Whilst most of Oxford welcomed the arrival of 1st Week by sleeping off the post-collections hangover, the men and women of the Oxford University Ultimate Club (OW!) travelled to Nottingham and spent the weekend competing at the BUCS Outdoor Nationals, with the women’s team (WOW!) performing especially well and ultimately bringing home the national title.
If, like me, you have been in University Parks on a Saturday and have wondered what the swathes of people running around, chucking a frisbee to each other were in fact up to, the answer is: ultimate. My obliviousness and drastic over-simplification aside, ultimate is actually an immensely tactical sport with great popularity globally, with over 5.1 million registered amateurs and 2 professional leagues in the USA. Ultimate frisbee is increasing in popularity among students in the UK, with teams at over 60 universities that regularly compete in tournaments up and down the country. The BUCS weekend is the pinnacle of university-level ultimate, with the best of the best competing to become ultimate BUCS champions.
One of ultimate’s most appealing aspects is its high pace and intensity, which, in combination with having some common rules with other sports such as netball and American football, makes for a compelling game. It is non-contact, the Frisbee can only be held while stationary for 10 seconds and points are scored by catching the disc in the ‘endzone’.
Another of its quirks is its almost entirely self-refereed nature by the two sets of seven players on the field, which promotes the values of fair play, honesty, mutual respect and ‘the spirit of the game’ that run at the core of the sport.
Even at the professional level, the advent of referees with the power to make crucial decisions is a somewhat controversial introduction among ultimate purists, but it is the honesty of the amateur game that is certainly the sport’s most admirable feature.
Ultimate stays true to its roots in American student counter-culture, dating back around half a century and it absolutely has much that could be learned by other sports. The controversy that surrounded Chelsea players and referees in top-f light fixtures this year shows that the public don’t especially care for such actions and empathise with the difficulty of refereeing any fast paced sport. Are the days of players crowding referees in the top leagues of world football over? No.
But the message of respect that ultimate preaches is a healthy one for sporting values, regardless of discipline.
Returning to the national competition, the tournament itself is the showpiece event of the outdoor, warm-weather ultimate season and this year’s edition in Nottingham proved to be a showcase for the silky skills of the women of WOW!, who were crowned national champions following an excellent run of games against Strathclyde, Southampton, Loughborough, Liverpool, the hosts Nottingham and Bangor. They then defeated the University of Birmingham in the final to take an historic BUCS title, comfortably securing the 8-5 win.
The men’s team didn’t fare as well, but battled admirably to claim 15th position, after a win against Durham (always nice). The University of Birmingham, whose ladies’ team was defeated by WOW! went on to win the men’s event. This caps off an excellent season for the women’s ultimate team, having beaten their Light Blue counterparts both outside and in. Unfortunately, neither the men’s first nor second teams could imitate this result, though the alumni did pull off an impressive victory over the Tabs.
In another extremely positive aspect, the men’s first and second teams, as well as the women’s team, have been awarded Spirit Winners on numerous occasions, demonstrating the applaudable attitude shown by the Oxford ulitmate players. Moving forward, this victory is fantastic for the promotion of a sport that is underrepresented in the university. This is despite its obvious nationwide and global popularity, so instead of looking on confusedly in University Parks on a Saturday morning, next time, why not get involved?
