GLUM headed to Montreal on July 4-5 to start its 2009 season. After only a couple of team scrimmages against Phoenix and one sparsely-attended practice, this would be the first real test of our fitness and chemistry, and a useful lesson in what we have left to do before the big milestones of our season, Canadian Nationals and the UPA Championship series.
We showed up in ones and twos to the fields at Douglas Hospital for our 9am game against Medicare, a pickup team from the K-W triangle featuring some solid talent that normally tours in the Coed division as Liquid. The slow start cost us, as we stumbled our way to an early deficit and never caught up again. Game 2 was against North Bay’s Nads, who were short-squadding as usual with about 12 guys. We played equally poorly in this game, but so did they, and we eked out a victory. The final pool play game of the day was top-seeded Mephisto, the host team and finalists in last year’s Canadian Open championship game. We took an early 4-2 lead, but couldn’t hold on when the rain set in and things got sloppy.
Our 1-2 pool record set us up for a cross-over against Chesapeaked, a Masters team from the States who beat us at the UPA championships in Florida last fall. This time, we came out hard and efficient, and jumped out to a 7-1 lead before letting our foot off the pedal a little and jogging to an easy win. Content with having saved our spot in the quarters, we headed out to chow down on steak and sushi at Vargas.
Sunday morning’s quarter-final game was a rematch against Medicare. The weather was much better, and so was our game. We played a determined, intense game and negated the previous day’s defensive lapses, taking an easy 15-7 or so win. Our local scrimmage opponents, Phoenix, were up next, craving a finals berth against Mephisto, who they had soundly beaten in the crossover the day before. GLUM did not oblige. We traded early, but managed to score a couple of key defensive points before half, and ran away in the second half. Phoenix unfortunately lost their heart and soul when captain Jamie Craig made a huge ‘greatest’ bid late in the 1st half and separated his shoulder. We wish him a speedy recovery.
The final against Mephisto was anti-climactic. I think we had probably emptied the gas tank against Phoenix, and were down a few key players. The final score was 15-5 or so. Still, a very successful and promising start to the year, and we definitely exposed some weaknesses in our game that we can work on over the next month before Nationals and further toward UPAs.
Next up: No Borders in Ottawa, July 25-26. With a stronger field than Jazzfest, we’ll be looking to build on that performance and challenge for another semi-final berth with an eye on the trophy.
