Mother Tongue:
Andrew, Ivonne, Wayne, Gecko, Dave, Carl, Mike
Ryland, Magalie
06./07. November, 2004
After diving out of Drest'n Deckel as a part of my move to Leipzig I thought it would be a good time to experiment with a theme-team before starting out with the Divers. I decided to play in Magdeburg with a relatively young team called "Mother Tongue". This team, as Wayne cannot stess enough, is not an American team: it is a team of English native speakers from many countries (as well as some helpers) who live in Germany. That pretty much fits my profile, so I took up contact and before I knew it, I was playing with them in Magdebburg. The games were non-stop, which ment the disc is set on the ground after a point and the other team plays right away further. There are no side changes or throw offs.
An inherant problem with a team of players who are good, but haven't played with eachother before, is that they tend to always loose their first game of a tournament. This happend to us as we just barely lost to the Goldfingers from Potsdam in our first game. Our next game was against the DJs. It was a much better game and we started playing well with eachother. We one just barely in a very exiting ending. Afterwards we beat Yellow fever more easily as well as Schleudertrauma. Then we were pit against our friends, the Deckel Drehers. They were undefeated and had one all games in the opening pool easily. Since Potsdam had lost other games, this game against Dresden would determine the pool winner. The lead was switched many times and neither team ever had a lead of more than one point in a game dominated by fast offences averaging more than a point per minute. After scoring our 13th point to Dresdens 12, Matthias (whos new name is muffin) through the last official pass of the came direct into an invisable wire streatched acrosst the gym! We had won our pool followed by Dresden, DJs, Yellow Fever, Goldfingers, and Schleuderttrauma. We celebrated with a very unsuccessful but massive participation in the beerrace followed by a lazy afternoon in Magdeburg. We met with Dresden for a Thai dinner and then went to the party.
Sunday morning started off with what I think was one of our best games of the turnament. We were playing against Gronical Dizzyness in the semi final for a chance to get nito the final! After a great effort including amazing defence layouts (ask muffin, I don't think he will forget what he called, and I quoute translated into englich of course: "the best inddor defence dive ever!") we went upp against the dutchmen 5:4 and were going strong. They remained strong, though, as we broke down. They broke us with amazing knifes that were perfectly placed and so on. In the end, we lost deservingly. It was still a good game, though!
so, Dresden lost by one point to the Divers in their semi final, which ment that we play them again for 3rd place, and the Divers were pit against Dizzynes in the final. Our game against Dresden was good, but they beet us solidly. In the end, the divers lost to Groningen, the Herbsttrauma 2004 champions. In more important news: Drehst'n Deckel and Mother Tongue were co-winners of the spirit trophy. After the closing cerimonies we hit the showers with our spirit-sekt and sang a round of "We are the Champignons!" from the famous songwrighter McPilz.
h3>Our Games
| Opponent | Score | Result |
| Goldfingers | 9:10 | L |
| DJs Dahlem | 11:10 | W |
| Yellow Fever | 8:5 | W |
| Schleudertrauma | 13:5 | W |
| Drehst'n Deckel | 13:12 | W |
| Gronical Dizzyness | 8:13 | L |
| Drehst'n Deckel | 9:11? | L |
| 1. Gronical Dizzyness |
| 2. Saxy Divers |
| 3. Drehst'n Deckel |
| 4. Mother Tongue |
| 5. Hallunken |
| 6. Yellow Fever |
| 7. DJs Dahlem |
| 8. ? |
| 9. Goldfingers |
| 10. Air Pussies |
| 11. Peters Old Stars |
| 12. Schleudertrauma |
| Spirit: Drehst'n Deckel
and Mother Tongue! |
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And now the report from Wayne:
Well you've been very patient waiting for news about last weekend's shenanigans: thank you for not overloading my Inbox
asking for news. But here you go: I've set aside an hour for rewarding you (that's how long it took me to write; to read
it should be quicker. Not as quick as simply deleting, but you wouldn't do that, would you...?).
We arrived in dribs and drabs on Friday night to find a regular Uni sports hall with lots of discs flying around. Most of
us avoided injury while adding to the beer-fuelled chaos, before finding some space to lay our weary heads.
Saturday dawned and after breakfast we had the chance to watch the first game of the day and see how the curious "non-stop
Spielmodus" worked. Basically every time a point is scored the scorer puts the disc down, and immediately becomes Defence.
The Offence takes the disc to the centre of the endzone line, checks the disc and plays on. Subs are made during play
(preferably on O, as we worked out eventually) in the centre of the sideline. Confusing but workable. Games were only 20
minutes but the system proved to have 20 minutes of actual game time, rather than lots of tedious end-changing and
pull-waiting.
Our first attempt was against Potsdam's Goldfingers, not considered one of the blue riband teams on the circuit. Still,
they helped us to keep our record of never winning an opening game by beating us 9-10. We regrouped and took on DJs,
playing a lot more calmly and won by the same score, fortunately surviving a drop on a hail mary with their last throw
(after the 20 minute horn, only 3 more throws are allowed!). Next up, the Czechs from Yellow Fever whom we beat with a few
points to spare, then we made heavy weather of beating the inexperienced hosts Schleudertrauma. So into our last game of
the day against unbeaten Dresden (the regular team of 2 of our players!) knowing that if we win we're top of the pool. It
was a cracking game, end-to-end stuff, never more than a couple of points in it, and (I believe) the highest scoring game
of the weekend. Despite the longest final 2 minutes in history, we won 13-12!
