Disc Knights Orange come in 3rd in Singapore Ultimate Open 2009

Story by Yvonne Yap/Red Sports. Pictures by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports

Anchorvale Fields, Sunday, August 9, 2009 – Singapore Ultimate Club Disc Knights came in 3rd after 2 days of competitions at the 2009 Singapore Ultimate Open. A total of 9 Singapore teams took part in this event, which attracted foreign teams from the region such as India and Vietnam.

Ultimate is a relatively new sport in Singapore and has elements of various sports incorporated in it such as one-on-one attacks and zonal defence. However, one unique feature is the “spirit of the game” – no referees are involved in the entire play. Players possess the integrity to admit their fouls and settle their own disputes peacefully on the field.

There were 4 pools playing on Day 1 of the event. After which, the top 2 from each group were matched up to play the quarter finals in Pool A, while the subsequent 2 teams played in Pool B and the bottom 2 teams played in Pool C.

The local teams included 3 teams from Freakshow, 2 teams from Disc Knights, Chuckies, Shiok and Singapore Management University. Freakshow Green won all their Pool A matches on Saturday but lost out to Disc Knights Orange narrowly in the Pool A quarter-finals 9-10. DK Orange then lost to eventual champions Mo’chi 6-13 in the semi-finals and had to settle for joint 3rd with Sunken Pleasure (Philippines).

Lagi Shiok, the second team local club Shiok sent for the competition, came in fifth in Pool D on Saturday and were matched up against El Ninos (Malaysia), India (India) and Singapore Management University (Singapore). They won their matches 13-4, 12-8, 12-7 respectively to take the position of Pool C Champions (ranked 17th).

“We are a relatively new team,” Ee Ghim, captain of Lagi Shiok revealed about his team. They are made up of mainly students from polytechnics and universities. Their target for this tournament was to make it to the upper half of the team standings.

Youths were also seen at the event supporting their peers, some of whom were pickup players. Pickup players are usually ultimate players themselves, but are not affiliated with any clubs. A Hwa Chong ultimate player there to catch the event summed up his thoughts on the sport, “Ultimate is a legal drug. It’s addictive!”

The organising committee for Singapore Ultimate Open 2009, led by tournament director Lance Dubos, started preparation for the event a few months back. The planning was tough, especially when it came to securing a venue suitable for the ultimate games.

“As SSC no longer has any large multi-pitch sites, we had to resort to SLA open land, which meant dealing with various government bodies (SLA, HDB, Town Council, MPs) to get the approval. These sites are not quite groomed enough, so we had to do a bit of gardening ourselves to remove mimosa and surface rocks,” Lance shared about their hard work to make the event a success.