The first of many Winter League Sunday tournaments happened last weekend. Armed with a cooler full of beers and with the aim of taking it easy, Khayoba finished the day undefeated and took home the trophy!

In other news, co-captain Asanda was on the Voice of Cape Town last week to speak about Ultimate in Cape Town! Click here to listen!

It’s been a while since we updated you on Khayoba’s activities. To be honest, we haven’t been very active since the post-Nationals hangover wore off. That is because it’s winter. And winter in Cape Town means more rain, less daylight, more laziness, less frisbee.

This is not to say that we’ve stopped playing altogether! Khayoba still gets together once a week on Monday nights to play against the other Cape Town teams in Winter League. And this weekend, we will be participating in the first of many Sunday mini-tournaments, that brings together teams from the greater Cape Town area. If you’ve got nothing planned this weekend, come down and heckle us! Here are the details:

• When: Sunday July 10th, from 11am to 4pm
• Where: UCT Woolsack fields
• What: Some competitive ultimate, some beers, some music, some braaiing and 25 degree weather!
• What should you bring: meat to braai, beers, your best heckles.

Hope to see you there!

Nickname: None

Number: 5

Hometown: Khayelitsha/Cape Town

Position: Handler/Deep

Years Playing Ultimate: 13

Teams Played On: Khaya, Khayoba

Favourite Throw: Forehand huck

Worst Ultimate Habit: Not keeping fit!

Nickname: Sdudla (Editor’s note: Sdudla means “big guy” in Xhosa)

Number: 44

Hometown: Cape Town

Position: Cutter

Years Playing Ultimate: 7

Teams Played On: Khaya, Khayoba

Favourite Throw: Blady forehand

Worst Ultimate Habit: Blady forehand

Below, the clipping from the Vukani article. Special mention to Elise Braunschweig, whose photos are featured in this article, and all over our website, and of course to our girl Xoliswa, whose photo of her owning Jon Aronson of the UCT Tigers in the semi-finals was all over the Cape Flats on Thursday. Now that’s Khayoba!

Nickname: Rich

Number: None yet

Hometown: Cape Town

Position: Cutter

Years Playing Ultimate: 3

Teams Played On: UCT A, Khayoba

Favourite Throw: OI forehand

Worst Ultimate Habit: Grass burns!

A selection of pictures from Day 1 of Nationals 2011 are up in the Photo Gallery. More to come this week, as well as the remaining Player Profiles, and news on what’s next for Khayoba!

xoxo

Khayoba

Today, after an 18-hour drive back from Johannesburg, the SA National Championship Trophy will arrive back in Khayelitsha for the first time since 2006!

Photos are coming soon! In the meantime, here are recaps of the semifinals and finals (as best we remember them). The games were captured on video as well, but we don’t know when the DVD will be available.

Khayoba 14 – UCT 9 (Semifinals)

The two Cape Town teams had split their summer league matches 1-1, though Khayoba seemed to have an upper-hand, coming into the game unbeaten. UCT had lost 15-6 to the Long Donkeys in the group stage and beaten both Zebru and Joburg’s Ult Ctrl Delete.

Khayoba came out firing, not having any trouble with UCT’s zone defense and going up 4-0. The game got tighter and UCT’s defense improved as it neared half, however. The Tigers managed to tie it up 8-8 before Khayoba kicked back into gear, taking three straight points to go up 11-8 and finishing the game on a 6-1 run. Thabane Vuzane made several huge layout D’s, while Finn, Derrick, Anne and Asanda worked the disc all day. Amanda made several big catches, and played an important role in defeating the zone.

“It was a game of runs,” said UCT Captain John Heydinger in the post-game circle. “You guys had one, we had one, then you ran away with it.”

Despite excessive travel calls, the game remained generally well-spirited. UCT went on to lose in a hard-fought 3rd place game against Chilli.

