Rory Macanna
Staff Writer
In the first weekend of November, Dublin University Frisbee Club (DUFC) travelled down to Limerick to take part in one of the most competitive Open Indoor Intervarsities to date with numerous different teams attempting to wrestle the trophy from our grasp. Three College teams travelled to the UL Sports Arena for what was to be an exciting weekend of ultimate.
Although College was able to send a large squad to the tournament, they only had six players on the first team. This made their monumental task of defending their title as Open Indoor Intervarsities champions a little bit trickier.
DUFC’s first team battled to retain their crown began with a great victory over a very strong second team from UCC. A slow start for DUFC in their second game meant that they lost against UCD’s first team. They went down by six points early on in the game and although they fought back to decrease the margin it was too late to stop UCD taking a 12-9 victory. They did not fare much better in their next game against the UL first team. UL had entered a very strong first team this year and they went on to win the final against Maynooth on Sunday. DUFC’s first team got off to a great start against the UL first team with two quick points thrown long from Brian Boyle to Daniel Purdy. However, UL were then able to shut this option down quite effectively and take the lead from DUFC.
Although DUFC managed to finish the game with nine points on the board it was not enough to beat Limerick whose strong offence got them 18 points. DUFC first’s were able to avenge the third team by beating UCC’s third team in their final game of the day. Once out of the group stages the games became much more competitive, some of which went our way and others didn’t. DUFC’s first team lost a well contested game to UCC’s firsts before hammering ITB 18-5. In their final game a lack of subs meant they were not able to retain their lead over UCC’s second team and they lost by two points in a very close game.
DUFC thirds got off to a flying start and began the day by overwhelming Maynooth’s third team in a 20-4 victory and Galway3 21-7. This run did not last however and DUFC’s theird team lost their third game against UCC thirds. DUFC thirds went on to finish the Saturday with an easy victory over DCU’s second team. They also unfortunately lost their first game on the Sunday to UCC thirds again. Despite the fact that the UCC thirds had gained an extra player, our third team were able to improve on the previous result and lost by a margin of five this time as opposed to the eight point deficit that was between the teams the day before. DUFC then fought to beat Galway’s seond team’s zone defence 10-9. They trailed by two points up until the last few minutes when they were able to able to draw level and scrape a one point lead. DUFC thirds lost by a margin of three to Maynooth’s second team in a tough, tiring game.
Just like their team-mates, the second team began Saturday with a victory, beating DIT’s third team, 14-6. The victories continued for the team against DIT seconds; however they then lost their next game to ITB followed by a tough final game that day against Queens which they lost 13-2. Being out of the group stages also meant closer more competitive games for our second team on Sunday and that morning they were the only DUFC team to begin the day with a victory beating the Pick-up team 12-11.
The next round of games went well for them as well with a 12-9 victory over UL thirds to get into the third bracket final. Our second team lost their final in a harrowing one point defeat to a much improved third team from Maynooth. In the final stages of the game they came back from three points down unfortunately they finished one point short of Maynooth in a final scoreline of 10-9.
This year’s Intervarsities was one of the most competitive in the tournament’s history with two teams (UL and Maynooth) reaching the final who had never made it to the final of any competition before. For DUFC it was a weekend with some great wins and painful defeats. Our first team reluctantly relinquished their hold on the trophy to a very strong UL team while our second and third teams performed very well all weekend. DUFC’s second team played the entire weekend with only one experienced player on the team and while the thirds had two experienced players they played a lot of their points against DCU’s second team and Maynooth’s third team, with their experienced players watching from the sideline.
