Exeter 1s 12 – 7 Cardiff
On their first trip to the sacred soil of Duckes Meadow, Ultimate Frisbee claimed a hard-fought 12-7 victory over Cardiff. The BUCS league for Ultimate has only just come into being and Exeter showed the sporting system what it has been missing with some enthralling play.
Exeter Ultimate received the second most sign ups in the club’s history with 120 new members this year, which has led to a really strong core of the club and helped a lot in competitions. Their first tournament of the year, Mixed Regionals, displayed the talent within the club as the first team (captained by Stephen Strickland and Mike Forrest) finished top out of 20 teams. This is the first time in club memory that Exeter have finished as champions in this tournament. The creation of the Wednesday BUCS league has therefore come at a great time. It is also a huge moment in the progress of the UK Ultimate scene.
The three-point lead was then re-established when Louis Cash threw a pass to George Stubbs in the endzone
Although it was sunny initially, the rain, and especially the powerful wind, were extremely important in the context of the match. At some points, the disc would be blown backwards in the air, and at others it would sail far into the distance. The opening pull was blown about wildly in such a manner, but Exeter eventually took control of possession and pressed high into Cardiff territory. Harry Buttery particularly was aggressive in pressurising when Cardiff had the disc, and contributing to the score of Sean Jagger to make it 1-0. Cardiff quickly made amends with a couple of sneaky forehands to equalise. The majority of the offense was, however, coming from the home side.
The scores were level for a brief amount of time, but Exeter then took the lead. Having narrowly missed out on a score from a hopeful huck by Ben Docherty which just eclipsed Jagger’s fingertips, Exeter practically queued up inside the endzone before it was taken by Matt Sopp.
The third soon followed as Jagger, Doherty and Stephen Strickland combined beautifully in a series of passes which ended in Jagger scoring. It was quickly made 4-1 as Exeter began to turn the screw. The flair was turned on at this point when one poor Cardiff player was forced into a ‘scurvy’- diving for the disc when it had not yet been released and ending up sprawled out on the grass. Cardiff did start to come back into it as the score moved on to 5-3, but Jagger had taken a layout beautifully for the fifth score. The three point lead was then re-established by Exeter when Louis Cash threw a pass to George Stubbs in the endzone.
Going into the break, Exeter had managed to push the score up to 8-5. Jagger had added scores to his own high personal tally, and Mike Forrest also got on the scoresheet with a simple take inside the endzone to make it 9-5. Ben Doherty got himself a well-deserved score for his contributions to the match as Exeter went further into double figures at 11-5, snatching the disc after the long- awaited ‘hospital pass’ was grabbed by him over all the other clutching hands. Cardiff grabbed another couple of consolations, but Exeter were passing freely in the spirit of celebration and got their final score for a 12-7 victory. Jagger ended the match having scored six times and the team left delighted with their first win of this historic first Ultimate Frisbee BUCS season.
The success of this second BUCS league match for Ultimate will spur them on for the rest of the season, and they will be confident of further victories over their neighbouring universities.