For some reason we tend to have had a bit of a block when it comes to MT2 in recent years. Don’t get me wrong, we take it seriously and we compete. In fact, our highest ever finish has been at a MT2 event. Still, we do tend to see significant drop off in numbers for the second event compared to the usually more local MT1 and MT3.
It’s a bit of a shame really as last year, they hosted it in Durham and we were unable to go. A good proportion of our ladies work in schools and couldn’t take holiday to account for not being able to get back in time – even if they flew. With many of the rest of the squad not relishing the idea of a trip that far North, we opted to do something we hadn’t done in nine seasons – miss an event.
Now, I get that Scottish teams will travel huge distances for most events and that they need to do this more regularly blah, blah, blah. However, just because somebody else is in a worse position doesn’t magically fix your own logistic situation. For a start, their teams have access to reasonably priced airports – we have Exeter International – a Portakabin that’ll get you to where you need via a budget airline – but not for a budget price. The other factor is that, when you’re used to travelling long distances for tournaments, you’re more used to it and not going to take to the pitch like a zombie. Trust me, I went to uni in Aberystwyth and every tournament bar our own took upwards of three hours to get to.
We’d seen it one year when we headed up to Sheffield in the morning for CXIN and found ourselves in a daze in the afternoon. Similarly, MT2 events at Manchester saw us severely depleted in energy compared to other years where the event was more accessible. Still, we would undoubtedly go to Durham if we could. We’re just a little hamstrung by teachers and selfish doctors and geologists that have to undertake shift work. Even though we would undoubtedly not play to our best, we’d have gone – and most likely done so with a barebones team, looking dishevelled at not having the blast that we did at MT1.
Thankfully this year, UKU has opted to introduce a smaller Southern event to accommodate those teams that either couldn’t get to Durham or for whom it simply wasn’t worth it considering they were lower down the table. Perfectly understandable, but not fun for UKU who lose a hefty batch of teams and not fun for the teams that have to miss out and subsequently enter MT3 without the cohesion that a second event brings.
This year, the UK’s governing body weighed it up and, last minute, were able to get an event organised thanks to the assistance of a handsome Welsh handler who shall remain nameless. Suggesting the venue at Glastonbury made sense as we UKU had already been in touch to organise Masters Nationals and it was easily accessible for teams – especially as most knew it from the annual Glastonbury Tor-nament. Unfortunately this year, it’s an eight team event as many of the local teams had understandably opted to play in Bristol’s South West Super Cup before MT2 was unveiled. Still, it should be a neat little intimate event.
We’re seeded second at MT2 – South and, at the time of writing, in a group with Brixton, Curve and Meridian Ultimate. We’re at the top of the group in terms of seeding and, with the other teams being waaaay below us after MT1, I’m hoping there’ll be no issues.
Having said that, things are going to be very different from MT1. Where we took to Cardiff with an army just over two weeks ago, that’s whittled down to a platoon. However, that’s not due to lack of interest. A bunch of the guys went for the Super Cup as they thought the tournament wouldn’t happen and a few more were booked up anyway.
We do however have most of our core intact. Becky is on holiday so she’ll be missing the weekend – not that she’d have been playing anyway as she was going to host it. Sian can;t get time off and Hannah was never free that weekend anyway. Still, we have Sophie on Captain’s duties, Jess Taylor will make her long overdue debut, and Cathy and Mel will be back (however, she has potentially broken a rib so we’ll see). We’ll also have Emily and Liv making their season debuts. While MT1 saw some issues with girls not getting enough pitch time, this should alleviate that somewhat.
As for guys, they’ve been dropping like flies. Something came up meaning Foggy is unfortunately done for the season. Mojo can only do one day now after being double-booked. We have the three regulars (me, Chubby and Mop) but CG-T can only do one day. That kinda works out though as Mojo can only do one as well. Elsewhere, we’ve got Steve back and Cam will grace the team with his incredibly lanky presence after missing MT1 with a back injury. Of course we’ve also got Rob, meaning there are two flavours of long threat. We may have another but, right now he’s not confirmed. So while we have a smaller squad, we definitely don’t have a small squad. This should mean a little less subbing and far more cohesion, which will hopefully give us a better performance and therefore the edge over Purple Cobras should we meet in the final.
I can’t wait for this event. While it’s a bit teeny, it should be good fun and allows us the opportunity to take on some of the teams we ordinarily don’t play. I think we’ll be stronger than we were at MT1. Chubby, Steve and I didn’t really go on enough in Cardiff so this should be a great opportunity for us to stretch our legs and make a mark. This is also our first opportunity to win a tournament as Shakedown. Sure, we’ve gone undefeated at events in the past and we’ve won others – but always while named as Shake & Bake. Here’s hoping the team doesn’t change too much before then.
So in conclusion, there’s no easy solution for the team doing worse when having to travel so far. When we returned to Sheffield after we did crap the one year, we headed there the night before and did a lot better. Still, that’s not always possible and, even when it’s on your doorstep, you can find yourselves struggling for numbers comparatively. The thing is, as long as you’re not iron manning the event, you can be okay as long as the mentality is right. The team seems a lot happier this season with the rebuild, so it remains to be seen if it’ll work or not.
Cohesion is what we’re going to focus on this weekend. Shake has a core of players that represent the club regularly (at both outdoors and indoors) – myself, Chubby, Mop, Becky, Sophie, Mel and Mojo primarily – plus Hector when he’s not broken. As long as the team has this core working together, we should be able to achieve consistency over the whole tour. Fingers crossed.