Fabulous frisbees can be the ultimate in fun
If we said that Horsham Ultimate hosted the second annual Hippodrome at the Bluecoat Sports Health and Fitness Club in Christs Hospital, Horsham, recently, would you know what we mean? Who, you say? What? Well, this is the greatest sport that no one knows about: ultimate frisbee, officially know just as ultimate.
I bet the last time you saw a frisbee being thrown, it was for a dog, but amazingly it’s actually a sport and has been played since the 1960s.
This sport is played by all genders, it’s self-refereed, it’s non-contact and it’s affordable, no special kit it required.
That’s odd, plenty will reply: a sport that is self-refereed.
You mean there is no official on the pitch taking charge? How can that possible work?
Well it does... any dispute on the pitch is managed by the teams playing, all rules are strictly followed by each member of the team, a discussion is encouraged to bring a dispute to a mutually agreed end.
In ultimate we have a thing called spirit... this encompasses the spirit that the game is played in, the spirit of each individual player and each team that plays; it covers courtesy, politeness and understanding of the rules, and each team will award a spirit score to their opponent after the match.
In tournaments these scores are totalled up and the team that has the highest spirit score wins the spirit award for that tournament, and this is an extremely coveted award and desired by all teams that play the game.
So back to the Hippodrome.
Twelve teams from around Sussex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey and London converged on Christ’s Hospital.
They are teams who all play to a high standard and were invited to the tournament by Horsham Ultimate to fight it out for the coveted Hungry Hippo trophy.
It was an early start for some of the teams, but Brixton were one of the first to arrive, full of passion and desire to take the trophy back to south London.
In their way were teams from Chichester, Southampton, St Albans, Tonbridge, Guildford and from clubs Curve, Guardians, Horsham, Purple Cobras and Rawhyde.
At 9am the first two pool games got under way, both fiercely competitive, Guardians v Guildford and Tonbridge v Rawhyde.
The results went in favour of Guardians (7-5) and Tonbridge (9-2) who both made a strong start to the competition.
The hosts, Horsham 1, entered the fray against Curve, and the match could have gone either way, but eventually Horsham broke away and won the match 9-5.
Meanwhile on the other pitch, Horsham 2 were playing against an experienced Chichester team who got ahead early and just could not be caught by the team from Horsham who lost 8-6.
The tournament was moving forward at a pace.
The top seeds of Purple Cobras were not getting it all their own way and were stopped in their tracks by a resolute Horsham 1 team displaying a level of ultimate skill that their opponents could not live with, and a sound defeat for the Cobras of 9-4 saw the pools levelling out as the fight for pool positions continued to take shape.
When all the pool games were complete, Horsham 1 were in top position, followed by Tonbridge and Purple Cobras, and the top eight teams went into a crossover competition where they play for the final four places.
After some fierce competition the final was to be between Purple Cobras and Guardians, with Horsham 1 and Tonbridge fighting it out for third/fourth place.
For 20 minutes the final flowed, with both teams exchanging points in a close fought battle of ultimate wit and guile. Backhands, forehands, hammers, scoobers and blades were all on display, all hitting their target, or being intercepted by exceptional defensive co-ordinations.
This game was going to the wire, and one minute from time the Purple Cobras got the vital point to edge ahead and they held out to the final buzzer to win 5-4 and take home the coveted Hungry Hippo trophy.
Spirit is a big deal, and the winner of the spirit award for Hippodrome 2022 wereGuardians, so huge congratulations to them, this was fully deserved.
Overall 12 teams had a fantastic day, and special thanks has to go to Horsham Ultimate and the Bluecoat Sports Health and Fitness Club for putting on a fantastic tournament.
Roll on 2023 when Purple Cobras get a chance to defend their crown.
If anyone is interested in getting involved in this sport you will be able to find your local team through www. ukultimate.com
Or if you are around the Horsham area why don’t you come along to a training session? Contact details are available from the Horsham Ultimate Facebook group, or from the website