Cork Open 2005
The 3rd annual Cork Open Ultimate Frisbee Tournament took place on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2005 bringing 16 teams from 5 different countries to the peoples republic for what has been lauded as one of the finest tournaments ever held on Irish soil. This is the story of that tournament.
It all began way back in the early summer when Frank the monkey was strolling in the local park with some friends of his. As he swung from tree to tree in Fitzgerald’s park he caught a glimpse of a disc spinning through the air. With a twist of his tail he changed trajectory, intercepted the disc and landed with a roll inside the rectangular area that the kids had marked out with jumpers. A few hours later Frank returned home after spending the afternoon learning how to play ultimate and set about finding a team for the tournament the guys had been telling him about!
After almost a solid week of rain in the capital a perfect cold bright dewy morning awaited the 16 teams on the first morning of play. There was a tentative air of excitement amongst the players as the captains meeting got underway. This was to be the last outdoor tournament of the year and it looked like it had the makings of a humdinger. Teams from Scotland, Italy, Belgium and Northern Ireland added a real international flavour to the proceedings and the cream of the Irish ultimate scene, both club and university was also on show. Added to that mix was the unknown quantity of the pickup team and a number of international players scattered throughout the teams.
Frank awoke to the sound of members of MAC scrummaging it out for the bathroom. His head felt kinda furry and he was about to blame the 14 double Jamesons he’d had the night before until he remembered that his head always felt furry. Scrambling over the bodies scattered around the floor Frank found his dics, boots, water bottle and toight leggings…all an ultimate player really needs and squeezed into the backseat of one of the many taxis headed for the sports fields.
Four pools of four teams placed an international team in each group and each team played 3 games in a classic pool play schedule. By the end of pool play on day 1 a number of surprise results had been registered. In the first game of the day the pickups came out firing on all cylinders and caught the hosts, Skulltimate 1, flatfooted beating them 6-5. The pickups continued to be a strong force winning their other two pool games and jumping up to 4th seed for the day ahead of Skulltimate, DCU and UCD2. Skulltimate 2 on the other hand were having a much better time of things, and inspired by the combination of their Irish, Italian and American star players won all three of their pool games against BUG, MAC and the highly rated Italians. Frasba dal Lac from Como had travelled further than anyone else to attend their first ever tournament outside Ireland and showed a very high level of spirit in all of their games, especially enjoying their contest against the Dublin ladies club team MAC who were also competing for the first time on irish soil.
The other pools went more according to seed with the Dublin mens club team Johnny Chimpo maintaining their favourites tag by inflicting heavy defeats on the other teams in a very strong pool. The Belgians from Ghent finished second in the pool ahead of UCD1 and Sligo. The final pool also went according to seed, with the UCD old boys and girl team, Broccoli winning all three of their pool games against DIT, Trinity and Stirling University despite playing ironman. DIT and Trinity had a close game and were to meet again later in the tournament where the stakes would be much higher.
As captain of the pickup team Frank knew he’d have his work cut out for him to make a group of people who had never met each other before gel together into a team, but if anyone could pull it off he was sure that this spider monkey could. He’d also promised the Stirlingites that he’d guest star in a few points for them during the tournament and was really looking forward to displaying his disc control skills for all to see!
The fields glinted in the morning light and Frank got a feeling deep in his monkey tummy that today was going to be a ‘good day’. Standing on the line, shoulder to shoulder with others who shared the love of ultimate enough to come to a field in Cork in late October and wear short pants…it didn’t get much better than this. A roar erupted around the fields signalling the start of play and soon after the game discs were in flight…it was beautiful, and he was reminded of the flying squirrels he used to hang with back in the rainforest, how they would glide softly from tree to tree like a disc at the peak of its trajectory. Suddenly Frank was jolted from his daydream by a disc pinged long accompanied by the shouts of ‘UP…UP’!! Using his tail as a spring Frank leaped over his nearest defender, and snatched the disc from its flight path. Score 1-0.
