Under The Influence
by Steve Giguere (Blockstack TV)
Paganello regulars and specifically those open players who compete amongst the elite are familiar with some of the powerhouses that have graced the sands of Rimini over Paganello’s 19 year run. These include No Tsu Oh!, Collard Greens, Scandal, local favourites Cota Rica, SeXXXpensive and of course the recent 2009 victors and baby blue bastions of Beach, UTI.
My first encounter with UTI was on the grass back in 2000. It was UTI’s final year on grass and my first season playing in the UK. One of the first matches I watched featured UTI and I thought to myself that Great Britain has got something up its sleeve that the rest of the World was going to find out about very soon. At the time teams from Britain weren’t considered anywhere near the international contender they are now. The following year in 2001 in their 4th Paganello appearance UTI came to their first Paganello as a dedicated Beach team since hanging up their grass boots. They won the Open division.
Alex Bowers has been there from the start and not only was a cornerstone of UTI, but also the phoenix that rose from the ashes of the UTI’s legendary grass presence, Clapham Ultimate. Alex Bowers: “We were a bunch of ex-students who formed a team to challenge Shotgun who had won everything in the UK as long as anyone could remember. We let anyone play for us who was young, stupid and could put up with being yelled at constantly by Guy Bowles. We were successful, winning UK Nationals and the Tour twice before disbanding in 2000 when everyone moved away from London. People used to like watching us because we’d make amazing layout Ds then have no idea what to do on offence, and every so often Guy’s raging fits would turn emotional and he’d have a nervous breakdown on the pitch. Now we’re just a Paganello team.”
UTI stands for “Under The Influence”. The name implies a ce
rtain willingness to join the other 1500+ party goes for 4 nights of near obligatory carnage. Some might say that gone are the days when UTI were compared with younger Paganello wildcards like Huck and Sea who consistently attempt the near impossible feat of winning at both party and pitch. That does not mean however that UTI do not earn their moniker! Alex Bowers: “I took part in the inaugural socks vs no-socks game on pitch 1, 3am on Paga Sunday in 1998. A couple of hours later our numbers had swelled to about 20 naked players on each team (zone defence was proving effective) including a couple of Italian passers-by who had no idea what we were doing but happily removed their clothes. It was only broken up by a police raid, but they were having just as much fun trying to hit us with truncheons as we ran to retrieve our clothes. I think in order to compete at Paga a team needs to put in as much to the parties as they put into the Ultimate, and things will work out from there.”
It’s 2010 and after 12 years of UTI at Paganello and 3 Open Division titles, UTI has changed from what was primarily a squad of the UK’s finest to what appears to be a 50/50 split between Clapham’s Beach lovers and faces you might recognise from the Swiss Ultimate National squad. I asked Rob (Randy) Alpen how this transformation took place and what we could expect UTI to bring to the table for the 20th anniversary edition of Paganello.
Rob Alpen: “The 50/50 split was born from the barnburners played between Clapham and Flying Angels over the years in European club matches. We always had a very high respect for each other, both from a sporting and a spirit perspective, so we decided that we had to team up
at some point and Paganello seemed like the perfect venue. We had some heartbreaks along the way and almost didn’t even reform in 2007, but I’m glad we did! As for cohesion, I think it’s really the fusion of the Clapham and Flying Angels playing styles that keeps us on the same page. We all know the roles that we need to play and we never blame each other, we just get one with the job and have a never say die attitude. It also doesn’t hurt when you have a man like Lorenz putting up those beautiful discs!
UTI is fairly similar to last year with the exception that we lost Adam Holt who is now living back in Seattle, but 2007 UTI Championship team member Steve Dugan (famous for his sudden death hand block vs Catch 22 in the 2007 semi) is coming back into the fold. Clapham captains Colin Shaw and Marc Guilbert (2007 team member) will also be joining us this year to bolster the ranks. I however am one year older, slower, and fatter and don’t really play very much these days, so that should balance out any gains from fresh blood.”
Those of us who were there for the UTI vs Los Ox final last year will remember Rob’s extended layout take over USA legend Alex De Frondeville. Speculators are already reserving seats for the anticipated final of UTI vs Los Tiger (a reformed Los Ox). Can they do it again, will be it the year of the Tiger, or will any one of SeXXX, Stinks or Scandal shake up the party?
I asked Rob for his top Paganello Moment…
“2007 and 2009 winning assist, I threw both of them. Nothing sweeter than watching that disc sail through the air knowing you’ve just won the best tournament in the world with the favourite bunch of guys you’ve ever stepped on a pitch with”
