Cambo Cakes take NBK championship

The cakes have had a busy June, so read on to hear what we have been up to!

We went in to the competition with the mindset of using it as training for our tournaments, and the experience and long games played during the competition were good for us. We didn't win the first round, as a first day victory over city rival Red Lights was followed by a loss to UFO and GD. We didn't win the second round either. This time, we beat an undermanned UFO team, but GD and the Red Lights beat us, and we finished the first division competition in 3rd place.

The week after, we played the Windmill, and played a very nice tournament, playing with purpose on both sides of the disc. The D team was wearing teams down and forcing turns, and the O team was scoring very consistently. We finished 21st in the end after tough losses to an Italian team and UFO, which is a very low result, even though the field was strong at this year's Windmill. Despite the result, we were happy with our level of play as we work towards our season goals.

One of those goals was to win the NBK, and today, we did just that. Yeah cake! The format was one that correctly has the top division making the quarters after day 1, so as to create good fair battles for teams of all levels throughout the tournament. On Saturday, we started against UFO, and started poorly. We went down 8-3 after half, because of poor decisions with the disc and great play by UFO. We were able to overcome the deficit though, and pull out a goal on "ultimate point" to win. The next match against the German under 20s was a running game, and us old farts (compared to them) managed to stay close enough to these guys to put the necessary pressure on - we won this one on universe point as well. Afterwards we easily beat a GD team that is gearing up for the mixed season ahead (they are going to EK clubs as well) and on Sunday morning, we had a cross-over match vs. WAF which we won easily as well.

Still coach andrew was not all that impressed, so we held a training session between matches to work on our zone offense and defense. Good idea, because we carved through the German Under 20 zone during the semi-final, and put serious pressure on their handlers with our own zone / transition defense. We beat them easily while UFO won a sudden death battle with GD to earn a spot in the final.

We know what it is like to beat UFO in an NBK (2007) and we know how it feels to lose to them as well (last point, last year) so we went into this game ready to win. Again, after some issues with their defense, we worked out our zone offense play, and forced them to mark us man to man, which they were not able to do with their relatively small team, and our solid fitness level. We won the final with a score of 13-11, and in the process, we qualified for the World Championships Clubs in Prague next year. This is great news, as this tournament (and this year's EK in London) are tournaments that the cakes are working towards.

Congratulations Crunch for playing what looked to be a fun tourney, and thanks for cheering us on. Thanks Cakes for a great win!

The cakes are off now for a few weeks, so look for us on the pitch again at the end of July!

Fred Spanjaard