The second day of games continued at the same lovely venue. The two lush green playing fields sit at the bottom of a medium sized hill that is coated in early season grapes. The aesthetically pleasing relationship between the order and geometric nature of the rows of vines and the unruly organic flow of the hillside creates a beautiful backdrop. Looking up at a vineyard from a frisbee field also taps into the imagination, and draws the mind towards playing in Italy.
The fields are flanked on their other side by a wide river, and crowned by a long two lane bridge that spans the fields and river alike. Complete with schnitzel serving club house and crisp painted lines, this was an excellent location for a mini pre-tournament tournament. Congratulations to Stephan and the local teams for hosting a quality opportunity for the six teams to prepare.
In the morning we played another Swiss team called Freespeed. From their own evaluation they played better than the day before, it seems all the teams are excited by the opportunity to play a team from Australia. The game was close the whole way through with a few micro swings of momentum. It probably felt fairly in control for the majority of the time, and we closed it out at 17 - 15.
The second game of the day was marked by the arrival of another Colony traveller, Lado competed an epic fourteen hour overnight rail trek from the Juniors tournament in Lecco to arrive just in time for a late lunch and the final game.
Picture this if you will; the whole Colony team is spread out in a post lunch/pre game sprawl in the location previously described. Guys are lying down with their heads on bags, some in the shade, some in the sun with hats on faces. There is a bit of chat going on, however in general it is a pretty casual scene. In the middle of all this classic frisbee mess is one guy sitting upright on the grass with a large porcelain plate, metal knife and fork and a generous chicken schnitzel and chips. Lado had arrived and was rejoining the team in solid German style.
The game began not long after against the local team Bad Skid. They are young and drilled and were looking pretty keen for the game. The Colony D line got a block in the first point through some tight early pressure and aerial agency of Ollie D. We failed to convert and then the O line turned a huck in the next point and we were in a 2-0 hole pretty quickly.
The first half continued in that vein with their O scoring quickly and ours struggling, the half time score was 9 to 5 Bad Skid. Though some affective, but possibly a little slow adjustments we began to gain some traction on D and some fluency on O. After a few chances to get back to even we ended up going down 15 to 17. It was a good win for those enthusiastic guys, and for us either a required wake up call or a strong cue that we should go to bed.
The feeling is pretty good in the team, it is great to have clear ideas about what we need to work on. This is always a key goal of any pre-tournament game play, and it feels like we will be better at Worlds for our games here in Germany.
We finished the weekend by attending a large festival in town, some live music and plenty to eat and drink. The Sonntag festival attracted over 300 000 people over the weekend. Our local fixer and scrap catching O line handler Ollie J has been on fire herding this team of strong opinions and loose behaviour around.
Next we spend a final day here in Karlsruhe before we head up into the snow caps and green grass of the Swiss hills. It should be a nice relaxing time for the team.
Oh, also Ollie jumped off the bridge into the river, he is still alive.
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