8th Place: Leamington Lemmings

James Selley and Dan McLean: After a clutch qualifying game against EMO, Lemmings at Open Nationals suddenly became a reality, and to say we were excited would be an understatement. Coming into the weekend, we knew we'd be fighting an uphill battle against the best teams in the country, if not Europe, and we were determined to bring it to them to show we deserve our place in the top 8.

On Saturday, results went to seed with our closest score line against Bristol (who have proven to be our nemesis this season). Performance wise, we showed our competitive intentions with respectable score against Alba (tying at 6s before half at 8-6), before a final score of 15-7 which really set the precedent for the rest of the tournament and showed us how tough it would be. From here we had a close game with Bristol (as was in our league game), and wrapped up day one with what was both our most anticipated and worried about game... Clapham... We knew where we stood with them, but we still wanted to get out there and show what we had, with some of us putting in some of our finest performance of the weekend against the best of the best in front of a passionate sideline. 

Sunday was always where we thought we might be able to squeak some results. Our SF saw us match up against Smash’D in what was James's favourite game of the weekend. Although Smash’D came out winners 13-10, the way the Lemmings squad rallied in the second half (from 8-4 down) showed the quality of play we were capable of, despite multiple injuries. A re-re-match with Bristol closed out our weekend and credit to them they were clinical to the end. While we still demonstrated some top class ultimate, Bristol ultimately proved to be the better team this season. 

Reflecting on Lemming’s first ever Open Nationals it is obviously disappointing not to have got a W on the board but our performances and scores show we deserved our spot at the table. In the year of the rat it’s been a fantastic learning curve for the squad and a brilliant season for the club. Getting to nationals was a huge achievement for the club, and something that we'd like to make regular occurrence, as Lemmings can only go up from here!

Full Article: http://thecuttinglanefloor.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-recap-uk-open-nationals-2021.html