Strange Blue



Search :

Pictures from 1992 to 1996

Thankyou to Ashraf for getting these pictures scanned.

The gif versions are the best. In the jpg versions, the compression does degrade the visual quality a bit. jpg pictures take less time to transfer and take about 10 seconds extra to process.

Photographers: David MacKay (2,3); Hayley AvRuskin (5-12). Luke Walden (P1-11). And Other people.

PIC3 gif(83 K) jpg(33 K)

Pre-history of Cambridge Ultimate

All `facts' in this item have been passed by word of mouth through many generations of fireside story-telling, so don't base any intercontinental wars on it.

(See also the Pre-Pre-History of Cambridge Ultimate (written May 2006))

In the distant past, at the Student Nationals of 1992 in Brighton (not Brighton, Exeter!), both teams in the final were from Cambridge. Strange Blue (white) was beaten by Bad Company (Blue). Strange Blue was a Cambridge University team started by Roger and Sandy, and Bad Company were mainly from Cambridge schools (though I think that when they formed, during the 1980s, they were coached by University-based Cambridge Ultimate players, whose team was then known as Slipadisc); they were the key players in the GB Juniors team at that time.

Top row: Angus Smith, Doug Milne, Roger Thompson, Caroline Booth (played for S.B.)
Middle row: Dave McNeilly, Sandy Crockett, Klaus Englyst, Ollie Watson, Tom Corder, Adam Bennett.
Bottom row: Jim Keyworth, Viaram (?), Greg Hallam, John Isbel.

What happened next? Bad Company members went on to play for Regulators and Horizontal Hombres. When the young upstarts, Regulators, beat the long-standing champions, Horizontal Hombres, it was hastily agreed to form a new team, Shotgun Wedding, from these two top teams. Shotgun proceeded to dominate UK ultimate for most of the 1990s, and formed the core of the mighty Clapham Ultimate who dominated UK ultimate from 2001 to 2005, and who were European champions in 2005.

Where are they now (1996)? Doug plays for Shotgun Wedding. So does Roger. Dave McN still played with Strange Blue in 1996. Klaus now plays for Strange Blue. Ollie has come out of a road accident still playing for Shotgun. Tom is occasionally sighted holding a disc; and even plays for SB sometimes; he works in Cambridge. Adam founded Miranda in the London area. Jim plays with Strange Blue at practices, as does Greg. Jim sometimes plays for Headrush or Strange Blue. Greg plays for SB and sells discs in Trinity Street. [Year 2000 update: Roger and Doug play for Doughboy. Jim and Greg still come to Jesus Green to play with Strange Blue. Year 2006: Roger and Doug were key members of the great Clapham Ultimate.]


Luke's photos (1996)

- action shots

Black and white photos from Leicester outdoors 96.

GIF(180K) JPG(89K)
Doug's huge layout for the last point of the Shotgun/Stan final.
GIF(208K) JPG(106K)
Roger catching in the Shotgun/Stan final.
GIF(222K) JPG(110K)
Huge action in the Shotgun/Stan final! All the top British players decided they wanted this disc. (Do you recognise the half leg and arm puffing in at the left hand side?)

Black and white photos from Nottingham Teapot 96.

GIF(136K) JPG(55K)
Graham handling
GIF(188K) JPG(79K)
Sam from Nottingham throws with karma
GIF(163K) JPG(83K)
Nottingham team (Plate winners)
GIF(152K) JPG(63K)
Natalie and Sander -- they don't get more beautiful than this!
GIF(197K) JPG(73K)
James handling

Black and white photos from games in Cambridge.

P1: GIF(182K) JPG(79K)
Ginny apologising to the disc
P2: GIF(172K) JPG(53K)
Mad Kow tossing past Chris
P3: GIF(185K) JPG(75K)
Chris looking disappointed
P4: GIF(173K) JPG(72K)
Arfon demonstrating how to catch
P5: GIF(170K) JPG(70K)
Chris making the D with his head instead of his hands, which he's using for flying instead.
P6: GIF(170K) JPG(70K)
Mike catching
P7: GIF(170K) JPG(70K)
Mike throwing past a Mad Kow.
P8: GIF(170K) JPG(70K)
David MacKay catching a disc
P9: GIF(170K) JPG(70K)
Bob and Chris
P10: GIF(200K) JPG(75K)
Chris throwing past Arfon (huge recoil!?!)
P11: GIF(175K) JPG(55K)
Mike throwing past a Mad Kow.

