Sale Knockout GET EXCITED

It was great to have so many people at training on Thursday night. For those who didn't manage to make it down, be sure to come along next week as we will be having another great training followed by our Touch UM BBQ to welcome you all back for the year.

Affiliates Cup & Training

Summer break is coming to an end and you're running out of things to do on a Tuesday and Thursday night. Well here's the answer.

Touch training is still on

Tuesday Nights 7:30 - 9:30 and Thursdays from 6-8 on the University of Melbourne (Parkville Campus) Hockey Pitch

Now is the perfect time to take advantage of Touch training without all the new Uni students clogging up the Hockey Pitch. So please if you're keen come down as our coaches would love to see a massive boost in numbers before Uni kicks off again.

Also during these times we will be training partially in our Affiliates Cup Teams (Affiliates Cup is for all those playing Summer comp, more details in different email). So please if you're playing for Parkville in the Affiliates Cup it would be a great help to our shot at the Championship if you could turn up at either (preferably both) Training sessions

Touch UM's Asia Tour

During the recent winter break a group of Melbourne University Touch Club (aka Touch UM) players travelled to Thailand to partake in the 6^th Asia Club Touch Championships, in lieu of the annual Australian University Sport - Southern Challenge.  The team went first to Bangkok for the Tournament and then spent a few days on the way home in Singapore conducting some coaching clinics and playing in a number of exhibition games. With a few players having never left Australia before, it was going to be a fantastic cultural crash course as well! 

With Mixed, Men’s, Women’s and Senior Men’s divisions, the Asian Championships saw around 30 teams from over 10 countries across Asia attend, but due to the previous months’ political unrest in Thailand, we were the only invitational team from Australia to still make the trek north. Playing seven round robin games over the length of the tournament, Touch UM came through undefeated with a 7 win 1 draw record, including a rather impressive 8-2 win over Monsoon Touch Club, the previous year’s champions and a team stacked full of Singapore national team representatives. The team were excellent ambassadors for the University, running impromptu coaching clinics for various teams and trying to recruit the younger players at the tournament to come to Melbourne to do uni. 

The final results for the Mixed division:

1. Melbourne University Touch Club (Australia)
2. Monsoon Touch Club (Singapore)
3. Brotown Touch Club (Singapore)
4. Zhong Kui Touch Club (China)
5. Hong Kong Representative Team (Hong Kong, China)
6. Seoul Touch Club (South Korea)
7. Southerners Touch Club (Thailand)
8. Beijing Devils (China)

 

 

After the tournament, the team went to Singapore for four days playing and training with local teams. This included coaching clinics, conducted with two local Universities, the Women’s Under-20s Singapore team and the Senior Mixed Singapore Team. The team also played exhibition games against the Singapore Youth National training squad (winning 11 – 3) and four other University or club teams. At every opportunity the players would swap training and playing shirts with the local teams, or exchange emails and Facebook details, creating many friendships along the way. The trip was extremely rewarding for all the players and the Club would like to thank the University of Melbourne and all those who contributed to the success of the tour. 

In late news, the extra playing experience gained on tour has certainly paid off. Since returning, 13 out of 14 players in the team have been invited to join the Victorian Opens Training Squads. For most, this will be their first opportunity to represent Victoria at the highest level.

Sale Tournament

Sale is undoubtedly the highlight of the Victorian Touch Calendar.  It provides the touch players in Victoria with a chance to test themselves against the best players from around Victoria.  Along with this chance to play quality touch, ‘Sale’ as the tournament is affectionately known, provides a chance for everyone to participate in 2 nights of drinking and dancing. 

This year saw Touch UM’s biggest turnout at this event with a total of approximately 60 people, a combination of 1^st years, 2^nd years and ancient already graduated members, participating in both the men’s, women’s and mixed competitions.   

The journey began on the Friday at the Victorian Secondary Schools Championships where Touch UM were to play an exhibition game against the Monash University Touch Club.  This was then to double as a group departure venue.  However, the ‘crapness’, for want of a better word, of the Monash University Touch Club saw them fail to supply a whole team let only two people. (Credit must go to Steve Huynh, the only Monash student who participated in the game). Following the game, the club commenced their 3 hour journey to the classiest of all country towns, Sale. 

The majority of the participants arrived in Sale in the late afternoon and it wasn’t long before people had their choice of alcoholic beverage in hand and went about consuming it at a rapid pace.  Drinking games followed and left the Touch Um population in a less than respectable state.  Shenanigans galore continued however the real action was to begin the following day. 

The first thought on the minds of myself and many other people on waking up on Saturday morning was the thought of playing 5 games of touch.  The arrival at the grounds was more or less very smooth however one participant found trouble getting to the fields.(Via the Sale Police Sation).  Games soon commenced and Touch Um found great success in a number of its sides, with the new kids on the block excelling.  The highlight of the day was however the graduates of Touch Um, The Occasionals, making the final of the Mens competitions however narrowly being defeated by Up’n’Smoke, a mainstay of higher level touch competitions in Victoria. 

Very quickly the attention turned to another night on the town. An improvement in club morale was definitely a priority and was quickly achieved through a number of drinking games and a club dinner.  It was then that the majority of club members ventured to one of Sale’s finest establishments, the Kasbah.  However this trip would not be complete without a stop at McDonalds on the way through to fuel the body for a long night.  A supplier of quality beats and purveyors of fine alcoholic beverage the Kasbah was overcome with Touchies from across Victoria where a great night was seen to be had by the whole bunch.  For some of us, the party then pushed on to the Saloon bar where Sale locals partied into the early hours of the morning. 

Off not much sleep, the Touch UM crowd stumbled out of their room and to the grounds for the mixed competition.  The group again struggled but success was still had with the Touch Um Mixed Team, Dangermouse making it to the Grand Final to only lose to Monash, our arch rivals in a drop off.  The loss can very much be contributed to Touch Um being a much better partying club, a reputation that we should be very proud of. The loss of Tim Glazebrook to injury also made it tough for the team however the performance was a great credit to everyone in the team.

The journey then began to get back to Melbourne before darkness and extreme fatigue set in.  The return to Melbourne was a successful one for everyone which was extremely pleasing to here.  On peoples return home, the first thing on their mind was a change of Facebook status commenting on the amazing weekend and confessing their undying love for the game of touch. 

Thanks must go to the organizers of the weekend which included Lawren Wilton and Lizzie Motteram.  Thanks must also go to the Sale hotel that accommodated a rowdy bunch on university students for one whole weekend.  They put up with a lot and for this they get a mention on this website.  Congratulations must also go to The Occasional and Touch UM Dangermouse for their outstanding performances.  The Occasionals comprised some of the greatest members of the touch club and for coming back to play in a team associated with Touch Um was a privilege. To the newbies, congratulations on playing some really good touch and for having the guts to come away and play competitive touch after playing the game for only a month.  Finally to everyone that came away, I hope you had a great weekend and it is without saying that your continued involvement in Touch will see you experience many more weekends like this.