Those of us who understand that Paganello is as much the parties as it is the play, were there last night when the winners of Paga Idol took to the stage for and extended set of tightly crafted versions of 60s and 70s hits to get the crowd into the mood for a boogie. Some of us were also lucky enough to catch the 2nd place finisher who opened the night with a loud Hendrix influenced series of head banging, face melting guitar rock!
After two nights and two days of Paga it's getting exciting. The Have made up for their shock loss yesterday to top their pool as planned by defeating Tequila Boom Boom today and ending the day with a Arena match point for point trade against Hot Beaches that nobody watching could have called until Hot Beaches managed to close the deal and leave the finals predictions for the Womens divisions completely up in the air.
The weekend saw it's largest spectator turnout in mid-afternoon as Inside Rakete turned a 2 point lead over tournament favourites UTI into a sudden death crowd pleaser with UTI needing the turn and score to deliver a defeat. One perfect huck to Justin Foord and what looked like the upset victory of the event was now another UTI Paganello sudden death win.
Willy & de Schellekes put in a very re-spectible performance and provided Los Tiger with an early wake up call punching through 8 points against the Americans, more than any competitor so far including Iznogood who topped their first round pool.
Huck 'n Sea came back from the tight loss to Iznogood brushing aside the Russian squad to chalk up their first win of the new pool structure. This was followed by a crushing defeat at the hands of upset kings CUSB La Fotta who are continuing to have a stellar Paganello XX.
Stinks have already shown that this may be their year by pressuring Scandal into their first defeat on the weekend in what looks to be the most difficult of the top open pools with Freespeed and Supermanschaft also competing for the top 8 in this group.
Some educated predictions can already be made in the Mixed and Junior divisions. The Swing Kings have not only won all of their matches in the Juniors division but have scored 70 points to only 15 against. That's 30 more goals than the nearest team in that Division. In the Mixed division the Horned Melons and CGNU have shown their comfort on sand in all conditions as the day ended with a chill sweeping through the Rimini, and the wind as always provided a levelling influence that truly separated the good the bad and the ugly today.
The day ended with an unfortunately almost deserted grandstand as SuperManschaft surprised everyone with a possessed performance against Stinks. The Swedes were kicking the sand, throwing hats and one even started digging in the sand like a dog in frustration as the ex-junior division squad scored two in succession to take the game to 6-6 and could only hang their heads in dismay as Manschaft turned and scored to take the lead 7-6. Stinks are the Paganello flavour of the experienced Skogs and are comfortable in pressure situations. Both teams traded the game out to 7-7 and then 8-8, each forcing turn-overs in spectacular fashion until, experience dominated over pure adrenaline and Stinks finished the day with a 9-8 sudden death win.
Tomorrow will bring the beginning of the quarter finals starting in the womens division at high noon across the 4 centre pitches. The finalists will be decided across the board only a few hours later with back to back semi finals in all divisions. We're hoping to see a Super Hot Pot vs Tequila Boom Boom final in the Arena to see if Hot Pot can withstand the enormous local support that Tequila will garner on the day.
Report by Steve Giguere - reproduced from "Roar of the Talking Fish"
Showing posts with label Paganello. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paganello. Show all posts
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Friday, 2 April 2010
Paganello Day 1
1500+ athletes took to the beach this morning under sunny skies to churn up the sands and cast off the red wine induced haze from last night's incredible showing of flame, fun and fireworks that opened the festival of Ultimate.
It can often be said that there is a certain comfort that can be derived from predictability. Thursdays at Paganello have a tendency to progress in a very forseeable way and thus leave us begging for that dark horse team that has been underseeded for any number of reasons. If we look across the divisions in search of some of the more interesting results, the morning started off with JetSet sneaking out an unexpected victory over Cheek in the mixed division. We also saw the Slovakian/London contingent Golden Ants bring their A-game to the Clan to secure their position as a potential rising star.
The biggest news of the tournament in the minds and hearts of the Rimini locals was the tragic loss suffered by the highly seeded Cota Rica at the hands of neighbouring Italian squad CUSB La Fotta in probably the most heated battle that took place in the Arena pitch today. Perhaps they were missing some of the wisdom and patience from the older Cota mem-bers that are representing as Cota Gold at this years Paganello. Cota Rica will be a team to watch tomorrow as every game will now be critical to keep in contention for a place in the quarter finals and the guys from Bologna will be looking to continue their winning streak and potentially have a record performance.
