Having won the National 2nd Division at the 2009 BUCS Championships, Bath’s BLT arrived in Sheffield optimistic about their chances of winning the division again. The team were unlucky to miss out on a place in Division 1 at Western Regionals and were keen to prove that they deserved a place amongst the country’s top university teams.
Having been dealt a potentially tough group, BLT needed to be fast out of the blocks for a 9am start against Durham’s DUF. As with last year, the wind played a large part on the exposed pitches at Mount St. Mary’s College, and the two teams traded downwind scores at the start of the match. Eventually Bath’s extra organisation told and despite squandering some chances on the edge of the end-zone they ran out 11-7 winners. Having hit their stride towards the end of the Durham match, the remaining two group games were fairly routine 12-6 and 13-6 wins over hosts Sheffield and Strathclyde.
The second day of the tournament again started at 9am for BLT against Trinity College Dublin. The gusty winds made defending upwind points very hard work but thanks to tireless zonal defending BLT were able to turn over Trinity and secure two upwind scores, making the score 9-6 at the hooter. The teams now had to play a 2-point cap (effectively a game to 11) and in a nail-biting finish Bath conceded 3 points before rallying to win 11-9 and set up an all south-west semi final against Southampton Skunks.
Skunks had beaten BLT in sudden death at regionals and Bath were keen to exact revenge on their local rivals. They stormed into a 3-0 lead but a well employed time-out allowed Skunks to regroup and pull the score back to 3-3. This was a full-blooded affair, with both sides giving their all, evidenced by three Skunks players suffering injuries over the next few points. Bath were able to keep cool in the heat of battle and whilst Southampton threw a number of passes to the ground, Bath were clinical enough to win 8-4.
Imperial College London were BLT’s opponents in the final, which was a tight affair between two fast, hard-working teams. Many of Bath’s team had played in the final last year and their experience told, as they were able to utilise their hucking game to score some long points and open up a 7-5 lead at the hooter (with the teams to play a 1-point cap). BLT kept cool heads to take the title 8-5, with Tom Fox scoring the winning point for the second year running. This was a proud finish to their University Ultimate careers for 5 of Bath’s squad as they will be graduating this summer.
BLT train every Wednesday afternoon from 1.30pm by the Lacrosse pitch behind 8W – all are welcome.
BLT Nationals Squad: B Groombridge (c), J Allen, A Brooks, M Chart, M Connor, T Fox, S Green, D Mawdsley, A Ready, A Thornton, J Tommony
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