As I mentioned a few weeks back, a team is being put together from players in the ONE League to play at Nautilus and the UK Nationals competitions. Following the trials held back in October, I've been selected for the team. I don't have a full team list yet (Jamie from Durham presumably has that), but Ali, also from York, Jamie & Dan (?) from Durham (DUUHC), and the rest from the Fenham, Byker and Jesmond teams in Newcastle (NEM-OC). Sorry, I'll work out everyone's name eventually!
Given that Nautilus is happening on the weekend of 5/6 January, it was decided that a training session and match was in order fairly soon, so last Friday we all congregated at Fenham for a warm up session, to be followed by a friendly match against Sunderland (aka Neros).
(As a quick aside, Fenham have an interesting pool - the deep end is about 2 metres deep, but slopes up to about 1.5 metres at the wall. It also has two raised (about 5 cm) covers over the water outlet in the deep-end. Still, this just makes for a more interesting game!)
Actually, the match was very similar to the York A versus Durham match - Neros were all over us in the first half, but come the second half it was a lot closer. Again, much of this comes from the ONE Team not having played together before, and slowly getting used to each other's styles of play.
From my point of view, it was interesting playing against Neros, as they are well ahead of any of the teams that York have played against recently. The result is that you've really got to be on form, as any mistake will be punished, and my usual style of play (which is to lurk in defence but play a bit of midfield and attack at the first opportunity) doesn't really work as it leaves too big a hole at the back. Especially when at least one of Neros forwards has a fantastic turn of speed - towards the end, I was nearly catching him, but not quite!
Unfortunately, I doubt we're going to get another chance to play together before we reconvene at Sheffield for our Nautilus games on the 5 January 2008, in part because at least Ali and Jamie are heading home for Christmas. Still, I might see if I can head up to Newcastle one evening to tag along at one of their training sessions - especially as there are no more official York Uni sessions until 13 January 2008.
Finally, according to the Nautilus team selection info on the BOA website, we're going to be in Division 5 (as NEM-OC). The bad news is that Neros are also in Division 5! The full list of teams is as follows:
That's it for now. I'm going to spend the weekend with the bandsaw knocking up some new bats, as mine are looking a touch tired already, and I've had a couple of requests from former York Uni players. See you in Sheffield!
Given that Nautilus is happening on the weekend of 5/6 January, it was decided that a training session and match was in order fairly soon, so last Friday we all congregated at Fenham for a warm up session, to be followed by a friendly match against Sunderland (aka Neros).
(As a quick aside, Fenham have an interesting pool - the deep end is about 2 metres deep, but slopes up to about 1.5 metres at the wall. It also has two raised (about 5 cm) covers over the water outlet in the deep-end. Still, this just makes for a more interesting game!)
Actually, the match was very similar to the York A versus Durham match - Neros were all over us in the first half, but come the second half it was a lot closer. Again, much of this comes from the ONE Team not having played together before, and slowly getting used to each other's styles of play.
From my point of view, it was interesting playing against Neros, as they are well ahead of any of the teams that York have played against recently. The result is that you've really got to be on form, as any mistake will be punished, and my usual style of play (which is to lurk in defence but play a bit of midfield and attack at the first opportunity) doesn't really work as it leaves too big a hole at the back. Especially when at least one of Neros forwards has a fantastic turn of speed - towards the end, I was nearly catching him, but not quite!
Unfortunately, I doubt we're going to get another chance to play together before we reconvene at Sheffield for our Nautilus games on the 5 January 2008, in part because at least Ali and Jamie are heading home for Christmas. Still, I might see if I can head up to Newcastle one evening to tag along at one of their training sessions - especially as there are no more official York Uni sessions until 13 January 2008.
Finally, according to the Nautilus team selection info on the BOA website, we're going to be in Division 5 (as NEM-OC). The bad news is that Neros are also in Division 5! The full list of teams is as follows:
- Solent Viragos
- West London C
- Orkney
- Inverness
- NE-MOC
- Nero's
That's it for now. I'm going to spend the weekend with the bandsaw knocking up some new bats, as mine are looking a touch tired already, and I've had a couple of requests from former York Uni players. See you in Sheffield!
Buoyant with our success against Byker, last Sunday the York A team converged on Durham for more of the same. The last encounter between York and Durham, a friendly match earlier in the summer at York went York's way, so whilst I wasn't expecting a whitewash, I was feeling confident we could beat them again.
Oh dear.
I could give all sorts of excuses as to what happened. We didn't have any substitutes (even though we'd expected one). Neither Ali nor I were feeling particularly well. My snorkel started leaking resulting in me trying to breathe water (hence me jumping out part way through the second half - I needed to grab a spare). Seeing a puck against the wall and thinking Durham had scored - only to realise play was carrying on and the light green puck was a goalpost, not the dark green puck the match was being played with.
But, to be quite frank, we were outclassed.