Last years junior finalists Willy & de Shekelles are proving strength and maturity beyond their years today. In there first day at Paganello in the open division they have managed to sweep aside the oversized Dutch squad Cambo Cakes and only loose in a sudden death point to Stolichnaya. Friday will be an interesting day as they should provide surprising resistance to Los Tiger who (like UTI) strolled through all matches today visibly unhindered.
The womens division has without question provided the most interesting results for today. The pool of The Have, Copenhagen, Tequila Boom Boom and Hot Beaches has been turned completely upside down. The Have, lost in a surprisingly convincing way to Copenhagen in the early afternoon showcase match in the Arena while on the adjacent pitch 7 the lower seeded locals Tequila boom boom were busy making up for Cota Rica by shutting down Hot Beaches. Both of these underdogs later met each other for what should have been the battle for bottom. With the added new found intensity of two teams now playing for the top of the pool both clearly brought every-thing into this one. When sand settled it was Tequila Boom Boom, previously seeded 4th in the pool who have come out on top. What remains to be seen is whether The Have can recover and if Tequila have got enough in the tank to go all the way.
Report by Steve Giguere - reproduced from the "Roar of the Talking Fish"
It can often be said that there is a certain comfort that can be derived from predictability. Thursdays at Paganello have a tendency to progress in a very forseeable way and thus leave us begging for that dark horse team that has been underseeded for any number of reasons. If we look across the divisions in search of some of the more interesting results, the morning started off with JetSet sneaking out an unexpected victory over Cheek in the mixed division. We also saw the Slovakian/London contingent Golden Ants bring their A-game to the Clan to secure their position as a potential rising star.
The biggest news of the tournament in the minds and hearts of the Rimini locals was the tragic loss suffered by the highly seeded Cota Rica at the hands of neighbouring Italian squad CUSB La Fotta in probably the most heated battle that took place in the Arena pitch today. Perhaps they were missing some of the wisdom and patience from the older Cota mem-bers that are representing as Cota Gold at this years Paganello. Cota Rica will be a team to watch tomorrow as every game will now be critical to keep in contention for a place in the quarter finals and the guys from Bologna will be looking to continue their winning streak and potentially have a record performance.
Last years junior finalists Willy & de Shekelles are proving strength and maturity beyond their years today. In there first day at Paganello in the open division they have managed to sweep aside the oversized Dutch squad Cambo Cakes and only loose in a sudden death point to Stolichnaya. Friday will be an interesting day as they should provide surprising resistance to Los Tiger who (like UTI) strolled through all matches today visibly unhindered.
The womens division has without question provided the most interesting results for today. The pool of The Have, Copenhagen, Tequila Boom Boom and Hot Beaches has been turned completely upside down. The Have, lost in a surprisingly convincing way to Copenhagen in the early afternoon showcase match in the Arena while on the adjacent pitch 7 the lower seeded locals Tequila boom boom were busy making up for Cota Rica by shutting down Hot Beaches. Both of these underdogs later met each other for what should have been the battle for bottom. With the added new found intensity of two teams now playing for the top of the pool both clearly brought every-thing into this one. When sand settled it was Tequila Boom Boom, previously seeded 4th in the pool who have come out on top. What remains to be seen is whether The Have can recover and if Tequila have got enough in the tank to go all the way.
Report by Steve Giguere - reproduced from the "Roar of the Talking Fish"
Friday, 10 April 2009
Paganello 2009 Friday
Officially, Jumpi apologizes for not having enough Vino Rosso on Thursday night, suggesting that the plebians under him failed to satisfy the thirsty crowds and will be executed.
For anyone who came to Paganello last year, today was an apology for the weather of the 2008 event. A tad foggy but generally we were all blessed with what could be arguably called perfect Ultimate weather.
The Open division went to plan unfortunately making a slow news day for us. The crowd were enthused and baying for an upset in the early Boracay vs Scandal clash. The match started off close to 5s before Scandal was able to pull away without difficulty. The Dragons did still provide a fulfilling dose of the dynamic style of play for the cheering crowd, complimented by Paga love child and Ulti-Author Tony Leonardo’s freakish height and facial fur. The Dragons first created interest with their unexpected finals appearance more than a year ago in Maceio Brazil. Seeded an almost intentionally humble 25th they will continue to be the official dark horse throughout the early stages of the tournament. Meanwhile, Jumpi is pregnant with a bambino Paga, again.
Also in the Arena fans got to see the French Friselis take an 11-9 over the Finns on Hattitwat until Hattitwat brought it to 11s, next point wins. After a Friselis turnover, Hatti had the disc to win but could not and Friselis escaped to win. Tomorrow they will move up to play Los Ox and UTI.
