Indoor Regionals, 2010-2011, Plymouth Mythago 1 With seedings placing Mythago 1 in the same group as Uriel, Saturday wasn't to be overlooked. Because of a no-show the firsts opening game wasn't until after midday and they were itching to get going by the time it finally came around. When the first three games did arrive the firsts made light work of them winning 10-0, 12-0 and 8-1 building up to the crunch match with Exeter. The hugely anticipated game arrived and both teams were looking to win and take the 4th seed overnight. With both teams playing zone defence the scoring was going to be minimal, the Exeter zone however proved slightly more effective and adapted well to the offence we tried and they came out deserved 5-1 winners. Meaning that overnight Mythago were seeded fifth and had to win 5 straight games on Sunday to reach 3rd and make division 1 nationals. Sunday started well with a convincing 8-0 victory in the 5v12 crossover, before the calibre of opposition took a sharp step up for the 5v8 against No Frills 2. The combination of a extremely noisy sideline - mostly No Frills 1 - and possibly some nerves caused this game to be closer than it maybe should have been. After some silly drops and some panicky throwaways in the early stages resulting in a 2-2 scoreline, Mythago managed to pull through 8-2. The next game (the 5v6) against Uriel 2 had added weight after the performance in the previous game, with us keen to step up and show we were good enough to be contenders for division 1. The resulting 8-1 scoreline shows that the performance was much better while maybe not quite reflecting the closeness. The 5v4 gave Mythago 1 their first chance since the Uriel game to raise their seeding, while also providing a real test of quality being against No Frills 1 - a team that had dominated both indoor and outdoor regionals for the previous two years. The game began with both teams so hyped that no-one realised that both teams were playing in black! After the shirts were sorted out the game continued at an incredible intensity with both teams laying everything on the line to take victory - a particularly memorable point saw three Mythago layouts and some patient offence resulting in a score. Scoring was slow to begin with meaning that as the buzzer approached the tension racked up another notch. With a somewhat-risky knife that Rob somehow brought down, Mythago went 4-2 up and managed to keep trading points to come though 5-3 winners and progress to the 3v4 game for div1 nationals... The 3v4 against BLT provided a different type of challenge that in the end proved too mauch after the earlier exploits. Having played 4 games earlier in the day tiredness played a role as good use of the iso play by Bath was a deciding factor as they edged it 8-7. While this was hard to take as it was so close and we often knew what play would be coming, Mythago 1 were still pleased with their standard of play over the weekend and happy to have made nationals. Reports from Mythago 2 and 3 are coming soon.