LMS looking for Zone Defence

LMS are currently looking for a team/group of players to play Zone Defence against them on Thursday evenings from 7.30-8.30 in St.Annes Park.

If your interested come out and play against us!

Little Miss Sunshine at Toms Tourney 2010

 Sparky also part of the TT team!

Last weekend saw 11 LMS players travel and compete at Toms Tourney in Brugge. This was one of 2 warm up tourneys in prep for Prague. Being a completely new team, LMS were seeded a very respectable 8th out of 16 womens teams. After a glorious day on Thursday with Belgiun beer, waffles and chocolate LMS woke up to rain and cold weather on Friday. We still rejoiced about the fact that we were not staying in tents (ahem, broc..) and agreed that the ground suited us better after rain :)

We started the Friday by talking about team goals and personal goals. Captain and vice captain for the tournament were Laura and Sparky respectively.

Our first game was against Tramuntana, a team from Girona. LMS started with determination and competitiveness which continued throughout the weekend. Our first competitive game as a club was won 14-2 much to our delight. Our second game was against Copenhagen, a team we had seen reach the final the previous year. Needless to say we were more anxious about playing this team. However we took the attitude from the 1st game right into the second game and played our best. This was a really tough but enjoyable game and as the buzzer went for time they took possession and scored the last point 8-7. We were so close to beating them!! But you learn more from a loss than a win and we are taking this with us to Prague!! Our last game of the day was against BXL-R. After a slow start and an adjustment to playing zone offense for the first time we took the win 8-4 meaning to finish second in our group, qualifying us to one of 2 upper groups on Saturday. Friday night consisted of lots of kebabs, a juggling act in the big tent and some belgiun beer. Think we all crashed pretty early that night!

Saturday was to be a tougher day. Our pool had Tequila boom boom (finalists in Paga), Hot beaches and Creme Catalana. Our first game did not go so well against a strong squad of czech ladies. We tried every type of defense but our offense could just not compete with their zone defence and when they got the turns they moved the disc quickly hucking and breaking us along the way. This game has given us a huge amount to focus on in the coming months, it was definitely an experience! We were beaten 15-4. Second game was Tequila boom boom. The weather decided to throw a spanner in the works and it lashed rain. With a squad of similar size to ours we believed we had a good shot at beating the italian ladies. They however had different ideas, they shut down our offense by fronting the handlers, poaching the open lanes and marking the cutters under, their throws were very good and sailed through our zone and man D. It was disapointing not to do better in this game and they beat us 9-6. Our thrid game became a bit of a joke after we were moved to a "pitch" which was full of ankle trapping rabbit holes. Because of this the pitch width had to be reduced in size by half! Playing 7-a-side of a 20m wide pitch was very difficult and made finding the space very hard. Creme Catalan challenged us with a zone while we forced them middle. Points were swapped by we managed to take the lead while they were always catching up. With one spectacular grab from Sj by a crazy disc from someone in a cap we won the game 9-7. This meant we didnt have to play a challenge match, woohoo!! It was probably the best thing about winning that game! Our quarter final was on at 16.45 against Copengahen. After 3 games and a couple of injuries we were starting to feel tired as a team. For the second time in 2 days we battled with Copenhagen. Both teams wanted it and it showed on the pitch. We ran them around on offense and played hard man defense but in the end their legs won out over ours. The kept the intensity up throughout the game, ours waned towards the end. Copenhagen won 9-6. After copious amounts of chocolate during the day our bellys were not satisfied and it was off to the kebabery for some and foody type bar for others. Showered , fed and beautified we headed for the party which was 20mins away. 40mins later we arrived! The broc lads were hammered by the time we arrived having started drinking at 4ish which led to some having to be brought home! The party was good with good dancy music and even a male striper which most would rather have not seen! 

Sunday morning brought with it the fight for 5th place. Our first game was against Miss B and we played against former Irish captain Linda!! This was a great game and a definite battle. The pitches were mucky, the wind picked up and we were challenged with man D and then Zone. As our man offense was the better of the 2 over the weekend we took the lead early on and kept 1 point ahead for most of the game. Luckily for us they challenged us with zone towards the end of the game. Time went and we won the game 10-9. Absolutely thrilled as we had now beaten our seeding, the lowest we could finish was 6th, and with injuries looming that looked quite likely. That was until we got on the pitch for our final game against Primevara. The weather decided it hadnt been bad enough to us over the weekend, it lashed rain along with there being thunder and lightening. The ground was like a mucky soup. Throws and catches became really difficult and hucking was near impossible. We took an early lead while the weather was still okay. This was followed by some horrible ultimate with long points and lots of turnovers. But this was still a fight for 5th and we didn't forget that, in fact we notched up 13 points to 3 in the end for an impresive victory and 5th place!

Not only that but Little Miss Sunshine were awarded with the Spirit Prize!!!! This is such a huge achievement and I am thrilled to bits. The team played so well and fought hard for everything, winning spirit is definitely the cheery on the icing on the cake :)

From my perspective I want to congratulate everyone on the team for pushing themselves

Liz was the experienced handler and kept a level head while providing safe options time and time again

Sandra took down discs in the air like I've never seen before!!

Mandy kept her cool under pressure, especially with technically difficult role of a handler, showing far more experience and knowledge than expected

Sj got D's, caught crazy discs and never stopped cutting, she fought for everything this weekend

Sinead caught everything that came withing sight of the endzone and was always an option deep

Fi handled, initiated, recieved as well as getting down and dirty in the final 2 games, a great experienced all rounder all weekend

Fiona was a fantastic initiator and provided clever options under while hucking it long and breaking her mark

Sparky threw her flick huck like the professional she is while also remaining a calm voice on the line 

Lisa fit into the team perfectly with great throws and a knowledge of the game, we Irish love her and look forward to the connections she will build in the coming months with each of us

Cliodhna, like Sandra, caught any high disc, even with a defender on her shoulder and was cutting continuosly

I, Laura, feel I have finally figured out this laying out thing, now I need to start catching the disc!

Team MVP: Laura

Team MSP: Fi (Boxer)