Singapore club team wins ultimate frisbee event in Bali

Story adapted from John Holloway and G Gamboa Higging by reader June Yeoh

Denpasar, Indonesia, April 2-3, 2010 – Shiok, a Singapore club team, won the 11th Annual Bali Nusantara Cup held at the Lapangan Pegok in Sesetan, southern Denpasar.

A total of five teams from Indonesia (DiscIndo), Timor Leste (Ultimor) and Singapore (ACJC, Shiok and Thunderpants) took part in the competition.

Thunderpants included a mix of club players from Singapore's club, Freakshow, and non-club players. Team ACJC was made up of nine generations of Ultimate players from ACJC.

Day 1 Highlights

The first day had a full round-robin where each team played each other in games to 11 with a 60-minute soft cap.

Shiok arrived in Bali looking very strong, but slightly undermanned. Undefeated in pool play, they conceded only about 11 points all day on Saturday.

Ultimor looked strong early only going down by two points to Thunderpants and then after another very close game with DiscIndo where they went down by two again, they ran out of breath and ACJC took a commanding win.

ACJC ran DiscIndo hard for another big win, but lost against Thunderpants on the first universe point of the tournament.

Thunderpants also took out second seed DiscIndo going into the second day.

Day 1 seeds:
Shiok
Thunderpants
ACJC
DiscIndo
Ultimor

Day 2 Highlights

Ultimor vs Thunderpants: Ultimor started the morning strong again and scored a quick few points with their superior speed and athleticism but were unable to keep that momentum and went down by a comfortable margin (11-6).

ACJC vs DiscIndo: ACJC ran DiscIndo around and won by an even more comfortable margin, 11-4.

Ultimor vs DiscIndo: Shiok steamrolled Thunderpants while Ultimor and DiscIndo faced off in a last-place elimination grudge match. After trading points, Ultimor took their first lead of the tournament 5-4 when half-time was called.

After trading points again the rest of the game, DiscIndo got the break and led 10-9 in a game to 11. DiscIndo pulled to Ultimor who picked it up and sent it right back to their endzone where Lucy caught the second universe point of the tournament.

DiscIndo were obviously taking notes, receiving the pull and putting it back over the top to Drew with Matthias from Ultimor on his tail. In the end Drew pulled off a very difficult catch under huge pressure to call an end to Ultimor’s tournament and earned them the right to be run into the ground by ACJC; which – incidentally – is exactly what happened in the next game.

ACJC vs Thunderpants (Semi-finals): The ACJC – Thunderpants game was very closely fought. John Lin showed that he knows how to play on the second day in Bali throwing the first two scores and being a key handler the whole time.

There was a lot of hot zone D from both teams and both teams relied on their strengths. Thunderpants walking it up the field and then waiting for the hole in the end zone for the easy score; ACJC running it hard whenever the cup gave them an inch. The teams were evenly matched and took it all the way to universe point.

After playing conservatively both teams had a turnover a piece and ACJC decided it was time to go for broke. They popped it very far deep and brought down the catch under pressure for the honour of meeting Shiok in the final.

ACJC vs Shiok (final): This was ACJC’s fourth game of the day and only Shiok’s second. After giving up the first point, ACJC took the next three, leaving Shiok looking old and slow in the no-time-cap race to thirteen.

Both teams had spectacular defense, with Shiok mixing it up between a rabbit-cup zone and a very tight man. ACJC relied heavily on their clam, even on their O points when a turnover happened.

Shiok came out hard after the half and scored 5 in a row while ACJC looked lost and alone. Su Li and Maureen moved into the middle of the hori-stack and made some key advancements and Junyi put it deep to break the drought with Mr 99 (Kelvyn Tan) bringing it down like he had been doing all day.

ACJC tried to take it back, but Shiok’s zone D was too strong with Robin hanging out deep and swatting down discs like King Kong on the empire state. ACJC made a valiant effort, but Shiok held on to most of their lead long enough to make it to 13 and take out the tournament for the second time.

Final Results
Shiok (Singapore)
ACJC (Singapore)
Thunderpants (Singapore)
DiscIndo (Indonesia)
Ultimor (Timor Leste)

Awards (based on votes gathered throughout the weekend)

MVP Male - Clive Myint Soe (Shiok)
MVP Female - Mumba He (Shiok)
Spirit 7 - Lucy Clapham (Ultimor), Agnes Safford (DiscIndo), Suli Lee (ACJC), Andrew Whitmarsh (DiscIndo), Eddie Bywater (Thunderpants), John Lin (Thunderpants) and Alexander Lim (ACJC)
Hat Trick / Best Defense: Robin Goh (Shiok)
Callahan - June Yeoh (Thunderpants)