Back in September of 2006 a very handsome chap* called Lucas got bored of playing football. It wasn't because he was rubbish, in fact he was destined for greatness, he just didn't like the mentality of his fellow sportsmen. He had gone to two Ultimate Frisbee practice sessions whilst at Cardiff University, but for some reason stopped. So in the autumn of 2006, rather than kicking a ball around, he dragged a few of his work colleagues to Victoria Park in Leamington Spa, and they threw a Frisbee between themselves. Jumpers and car-keys were used to mark out endzones.
A yahoo mailer group was established, and the 'club' (if you could call it that!) was registered on the UKUA website. Lucas was faced with an online registration form with the field "team name" to be completed. He only knew of one other Frisbee team, the Warwick Bears, so he hastily plumped for the name the Leamington Lemmings (somewhat more modest than the Bears he thought). One by one, people started to discover the Leamington Lemmings, including the local cricket team of the same name (Lucas was unaware of them, until he received a hostile email from a club member!). It was Yan Pugh-Jones who was the first non-work colleague at practice, and the only one who actually knew the rules!
Attendance at 'training' sessions, which involved doing our best to chuck a disc between ourselves, starting to pick up, but was promptly halted by the on-set of winter - playing Frisbee in the dark is pretty damn hard. The Lemmings went into hibernation, and then early summer of 2007, Lucas yet again set about getting more Lemmings throwing pieces of plastic to each other. More and more people started attending, and the Lemmings got their very first website!
Lucas spent his lunchtimes designing a super sexy kit for the Lemmings, and Mrs. Disco and Mr Duncan (a friendly concept artist at Blitz Games) helped out with a cartoon sketch of a Lemming to add to the logo. Their first ever tournament was that summer in Glastonbury, Somerset - and suddenly everyone was hooked on Ultimate!
Since then the club has gone from strength to strength. In February of 2008 the Leamington Lemmings Ladies entered their first tournament, and the club hosted their first ever tournament, the Lemmings Luau. The Luau has now become a regular event in the Ultimate calendar, with teams attending from across the UK. The Lemmings are nowing entering into their second year of tour, taking two teams to both the Open and Mixed divisions and also getting together a ladies team.
*shurely shome mishtake? ed.
