MUG-UTKA match. UTKA took that match 14-13 on universe point and had us quaking in our football boots with their speed and fighting spirit. We therefore entered our match against UTKA somewhat nervous but full of focus wanting to deny them everything from the get and go and to maybe exploit the fact that they were tired… surely they must have been tired after their match against MUG. There was luck on both sides with some awesome garbage scores and catches by UTKA but we got a few close calls in there as well. Our extra energy and focus proved decisive and we managed to secure another victory with 15-6. With three victories under our invisible belts we secured a promotion back up to the second division. Lets hope we fare better up there this time around.

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Mixed Outdoor Competition Day 1

On the first of September the combination team of Force Elektro and R’damnit went to Arnhem to take on the rest of the second division. Arriving there around 10 in the morning we were soon to face the reality of the day, many many skilled ulitimate players.

The day started out with our match against GD. After several points of amazingly good team play, perhaps shocked to be winning, we fell apart a little and GD took the lead. Although we became more competitive once more following halftime, but GD had already run away with the lead and continued to play solid ultimate, leading them to a 15-7 victory.

Our next battle was against the host team: Airborn. again we took an early lead, and again we lost it. But there followed a very intense fight after that, which we emerged victorious: 12-10. After some more healthy snacks and chatter we faced Crunch 2. They had won both their matches so far withe a pretty 15-10. Following a very mixed match (both in terms of gender and strategy) which brought out our best fight, we managed a 15-11 loss.

It was a tough day in the second division, we fought hard, had a good day´s worth of ultimate and a nice beer or two at the end. Unfortunately we demoted to the third division.

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Hargen Beach Tournament

Dear All,

Sunday 07-07-2013 we have been competing in the Hargen Beach Tournament. We won’t take about the first day, this day was used to warm-up. So the second day was a new beginning of the tournament where we will show that R’damnit is growing each day. See some awesome attached action photo’s for your self.

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