Actually, it wasn't that bad - the second half was a lot closer. We hardly got a look in in the first half, but in the second half defending the shallow end was easier - especially as the deep end is 9 feet rather than the 6 were used to (oops, that sounds like another excuse...) and I think we were getting it together a bit more as a team. If the first half had been the same as the second, then I think it could have gone either way.
So, what went wrong?
Firstly, Durham has some great players - they're very strong in attack, and Jamie Parsons is excellent in defence. (Durham's other defenders may be great too - but I never got close enough to find out.) But where I think they really excelled (and York A didn't) is playing together as a team. They always had players down and ready to support, and everyone seemed to know more or less where everyone else was, or was going to be. From my position in defence I could clearly see that whenever someone from Durham made a break, there was someone with them to support - either ready to take a pass, or ready to pick it up from our defence if we succeeded in winning the puck.
In contrast, York isn't very good at supporting the player with the puck. And yes, I include myself in that statement. What this means is that when any player has the puck, when they run into trouble (the opposition, or possibly the need to breathe), that player has two choices: 1) off-load the puck blindly; or 2) stop, look around, try and spot a team mate, and try to pass to them. Option 1 works if you know your team inside out. Your team mates need to know you well enough to guess (accurately) where you are going to pass to, and you need to know your team mates play well enough to know where they're about to appear. York A isn't quite there yet, although this works sometimes, and more frequently between one or two particular players. Option 2 is a disaster against a stronger team because in the time it takes to look round, the opposition will relieve you of the puck, or you'll have lost all forward momentum. Plus, often your teammate is on the surface, so by the time they get down to the bottom, the opposition is already there. What I see us doing (and again, I'm as guilty as anyone) is option 1, but without the confidence that your teammate is going to collect the puck. Against a strong team like Durham, there's a greater than 50/50 chance that the opposition will collect the puck after such a blind pass.
The solution is to ensure that whenever someone has the puck, their team mates get themselves into a useful support position on the bottom of the pool where they can be seen. OK, the downside is it makes it easier for the opposition to mark you, but half the battle is keeping the puck (at least the opposition aren't scoring when you have the puck). Also, given that on the whole players don't have a greatest ability at flicking/long passes, we need to keep it much tighter together. There's no point being on the bottom of the pool to support your team mate if he or she can't actually pass to you because you're too far away - you might as well be sat on the side of the pool instead: a stronger team will probably beat you to the puck.
We also need to work on integration between forwards and defence. Playing a 3-3 formation, there's no midfield to bridge the gap. It certainly felt at times like the whole Durham team were sat between our defence and attack, so if we did manage to get it away from Durham's forwards, we struggled to get it up to our own forwards. One area in particular that should be really easy to improve on is when the puck goes out to the sidewall and it becomes one on one. There's only really 3 ways the puck is going to go - forwards (we win it), backwards (we loose it) or back towards the centre of the pool (could be anyone's). If we do manage to get the puck to go forwards, we need to ensure someone is there from our team to collect it and do something useful with it, because I'm quite sure the opposition will be there to collect it if we don't. Often in these encounters you can't actually swim the puck forwards, but you may be able to pass it forwards, perhaps even before running into the opposition, so it's important we recognise this situation occurring and get someone the other side of the opposition player. If we loose the encounter and it goes backwards, we need to ensure one of our defenders is there to collect it. And what if the puck comes back towards the centre of the pool? You've guessed it: we need someone ready to deal with that as well - either to collect it, or to take on the opposition player who's got hold of it.
OK, enough with the criticism. As I said earlier, York played much better in the second half. I'll let Ali comment on how the forwards played, but I thought both Tom and Sam played well. Sam did a sterling job as usual, and Tom's game has improved noticeable since Byker. If we were playing both home and away legs (which unfortunately we aren't), I'm quite confident we'd have been able to win the second match.
After all that, I hear you asking, what was the score? 11-6 to DUUHC. So, congratulations to Durham. But don't get too confident - we'll get you next time!
With 3 games played, I reckon the league results stand as follows:
I guess that puts Durham ahead on goal difference, although with only 3 games played, it's still wide open.
Oh dear.
I could give all sorts of excuses as to what happened. We didn't have any substitutes (even though we'd expected one). Neither Ali nor I were feeling particularly well. My snorkel started leaking resulting in me trying to breathe water (hence me jumping out part way through the second half - I needed to grab a spare). Seeing a puck against the wall and thinking Durham had scored - only to realise play was carrying on and the light green puck was a goalpost, not the dark green puck the match was being played with.
But, to be quite frank, we were outclassed.
Actually, it wasn't that bad - the second half was a lot closer. We hardly got a look in in the first half, but in the second half defending the shallow end was easier - especially as the deep end is 9 feet rather than the 6 were used to (oops, that sounds like another excuse...) and I think we were getting it together a bit more as a team. If the first half had been the same as the second, then I think it could have gone either way.
So, what went wrong?
