Halibut 2007- Ultimate Evolution

This report is brought to you by Your Mum. Isn't that nice of her? Taking time out of her busy schedule. The following contents were the view of one of the team members of Your Mum and do not necessarily contain the experience of all of Your Mum(s) (because then this report would probably be quite R (for racy) rated). So here we go...

Halibut 2007 was the destination of a mostly UE team plus Big V. Since we had been poorly organised and lacked in wit, a team name of Your Mum was created. At first it seemed quite lame, but with a bit of effort from some excellent designers, some resilient purchasing and ordering and hilarious team presents, Your Mum came into its own.

So to Brisbane we travelled. Some of the team made the journey up a little earlier to make advantage of the Queensland sun. Most of us however jumped on the late Friday night Virgin flight. There was plenty of Go Fish, Eye Spy, Jane Austin and Lame-0-iPod being played that made the journey go quite quickly. We had also been travelling with some of our fellow state members, Da Frizz. We said goodbye to them at the airport, but little did we know that in 10~15 minutes we would be reunited with one of their number who had a hot date that she couldn't refuse.

The maxi taxi from the airport to Fortitude Valley was therefore steeped in humour as we had waited for Pam, who had left, then caught a taxi back to the airport and then jumped in our taxi. She also had forgotten her handbag, including wallet (think money and ID), which made the whole event even more humorous. Add to that some poor instructions to the taxi driver, and a $30 cab ride turned into $60. But we made it to our abode for the next two nights at about 11:45pm.

Cramped is one way to describe the first impressions of the City Palms Motel. A shoebox, might be another. However, it was home, and as such we made good use of the lack of space. Five per room were squeezed in, and with some less than quiet fans in use, an early night was called.

4:20am and Richie's phone was ringing. 6:20am and my phone was being messaged. 6:40am and my alarm went off. Not much sleep was had, but it was time to get up and get ready. Thankfully the Halibut organisers had realised that 9:00 games were too early, and had bumped everything backwards half an hour. But getting to the fields at 8:30am for breakfast was still an effort. So much so, that a pie was required to be purchased by Morgan on the way to fields. (It just wouldn't have been frisbee without the pie).

The train station was close to our hotel, and with the early morning addition of Pam, we set off to our destination, Kalinga Park. Our first sight of the fabled grounds where we were to participate in Ultimate were full of mixed emotions. The fields had been well set out, with lots of space, shade tents were provided and many amenities, however the horrible brown colour of the grass blanched even the strongest of our teams stomachs. It was going to be very painful falling on that tough and sharp looking surface.

The weather was warm, about 21, however in the sun, which we had not seen for many months, it was damn hot. Speaking of hot, we were looking very resplendent in our new team uniforms. Team t-shirts had been designed, printed and organised by K, Robbee and Richie, and we looked quite sensational. Our team logo of I <heart> Your Mum really gave it to the opposition. How could they concentrate when they knew their mothers were the objects of our desires?

Our first game was on Field 1. We had a pretty tough draw, coming up against Seeds 1, 5, and 9 in the round-robin format. By the way, we had the unlucky seed of 13th, but considering we hadn't been here before, and with some of UE's less than favourable results, it was at least all we were due. So the first game, against the top seed, Day at the Races, started a little late, with their team not showing up for the first ten minutes of so. However it didn't seem to faze them. Dressed mostly in dresses, they made a mockery of our defence and scored at will. Half was called at 8 - 0. It was not looking good. After half we pulled ourselves together, but with some of the Australian squad, including Pottsy, in their team we had no chance. 15 - 4 was the final score. This result actually helped us, as our game finished very quickly and we had not expended too much energy.

Our next game was against the 5th seed, Hooray for Everything. Most of their team were wearing skirts. They were also from Brisbane. We were seeing a bit of a trend here... Anyway, they had had a very tough game up first, and we were able to take advantage of that. It was pretty close all the way, but we needed our traditional UE come back right at the end to level the scores after the siren and make it 9 - 9. A Draw! Hooray, we had not lost! The most memorable moment in this game was Denis's back D, which enabled us to level the scores and notch up some points on the competition table.

Lunch was called and it was a shambles. The line up for food went most of the way to the border of QLD and NSW. As such, organisers had to push back starting times of the third game by half an hour, to allow everyone to get some food. With a promise of two lines for tomorrow, this was a welcome relief.

Our last game of the round robin, pitted us against The Pass, from Byron Bay. The first game against an opposition who were not full of cross dressers (at least during the day). They also had some young-uns which was good to see. They also had about 20 players, to our 10, so they had a massive advantage in terms of leg power. In the end that was our downfall, running out of steam right at the end of the game and enabling them to sneak away for a win. The final score was 11 - 10, but we had been very valiant and quite close to an excellent win. Memorable moments were Robbee's crunching foul, which saw her ranting and raving for a little while. Also Adam's D in our offensive zone, which could have been a Callahan. Oh well, next time remember to catch that one Muff! The Pass were a very spirited team and fun to play, but it was frustrating seeing a game that we should have won slip through our fingers.

