Greetings from the lofty heights of 2nd floor Gonville 1,

Once more unto the match report breach I go with highlights of Eagles vs. ARU darkside on Saturday.

Eagles 8 - 6 ARU
(Chris, Nick SD, Fraser, NOwen, Draves (c), Tom, Ares, Will, Jess, Julia, Berit, Nuha)
Spirit Score: 5
MVP: Draves (cheers Eagles!!)

'I never saw/ The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour!'*

Windy indeed my fellow Eagles, though we did not let it blow us off course at all and we scored a solid victory over ARU Darkside. ARU were our final fixture before cuppers last term and wind was a factor then too (normally I'd use this coincidence as some springboard to leap into a metaphor on the continuity and cyclical nature of life in College League but as it stands I'm dog tired). In this tense previous encounter, we won by a single point with a very effective zone from us largely negating their superior numbers.

As we warmed up the wind and drizzle picked up and the already churned-up Parker's Piece was looking less and less inviting. A few gates were opened and cats were shooed before we huddled together for warmth and team spirit. With newcomers Berit and Nuha introduced to the DUFF FTW we got underway.

After losing the toss yet somehow ending up on downwind O, 7 of us lined up to face a competent looking ARU squad - not quite the horde from last term but certainly no pushovers with the likes of C-Face and Dobbie handling. The pitch set-up meant that this game was very much upwind/downwind, (something which myself and ARU captain Wally had agreed would make for a better game than a crosswind), and after scoring a protracted first point for Eagles we traded back and forth with ARU, with Downwind hucks from both squads being the order of the day. Eventually however, after really making ARU work to get those downwind scores, we managed to score a difficult upwind point simultaneously taking half at 7-5. Huddling once more for warmth, we had another DUFF FTW and got straight back out there. Time went during the next point which ARU managed to score making it 7-6. The final point was almost an anti-climax in its brevity, but we were quick, clinical and downwind meaning the game was over in under a minute, with Eagles winning 8-6.

What impressed me most on Saturday was our inability to stop running until the disc was dead. A number of times we kept chasing that disc even when other teams would have just left it for dead and while the conditions meant there were a lot of drops, there were also a lot of very nice takes that came out of nowhere. We stuck to Man D for the most part - which may seem strange given the windy conditions, but by virtue of starting on downwind O we would always have had to turn from offense into zone defence which can be tricky, especially given Berit and Nuha not having played zone D before - save for one point of Clam which worked OK but not spectacularly well (a minor criticism is that we should have had a louder switch to man call as the ensuing confusion lead to a mismatch on Dobbie and an easier score than it should have been). Our Man D was tight and we continually trapped them on the line with a little help from the wind. This really shut down their offense upwind and downwind and meant a lot of their scores came from lucky shots outside the pitch and back in, but a lot more turns which we eagerly picked up. The aforementioned newcomers both played astonishingly well given how little experience they had, with Nuha scoring several huge D's by virtue of being in the right place at the right time and Berit running very hard in order to keep up with her at times mismatched mark. On offense we mainly stuck to vert stack given we had drilled this on Thursday and for the most part this worked well. Our handlers were especially lethal at quick up the line dump cuts from behind the handler, gaining us quick yards. Another minor criticism would be our discipline in trying to give that first cut the time to get free and keeping the open space clear.

Several special mentions are in order I feel so here they are in no particular order: Chris Barnes was back with a vengeance (on his birthday no less!) and showed that his time off from injury was not wasted as his huge hucks made our deep shots a constant threat; Tom Claxton's ever-improving pitch awareness paid off with a catch in ARU's endzone; Jess Wong, Julia Roberts and Fraser Elliot ran hard as always but really shone with some excellent takes in very poor conditions and finally Will Benfold performed outstandingly as our go-to first cut, really working to get free and setting off nice and early so that NOwen, Ares, SD and Chris had very early options as handlers.

ARU's spirit was excellent as ever with a spirit score of 5 being awarded for what was a hard but enjoyable game of ultimate.

In conclusion, despite horrible conditions we shone and really worked together as a team to get our first victory of lent league. I feel our pre-first match training paid off on Saturday as ARU did seem rusty at times having not trained since cuppers. Lets hope the winning streak continues Eagles

KAKAWWW

Draves 'bonus points for the person who identifies the above quotation* without the aid of the internet' Avery

p.s. there's a video of a very slick Eagles play on Chris Barnes' wall - you should check out Fraser in his glory (I'd link you to it but Gonville's internet God is angry - we must have forgotten to make the blood sacrifice this week... here's a pic of him walking away afterwards anyway Fraser gonna Frase ).