Khayoba 15 – Long Donkeys 13 (Finals)

Both teams entered this match unbeaten (6-0) and nearly 200 spectators watched the game unfold. The veteran Donkey squad was favored to win, having crushed all their opponents and dominated Chilli 15-6 in the semifinals. And the Donkeys–with their 6’6″ monsters, speedy deeps, and insanely accurate hucks–were hungry for their first National Championship, having finished runners-up for the last two years in a row. Khayoba entered its first ever Finals match, though many players had competed in previous years’ finals on different teams (Khayelitsha, Disc Doctors, etc).

If Khayoba players were nervous, it didn’t show. The team turned the disc over only 4 or 5 times in the entire game (28 points), executing nearly flawless, clinical zone offense and capitalizing on the few Donkeys’ mistakes. Despite the lack of wind and Khayoba’s success against the Donkeys’ cup, the Donkeys kept throwing zone defense and Khayoba kept finding holes and taking advantage, often with a 4-handler set.

Colleen Haley rightfully earned female MVP as a popper: constantly creating space and touching the disc hundreds of times (she was arguably the game’s overall MVP). Khayoba handlers (Asanda, Derrick, Anne, Paul, Big Asanda, Finn) demonstrated remarkable composure, working the disc up the field time and again and tiring out the Donkeys’ cup. Colleen, Thabane, Zak, Finn, Richard, Darryn, and Duma stretched out their defense and moved the disc quickly and smoothly upfield when they had their chances. Having established himself during the tournament as Khayoba’s newest deep-threat, Aron Ndzende made arguably the most important catch of the match – a left-handed layout grab for a D-line score off an ambitious forehand from Thabane, putting Khayoba ahead by two points. All but upstaging Aron, Paul Vicars made an enormously clutch tip-toe grab on the Khayoba sideline, preventing a turnover and creating another point when the game was its tightest. Finn de Haan showed incredible fitness, playing all but two or three points.

On offense, the Donkeys had to work much harder for their points than they had previously in the tournament. While other teams had unsuccessfully thrown zone on them (keeping tall defenders in the endzone), Khayoba shut down their long game with hard-man defense, forcing backhand the entire game to prevent Darren’s signature thumber-huck. Several Donkey hucks wound up turnovers in the endzone, and 6’6″ Ryan (who had been unstoppable when these teams met in 2010 Nationals) was virtually a non-factor on offense. That said, the Donkeys only turned the disc over 6 or 7 times in the whole game, executing the methodical, near-perfect offense that they are known for. The Donkeys women touched the disc only 3 or 4 times in the entire game.

The soft cap came on just before the Donkeys tied the game at 13-13, but the Captains conceded to the crowd’s chants and agreed to play a full game to 15 points. On the ensuing point, Khayoba wasted no time getting through the Donkeys zone, and Derrick hit Finn on a handler-cut in the front of the end-zone for the penultimate score (Derrick and Finn connected for nearly a dozen scores during the semis and finals).

Up 14-13, Khayoba brought on a D line with a chance to break the Donkeys one last time and prevent a universe point. The Donkeys’ Darren and Juan had worked the disc up to midfield when things got interesting. With no easy dump and a high stall count, Darren fired a sharp hammer to one of the Donkey women, who was poached in the endzone (note: one of the few times they had thrown to a women in the entire match). She dove forward but couldn’t hold onto the disc. The sidelines erupted with excitement, as Asanda picked up the disc for one last drive down the field. Zak dropped back as a fourth handler and got the disc over the cup with a blady forehand upfield to Thabane. The pace quickened: Thabane to Anne, Anne to Zak, back to Anne on a quick give-and-go on the far sideline – Zak cutting free to the endzone with a Donkey closing in behind. Anne pivoted wide and threw a perfect leading backhand; Zak hauled it in for the score, and a swarm of 19 white jerseys ran to the endzone in celebration. Shouts of Olaaaaaay-Ole-Ole-Ole were heard across the Pirates Club grounds. Khayoba had won its first SA National Championship!

