Scottish Men’s Indoor Regionals 2024: Review
by Kabir ‘Kb’ Adkoli
Welcome to the Release Point’s much anticipated ScUMIR Recap! Two weekends ago we saw twelve teams from seven universities across Scotland go head-to-head to snag a top 6 spot and qualify for nationals. From super-human performances to universe point games, this tournament had everything.
A quick note about this edition of ScUMIR – the format differed from usual tournaments due to fewer teams being entered, including Dundee’s absence. This led to two groups of six on Saturday, which went directly into the brackets on Sunday, instead of any further pool play in between.
Saturday: Pool Play
Pool A: Edinburgh 1, Glasgow, St Andrews 2, Heriot-Watt, Strathclyde 2 and Edinburgh 3
The reigning Scottish champions and 3rd place div 1 winners, Edinburgh, were the clear favourites in a group that was dubbed as the easier of the two. They stamped their authority early by hitting the 13-point cap against Edinburgh 3 (13-0) and Strathclyde 2 (13-3). They faced a bit more opposition from St. Andrews 2 whose wall defence slowed them down, but still resulted in a 9-3 win. Edinburgh then came up against Heriot-Watt, who not long ago had caused them an upset at ScUXIR. But, in the Edinburgh clash, the team in green convincingly took the win 11-4.
Heriot-Watt’s Saturday struggles continued from the previous weekend as they started with a closely contested 10-8 loss to St. Andrews 2, before slumping against Glasgow with a 11-4 loss. Their fortunes almost turned in a nail-biting 7-7 thriller against Strathclyde 2, but they failed to carry the momentum over during their game against Edinburgh 1, finishing in a big loss. They did, however, manage to close out the day with a huge 13-1 win against Edinburgh 3.
Strathclyde 2’s Saturday performance mimicked that of Heriot-Watt, in that they lost to the same teams before drawing with Heriot-Watt and winning against Edinburgh 3. Their margins did differ though as they got capped by Glasgow and Edinburgh 1, with 4 and 3 points in response, respectively. They seemed to gain momentum off the tie with Heriot-Watt as they put up 12 in a win against Edinburgh 3. However, this wasn’t enough to carry them past Saints 2, ending the day with a 10-3 loss.
Edinburgh 3 were the team unfortunate enough to lose all their games in this pool, but they seemed to be gelling as the day progressed. They went from being unable to put any points on the board in their first two games, to then scoring 7 in each of their final three.
St Andrews 2 came into the pool looking to upset some of the first teams with a quality bunch of players. They held their nerve in a close first game against Heriot-Watt before easing to a win against Edinburgh 3. In their first game against Edinburgh 1, they initially looked a bit out of place. However, they roared back with a textbook wall defence against Glasgow where they forced numerous turnovers, taking a 6-5 win in the first upset of the day. They wrapped up Saturday with a 10-3 win over Strathclyde 2.
Glasgow came into the weekend with a quest for redemption following a disappointing ScUXIR. The team looked formidable as they won their first three games on the bounce. However, this may have worked against them as they looked complacent against Saints 2, and were unable to break them. Following the loss, the team were fired up as they managed to take a 3-1 lead early on against Edinburgh 1. They managed to complete the upset, with the teams trading points all the way to the end, in a thrilling 11-9 win for FarFlung.
This led to a three-way tie at the top of the table with Edinburgh 1, Glasgow and St. Andrews 2 all having 4 wins and 1 loss. However, Edinburgh came out on top followed by Glasgow and St. Andrews 2 after point difference was calculated. This left the teams in the pool in the same position they started the day in.
Pool 2: St Andrews 1, Strathclyde 1, Stirling 1, Aberdeen 1, Edinburgh 2 and St Andrews 3
St. Andrews 1 looked to build on their ScUXIR win coming into the harder of the two pools. They seemed to have no problem as they dispatched both their 3rd team and Edinburgh 2, conceding only 1 point in response both times. In the first big clash, they got the better of Stirling in an 11-7 result, despite the teams being closely matched. They had no problems against Aberdeen (13-1) before their game against Strathclyde, ending in a loss for Saints (9-7).
Strathclyde were the team closest to a perfect Saturday, seemingly not breaking a sweat in their first three games, growing in quality with every match. They beat Edinburgh 2 (10-5) before a 13-6 win against Aberdeen, further improving their defence in a 13-1 win against St Andrews 3. Riding high, the Dark Horses put up another great performance in the day’s second 7-7 scoreline (is this a Strathclyde tradition?) result against Stirling, before beating St. Andrews.
