John W. at 40th National Disc Golf Championships

I volunteered to take pictures at these championships organised by my old frisbee playing friend Derek Robins. We met in 1977 at the European Frisbee Championships when Derek entered the competition as a teenager and did quite well. I managed to come second overall and this continued my love affair with throwing plastic discs, although I don’t manage it anymore after a bad shoulder injury a few years ago. So instead I like to take pictures of others especially when they are playing disc golf.

Derek bought some former farmland about twenty years ago and set about designing and building his own disc golf course not far from where he worked at Warwick University. Now it is renowned as one of the best in the world, and one of the few private courses in existence. It is certainly the premier course in the UK and this tournament attracted a full complement of eighty players from ten countries, including Finland, Netherlands, Iceland, Germany, France, New Zealand and the United States. In fact it attracted two married players, Des and Jay Reading from the USA, who are both former World Champions. They are combining it with a working tour around Europe where they are creating a type of ‘corporate’ golf course in both England and Italy, and training local people to run them.

This championship was held over two days but I only attended on Sunday and arrived near Leamington Spa at 0930 to find play was already underway. I went straight onto the course and tried to record as many different players as I could in the morning and then followed the leading groups in several divisions for their shortened final rounds in the afternoon.

I’m pleased to report that Derek Robins continues to win tournaments, taking the title in the ‘Pro Masters 50+’ division. In the ‘Open Women’ division, unsurprisingly Des Reading won by quite a distance, and when presented with her prize she said how much she'd enjoyed this tournament’s spirit and said the course is now one of her top 10 favourites, having played on more than several hundred previously.

Her husband Jay came third in the ‘Open’ division, where Max Tanghe from Belgium placed second (his father also came second after Derek in the ‘Pro Masters 50+’ division).  But the unequivocal winner was Blær Örn Ásgeirsson, a fifteen-year-old prodigy from Iceland, who won by six shots. He was amazing to watch and I had the privilege of taking a lot of pictures of him at quite close quarters. I think it helped that I know how to play disc golf so that I could anticipate what type of throw might occur in each circumstance. All the holes are very different and made good subjects especially with the beautiful weather that we had all day, although the heat was extremely wearing as we walked long distances around the course. 

But my blip is of John Wedemeyer, who I had a long chat with late in the day, when he told me of his life as a solicitor specialising in family law based in Hamburg, Germany. Hopefully we might meet again at another tournament somewhere in Europe, although he said he often accompanies his fifteen-year-old daughter to watch musicals in theatres in London and Edinburgh, as she is also an Anglophile! That is what I love about our sport; it introduces you to so many other people where you start out with a common interest in flying discs, and go on to find out much more!

NB
You can see some of the pictures I took today here on this British Open Disc Golf Facebook group page.