Sketchy Newsk

Sasha: Current Sketchy power ranking on the BUDA website: #5. Hilarious. Lovin' it.

Geoa: We had a small roster, in which ryan and seth were the next oldest after larry, but we totally destroyed (15-2? 15-3?) a pretty sloppy-looking team. We played well, only dropped it a few times (one of which was mine, gr), and played good zone with lots of communicating. woo.=)

Molly (and Brian): We were at the game last night but must have been mistaken for "young people". We're not as old as Larry but certainly well out of college!

Ralph: Actually 18-2. and there were 3 turnovers I believe...

Fred: Wow - that's fantastic!! I'll ignore the part about the old members of the team being absent, as I am one of them...Larry - thanks for representin'!!

Seth: All 3 of our turnovers were stupid drops (one of which was mine in the end-zone). Not a problem overall. We also got every one of em back, so we always scored on offense. We had only a few silly decisions that ended up working out despite physics not being in our favor. Solid game, I'd say.

Sasha: The final score was 15-2 and the whole game took about an hour. It gave us a chance to practice both a standard zone and a 1-3-3. We scrimmaged for a while afterward, which was entertaining, and the thunderstorms never got close, which was weird. I kept stats, which was also weird given the lopsidedness of the game, and may be weird anyway. Still, the hall of fame goes to: Ralph, Tina, Molly, Garrett, Jason, Peter, and Ryan, all of whom went without a throwaway the whole game. (Ralph owes Brian and Tina a beer for that.) Also, it's worth noting that Molly scored five times.

So,between this game and Mixed Easterns, Sketchy has worked some on a horizontal stack, zone, and 1-3-3. We're getting to know each other and it's all fun and good.

In our search for a place to call our own, tonight we tried Woburn's own, "THE RESTAURANT," which serves enormous plates of bland food for not very much money. Seemed to go over pretty well. Someday we'll go to the biker bar.

Sasha: Check it out: as a result of our ONE game with the Tubbs last week, we're power-ranked 12 in all of Boston. That cracks me up.

Sasha: Sketchy played more games and scored more points than any oddsmakers would have had us.

We went in seeded 30th, which is to say, third to last, which is totally fair considering (a) that we were a new team, and (b) that up until about two weeks ago we didn't have a roster big enough to play at all. At the last minute we'd tried to hook up with 7 Express, a New York team, but the group of them that decided to come also decided that they'd rather play with someone who wasn't seeded 30th.

That put us in an initial pool with Chinstrap (first game) and Bashing Pinatas (second) and some other club team that was seeded 20th. Kind of looked like we were just going to lose on day one, go down to the beer pool, and win some on day two.

First game against Chinstrap was actually quite fun. We all knew each other and the outcome was pretty much predestined so it was all in good humor and friendship. We also managed 7 points against them, so that was fine. We got warmed up and got to know each other a bit.

Too bad that playing with Bashing Pinatas wasn't that fun, too. Given the difference in the teams, it was amazing to me that they were making the kind of calls that they were. Final score 15-3, and the impression I got from Sketchy was that we were just happy to have it over.

It's positive, though, that we got to play those two teams first. It gave us a chance to play together some and get to know each other. We were also able to watch a little of our pool's third-seed team, the Muff 'n Men. We knew that they were going to Ho stack, and we decided to do some of that ourselves, to great success. They led through most of it and took half, but it was close all the way. Toward the end, it was 12-10 in favor of Muff, but we showed some real focus both on O and D, didn't put our heads down, and outscored them 5-1 at the end to take it, 15-13.

Muff 'n' Men really is a great name for a mixed ultimate team. Think about it.

That put us in the crossover game with Spawn, from New Brunswick. I'd played against them several times before in Montreal. They were a beatable team, but it was not to be, and good thing, too! Even if we hadn't been tired and getting into our turn-fest, if we'd beaten them we would have moved into the upper bracket for day two, where we once again could have faced off against Chinstrap and Bashing and teams that were far better than they were (Slow White, Puppet Regime, Quiet Coyote…). No thanks!

So we went into day two, seeded (incorrectly, apparently) 23rd. And our first opponents were: the 7 Express pickup team! (They were really called "Fission") It was cold, and we had to start at 9 a.m., which, of course, we didn't, but neither were they ready to. Much of this game was played with zones in a very light breeze, and Sketchy showed great patience. More than that, the defense forced Fission into turnover after turnover: very intense and concentrated. The cap horn blew just as we reached half-time, with us up 8-6. We got two more D's, two more scores. Game over.

