The nominations are in and voting has now started for the BU & GSH Awards 2009. The nominees are listed below. To vote, send an email to belfastultimate@googlemail.com, listing the category and the person you are voting for. You can only vote for one player per category. Voting by email closes on Friday 18th December. You can vote in person at the Christmas Cracker if you miss this deadline.

Belfast Ultimate Awards 2009

Player of the Year

Who achieved most on the pitch

• Adam Glover - great performances on pitch throughout the year. He played for Ireland at Rylands and 8Nations, was included in the IFDA 'Team of the Year', won MSP several times and won MVP at Cork. He truely is one of the best players in Ireland
• Alan ‘Marco’ McWatters - In 2009, Marco’s quality of leadership was his best yet. He kept a cool head at all times, managed his players well and fairly, and encouraged his team-mates to get the best out of them. During all of CHASE’s matches, he made sure CHASE maintained high morale at all times. This was coupled with his excellent abilities as a true all-rounder, capable of playing any position on the field exceptionally well.
  During the first day of Tune-Up this autumn, the wind made conditions nearly unplayable. Through sound advice and good example, Marco pulled CHASE through a difficult set of matches, winning them all convincingly. All this on top of the level of participation and quality of play in BUG as well as the effort put in to recover from a bad knee injury from Christmas last year.
• Chris Hunter - made the Ireland team for 8Nations, he forms the backbone of Swerve, the only team to take points of CHASE during this years Summer League, and recently he came 7th and Uni Indoor Nationals with Dundee. He has since retired from playing Ultimate.
• Garry Hughes - Garry has worked his ass off this year and his dedication has been second to none. His attendance was requested at the Ireland Development Squad "Invite Only" training sessions. He played amazingly well at all tournaments BUG attended with specific reference to Cork (Incredible against Bologna). He also gained his first Ireland Cap playing at the 8Nations. (Where he was a great asset to the squad!)
• Stephen Graham - attended all BUG and CHASE tournaments this year, his performance at Tour 2, where he kept BUG from rolling over and dying of exhaustion (winning him an MVP), gives a lot in training and on the pitch. He scored the most points (presumably) for BUG and CHASE respectively this year.

Best Beginner

Best player who's been playing for less than 15 months.

• Benjamin McFeeters - (*had two caps in Summer League '08) He's the only beginner to play a match for BUG this year and he got an epic layout at Tour 2.
• Chris Linter - (*started in the summer of '08, so make your own mind up if you want to include him as a beginner) He's just improved so much over 2009.
• Craig Ballentine - Earlier this year, Craig Ballentine came to Ultimate as a complete beginner. He showed great promise and enthusiasm straight away, throwing his first convincing forehand in his second week, claiming ‘he was practising in the back garden’. This paid off, as did his regular attendance at training and CHASE matches, as he became the solid player he is today. Craig put in his fair share of effort, helping CHASE defend the Summer League title this year, and such, deserves recognition for that achievement. He played near flawlessly for CHASE at Tune-Up this year.
• David Scott (Poody) - MVP at intervarsities, really willing to learn, takes on board advice at training and implements it striaght away
• David Marshall

Biggest Contribution to Belfast Ultimate

Who deserves recognition for their efforts.

• Alan Cooper - for setting up a proper QUB Ultimate Team. BU has been in need of an institution such as Queens feeding into it’s player base. Alan made it his mission this year to get a fully fledged QUB team off the ground, and recognised by the university. He has succeeded in both, and continues to strengthen the team through active recruitment, and training.
• Dave Hammond - "he sticks in the most effort i've seen into making things ultimate related happen", including, applying for funding from Belfast City Council, and organised and implemented 4 kit orders between BUG and CHASE this year
• ob - manages all the money in BUG, organised and ran Summer League (arguably the most important aspect of BU), attending all BUG tournaments, taught us all how to layout properly at Cork.
• Pete Gaston - for the growth in the Love Easter Tournament, and the Christmas Special. Both of these tournaments make up part of the BU Big Three, and Pete has done well with bringing up the standard of these tournaments in 2009.
• Stephen Hammond - for putting together the Red Nose Day charity match. We had a lot of fun dressing up as eejits, and a large amount of money was raised for a good cause.

Most Spirited Player

The player who has most exemplified spirit and sportsmanship throughout the year.

• Adam Glover - if you didn’t know who Adam was, but did hear his repeated nominations and MSP awards, you may think we were joking. But he is that fair-minded, resolves quarrels quickly, and can often be seen having a bit of craic with the opposition while setting up the stack.
• Benjamin McFeeters - invented Screming Circles, high spirit.
• Dave Hammond - from his nominator: "I am sure this nomination will receive a laugh or two but bare with me...I have good reason. Yes, I am talking about the same Dave Hammond who caught a Callaghan against an entirely female Kebab Hammer line and then showed the thrower the disc. It is even the same Dave Hammond who caused a player to drop a disc because he screamed "F**kin' Mine" in his ear as the player went to catch it. But this Dave Hammond truly has displayed some of the best spirit I have seen in Ultimate. Yes he wants the disc and loves a good celebration when his plan comes together but this is enthusiasm, not bad spirit. I think Dave plays very hard but never gets hot headed and rather than putting his head down when things go wrong he rallies the rest of the team and never fails to get players heads up. He is always very quick to make sure you know he is joking when it comes to his outlandish celebrations (Some even a little pre-emptive). When he thought he had offended me with a celebration he sent me a text the next day to make sure I had taken it in jest. I honestly think Dave has great Spirit and should be seriously considered for this Award."
• John Houston - he's a nice chap

The Gayray Shirley Hughes Awards 2009

Most memorable moment (on or off the pitch)

What moment from the previous year sticks in your mind the most.