In the Women’s division, the favourites stayed on top, although fourth seeded The Have needed double game point to escape the Spanish-Japanese Nadeshiko. The Have are a phoenix from the ashes of a series of top British female Paganello champions including Bliss and Cake or Death. Top seed “That’s It” remained on top and even recruited a young bambina, 12 years old, from Bologna to play with them. However the girl decided to stay with the Bologna juniors team. Word from Fatima on “That’s It” is that their name comes from the comedian/musicians Flight of the Conchords’ song Business Time. The girls of Super Hot Pot would like to make it crystal clear that the word Pot is NOT short for Potato. Under no circumstances should anyone refer to them as this delicious food or shout from the sideline “Go Potatos!”.
One of the Tanias from the Ukrainian Dyki Krali normally plays for a team in Bagdad and regularly has practice during extreme dust storms that normally keep regular dwellers of Iraq sealed into their homes. We’re thinking she’ll be the one to watch if our sunny Paga weather takes a turn for the worst.
In Mixed, Czech’s Yellow Fever had the upset of the day over the Arrrrr pirates. Ireland’s 23rd seed Binge nearly pulled off a move to the upper pools by beating Ah Ou Puc, but point differential with them and Sugar Mix favored the Germans by a single point, and so Sugar Mix and Ah Ou Puc advanced and Ireland was relegated. Disc-O-Fever seeded bottom of their pool at an unassuming 28th seed managed to rock the boat upsetting Shocker and Morning Glory to finish one below regulars Huck Finn. Their green and yellow jump suits are apparently the source of their power. The 13th seeded Lamantino Tonante embraced the spirit of Paganello far earlier that most plummeting down to the 29th position.
Tech Noir fought hard by overcoming a three-goal deficit to tie Flugsaurier at game point before a patient Austrian team worked the disc in effectively for the win. Both teams now face the defending champions Huck Finn in the upper pool.
The Russian Shadows surprised eight-seeded Hardfisch with a 12-18 win. Their women’s team Sharks also played well.
Myself and Steve have been hard it since we arrived and will be uploading the fruits of work so far tomorrow morning. Steve wrote this article I'm just posting it.
For anyone who came to Paganello last year, today was an apology for the weather of the 2008 event. A tad foggy but generally we were all blessed with what could be arguably called perfect Ultimate weather.
The Open division went to plan unfortunately making a slow news day for us. The crowd were enthused and baying for an upset in the early Boracay vs Scandal clash. The match started off close to 5s before Scandal was able to pull away without difficulty. The Dragons did still provide a fulfilling dose of the dynamic style of play for the cheering crowd, complimented by Paga love child and Ulti-Author Tony Leonardo’s freakish height and facial fur. The Dragons first created interest with their unexpected finals appearance more than a year ago in Maceio Brazil. Seeded an almost intentionally humble 25th they will continue to be the official dark horse throughout the early stages of the tournament. Meanwhile, Jumpi is pregnant with a bambino Paga, again.
Also in the Arena fans got to see the French Friselis take an 11-9 over the Finns on Hattitwat until Hattitwat brought it to 11s, next point wins. After a Friselis turnover, Hatti had the disc to win but could not and Friselis escaped to win. Tomorrow they will move up to play Los Ox and UTI.
In the Women’s division, the favourites stayed on top, although fourth seeded The Have needed double game point to escape the Spanish-Japanese Nadeshiko. The Have are a phoenix from the ashes of a series of top British female Paganello champions including Bliss and Cake or Death. Top seed “That’s It” remained on top and even recruited a young bambina, 12 years old, from Bologna to play with them. However the girl decided to stay with the Bologna juniors team. Word from Fatima on “That’s It” is that their name comes from the comedian/musicians Flight of the Conchords’ song Business Time. The girls of Super Hot Pot would like to make it crystal clear that the word Pot is NOT short for Potato. Under no circumstances should anyone refer to them as this delicious food or shout from the sideline “Go Potatos!”.
One of the Tanias from the Ukrainian Dyki Krali normally plays for a team in Bagdad and regularly has practice during extreme dust storms that normally keep regular dwellers of Iraq sealed into their homes. We’re thinking she’ll be the one to watch if our sunny Paga weather takes a turn for the worst.
In Mixed, Czech’s Yellow Fever had the upset of the day over the Arrrrr pirates. Ireland’s 23rd seed Binge nearly pulled off a move to the upper pools by beating Ah Ou Puc, but point differential with them and Sugar Mix favored the Germans by a single point, and so Sugar Mix and Ah Ou Puc advanced and Ireland was relegated. Disc-O-Fever seeded bottom of their pool at an unassuming 28th seed managed to rock the boat upsetting Shocker and Morning Glory to finish one below regulars Huck Finn. Their green and yellow jump suits are apparently the source of their power. The 13th seeded Lamantino Tonante embraced the spirit of Paganello far earlier that most plummeting down to the 29th position.
