Saturday, June 30, 2012

We are big in Japan

Firetails 30th June 2011

Hello fellow firetails followers,

The tough-as-nails tails were excited to see a fresh Viv Stettner this morning, and were greeted by some delightful white camouflage skins at breakfast (do you really need to camouflage in the snow??). We played three games of one hour each. It was a warm day on hard ground with the occasional brick found amongst the surface of the playing field proper (not at the brick mark sadly). Some key mentions were exceptional offensive layout grabs by "Spud" Malcher and Nashi pear Martens.

This morning we again faced Boushears, for the second time. We came out firing, marked tight and looked strong throughout.

Against a tokyo university team with some members of PBJS from AMUC, the tails really found their form and took the game 19-5. Our zone defence was a highlight, forcing turns around the disc, and we showed efficiency on our offence to convert the breaks.

Our final game against Muck (a combination of two of Japan's stronger women's teams Mud and Huck) has left us a little wounded and keen to bounce back for another try in the morning. With 5-5 at half time, we then got up 9-6, but lost the fight at 10-9. We saw some fast moving disc on both sides, but unforced errors saw the game slip from our hands. Watch out Muck - we will see you in the morning.

And finally - some more veggies to keep you guessing. Don't forget to post your guesses in the comments section....

  • Our fearless and unashamedly ridiculous vice captain - Hussey. She is a vegetable that grows from the ground, must be cooked and goes well with a Steph Malcher. She is named for the extraordinary weakness of her bladder...
  • Next, the returning firetail Rachel Grindlay. Though the kiwi seems an obvious choice, us firetails prefer things a little more personal. Rachel is named for her clean, organisational and compartmentalising qualities. She is a fruit.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Roasted and stewed

Hello faithful followers!

Some news from afar finally comes your way. This will be an update from one perspective - you may get further detail coming from others. In particular, I am expecting someone else to give a run-down of the amazing toy-shop that we visited, and all the delights it contains. I feel wouldn't do it justice, a high level of expressed enthusiasm is required for this.

Today we had the first two pretour games, first Naughty Kids, then Bauhsear. (I may be spelling that incorrectly, but given the range of pronunciations supplied by my teammates...).
I will try and be efficiently informative.

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Naughty Kids:
Our first run around since getting off the planes, and we were beautifully efficient! Midge gave us the challenge of lifting our O completion rate, and we did this fantastically - in fact, I think almost every turn of O (we didn't often 'start' on O) was completed cleanly.

Final result: Firetails 27/6 Naughty Kids (we sort of played two separate half games...)

Bauhsear:
These guys were a bit more challenging physically, despite appearing even smaller and cuter than the Naughty Kids. They were a bit fouly, but somehow this was always done in an cheerily apologetic way. There was a bit more wind, which required some discipline from us to keep it on the upwind side. It took us a while to adjust to the different pressure, as half was at 9-8, but in the latter part of the game we sorted ourselves out and ran away with it.

Final result: Firetails 17/11 Bauhsear

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Everyone on the team has now learnt their vegetable/fruit name. Expect to see them scattered through these blog posts as frequently as our real-names. Or real-other-nicknames. Here are a couple of teasers to start you off. See if you can work out who is what...

Starting with our noble Captain, Sarah Crossie. Think of a vegetable, reddish in colour, prone to over-talking. Put it in the comments if you think you know what she is.

May-lin Chuah, inarguably (as in you can't argue it) the nicest player on the team. She is a sweet, solid vegetable, found underground. The name is the clue.

Steph Malcher. One of my personal favourites. You're looking for a slang (ie. cute) version of this versatile vegetable. Useful in so many ways, a stable of every team or pantry.

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It's been hot here, but not unpleasantly so. We are missing Vivalvi, but I've just heard that she arrives in tonight. That will be lovely.



Friday, June 22, 2012

Training camps done!

The Firetails
The Firetails completed our fifth and final training camp in Australia on 14 June - the wettest day Sydney has had in five years. We were fortunate to spend the morning training in the rain on artificial turf - great preparation for Japan as we will be playing on several artificial turf fields and it is the rainy season there!

Firetails (Australia) & Whaitiri (New Zealand)
The NZ women's team joined us for the Saturday and Sunday of the camp. This was an excellent opportunity for us to play against another quality women's team and also one of our first opportunities to play together as an entire team. The Firetails were undefeated during those games. We entertained a small crowd during a showcase game on the Saturday afternoon before drawing the winners for our fund-raising raffle. Winners are in the process of being contacted - thanks to everyone who supported us by buying tickets or stubby coolers or stickers.

The team is doing our last sprint sessions and pod training this week. The next time we will all be together will be in Tokyo on 29 June.

Our pre tour schedule is:

29 June (Fri) - play Osaka University Team & Chukyo University Team (Naughty Kids) in Tokyo
30 June (Sat) - play Osaka University Team & Mud/Huck combined team & Ebimirin in Tokyo
1 July (Sun) - play Mud/Huck combined team & Japanese women's masters team in Tokyo
5 July (Thu) - play Team Canada in Sakai


The World Ultimate Championships run in Sakai from 7-14 August. The team is excited about playing the showcase game against the host nation in the opening round of the women's division on 7 August.

Scott George was kind enough to take some photos from the games against the kiwis. They are up on his website:
http://www.scottgeorge.me/photography/2012/06/12/firetails-vs-whaitiri-1/
http://www.scottgeorge.me/photography/2012/06/12/firetails-vs-whaitiri-2/
http://www.scottgeorge.me/photography/2012/06/12/firetails-vs-whaitiri-3/
http://www.scottgeorge.me/photography/2012/06/12/firetails-vs-whaitiri-4/