For Cambridge University Ultimate Frisbee team – known competitively as Strange Blue – the 2015-2016 season was a mixed year. Alongside its training partner, local club Cambridge Ultimate, the club preserved its reputation as a potent side at the very top level of the UK's Ultimate Frisbee scene, sending numerous men's, women's and mixed squads to a wide range of indoor and outdoor weekend tournaments across the UK to compete in one of the fastest-growing sports in the world.

Ultimate Frisbee, typically referred to as 'Ultimate', is an energetic and fast-paced team sport played with a flying disc (a frisbee). The objective of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to American football. And like in netball, players may not run with the disc; they may only pivot. 

Men

Strange Blue's men started their season at the East & London University Men’s Indoor Regionals, sending two teams. Both performed exceedingly well on day one, with SB1 dropping no matches and SB2 coming second in their pool. And while fortunes changed on day two for SB1, as two close losses to Imperial and Brunel saw the team drop to fourth, solace for those of a Light Blue persuasion could be found in the performance of SB2: their eighth place finish was higher than any other second team in the competition. 

Still, SB1's performance was good enough to ensure their qualification for the Division 2 Indoor Nationals held in Glasgow. This time, SB prevailed over Brunel in the quarter-finals, before losing their semi-final against a strong Edinburgh squad in sudden death. And the team closed the tournament with an assured victory over Exeter, ending the Indoor season with a respectable third in Division 2.

The men’s outdoor season marked the first year of the new British Universities & Colleges Sport league format. Cambridge, up against top teams like Birmingham and Nottingham in the strong Midlands division, started strong, crushing opposition from Staffordshire 15-4. And, while a subsequent losing streak saw the Light Blues drop to fourth place in the six-team pool, Strange Blue still clinched qualification for the Division 2 Outdoor Nationals. 

At the Outdoor Nationals, the team topped their group and qualified for the quarter-finals on day one thanks to wins against Sheffield and Strathclyde, and progressed into the semi-finals on Day two after a 9-6 victory over Cardiff. But a narrow, sudden-death victory against Oxford in the semi-final spawned a Cambridge-Strathclyde rematch in the third-place play-off, which ended 9-6 in Cambridge’s favour.

Women

Strange Blue's women started the year at NBWIN, a women's break-in tournament in Nottingham, competing with a team of six beginner freshers and four experienced players. The tournament, which Cambridge have competed in for the last three years, offered a great introduction to the sport, giving the newer members of Strange Blue a taste of the world of competitive Ultimate.

The women's competitive season began in November at the East University Women’s Indoor Regionals, where – as a testament to the popularity of the sport in Cambridge – Strange Blue sent two teams, who failed to qualify for the Nationals, despite winning six out of nine and four out of eight matches respectively. 

In March, the team competed at the Outdoor Regionals and got off to a brilliant start, remaining undefeated for the entirety of the first day. The second day began with a hard-fought game against Oxford, where the Dark Blues, unfortunately, managed to prevail via sudden death to secure third place overall and a spot at the National tournament. 

For Strange Blue, meanwhile, their final tournament of the year was the Outdoor Nationals, where Cambridge struggled with difficult windy conditions and lost all of their games on day one. But the team picked themselves up for day two, winning strongly against St Andrews and Glasgow, before a defeat to the reigning champions, Oxford, saw the team finish in a respectable 10th place.

Mixed

Strange Blue's mixed squad started their season off strongly at the Indoor Regionals, where they had taken two teams. Following an all-Cambridge clash between SB1 and SB2, ending in a nail-biting, single-point victory for SB1, the first team capped off a fantastic weekend for Cambridge as a whole: they beat Imperial by one point in the final to clinch the tournament. Success also followed SB2, who beat several first teams over the weekend, finishing the tournament in eighth place. 

SB1's victory in the Regionals saw them qualify for the Indoor Nationals in Coventry, where – in a weekend typified by highly competitive games with tight scorelines – SB1 were on the wrong side of three game-point deciders, and finished in 10th position.

With a regional qualifier for the Outdoor Nationals tournament in Durham, Strange Blues approached this event with few expectations but high hopes. The side was hampered by injury and some cold and windy conditions in the North-East of England, yet still prevailed over Indoor Regional rivals in the first game of the weekend. A series of close games against a number of highly-ranked teams, including Dundee, Sussex, and Bristol, saw the weekend finish with Strange Blue taking 13th place overall.

Varsity

In February, the 28th Ultimate Varsity match was held in Oxford and consisted of eight matches – four indoor and four outdoor – between two men’s teams, a women’s team and an alumni team.  

The indoor games were promising for Cambridge, with the men's seconds, women’s and alumni team grabbing victories, though the men’s firsts suffered a poor loss. But in the outdoor match, Strange Blue was less successful: despite the men's seconds crushing Oxford 15-6, it was the Dark Blues who narrowly edged past Cambridge men's firsts 13-11, and long, exhausting matches for the women and alumni teams ended in Oxford victories too. 

Though the score after eight matches was four victories each, the weighting of the outdoors results granted Oxford overall victory, and the Dark Blues took home the car door and chair trophies.

Elsewhere

The long vacation saw many Strange Blue players competing for the open, mixed and women's teams of Cambridge Ultimate, the local town team, with the mixed team coming seventh in Nationals.

The 2015 World Under-23 Ultimate Championships and the 2016 World Ultimate and Guts Championships were held in London, and both tournaments featured a number of Strange Blue players: George Anegg and Rolo Turnell-Riston competed at the 2015 tournament, with Team GB finishing in fifth place, while Newnham PhD student Helena Andres represented the Spanish women's team at the 2016 competition. 

Strange Blue are always keen to welcome new players keen to play Ultimate, no matter their experience. More information about the sport, and how to get involved at Cambridge, can be found on the team's website or Facebook page.

Varsity's 'Rogue Sport of the Week' interview with Tasha Smith about Ultimate will available online later this term.