• Adam Glover skying Pete at the Easter Special
• Dave Hammonds Impersonation of BIG Rob at Cork
• During training luke doing the smoothest greatest i have ever seen, just a wee flick back to myself open in the end zone. awesome.
• Every time Dave Hammond skyed the shortest female player on the other team.
• Garry's sh*t layout
• Love Easter - "being amazed when I turned up and saw so many people, playing in an epic final"
• Marco making Davidson cry by singing 'Are we Swerve, or are we bankers?'
• Mankinis - but I really wish I could forget that.
• Ob laying out

Best match

Includes all matches organised by BU or played by BU associated teams

• BUG vs BOLOGNA (Cork Open)
• BUG vs GB Juniors U17s (Tours) - Extract froms Steves writeup which sums it up…
  "This match was a match that no over 21 years of age ultimate player wants to come up against, it was 9 broken BUG players on a sunday morning facing milliions of teenage running machines. Old age and treachery conquered in the end."
• CHASE vs Dundee (Tune Up) - the grudge match
• CHASE vs Swerve (Summer League) - the one where there was a draw
• Deep Heat vs CHASE (Love Easter)
• Kebab Hammer vs CHASE (Summer League) - the Mike Carlisle Special

Most in-eptness

Speaks for itself

• Stuart Moore - for getting his wife Karen pregnant ("Need I say more!")
• Ben McFeeters - for forgetting his sleeping bag at Tour 1, and his boots, towel... He even tried to lose his suitcase at a train station, but it was still there when he got back.
• Chris Linter - He surprises us some days with levels of preparedness but then totally redeems himself with HUGE levels of ineptness. For example, the time when he asked Ben's new French friend "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?" He also got told off for beating up C3PO by Captain Kirk. (How's that Lookfly order coming?) Sometimes he gets people mixed up.
• The Lintor and Ben Show

Crippalator award

Who's most likely to send someone to hospital

• Andy 'Mac-attack' Mac - Cloth-lined Paddy at training one week.
• Jarad 'the ginger raper' Cordner - Jarad's failed rape attempt on ob, then dropping him on his head, leaving him with a sore neck for months
• Pete 'Cripplar' Gaston - Always attempts to re-address player number imbalances between teams
• Steve 'Studo' Graham - For injuring discs
• Robert 'Bob' Lindsay - From his nominator: "Shouts a lot, could easily send me to hospital, slaps me really hard and says "Alright buddy"."

Best fancy dress (individual)

• Adam Glover - from his nominator: "thats cause I made his cork costume."
• Benjamin McFeeters - Socrates - For freezing his butt of at Copa and wearing the same costume again at Tune-Up becasue it was so awesome!
• Dave Hammond - His mankini costume
• Garry Hughes - Captain Planet at Durham Hat
• Pete Gaston - Purely because of the hat attempt

Perve of the year

Who would you least like to introduce to your sister

• Smoke For A Grope - "I think both parties involved should be ashamed!!!!"
• Alan McWatters - for telling many stories about the girls he's shagged ("Yeh, I did an Asain once..." etc)
• Keith - poor Debbie got marked by no one else. Maybe he just couldn't handle playing D against any other Kebab Hammer breasts, sorry, beasts.
• Steve Hammond - "I'm blind. Can I have a grope?"
• Windy Millar - Nuff said. Also for his attempts at getting girls by grinding on them on the Dance Floor at Cork and for looking up Ben's 16 year old sister on Facebook

Sunshine award

Who brightened your day the most and always had a smile on their face (when at training, playing at games, etc)

• Adam Glover
• Benjamin McFeeters - from his nominator: "best friend, brightens my day, always has a smile on his face, I love him(not in a gay way)"
• Brick Knee - When she actually came to training
• Garry Hughes
• The Lintor and Ben show - "they never fail to make me laugh"
• Steven Hammond - "Best Laugh ever."
• Rob Lindsay - from his nominator: "always brightens up my day when I see him. He is big and friendly, and always glad to play Frisbee. His hybrid accent makes anything he says sound heartfelt, well-meaning, and like the start of a racist joke. He’s never one to take himself too seriously, and I hope he never takes being the brunt of a joke personally. BUG just wouldn’t be as fun without him. I’m glad to count him as a BUG team-mate and a friend."
• Windy

Most creative (in journalism or other)

• Darragh McCambridge and the rest of Kebab Hammer - for reporting in the Banbridge Bugle that they'd won summer league. Very creative.
• Luke Carlisle - Though not entirely Ultimate related, his documentary on Rob's steak challenge. He also made a documentary about BUG, but that was last year, so it doesn't count.
• Stephen Hammond - for writing the Tour 1 and Tour 2 write ups, which make an interesting read and received good reviews from all readers