Liam Weston ahead of leaving for Sydney. Photo: Jeremy Smith
Cambridge’s Liam Weston wants to see those Aussies in a spin.
The 17-year-old headed to Sydney yesterday as part of the New Zealand U20 Ultimate Frisbee open team to take on their Australian counterparts – the Aussie Thunder – in a three-game series known as the U20s Ultimate Frisbee trans-Tasman Series.
He’s the only team member from Cambridge in the 21-strong squad – and with the first trans-Tasman encounter of the three games set for Saturday, Weston told The News his goal is to ensure he helps the team repeat the 3-0 “whitewash” it achieved the last time the two teams met.
Weston said the trans-Tasman rivalry has been happening since about 2010 – but it’s his first time playing in the series.
“There’s maybe a little bit of added pressure this time,” he said.
Ultimate frisbee, Weston said, is essentially like “American football played with frisbees”.
With seven players in a team on the field at any one time, players seek to score points by passing a frisbee to a teammate over the opposing team‘s goal line, or end zone.
The winners of the 100-minute games are the first team to score 15 points.
One point is scored for each catch in an end zone and half time takes place only when one team reaches eight points, “however long that takes”.
The fast-paced game, Weston said, is rapidly gaining popularity both around the world and here in New Zealand.
Perform well in Sydney, and potentially at stake for Weston – a Hamilton Boys’ High School student – is a spot on the New Zealand team for the World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC) in Birmingham in July next year.
Weston’s plate in life is full, and one could be forgiven for wondering how he manages to spin so many.
This is his second trip to Australia in just under three months – the first being for an entirely different reason, and sporting code.
Also a Waipā, and Waikato, football referee – and player – Weston attended the 2023 Keepup Kanga Cup in Canberra in July.
The week-long 2023 cup, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest international youth football tournament, drew nearly 300 teams from around Australia.
He was there to referee matches.
“It was great, I was the fourth official in the grand final, which was really cool, and I refereed the semi-final too.”
Additionally, Weston was named youth referee of the year – and most promising referee – at the Waikato Bay of Plenty Football Federation’s (WaiBop) 2023 end-of season awards.
Weston started playing football in Year 9 at 13 and frisbee initially only entered the fray when he went in search of a way to keep fit in the off season of football.
“At first I just thought, oh, I can use frisbee as a way to keep up my fitness with a bit of extra running around,” he said.
“Then, as I just kept going back, I kept loving it. It’s so fun.”
Aside from helping his New Zealand team down the Aussies, Weston said he would love it if he was one to catch what’s known in ultimate frisbee as a callahan – when a player throws their frisbee directly into their opponent’s end zone for an immediate score without being touched by another player.
Weston, who was initially selected for the wider training squad for the New Zealand U20s trans-Tasman Series following a training camp at St Peter’s Cambridge earlier this year, thought just making that training squad was “already amazing”.
So, describing his elation when named in the New Zealand U20 Ultimate Frisbee open team for Sydney a
few weeks ago was difficult, he said.
“I was so excited.”
Here at home, Weston hones his frisbee skills playing for Hammertron
Ultimate – an ultimate frisbee team in Hamilton.
Coached by Auckland’s Warren Buckingham, the New Zealand U20 Ultimate Frisbee open team has two training days planned ahead of game one of the trans-Tasman Series this weekend.