Firstly, Durham has some great players - they're very strong in attack, and Jamie Parsons is excellent in defence. (Durham's other defenders may be great too - but I never got close enough to find out.) But where I think they really excelled (and York A didn't) is playing together as a team. They always had players down and ready to support, and everyone seemed to know more or less where everyone else was, or was going to be. From my position in defence I could clearly see that whenever someone from Durham made a break, there was someone with them to support - either ready to take a pass, or ready to pick it up from our defence if we succeeded in winning the puck.
In contrast, York isn't very good at supporting the player with the puck. And yes, I include myself in that statement. What this means is that when any player has the puck, when they run into trouble (the opposition, or possibly the need to breathe), that player has two choices: 1) off-load the puck blindly; or 2) stop, look around, try and spot a team mate, and try to pass to them. Option 1 works if you know your team inside out. Your team mates need to know you well enough to guess (accurately) where you are going to pass to, and you need to know your team mates play well enough to know where they're about to appear. York A isn't quite there yet, although this works sometimes, and more frequently between one or two particular players. Option 2 is a disaster against a stronger team because in the time it takes to look round, the opposition will relieve you of the puck, or you'll have lost all forward momentum. Plus, often your teammate is on the surface, so by the time they get down to the bottom, the opposition is already there. What I see us doing (and again, I'm as guilty as anyone) is option 1, but without the confidence that your teammate is going to collect the puck. Against a strong team like Durham, there's a greater than 50/50 chance that the opposition will collect the puck after such a blind pass.
The solution is to ensure that whenever someone has the puck, their team mates get themselves into a useful support position on the bottom of the pool where they can be seen. OK, the downside is it makes it easier for the opposition to mark you, but half the battle is keeping the puck (at least the opposition aren't scoring when you have the puck). Also, given that on the whole players don't have a greatest ability at flicking/long passes, we need to keep it much tighter together. There's no point being on the bottom of the pool to support your team mate if he or she can't actually pass to you because you're too far away - you might as well be sat on the side of the pool instead: a stronger team will probably beat you to the puck.
We also need to work on integration between forwards and defence. Playing a 3-3 formation, there's no midfield to bridge the gap. It certainly felt at times like the whole Durham team were sat between our defence and attack, so if we did manage to get it away from Durham's forwards, we struggled to get it up to our own forwards. One area in particular that should be really easy to improve on is when the puck goes out to the sidewall and it becomes one on one. There's only really 3 ways the puck is going to go - forwards (we win it), backwards (we loose it) or back towards the centre of the pool (could be anyone's). If we do manage to get the puck to go forwards, we need to ensure someone is there from our team to collect it and do something useful with it, because I'm quite sure the opposition will be there to collect it if we don't. Often in these encounters you can't actually swim the puck forwards, but you may be able to pass it forwards, perhaps even before running into the opposition, so it's important we recognise this situation occurring and get someone the other side of the opposition player. If we loose the encounter and it goes backwards, we need to ensure one of our defenders is there to collect it. And what if the puck comes back towards the centre of the pool? You've guessed it: we need someone ready to deal with that as well - either to collect it, or to take on the opposition player who's got hold of it.
OK, enough with the criticism. As I said earlier, York played much better in the second half. I'll let Ali comment on how the forwards played, but I thought both Tom and Sam played well. Sam did a sterling job as usual, and Tom's game has improved noticeable since Byker. If we were playing both home and away legs (which unfortunately we aren't), I'm quite confident we'd have been able to win the second match.
After all that, I hear you asking, what was the score? 11-6 to DUUHC. So, congratulations to Durham. But don't get too confident - we'll get you next time!
With 3 games played, I reckon the league results stand as follows:
| Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goal Difference |
| Byker | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -6 |
| DUUHC | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +5 |
| Jesmond | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +4 |
| York Uni A | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| York Uni B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -4 |
I guess that puts Durham ahead on goal difference, although with only 3 games played, it's still wide open.
Edited to fix DUUHC entry - they haven't lost a match as the table originally showed!
Streetpush is something dreamt up over the summer at York. York Council was holding an open day in the city centre for sports clubs, and some of the York Uni graduate students and assorted hangers-on (Jodie, Alan and Ben) booked a stall. As few people have heard of octopush, they came up with a way to demo it without a swimming pool - hence Streetpush! It's played just like octopush (masks, fins, snorkels, pushers, puck), but on whatever surface comes to hand. I gather the original plan was to use a plastic sheet and buckets of water, but the buckets weren't necessary due to the rain. Players crawl, wriggle or roll to get to the puck - no walking!
The club were doing Streetpush demos again at York University's Freshers' Fair at the start of the 2007 academic year, so I tagged along to take some photos. (And had to turn down the offer to play - a wise move, after seeing the resultant bruises on Jodie's legs!)
In time honoured fashion, there's a set on Flickr, and the full lot in the (new!) octopush section on my own albums (together with assorted other octopush-related photos).
Finally, after all those promises, I've got some of the photos from our Kenya safari in 2006 edited. Watch this space for links!