Tech Noir fought hard by overcoming a three-goal deficit to tie Flugsaurier at game point before a patient Austrian team worked the disc in effectively for the win. Both teams now face the defending champions Huck Finn in the upper pool.
The Russian Shadows surprised eight-seeded Hardfisch with a 12-18 win. Their women’s team Sharks also played well.
Myself and Steve have been hard it since we arrived and will be uploading the fruits of work so far tomorrow morning. Steve wrote this article I'm just posting it.
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Making of Episode 4
The making of episode 4 has been a bit of an odd affair. Firstly it's important to note that it was filmed before Paganello, so there are a few mentions of Paga being in the future, obviously it is now in the past. We had to record an intro in a pub after practice to explain the problem, which Steve is going to strap on to the front of the show.
Episode 4 features our new agony Ultimate uncle, Clary. Clary is the oldest living Ultimate player, we manage to call him on the show and ask him about an incident from last years EUCF. Clary has to break off from his bathtime to speak to us, but it's well worth while. Got an Ultimate conundrum? Maybe Clary can help, what he lacks in tact he makes up for in wisdom. Send us an email with your problem and we'll put it to Clary next time we speak to him.
There's also a heap of exciting sofa based chat, photo news, some emails, and my photography section which I hope you find useful. If you have further questions about photography
then feel free to send them in, if we think that answering them in the show will be useful then we'll do just that.
One of the things we've learnt from Paganello is that simple is good. Our one mic, one camera solution didn't give is much scope for messing around with fancy camera angles, but it did mean we were fast. Easy to set up (approx 90 secs), and easy to move around (only one cable).
By contrast our home sofa set up involves two wireless mics, two receivers, a mic mixer, numerous cables and things that need to be plugged in and several batteries that can run out. It take us about 45 minutes to set up and we do a ten minute sound check before every episode, even then we have issues. As you can see from this episode where both my mic and Steve's mic take it in turns to go dead. We may well be trading down to a simple cheaper wired mic solution in the future, probably before Episode 5.
Episode 4 features our new agony Ultimate uncle, Clary. Clary is the oldest living Ultimate player, we manage to call him on the show and ask him about an incident from last years EUCF. Clary has to break off from his bathtime to speak to us, but it's well worth while. Got an Ultimate conundrum? Maybe Clary can help, what he lacks in tact he makes up for in wisdom. Send us an email with your problem and we'll put it to Clary next time we speak to him.
There's also a heap of exciting sofa based chat, photo news, some emails, and my photography section which I hope you find useful. If you have further questions about photography
then feel free to send them in, if we think that answering them in the show will be useful then we'll do just that.
One of the things we've learnt from Paganello is that simple is good. Our one mic, one camera solution didn't give is much scope for messing around with fancy camera angles, but it did mean we were fast. Easy to set up (approx 90 secs), and easy to move around (only one cable).
By contrast our home sofa set up involves two wireless mics, two receivers, a mic mixer, numerous cables and things that need to be plugged in and several batteries that can run out. It take us about 45 minutes to set up and we do a ten minute sound check before every episode, even then we have issues. As you can see from this episode where both my mic and Steve's mic take it in turns to go dead. We may well be trading down to a simple cheaper wired mic solution in the future, probably before Episode 5.
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Blockstack at Paganello Review
I've finished cleaning sand out of my bag. I've had some sleep. I've reflected on the amazing time we had. I've even watched the 4 days of coverage from the Rimini sands.
Both Steve and myself worked our socks off all week. We had less sleep than anyone. During the finals we commentated on all 4 games. We were still defrosting Steve's hands an hour after we left the beach and you may notice that some of the camera work is a little shaky due to shivering.
With everything considered I think we did a decent job of capturing the character and atmosphere of the event, but our opinion is not really that important. What is important is what you the viewers thought of it.
Get your commenting fingers ready and bust out your feedback.
Both Steve and myself worked our socks off all week. We had less sleep than anyone. During the finals we commentated on all 4 games. We were still defrosting Steve's hands an hour after we left the beach and you may notice that some of the camera work is a little shaky due to shivering.
With everything considered I think we did a decent job of capturing the character and atmosphere of the event, but our opinion is not really that important. What is important is what you the viewers thought of it.
Get your commenting fingers ready and bust out your feedback.
- What was your favourite bit?
- Did any of it bore you?
- What did you want to see more of?
- Did you get a feel for the tournament?
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