Next came the beer race, not something that MT usually excel at for some reason. And when top beer drinker Ivonne
announced she wouldn't take part, and Carl decided to turn out for Dresden, I worried for our reputation even more. But
Mike, Magalie and I decided to give it a go, and following the normal confusion, it turned out there was an empty lane, so
Dave, Ryland and Andrew formed a spontaneous pick up team. I have no idea what happenend next but I think I'm pretty sure
none of us were on a winning team.
So a successful first day, and it's still only 2.30 (only our pool of 6 teams played in the morning, the other in the
afternoon). Ah I had such great plans for team-building binge-drinking, but as it turned out we splintered into different
groups, at various times enjoying the sauna, lunch, preparing a presentation for an interview (Gecko, how did it go?),
watching the other pool (which looked a LOT stronger than ours!) until we joined the Prague team for a little tour of the
city. We didn't find much to be honest, but, almost engulphed in a regular brash modern fun fair, there was a cool
medieval market, and a few of us stood in the cold to enjoy the glühwein and improvised street theatre before retiring for
a coffee (or in Mike's case a mispronounced Fanta :-).
We'd arranged to join Dresden at their 'traditional' Chinese/Thai restaurant for a meal, and we spent the better part of 4
hours trying to get the attention of the waiters. Still, the food was (eventually) good, even though Ryland inexplicably
wouldn't eat her 4th portion for the offered 35 Euros and 9 USD. The party was almost good, but suffered from a DJ who had
an 'innovative' idea of what constituted dance music, clearing the floor for all but the most drunk. Still, Dave and
Ryland were amongst the last to leave at some ungodly hour.
Our first game of Sunday was the semi-final, against a very strong Dutch team from Gronical Dizziness. Playing savage,
they enjoyed the interesting advantage of not having to deal with the substitute rule. For the first few points we forced
a few mistakes from them, but after 10 minutes they got into gear, constantly breaking our force, and allowing us to
headrush into unforced errors. It was frustrating but in the end you couldn't begrudge them their 4 or 5 point victory.
Next up, our chance to heckle Dresden in their semi against a strong Leipzig team. They were ahead for much of the game,
but collapsed towards the end, and when the hooter went were one point down. With the last throw from their own end zone,
perennial MVP Muffin heart-breakingly threw his hammer against one of the almost-invisible random cables that were strung
low across the hall. They lost, but got the chance to revenge their defeat from Saturday against us. And that, thanks to
some more headless chicken impressions from us, they did.
The final was won by the Dutch, but, as the curious volleyball players warmed up for their taking-over of the hall, the
presentation brought more joy. The Spirit prize deservedly went to Dresden, and then a few seconds later "...and also to
Mother Tongue!". Hoorah! The old magic still there, and I'd hazard a guess, not only due to giving away American
chocolates to every opponent! Furthermore, the prize might have eased our passage into the Leipzig tourney at the start of
December, though a decision not expected before Sunday night (obviously more on that from me on Monday).
And that was that. Long goodbyes, and long journeys home. I hope you all made it OK (thanks again to Dave for diversions
beyond the call of duty).
The Mother Tongue heroes and heroines on this occasion were:
Magalie (FR), Dresden (2nd cap)
Dave (US), Friedberg (MT debut)
Ryland (US), Bingen (4th cap)
Ivonne (DE), Lüneburg (2nd cap)
Mike (US), Hanau (6th cap)
Andrew (US), Jena (5th cap)
Carl (US), Leipzig (MT debut)
Gecko (US/DE), Mannheim (MT debut)
me (UK), Frankfurt (ever present 9th cap)
It was, as ever, a pleasure and a privilege.
See you on the field
Wayne
Father Tongue
And now the report from Andreas (Spekturm) from Dresdne:
einen turnierbericht schreiben – warum warten?
los geht es nach magdeburg immer mit einer 4-stündigen zugfahrt. und mit viel wein. außerdem gab uns magalie diesmal den kleinen dumbo im zug (töröööö) ... erwartungsgemäße ankunft in magdeburg – scheibenwerfend durch die stadt – ein paar lange overheads in der halle vorm schlafen gehen ... jeder weiß ja, wie so ein typischer anreise-freitag abläuft.
samstag bestritten wir unsere 5 vorrundenspiele im vormittagspool. dass im non-stop-modus gespielt wurde, hat die spiele trotz der kurzen spielzeit von 18 min sehr interessant gemacht. wir schlugen die >djs< , die >goldfingers< , die >schleudertrauma(ten)< und >yellow fever< ziemlich deutlich mit meist mehr als fünf punkten differenz. im letzten vorundenspiel, gegen >mother tongue< (die selbige streckten uns auch magalie und carl heraus!) gerieten wir gleich zu beginn in einen 1-2-punkte-rückstand, den wir bis zum letzten pass auch nicht mehr kippen konnten. 12:13 war glaube ich das endergebnis und so waren wir 2ter im vormittagspool ...
nach dem duschen und partiellem saunabesuch führte uns unser stadtbummel zunächst ans elbufer, wo wir eine kleine fotosession und frisbee-rollversuche auf der berühmten magdeburger halbkugel durchführten ...
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