Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all!!

It’s been awhile since the last post so here is a quick wrap up of 2013 and an update with what’s coming in 2014 for Townsville Ultimate.

Congratulations to Robust Fawn for winning the JCU Social League Final! Robust Fawn has played for a number of seasons and it’s great to see them on the winning side of a grand final. Will they make it two in a row? We’ll have to wait and see! Congratulations to Matt Hamilton’s, Firetrucking Red Team, for winning the most spirited team award!

The TSVL Final was a bitter sweet affair with Ash O’Sullivan playing his last competitive match in Townsville. Ash is off to the big smoke of Sydney but before he went, he took most of the silverware! His team, Rainbow Seagull Fantasy, ran out grand final winners leaving Townsville’s most consistent captain, Matt Finn, as runner up for the third time this year. Ash also took home the league MVP medallion and was presented with a farewell gift from Townsville Ultimate. Most Spirited Player went to Eric Lee with Scott Adams’ team, the Peppermint Pandas, taking the most spirited team prize. 

Over the Christmas break Michael Kramer was appointed to the role of Grants Administrator. CONGRATUALTIONS!! Kramer’s role will primarily focus on helping the President with grant applications and making sure the grants are acquitted appropriately. Kramer will focus mainly on community grant applications such as the JCU Clubs and Societies Funding and the Queensland Country Credit Union Community Grants.

Regionals and Division 2 Nationals are just around the corner. If you have an interest in playing and haven’t said anything to Chris Ende, Dave Dehollander, or Scott Adams, you should probably do that sooner rather than later! Regionals will be in Brisbane and is being hosted on the 15^th and 16^th of March. Division 2 Nationals will be the 12^th and 13^th of April in Adelaide. We’re likely going to need a selection process for the team going to Division 2 as we’re defending our 3^rd place from last year.

In possibly a first for Townsville Ultimate, training commenced in January and is run by Dave Dehollander and Scott Adams each Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 5.30pm here https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=-19.320484,146.736665&hl=en&sll=-19.319952,146.738028&sspn=0.004662,0.008256&t=h&gl=au&z=17

At the end of last semester, JCU Sports and Recreation approached all of the JCU affiliated sports clubs and asked that we apply for funding to assist with the repairs of the Rugby Field and the AFL Field. Townsville Ultimate was approved for $1,700 and with the other clubs enough was raised for our fields to be fixed up. They are looking very nice and I’m pretty keen to layout on them!

A new semester approaches and that means Market Day is on the way! As always, it’s the day after the Toga Party, February 19. This will also be our first come and try night so we’ll need as many of you at the fields teaching all the new people. We’ll also have a new FB group being set up shortly so make sure you’re on there.

And to wrap up, I would like to thank Matt Finn for his time and energy in helping Townsville Ultimate over the years, specifically with running the leagues and captaining our representative teams. All the best in Sydney mate and we’ll see you when you’re back after your travels in August.

State of the Villainous Empire! Part 3

Part 1 Can be found over here!
Part 2 is this way!

Now to conclude where we currently are at:

Halibut is looking to be one of the biggest spectacles for the year. North Queensland will be sending three teams (two from Townsville, one from Cairns) which is a massive achievement! QUDA will be subsidising any QLD player that needs to travel more than 500kms to get to Brisbane. THANK YOU QUDA! In other news, the jerseys look amazing (massive props to Alysha Broit for the original design)! Just don’t stare at the centre for too long!

Nicky Smith has been extremely busy drumming up support for the Women’s Development Conference that is to be held in September this year. The goal of the conference is to improve recruitment and retention of women in Ultimate. Topics for discussion will be the possible restructure for the Women’s Season, recruitment strategies, the impact of Uni Games changing formats from mixed to Open and Womens, and barriers facing Women from regional areas. If you’re keen to help out, please contact me townsvilleultimate@gmail.com.

Semester 2 League has commenced! Thank you to all that participated in Market Day and for coming down for the first come and try night. The league will formally kick off on Wednesday the 14^th of August. I believe the pub crawl has been scheduled in for Friday the 30^th of August and that the theme is, Zombies. Not sure how the, “If you come dressed the same as someone else you’ll have to have a drink off” will work… Perhaps it’ll be amended to the “survivors that are too lazy to make a costume”… I’m sure we’ll find out one way or another!

Canberra will be hosting Mix Nationals this year and I’ve confirmed with AFDA and QUDA that Townsville will be sending a team. Unfortunately the Townsville City Council Travel Grants that we’ve received in years past have had a significant cut to its funding. What was about $150 per person for interstate national tournaments, has been reduced to $200 between four people. There are provisions for larger grants for larger groups but it’s not guaranteed. We might need to look at fundraising. Thoughts and ideas are always welcome so let Finny or I know.

2013 has been an eventful year so far and there is still plenty to come! If you want to become involved with the club have a chat with Finny or I, there is always something to be done….. muhahahhahahahahaha

Chris