Ultimate Frisbee Women's Team at the Nationals!

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Picnic’s women’s team qualified for nationals in December after competing in the West of England Women’s Indoor Frisbee Regionals tournament. We went into this tournament as the underdogs, having not trained much as a team, struggling with numbers due to covid, and were predicted to come 9th. Despite all this, we came 5th overall, qualifying for nationals.

This is the second time running that we have made it to nationals. In 2020, the women’s team went all the way to Glasgow for the Women’s Indoor Frisbee Nationals tournament, finishing in 11th place! This was the first time in 6 years that a Picnic women’s team had qualified for nationals. It was also one of the last competitions Picnic went to before the pandemic hit.

"Watching everyone improve over the weekend was great to see"

 

- Martie Stothoff. 

When nationals came around this time, again we struggled for numbers but managed to put a strong team together to travel to Nottingham for the tournament. We came into the competition seeded 4th so there were high expectations on us!

It took the first game on the Saturday against Cambridge for the team to find their stride, but despite our slow start, there was only one point between the two teams at the end of the game! This spurred us on to win the majority of the remaining games on the Saturday, finishing the day with a win (9-5 against St Andrews, 8-5 against Durham, and 9-4 against Sussex).

"I'm so proud of the team and how much we developed over the weekend. Qualifying for nationals in the first place is such a big achievement and we finished higher this year than we did last time! I hope we can continue to build on this progress next year and encourage more women into the sport."

 

- Olivia Sims, team captain

Sunday morning came along and saw another win for Picnic (9-2 against Oxford) and the ladies climbed up to 6th position.

Following this win, we encountered fellow southwest team Swansea in the 6-3 crossover. After a nail-biting game, trading points back and forth, Picnic lost out by one point to the Swans! We faced a similar fate in the rematch against Cambridge but managed to end the day on a victory against Loughborough, leaving us finishing the tournament in 7th place overall.

"The team grew in ability and understanding across the course of the weekend, leading to a 7th placed finish! Everyone played exceptionally and had a fun time."

 

- Harry Sims, club captain

Everyone in the team played exceptionally well and had an important role to play. It was very difficult to choose, but Rachel was voted MVP (most valuable player) and Maisie MIP (most improved player). However, everyone was integral to the team’s success; Katie shone on defence, Alicia was our hype woman and made sure the team was pumped and ready to go, Martie was always a reliable handler, Cerys was excellent at cutting into space, and Olivia (myself) captained the team throughout. Special mentions also need to go to Callum for driving the minibus all the way to Nottingham, and Harry (club captain) for coming to support the team. Shout out to the club's new mascot Henry the goose for his support.

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