UAL Ultimate frisbee team lose but keep high hopes

by Conor Shiels

The University of the Arts London Ultimate Frisbee team remain upbeat despite finishing last in their first major tournament last weekend.

The fledgling squad took part in the South East Regional Open Outdoor Tournament in Chichester, which marked UAL’s first major competition since their formation in last year.

The event saw them compete in three unsuccessful games on Saturday afternoon with a dramatic improvement in the level of play during their final two games the following afternoon.

During the course of the weekend they competed against a number of established teams, as well as newer teams such as the Roehampton University squad.

Optimism remains

Team Captain Benedict Butterworth remained optimistic after the tournament.

He told Arts London News: “Even though we didn’t win we still had a fantastic time over the weekend. We were the only new team in the competition so we never expected to come top.

We learned so much from the experience and everyone on the team has improved massively. We aim to organise at least one more tournament this academic year.”

In keeping with the traditional “Spirit of the Game” rules, which allow the sport to be played without a referee, each team were also marked out of twenty for their fair judgement of other teams at the end of each game.

The South East Regional Open Outdoor Tournament is an annual event organised by the South East Ultimate Frisbee Group.

A total of 23 teams from across the south east of England compete in the weekend long event.

The competition follows the trend which has shown a dramatic rise in the popularity of Ultimate Frisbee across British universities in recent years.