The Royal WEfnuk: Week IV

Big time game last - WEfnuk was matched up with "Wii Huck," a team featuring a dude named Nick who goes by the name of "Tricky" who would easily be on the starting line of any kind of Phoenix area all-stars squad. Sick fast guy with great ups, great throws, great reads, tough D, you name it; the prototypical great Ultimate player (up to an including the wearing of a skirt). Playing him is always, ahem, difficult - my 2007 Fall League Team Taco Technique lost to his team in the semis, and it was largely because he ran all over the field like a luncatic. So Wii Huck was going to be a challenge on the basis of him alone; throw in a few great women players (Maggie and Kathi and ???) and we had our hands full. Plus, Genevieve and Josiah were both out of town, and the Alex/Alex combo were on the DL. Tricky, indeed.

Have no fear: we pulled to them first and traded blows the first half, going tit for tat (0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 5-4, 5-5, 6-5, 6-6, 7-6, 7-7) until we took half 8-7. Hella tight, intense game: our ho-stack O was running very nicely, and Tricky repeatedly hit their ladies deep for big gains. To be honest, we were collectively a little lax on D and did not do a whole lot with a few hucks that were more or less up for grabs; to be improved upon. It should be noted that this was also one of the cleanest games of Ultimate I have ever played: just one pick call in the first half and one uncontested foul call in the second. Astounding! And beyond that, it was "clean" in terms of very few turnovers. That was undoubtedly help by the complete absence of wind, but hey, good Ultimate is good Ultimate, right?

We came out in the second half and just ran away with it - big Ds from some of our players, and a generally unstoppable deep game just became too much for the Wii folk. The final count ended up 15-9, and we got great contributions from across the board. Overall, just a fun, fun game to be a part of. The desired effect was what we got.

And I'll go ahead and eschew the normal overbearing humility: I played great last night. 5 thrown, 5 caught, 1 turnover, 1 monstrous D for a fat +10 in fantasy points on the night. Hoo-ah! That brings your completely unbiased narrator to 22/9/7/10 on the season (for +34 in fantasy, or a +8.5 per game). Thanks HASHEM we track these things in such detail. At least a little of last night's performance came with Tricky guarding me, and while he admittedly has a tendency to poach and play CF in these league games, I capitalized big time. Let's hear it for self-aggrandizement!!!!

So, a good game, pushing us to 3-1 on the season, good for second place in the Thursday night division. Next week we host a crossover game against Black Mamba, a team featuring stalwarts Big Nate, Russ and Eric "the Cisco Kid." They are 4-0 currently in the Tuesday League, so this battle will be epic for showdown reasons AND epic for Nyet on Nate reasons. Stay tuned.