In Summery

It seems like centuries ago that the JdR (RIP) announced that nothing happens over summer. While those at the former not-so-stately BUB mansion crammed on to the gold-plated hovercraft and headed to the beach.. while the fun-loving Monday Nighters were hitting the liquid training hard (It rained all summer, right?), our most elite girls and boys were ramping up their campaign... hitting the deck, sweeping the streets, running up mountains, meditating and climbing stairs on their assent to

Nationals - Brisbane 2011.

BUDA president (all-hail) Matt Ryan and a host of volunteers have been spending countless hours in preparation for hosting this event.

Black Betty and Firestorm started their campaign in November, with a short break over Christmas before coming back strong to shake off any notions of Christmas contentment. Both squads have successfully put two teams through Regionals,

Firestorm attending the most competitive Northern Regional Tournament in recent memory, with Slam Town (Gold Coast) and Villains (Townsville) vying for 3 spots. (report to come)

Women's Northern Regionals was held in Brisbane with a massive turnout from women across Brisbane, gaining a Wildcard for their second team.
(report to come).

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Recruiting has been big this summer. A lot of rookies have stepped up to train for nationals, school and uni programs have started up again (Sunshine Coast and UQ in particular) and BPL clubs Buggers and Heroes opened up their selection process to those interested.

Blogging has also continued sporadically, and Julian Asange has been channeled with some mildly entertaining "Ultileaks".
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BPL

Another new era begins under the reign of another Bugger, Graham "Special" Prickett. Team numbers remain at 6, but lists seem small and carefully manicured. UQ fades into oblivion (for now) with Los Banditos taking the young guys and the other guys making it onto MBB and Dojo lists (the latter, only if you are over 6'). Speaking of 6', SlamTown have adopted a Collingwood style line-up, boasting a lot of firepower from the men under 6'. Cobras will continue, but their line-up is heavily veiled at this point.

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WUFL

Women's league will start again in April, after Nationals. All of the women involved have been encouraged to participate in the Black Betty machine.
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BUML

After a year of maintaining the status quo, John & Co finally made moves to shake things up again. Games are being played across 3/4 venues (ASJC, Griffith, UQ/Oakman) and in slightly different time slots. The big difference this year is that the games are longer and you have to choose your division. While we here at the Imperial BUB Palace had concerns about what this means for recruiting, it doesn't seem to be an issue with the league ballooning out to 20 teams. There seems to be very few teams interested in playing Div 1, with UQ again disappearing, Super Heroes spreading out over Div 2 and Chimis disbanding after their mestizo leader chose to discard the fancy shorts for a pair of orange ones. Who will join Wuxi and Scougery at the top? It seems like Dyspnoeics will make a push for it. Are Poachers going that way too? Discheads will no doubt be under close watch, after taking out the premiership in Div 2 last season.
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It seems like the times, they are a'changin... and we here at the Imperial BUB Palace are not so foolish to come to the cross-roads without our noccs. While looking ahead, we foresee an unusual time of change, we have aligned our take-over with the changing-of-the-guard, while observing the skies and consulting Eddie the Elephant (whose trunk was surely up) we strongly believe that it is safe to declare: The horizon looks glorious for ultimate in SEQ!