After pool play each team had one more game to play before the festivities begin. The final games of day 1 for each team are very important. The purpose of the crossover game is to give teams who may have performed poorly in pool play a second chance to achieve their deserved position in the overall seedings for day 1. Teams who have finished first or second in a relatively weak pool must beware the threat of a team finishing 3rd in a strong pool. Such was the case for Trinity(7th) who faced a UCD1(9th) side looking to prove themselves after a difficult morning session. UCD1 ran out winners and claimed 7th seed. All the other crossovers finished according to seeding which resulted in two groups of 8 being decided for second days play.
Frank finished day 1 feeling satisfied with the stiffness in his monkey muscles. He had propelled his pickup team to first seed n the group and had steered them to victory in the potentially treacherous crossover game. The days ultimate had been superb….never before had Frank experienced the full effect of 16 teams descending on a playing field. The layouts, the hucks, the defensive bids, the commitment, the comradeship, the spirit, the laughter, the intensity, the hilarious calls, the magic, the flow, the low release forehands, the hammers, the joy, the D, the break mark throws, the awesome grabs………ultimate.
Sunday separated the teams into two groups of 8, each division battling it out for the Cork Open ‘cup’ and ‘plate’ respectively. Winning their Sunday morning games saw Johnny Chimpo, Gentle, UCD1 and Broccoli advance to the tournament semi-finals, with Gentle due to face JC and Broccoli facing the students from their mater. Gentle put up a much more defiant performance against the Chimps and were unfortunate to lose on a scoreline of 13-8. Broccoli showed their undergrads how to do it, advancing to the final on a 13-7 scoreline.
In the bottom half of the division Trinity and DIT were busy making their way towards a plate final rematch.
The final brought together two of the Dublin teams, Johnny Chimpo and Brocolli who played a very intense game in difficult conditions. Brocolli managed to trade points with the Chimps to 3-3 but some good defensive work from the larger Chimpo squad eventually forced the turnover and from that point Johnny Chimpo were always in charge and ran out winners on a scoreline of 13-9.
This was Chimpos second Cork Open title in as many years and one must now wonder what it will take to deny these cheeky monkeys a hat-trick of victories in next years competition. There was ample consolation for Brocolli, however as they were voted by the other teams as ‘Most Spirited Team’, Rob Kiely picked up the MVP in the final award and Luan McKenna was voted best costume. Everybodys favourite ladies, MAC were clear winners of the ‘Party’ award, and Trinity muscled past DIT 13-11 to claim the plate award. Each team also nominated their MVP player for the weekend and these were awarded with a Cork Open MVP medal. The final standings and MVP team of the Cork Open 2005 are listed below.
Frank and his pickups dragged their weary aching bodies from the pitch after their last game against Frasba and made their way to the presentations. Despite the tiredness there is a grin on his monkey face that spreads from ear to ear as he is carried aloft by the jubilant pickups…’what a weekend’ he thinks to himself!!! He cant wait to tell his old pals at the zoo about this one…how he managed to meet so many new people and make so many friends in just two days! The party stands out in his memory as one of the best nights since he left the zoo ... never before had he been kidnapped so many times and had such fun! The on field comradery between the various teams was something he’d never known…each player giving their all and never giving up, pushing their bodies go higher and faster, to catch the uncatchable…and succeeding. He didn’t want the tournament to end…didn’t want tomorrow not to have ultimate in it. But end it did, and Franks first tournament came to a close, and he smiled once more…this time quietly to himself, almost as if he was sharing a private joke with the invisible man (that guy makes great cuts but couldn’t catch flu in a chicken coop) …and wondered if everyone else who played in the Cork Open 2005 was feeling the brand of exhausted elation that was infusing him.
Looking around at peoples eyes during the final few minutes of the awards ceremony he realised he wasn’t alone.
“all scores are entirely fictional cos I don’t remember em but they do represent who actually won the game”