Outdoor Nationals, 2009-2010, Sheffield A tough pool and a number of injuries meant the team would have to perform out of their skin to get on well. Starting out against Halcyon, a team expecting to be competing for the top 4 spots, we blazed out of blocks winning the first point and competing excellently throughout the first half of the game. Sadly their greater experience meant that they had an extra gear to step up into and Mythago lost 13-3. A similar experience against last years winners Warwick Bears resulted in another 13-3 defeat and left us in need of a performance against LSE. LSE were seeded only one place above us, it promised to be our closest game yet, and so it ultimately proved. LSE had beaten Halcyon in their previous game, and were proving a surprisingly strong force in the group. By this point the legendary wind at Mount St Mary's had picked up and proved a decisive factor, with both teams trading downwind points. Mythago managed to work in an upwind point, but LSE responded with one of their own, and ended up taking the game 9-7. Despite this being our last game of the day, and having lost all three, we had played well across the board. Day 2, revitalizedby a life giving curry the night before (having learnt from regionals), Mythago set about the task with renewed purpose in our first game against St Andrews (Flatball). This game was to finish in the top half of the bottom 8, and would immediatly mean an improvement on last year if we won it. This gave us all the motivation we needed, and helped by a strong wind yet again, we performed brilliantly to down a tough Flatball team 7-4 (I think, haha!). Straight after, we had to run across the venue for a game against Haze, from the University of Loughborough. With a powerful crosswind meaning that every point felt like it was being played upwind, Mythago struggled initially to cope with the bizarre conditions, but picked it up later on to force a close finish to the game, which we narrowly lost. Finally then, we played our old rivals No Frills (Cardiff). We had a real determination to show Cardiff that we had improved since regionals, staring well, Mythago played up to 3-3 trading downwind points and with an upwind point each. Unfortunately, at this point the reduced size of the squad and the number of injuries played its part, and Cardiff were able to pull away to win 9-4, but the performance from Mythago was a much higher level than at regionals, despite the adversity. Mythago voted two team MVP's, and they were team Captain Leo Morgan, and Mat Seabrook. -- Dave Gresham (Media Man, 2009-2010) Back to Results