For sheer turnaround and perseverance, the second game of Sunday was the best. Vitamin I (from Ithaca, New York) came out way, way faster paced than we did, and quickly jumped out to a 5-1 lead (Joe insists it was 6-1. I like his story better.) We talked on the line and tried to get our energy up. Vitamin I also let down a little, clearly thinking that this game was going to be a rollover, which is certainly how it started. Next thing we all knew, the score was 5-5, and they were taking a time out to get their heads together. Not that it did that much good, since we then scored two more. However, they then cranked it up again to take half, 8-7.

I'm not quite sure what happened in the second half, but more than anything it just looked like we relaxed a little in the head and turned it up in the legs, with the result being that we outscored them 5-1 at the end (second time this tourney!) to win that game 12-9. Larry and Andre (and Geoa, for a couple points) had joined us with fresh legs and that helped increase the whole pace.

So there we were, already up from 30th place to a worst-possible 20th, and about to face the notorious "WMD." They joined us on our field and immediately put on the standard WMD woman-covering-a-man and man-hacking-a-woman-on-the-sidelines, which we proceeded to run over, and our 1-3-3 and straight-up-Erik play-long defenses forced them to throw a lot, resulting in many drops from the orange camouflage side. By the time the score was 12-3, they were playing silly defenses and we decided to play just one more point. Final 12-4.

Which put us in the chumpionship, playing for 17th. I think I speak for everyone (but certainly for myself) when I say that we didn't really expect to play four games on Sunday. But there we were, undefeated into the last game. Unfortunately, we really didn't have much left. Molly and Brian had had to take off; Larry and Andre and Geoa were off with the high schoolers. We had two men and no women subs left, and when the score was 8-3 game to 9 and the rain came pelting in, we just abandoned it and all took what shelter we could under the Dragons tent.

Final standing: 18th. Now, that's what we call breaking seed! If we had beaten Spawn and moved up, we may have become instant Boston legends, but then, we'd also have had to spend all of Sunday getting slaughtered by the likes of Bytown and Kung Fu Grip. Instead, we got to spend Sunday beating teams that thought they'd roll us. In the end, our record was 4-4, and it was great fun.

According to Larry, we may not be able to play a whole lot in Lexington, because it looks like we won't get any consistent permit. You all have permission to bug him, to get him contacting the powers that be for as many Tuesday or Thursday Lexington locations as we can get.

Our Waivers are all paid! Yes! That saved us all $100 off our league dues. Thanks to Keiko for picking up the check, originally. In the least figurative of possible meanings, we all owe her.

First game:

Sasha: The final score showed the same difference as the number of players we had vs. the number of players they had. Which is to say: we won. Pretty handily. Our first gathering and game was against a light (only nine players) Tubbs team who made their way all the way up from South Boston. Major gratitude from us. We had 16 players. 16-9 on players, and final score was 15-8.

We seem to have a very good team. Fast, upbeat, ready to get on the field. Mostly on time. The dumping and swinging was good. The hucking mostly worked. We got a chance to play some zone O, which we did very well, causing our opponents to abandon the zone D pretty quickly. Then again, there absolutely was no wind, and we didn't even try a zone D. We encouraged the Tubbs to play some 4/3, which they did, but one of their women was having some injury problems, so we played a bit of 4/3 against their 5/2, which was fine. Point for point it went kind of like this: we got two quickly, then looked like we started thinking that we might just run the table, but the Tubbs are a good team and scored a couple. Soon 4-2. We took half 7-3, but they came right back with two more (which means that they broke service. We must find someone to blame for that). 7-5 was the closest score on the game. We'd originally agreed to play to 13, and at that point the score was 13-6, but the Tubbs, light on players and injured as they were, saw that we still had some daylight and were kind and offered to play to 15. We traded points to the end and won 15-8.

Both Sketchy and the Tubbs didn't seem to have that much trouble getting open; both of us breaking mark and making good cuts. However, we were clearly a quicker team, and our ability to field a new line on any point overwhelmed them. We'll see how we do against a bigger, younger squad very soon. As in, next Tuesday.

We also got a couple very nice D blocks. Lauren springs to mind for the huck at the start, and I think also Garrett and Ryan? (Don't let me leave anyone out!) We should keep track of these things.

After the game we adjourned to the Tanner Tavern for refreshments and nourishment. We should try a bunch of places and decide where "our hangout" is. Biker Bar next week, anyone?