“This was a full-team effort,” acknowledged Asanda Nanise in the post-game huddle. “We couldn’t have done this without any one of you guys.”

Amanda expressed bittersweet feelings, letting the team know she is heading back to the states on Thursday.

“I’ll never forget this,” she said. “This is the most amazing Ultimate team I’ve ever been a part of.”

Big shout-out and THANK YOU to the tournament organizers and to all of our supporters around the world for making this possible!!

Love,

Khayooooooooba

Greetings from Johannesburg! Khayoba has certainly made its presence felt at the 2011 SA Ultimate Nationals, going unbeaten in its first five games. After an 18-hour drive from Khayelitsha, most of our players came in exhausted. 16 teams and over 200 players are competing in this year’s nationals, making it the largest Ultimate tournament ever held in Africa. Brief recaps of games so far and some photos are below:

Click to view slideshow.

Khayoba 11 – Northern Lights 4

Our first game was lined up against the stronger of the two Joburg teams. What they lack in experience, they make up for in fitness and intensity. Unfortunately, this game was remembered more for its ridiculous, unmerited foul calls (by the Lights) than for the Ultimate itself (which, in truth, was quite sloppy on both sides). Nevertheless, Khayoba came through strongly with hard man-defense that forced many turnovers.

Khayoba 10 – Chilli 9

The hotly contested rematch of last year’s semifinals absolutely lived up to expectations. The two giants of Cape Town Ultimate met on the first day of the tournament, having been placed in the stronger of the two top-division pools. A great deal was at stake, as the loser of this match would likely have to play against the dreaded Long Donkeys of Pietermaritzburg in the pending semifinals. Chilli came out strong with a 2-0 lead and the teams traded points until 6-4, including a stunning layout score by Richard. During a timeout, Finn psyched us up to step up our defense and we rose to his challenge, forcing and converting on turnover after turnover. Asanda had a HUGE point block on Ant at the goal-line, and Khayoba converted its opportunities to take half and go up 9-6 (a 5-point run!). The game seemed all but finished when we forced yet another turnover on their half of the field and worked it down to the goal-line. Richard got open on a in-cut in the endzone, but got rugby-tackled from behind by Chilli’s Max (Author’s note: this was the worst, most blatant foul I’ve seen in 7 years of ultimate). Max contested the foul (seriously?!? terrible spirit) and a subsequent turnover left room for Chilli to bring it back. And they did. A few dropped discs and the next thing we knew we were on universe point. Derick wasted no time, hucking to Finn on a sassy deep-cut. Easy catch and a dramatic end to a hard-fought match.

Khayoba 13 – Mozambique 12

We went up 10-3 early on but dropped the level of intensity and let Da Bique back into the game. A sloppy second half, by all regards, but the hard cap came on before they could bring it back fully. Truly, it shouldn’t have been close at all, and there was debate as to whether the last Moz point should have counted.

Khayoba 15 – ELUF Rebels 3

We cruised to a comfortable victory against a young squad from East London. Look out for these guys in a few years, though, some 15-year-olds with insane hucks and mad speed. Aron dominated the long game, the handlers put up some lovely hucks, and Katie was cutting up a storm. DJ closed out the game with his first point of the tournament.

Khayoba 15 – Zebru 6 (quarterfinals)

The quarterfinal matchup saw two familiar teams facing off against each other for the 3rd time this year. Khayoba came out firing, going up 4-0, while Zebru looked tired having just played a long, tough game against Durban’s Prawn Bunnies. Notable plays included massive endzone D’s from Finn, several scores by Amanda, and a huge layout D (plus score) by Zak. Well-spirited, enjoyable match on both sides.

Tomorrow morning we play UCT’s Ikey Tigers bright and early in the semifinals. This should be an intense match, as UCT is arguably the fittest, fastest team in South Africa. The winner will take on the winner of Chilli vs. Long Donkeys in the final. More soon!

Love,

Khayoba