Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Portafield Redux

So Northern Regionals 2010 (aka Queensland Open and Women's Ultimate Championships 2010) this weekend will be played on portafields.

BPL players have had six months to get used to portafields, and picked up a few tips and tricks on the way (check the comments too for more wisdom).

But there will still be a lot of folks playing on Saturday and Sunday who may find this a new experience.

Here's a few extra thoughts going in to the weekend.
  • BPLers - the Black Betty TDs will need our help on Saturday morning in setting up the portafields. Many of you will recall your first go at setting up a portafield, and finding it a bit tricky. So lend a hand for the good of all. Its always good to have that ladies of Brisbane Ultimate appreciate you.
  • The portafields lines can sometimes get a little 'bowed' (ie not be a direct line between two points) - the tightness you can get on the line to make it straight depends a little on the conditions, and on a very flat/frictionless field they can slide a little in the middle. I think generally its ok to try to straighten them up during games if possible. But in terms of what's in and out, I think its more spirited to use the portafield line, rather than the imaginary line between two cones.
  • Interestingly, I heard that recently a player caught the disc and found their foot *under* a portafield line. There was some discussion about whether this was "on" the line or not. I'd have to say that yes, if your foot is under the line, you are indeed on the line, and hence are "not in".
  • At the moment the JFOG field is pretty long in the grass. The grass is mown by the Council according to its own schedule (it tries to mow everything as soon as possible after weeks of rain, but its got hundreds of parks and fields to do). So it is in "the hands of the gods" as to whether we'll have short or long grass this weekend. Of course, a chalk line would be highly impractical in high or wet grass, so the portafield is a good thing.
Any other learnings from folks who've now played on portafields for a while?

1 comment:

briggsy81 said...

A little Peta-bird has informed me that the fields have been freshly mowed yesterday.... :)