The beach tournament held on the east coast of Italy consisted of 23 women's teams, 24 mixed teams and 48 open teams and was Leeds women's first outing to the tournament (seeded 15th going into the tournament). Friday games Leeds' first pool game was against an American team called The Ovulators (7th seed) - both teams slightly worse the wear after the previous night's welcome party. Feeling quite nervous about our first game, we started off slow and it took everyone a while to get used to running on sand and judge their throws. The Ovulators were very clinical on sand however, scoring their points well and ending the game 13-4.
 | | LeedsLeedsLeeds in action |
The second pool game of the day was against Urban Foxes (18th seed) from London. Despite the pitch being ridiculously small due to a storm the week before (the endzones were bigger than the middle of the pitch!) the two teams came out really wanting a win. With calm offence from Sasi Milmo and Helen Bowker the team showed strong confidence with the disc and won the game 15-5. The final pool game of the day was against the 2nd seeds Maitotytot (a Finnish team) that would prove to be a very tough game. Although we came out well with some great play from Sara Mitchell and KJ Boardman, the Finns had the depth and experience (most are national players) which pushed them on to win 5-15. Saturday games Leeds' first game (fourth pool game) was against another American team, Bayou Babes (22nd seed). Leeds stayed calm on offence and had some confident long plays from Mel Zloch and Anita Beck. Leeds also stepped it up on defence and took a number of defensive blocks capitalising on these with some vital scores. The final result was 13-3 to Leeds, a very enjoyable game indeed made even better by the fun call at the end of the game. Our second game (final pool game) was against a Belgian team called OB. On paper this looked like being our closest game (they were seeded 10th) and one we really wanted to win to improve on our seeding. After coming out fired up we looked like we could take the game. Impressive offence and defence from our guest US player, Alison McMonagle helped keep us in contention. However, OB remained calm on their offensive points and got the well-needed break to win the game 7-5. A game we were gutted to lose! So after playing all our pool games we had finished 4th in our pool which meant we were now in the middle pool playing for the 9-16 positions. In our final game of the day the fatigue was starting to show. We were against HyvaHyvaHyva (a strong Finnish team who were seeded well below their capability). Leeds played well on offence with some amazing grabs and cutting from Ellie Dawkins and Linz Wilkinson but unfortunately the Finns were just too strong and the game finished 4-10.
 | | The team in their saris |
So with another days play over we headed to the Saturday night beach party with a theme of national stereotypes. Our team saris proved head turning and got a lot of attention from the press at the tournament. A very good night indeed. Sunday games After a very late night Leeds women had a game against Frisky Beez (an Austrian team). After 2 days of running on sand we were all feeling it in our legs and trying to play clinical offence proved hard. Although we did make the opposition turnover, with good D from Cecilia Bjorkegren they ran away with the game and the final score was 15-5. Our second game (and our quarter-final) was against Hot Beaches, a team from the Czech Republic and one who we had met on grass in Copenhagen a year ago (Leeds coming out on top). We knew this was going to be a tight game and were fired up for winning it. Unfortunately so were our opposition, and although they started to take the lead we came back with some inspiring offence from Robin Keillor and Sasi Milmo to bring it to an even score at 6 with game to 8. They scored their offence very clinically and then it was our turn to put in the offence to make it 7-7. Unfortunately we turned over near to our own endzone and Hot Beaches used their heads and quickly scored to win the game 8-6. This was a great spirited game (Hot Beaches eventually won most spirited women’s team) and one we knew we could have won as everyone played so well. Our final game of the day (and our semi-final) was against a Russian team called Dogma (also new to Rimini). Although this game started off well with both teams playing the long game and showing how strong they were on defence, the Russians started to play very physically and fouled a lot of our players. With some disputed calls (one in particular lasted 10 minutes) and contested fouls the game became disjointed and before we knew it it was soon over although not much play had been had. The final score was 9-6 to Dogma. Gutted. Monday final Our final game at Rimini was against Swift, a team from Scotland who we had played many times before on home shores. This game was for 15th place and both teams desperately wanted it. Although Swift seemed better prepared (less tired) Leeds turned them over with gritted determination. With hard running and 100% effort from everyone (even though our legs were pretty empty) Leeds women came together and won 15-3. Leeds women had a great tournament, both on and off the pitch. The weather was sunny, the players friendly, games spirited (most of them) and most of all we had fun on the beach in the best way possible - playing ultimate! Special mentions must go to Ellie Dawkins who was voted Most Valuable Player, Helen Bowker, Best Team Player and Sasi Milmo who gave 100% effort and performed both on and off the pitch. Main team picture caption:
Top row: Anita Beck, Ellie Dawkins, Alison McMonagle, Cecilia Bjorkegren, Sara Mitchell, Robin Keillor, Helen Bowker
Bottom row: Mel Zloch, Sasi Milmo, KJ Boardman (Linz Wilkinson missing from the photo) | 