Our last game of the first day was against Lounge Lizards Original (I think). Both teams were very tired and it showed. Basic skill errors and simple mistakes were being made all over the shop. It was also the first game that our girls got to have a break. At this point I would like to make a very special mention that our girls, Kath, Robyn and Robbee put in a massive, massive effort and played savage throughout the whole tournament. You girls r0ck!! But an agreement was made between both teams to have a 5:2 ratio and therefore give both lots of girls some resting time. We did play this game fairly well and ran away decent winners 15 – 4 or something close to that. This meant that we could not come any lower than 12th, and therefore beat our seeding. It was also the game that Westy came up with one of our main cheers “Your Mum, she’s fit, she’s hot, she’s everything your not”. Whilst we’re on cheers, our other cheer that seemed to work was “Your Mum, Been there, Your Mum, Done That”.

A tired lot rambled up to the train station and somehow managed to get home in one piece. Time was at a premium and there was none of it available for a snooze. Showers were had, groans were stifled, we dressed up in our best Op Shop Formal outfits and hit the town running (well maybe slightly limping). First up was a dinner stop in the mall. Pretty standard affair, although that pesto sauce was quite rich... (It ended poor K and Robbee's evening quite early). We then strolled on over to the party, also in Fortitude Valley. We had got there while the night was still pretty young, so got stuck into those wonderful liquids that kill the braincells faster than we could lose to the top seed. We had some pretty good outfits, not quite fully outrageous, and almost too formal for some of the others.

The night got quite rowdy, particularly when GU-Unit turned up with their gangster possee, making a whole lot of noise. Quite a spectacle, particularly the big #32 who found himself a quiet spot in a corner and surreptitiously threw up for at least thirty minutes. Da Frizz arrived with a few of their number in some lovely dresses. Particularly Oli and Brian (hats off to you boys, top work).

As the night went on, the available floor space seemed to get less and less. There was way too many Ultimate players for the size of the venue, but no one seemed to mind. The amber and colourful liquids were flowing well. My only grudge was that a dance floor was required to really let the hair loose. At about 12:30, the last of Your Mum decided to call it an evening (disappointing effort I know), and walked back through the mall. Just as an aside, I'm planning to come back to Fortitude Valley one day and make a decent crack at a full-scale pub-crawl. That place was like some sort of heaven.

So the alarms rang out again very early on Sunday morning. Thankfully, we had got some sleep, and were somewhat refreshed and ready to go. We got to the fields about 8:30am again, this time via taxi's, due to all our luggage coming with us. We were pretty sore, but confident of climbing the ranking’s. However, to our dismay, we were to play The Pass first up. Not that this is anything against that team, they were really very spirited and fun to play, but with a competition of sixteen teams, and to come all that way, playing a team for the second time just didn't sit right.

If we won this game we were going from 12th to 9th. However again, their superior numbers were able to overrun us. Your Mum certainly put in another valiant effort, and only just missed out again 11 - 9. However this crushing loss really took it out of us. Particularly when we found out that we were then to play Hooray for Everything again. The day seemed to lose its colour.

A mild pasting was what occurred next. We had picked up a couple of extra players from Lost at Sea, who had a bye that round, but even with more subs, we were unable to gain any ground. Apparently H4E had played pretty poorly the day before, when we had managed a draw. Their full arsenal of plays came out on Sunday, with a bit less wind, they played very well. The final score was 15 – 8 or thereabouts.

Lunch was much better organised on the second day. The two lines were making much more progress, and the fact that we got their fairly early, meant that we had a pick of the best foods and were able to get some shade whilst we ate. A lively game of frisbee golf then ensued, before our last game of the tournament began.

GU-Unit, were to be our last foes. It was a battle for 11th place. Now even though they had a star recruit, direct from Japan, who was without doubt sensational, Your Mum managed to play our best game by far. The long hucks that had been missing all weekend came out in force, combined with some excellent defence and short cutting, the game was over quickly. It was a wonderful way to finish the tournament. Both teams had lots of fun, a very spirited game was had. As with all our games, Your Mum was able to hand back the undies of the opposing MVP's mother as a sign of respect. The rest of them we are keeping!!! Muahahahaha.

Some superlative ginger beer was consumed while we watched the final game between Day at the Races and Pie Wagon. Some amazing skills were on show, and the contest was very keening fought. Personally I was quite astounded by the speed and energy being outputted from the players, almost like they had not played any games over the last two days. Pie Wagon were deserved winners in the end and capped off a wonderful tournament.

I would like to offer our congratulations to the tournament organisers of Halibut 2007. It was well run, amenities and conditions were excellent and best of all the sun was out the whole weekend. I would also like to thank all our players: K, Robbee, Muff, Robyn, Westy, Kath, Denis, Viru, Richie and Morgan. Also thanks to Robyn for organising our team, Denis for our accommodation, K for paying for our accommodation, Richie for getting the t-shirts and Kath for being a late inclusion in the team (we couldn't have done it without you).

So we all made our various ways back to Adelaide, some before the final finished, some after and a couple of us a few days later after some much needed R&R in the Gold Coast... ahhhhhhh. So we now look forward to the Spring League, Mixed Nats aHalibut 2007.