Ah, week 3 of this little experiment in writing reports and I'm already late with one. My apologies and a suggested solution: pay me more. Alternatively, stop me going to Tasmania on fact finding tours. (Fact:
the Two-Hat tournament in Hobart in October is going to a two-day format -- well one-and-a-half-day. Fact: their fields are completely infested with some sort of green stuff, possibly an algae? Fact: okay so I
actually went down to play with my parents' new puppy. Fact: ten-week old lab-golden retriever cross being trained to be a guide dog. Fact: you can seriously use one of these dogs to pick up chicks, as long as
your girlfriend is not watching. Lots of facts in Tas...)

Yo,

[Attention Alex Du Plessis! It is Monday when you are reading this. Do not read this email until after 10am when your brain has turned on! Caution: this email uses polysyllabic words, and poor sentence structure.]

Here we are again at the end of another season. It's been a very good season, even with the break for the Grand Prix. Much kudos to Carroll and Katie (the unpaid real power behind the scenes) for Monday nights,
and Tim Calkins for Wednesday Social. Trust me, there is a lot more work in these competitions than you think, so make sure you thank them. I'll be watching.

Hi,

And I say that with trepidation. Recently I approached the VFDA Committee, sidling sideways through email rather than turning up to a meeting, suggesting that I could write a weekly report about all things
in Victorian Ultimate. Strangely they bought my suggestion, probably because they didn't understand it. Muhahahaha! So here it is, the first instalment of a weekly report. Let's see how long this lasts,
especially as it's starting as we come up to a season break, but more on that later.

Welcome back to the Albert Park Winter season! We are only a week and a day
out from Wednesday night frisbee (May 14th)! There's no draw as it's Social League,
and there are certainly no breaks for something as trivial as a competition on
another continent... So we'll play straight through to whenever the Monday league
wraps things up (August 13th). SL runs from 7PM until about 9.30PM

The next season begins VERY soon. If you are intending to register for
Division 1 or Division 2 please do so by the end of this week so that draws etc. can be finalised.

The next season is running from May 12th to August 11th. Registration can be found at:
http://afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=449

The Geelong Ultimate League has a social and beginner focus. Many of the players are High School students from the Geelong area. The competition is mixed with an emphasis on skill development and gaining ownership of the game. All welcome!

The league is held every Tuesday night from 13 May from 7-9 pm at Highton Reserve , Geelong. 

Ultimate and Victoria's own Seb Barr featured on Channel Ten's Scope program on Monday 21 January. Check out the clip here:

http://www.csiro.au/scope/clips/e102c02.htm  

Registrations are now open for the Albert Park Summer League (Monday).

AFDA Registration Page

Player fees for both divisions is $40. If you're registering a team you must pay the team fee as a lump sum of $560 (minimum of 14 players).

For Division 1, 4 team captains have been selected. The team captains are in charge of assembling their own teams (of atleast 14 players). The captains have been asked to assemble balanced (not stacked!) teams. If you're interested in playing Division 1 and do not have a team you can register for the player pool (Register Here).

 The captains are:

• Seb Bar
• Sascha Humphreys
• Chris Stephens
• John Liddicoat 

The Melbourne Hat is coming this weekend! See the Hat Website for all the details.

Warning: Unless you have extremely special circumstances, NO MORE PAYMENTS ARE BEING ACCEPTED!

If you sent payment on Friday and it will arrive Monday morning, we will still take you. But otherwise, DO NOT send your money. If you missed out, I'm generously allowing you to come and help on the day - we do need as many volunteers as possible.

And an update about the party (the only thing worth taking seriously next weekend...) from my crazy party organisers Lauren 'Mama Badger' Brown and Nicky 'Undergoing Compulsive Email Therapy' Smith:

Honey is up and running for the 2008 nationals campaign... what this means is plenty of training, playing, winning and partying!!!
 
This year (as always) Honey has an open selection policy, where we invite any interested women to come and give us a go, hear about our goals for the season and get to know us all....

The last week of League brought with it some controversy. While the first game was a little error filled (on one side only) top of the table clash that resulted in a reasonably easy Blue Steel victory, the second time slot ended far more drastically with two "universe points". The games had contrasting styles, one highly defensive, the other highly offensive. The most important part of the game was, however, a time out call after time cap which resulted in a turnover. There has been conjecture over this ruling but it will remain the same.

Pick up ultimate is on the beach at Albert Park (near intersection of Kerferd Rd and Beaconsfield Pde) at 6.15 pm every Monday until the end of summer.

Bring a light and dark shirt, and bathers for a swim afterwards!

So, the Hat is getting closer (35 sleeps!) and if you haven't registered by now, you really will miss out. We initially capped players at 250, but 1.5 weeks after registration opened that was full. So we decided to fatten the Hat up before we slaughter it: player cap has been extended to 310. However DO NOT take this as a sign to be outrageously lazy and prolong registration, as I know Victorians in particular have been doing. There are only 40 spots left, and these will fill up quickly. You will miss out.

Registration for Australia's favourite hat tournament is now open! 2007 is Hat XIX, the Top Hat.

Visit the Melbourne Hat website for more information.