The third seed in the group of death, Stirling, came into the weekend following a fourth place outing at ScUXIR. Their offence was firing on all cylinders as they capped Aberdeen and St. Andrews 3 in their first two games, before finally getting outclassed by St. Andrews 1. In their game against Strathclyde, they almost turned things around, but unfortunately couldn’t gain the edge with the game ending 7-7. Stirling ended the day strongly by reaching cap against Edinburgh 2, who put up only 6 in response.
Edinburgh 2, who were seeded fifth in the pool, managed to break seed. They were beaten by the top 3 but had comprehensive wins against Aberdeen (13-3) and St Andrews 2 (13-2). This saw them take fourth seed from the team up North.
Aberdeen and St. Andrews 3 had similar days. Both teams fell to the others in the group, before facing off against each other in the final round of games. In the decider, the teams played out a riveting 8-8 draw. Aberdeen did not fall to the bottom seed in the pool however, thanks to their superior point difference.
Sunday: Brackets
The day started with the final chance for teams seeded 5th to 12th to get a medal and secure their nationals spots. The final 8 saw a St. Andrews derby and Edinburgh derby, with both 1st teams facing off against the 2nds. Neither result was close, and the first teams booked their spots in the top 4. Strathclyde, too, outclassed Heriot-Watt (13-4) in a lopsided affair, joining the top 4. The 3 v 6 game between Glasgow and Stirling was an electrifying game with Stirling holding onto a break score at the halfway point, to pip Glasgow 13-11. In the bracket for teams in the bottom 4, Aberdeen won their first game of the tournament 11-3 against Edinburgh 3, while Strathclyde 2 won 11-5 against St Andrews 3.
St Andrews 1 then dashed Edinburgh’s hopes of holding onto their crown, winning 7-5 in an extremely close game. Stirling and Strathclyde continued the close game trend as the two went blow for blow in an exhilarating 11-10 game. Stirling came out on top, securing their division 1 nationals status for the second year.
The close games continued in the 5 v 8 as St Andrews 2 edged Edinburgh 2s 10-9 to book their spot as the only second team going to nationals. The 6 v 7 game was possibly the highlight (definitely not a biased opinion because I played in this one) of the tournament as the stakes were the highest – the losing team would not be going to nationals. Heriot-Watt demonstrated why it’s Sunday’s games that matter the most, beating Glasgow 13-12 on universe. Strathclyde 2 beat Aberdeen in the 9 v 10, wrapping up the weekend with a single-digit placing. In the battle of the 3rd teams, St. Andrews 3 held their own in a resounding 11-5 win over Edinburgh 3.
In the last round of games, Glasgow completed their set of victories over Edinburgh by beating their second team in the 7 v 8. Both St. Andrews 2 and Heriot-Watt, having already confirmed their spots at div 2, played out a 12-10 game which went in favour of Saints. The 3 v 4 game decided which was the final team heading to division 1, with both Edinburgh 1 and Strathclyde 1 hungry for the victory. In a relatively low scoring game (7-5), Strathclyde came up short and so will be returning to div 2 nationals as reigning champions. The play of the tournament came in this game, with Strathclyde’s Angus Bain pulling off a layout Callahan!
With both Stirling and St. Andrews confirmed to be going to division 1 nationals, the final was purely for bragging rights. With loud cheers for every point scored for both sides, St. Andrews returned to the top of Scottish Ultimate in a 12-11 game with displays of near perfection from both sides.
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That’s about as far as far I could stretch events to delay getting to the part a lot of readers were probably most looking forward to based on the memes online (please keep them coming, they’re hilarious). In the recap, I tried to predict the final standings of all twelve teams with an in-depth explanation as to why. A generational performance when it came to predictions from me and I must give myself maximum credit for correctly predicting the most important position, 11th , because they won the coveted wooden spoon.
In terms of the other standings, I got zero correct and it’s probably time for the apologies. A huge sorry, for the second time, to Heriot-Watt who managed to put up “streets won’t forget” type performances on Sunday, qualifying for nationals for the second week in a row when I said they wouldn’t. Apologies as well to St. Andrews 2 and Strathclyde 2, who both did significantly better than expected.
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A big thank you to everyone who has come up to me for a chat or posted online about these Release Point articles; it’s kind of wild that you guys are willing to read the attempted humour previews and reviews I write.
As you seem to love predictions so much, I will leave you with my predictions for open BUCS, taking place on 17th November (with predictions being written on the 16th). They say a broken clock is right twice a day, so I’m going to stick to my theme of predictions until it becomes Kb o’clock and I’m right – Heriot-Watt to lose both games (I am aware I’m predicting against Heriot despite them playing on a Sunday) with their first fixture against Strathclyde and the second against Glasgow. FarFlung will then ride the momentum to beat Stirling.
That’s all I have, but feel free to tell me I’m wrong. And stay tuned to the Release Point for all things Scottish Ultimate!
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