1996 photos

PIC1 gif(119K) jpg(67 K)
Leicester Regional Indoors Championships 1996. Team Photo. (plate winners). Dave McNeilly, David MacKay, Sander L., Graham F., Arfon J., Richard J., Sven K., Matt R., Alice B.
PIC2 action shot - Huge layout by Ho from Leicester gif(129K) jpg(51 K)
Leicester Regional Indoors Championships 1996: Red versus Bears game.

1994 Photos

2: gif(88K) jpg(27K) - action shot
Lurkers 94: New York player and GB man with hat (Si Moore) jumping for the disc.
3: gif(85K) jpg(24K) - action shot
Lurkers 94: One of the best layouts I've seen: from the GB/GB Masters final. Young GB player (Oz Freire) catches upside-down disc leaving the GB oldie (Tim Phillips) way behind. Note the shadows: neither of them is touching the ground.
4: gif(120K) jpg(44K)
Lurkers 94: `Strange Jest' team photo. (minus Susie)
14 gif(117K) gifb(83K) jpg(45K, looks crummy)
Ross-on-Wye 1994. Excellent team photo. (We had just had a surprise win against Sneeekys.) From left to right: David MacKay, Rob Ward, Ken Matson, Ashraf, Jackie, Clare (fan #1), Simon, Jeff, Adrian Lane, Hayley AvRuskin, Peter Grossenbacher, Klaus, Cynthia (fan #2), Andy, Julie-Ann (fan #3). That was a great tournament! Photo provided by Ashraf.
ross3 gif(K)
Ross on Wye - Half-team photo, when we won the spirit award. Picture quality is crummy.
practice gif(K)
A very over-exposed picture of a practice on Jesus Green.
6: gif(133K) jpg(29K)
Strange Blue team photo, taken in Cambridge 1994? This is a night-time photo with flash, it hasn't come out that well. Features long lost lamented transatlantic players: Rob Ward, Ken Matson.
9: 1994 Strange Blue team photo: gif(173K) jpg(40K)
GB Nationals 1994, Radley. Strange Blue Team Picture, Day 1. Nice sunny picture, with big shadows.
Back row: Matthew Robb, Dave McNeilly, David MacKay, Peter Grossenbacher, David (the crowd). Middle row: Jim, Karsten, Tom Lovelace, Janos, Jason Mattingley, Hayley Gigglesome. Front row: Adrian Lane, Rik the Red, Tom's dad (shadow).
8: gif(164K) jpg(35K)
Another Strange Blue Team Picture, Day 1, GB Nationals, Radley 1994. This one doesn't include Hayley, but otherwise it's a poorer picture than the other.
11: gif(109K) jpg(37K)
Radley 1994, day 1: yet another team photo; a bit overexposed, and seems to have some finger prints on it, this one. Also features Hayley and Adrian looking rather manic. Nice trees in the background.
7: gif(161K) jpg(32K)
Radley 1994 day 2: There doesn't seem to be any opposition in this picture, so I guess we were just playing catch. Adrian catches disc. Janos looks hopeful for a drop, everyone else looks inactive. Nice sunshine, nice trees.
12: gif(97K) jpg(31K)
Radley 1994, day 2: A nice blue sky in this picture, nice grass, nice trees. Also shows an unidentified opposition player apparently just breaking Rob Ward's force.
10: gif(145K) jpg(30K)
Radley 1994, with the Bristol R+D team, at the end of the tournament. Apparently the photographer is missing some good action on the next pitch. Janos seems to be playing cricket, and Jon is changing in the background. Everyone else looks pretty cheerful.
TOT1 gif(K) jpg(K)
Tottenham Dec 1994 - Strange Blue team photo (joint winners of spirit award).
TOT2 gif(K)
Tottenham - another Strange Blue team photo
Darwin-Wolfson sports day 2002
Darwin-Wolfson sports day 2002 - Read it!
Darwin-Wolfson sports day 2002 - DJCM hucking
Darwin-Wolfson sports day 2002 - DJCM getting horizontal
Janos's disc design (not quite the final version); and David's
1: gif(136K) jpg(25K) cropd.gif(63K) cropd.tif(63K) cropd.jpg(32K) shrunk.tif(20K) shrunk.jpg(12K) shrunk.gif(20K)
Not an Ultimate picture - a picture of David MacKay laying out in some snow while attached to a snowboard.
All these pictures are copyright (c) by Cambridge Ultimate.

Other people's pictures of Ultimate action:


David J.C. MacKay, Strange Blue
Site last modified Mon Jul 20 08:46:49 BST 2009