EVERY THROW COUNTS

Ultimate Frisbee team Clapham Ultimate are preparing for the 2026 World Club Championships – but is winning on the cards?

By Finley Adams

A white blur moves through the skies of East London. It’s not a bird, nor a plane... but a frisbee.

It whips through the air and lands seamlessly in the palms of an engineer, then on to a solicitor, then a sleep technologist and finally a potter – all of whom are honing their skills in time for the ultimate frisbee club world championships this summer.

The plastic disc is both at the heart of their competition and their friendship. Together they are Clapham Ultimate, 2022 Ultimate Frisbee world bronze medalists - but if everything goes to plan by the end of the season, they might just be the champions.

“We’re training and preparing as though we are targeting towards winning worlds – that’s what we’re talking about, that’s what the aim is,” said coach of two years Sean Colfer.

But who are Clapham Ultimate?

Made up of 30 men aged 19-39, CU is an ultimate frisbee team at the top of their game who train twice a week to polish the targets on their backs.

Founded in 2000, the team started out playing on their namesake Clapham Common but now, to throw a frisbee into the works, they train at East London Rugby Club.

It’s only taken a quarter of a century for the team to win 23 UK nationals, 11 European club championships and claim their world bronze medal.

Colfer, one of the team’s two coaches, said: “The heart of CU is to train as hard as possible and push each other as hard as possible so that we can improve as much as we can.

“The heart is that competition, that pushing each other and the steel sharpening steel type aspect.

“You come to Clapham and you’re going to be pushed and you’re going to get better.”

Each player dedicates two evenings a week, several weekends and a hefty amount of annual leave travelling the world to compete. But why do they do it?

Justin Foord, who’s been a member of CU since 2008, said: “Working as a team you never really know how you’re going to do; you’re never in full control. So working together as a group of 20 or 25 towards a common goal, when you achieve that goal it’s very rewarding, so for me that’s probably why I still do it.”

But it’s not only a team of players who devote their time and money to the sport – it’s a camaraderie of men with a clear connection on and off the pitch.

Ashley Yeo, a 35-year-old data scientist who has been with the club 14 years, said: “There are guys here who are some of my oldest friends now and it’s kind of a bit of a family.

“It’s a huge part of my life and I think it will be a big hole when I finally do stop playing.”

The team has gone through milestones together – like celebrating 30th birthdays at practice with a coffee and walnut cake, missing national tournaments to attend the weddings of former players or finding their forever partner in the women’s league.

The club’s history is part of its culture and last year, the team welcomed their youngest and first ever second-generation player, Sam Hill, son of CU founder Si Hill. Sam, like his dad, plays as Clapham’s 55.

There’s even history in their logo – the bullfrog – which supposedly came about after an outbreak in one of Clapham Common’s ponds in the early 2000s.

So, what does the club mean to the players?

Three frisbee players walking on to the pitch.

Image credit: Finley Adams

A group of frisbee players in the distance all standing in a circle formation with their arms around each other.

Image credit: Finley Adams

Father and son frisbee players holding the winning trophy for Nationals in 2025.

Si Hill and Sam Hill holding Nationals Winning Trophy from 2025. Image Credit: Connor McHale

Frisbee players in a line warming up by throwing frisbees.

One player leaping into the air to catch a frisbee.

A player throwing and catching a frisbee whilst talking to the coach and another player.

A player wearing a red shirt lunges forward to throw a frisbee.

The coach looks out onto the pitch watching the players throw frisbees.

A player steps forward releasing a white frisbee.

The back of a player throwing a frisbee to another player in the distance.

A player stepping forward about to throw a frisbee.

A player lying on the floor with other players around him stretching and warming up.

Photo by EthanJay Photography

WAIT… WHAT IS ULTIMATE FRISBEE?

Many might know frisbee as a game for the beach or something that your dog might be interested in, but for Ultimate Frisbee teams across the world – it’s a team game of tactics, cohesion and focus.

The non-contact, seven-a-side sport was invented in New Jersey in the late 1960s and involves players working to catch the disc in their opponents’ ‘end zone’.

Unique in its self-refereed system, there are no red cards or aggressive whistle blows but instead the players follow, agree on and implement the rules themselves, with a chance to reflect on the match in a post-game ‘Spirit Circle’.

This fundamental ritual manifests the solidarity in the sport and encourages players to offer both praise and criticism to their opponents.

UK Ultimate’s CEO and Clapham Ultimate founder Si Hill said: “I think the power of it means you have to talk to other people.

“You have to figure out how you’re going to play the game together, even when it’s difficult, even when it is not working very well.

“And that leads to really interesting interactions and probably deeper relationships with your opponents over time.”

THE HISTORY OF ULTIMATE FRISBEE

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THE FRISBIE PIE COMPANY

The Frisbie Pie Company was founded in Connecticut by William Russell Frisbie. By 1956 they were baking 80,000 pies a day. Students from Yale University would buy Frisbie pies and reuse the tins as discs that they would then throw, yelling 'frisbie' to alert the catcher.

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INVENTOR FRED MORRISON

On the West Coast of the USA

Inventor Fred Morrison had also been throwing cake tins and created a plastic disc inspired by flying saucers which he called the 'Pluto Platter'.

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WHAM-O

Downtown Los Angeles

Toy company Wham-O saw Morrison selling his discs in LA, and by 1957 he was helping them make discs on their production line. It's said that they heard the term 'Frisbee' on a tour of Ivy League schools and so officially dubbed their saucers the Wham-O Frisbee.

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JOEL SILVER

Ultimate Frisbee

Joel Silver pitched the idea of Ultimate Frisbee as a sport to the Columbia High School student council in Maplewood, New Jersey.

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TEAM FORMATION

By 1969, Columbia High School's very own Ultimate Frisbee team had formed, playing in a parking lot and using a Wham-O Master disc.

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RULES

In 1970, Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring and Jon Hines penned the initial rules to the game, and later that same year, the first interscholastic game was held.

THE HISTORY OF ULTIMATE FRISBEE

The sport’s top tournaments include World Ultimate Championships, World Masters Ultimate Championships, World Beach Ultimate Championships, and now ‘Flying Disc’ at The World Games.

The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) began in 1983 and has become a member of the International Olympic Committee in the last 10 years.

Whilst the sport itself is growing in popularity and uptake, it is not currently included in the Olympic Games. But could it be?

WFDF’s Vice President Brian Gisel said: “My personal opinion is the more disc sports the better.

“If everybody had a frisbee or a flying disc in their home and threw every day, I think the world would be a better place.

“That’s what we’re trying to achieve at WFDF but, it’s one person at a time.”

Whilst the Federation pursues the Olympics, CU’s focus this season is set on the WFDF 2026 World Ultimate Club Championships; held only every four years.

Limerick, Ireland plays host to this year’s eight-day tournament from 15 to 22 August, with teams from over 30 nations across the globe taking part, including Chile, New Zealand and Japan.

There are three divisions for the Club Championships – the Open, the Women’s and the Mixed – with over 3,000 athletes taking part.

The Open division, which Clapham will be competing in, is set to include 48 teams.

Ultimate continues regardless of weather, so when asked about the possible conditions in Limerick, Gisel said: “We always get through it no matter what the weather is and I’ve been at events where there’s been rain, lightning, snow, thunder and even a tornado here and there.

“I don’t think we’ll have a tornado and I’m expecting the weather will be just fine.”

And the weather isn’t bothering CU either.

Manager and captain Joshua Briggs said: “I hope that we will play well in the important moments and do it together.

“But above all I think when we play confidently and aggressively and together as a unit, not just an o-line and a d-line, but Clapham playing a game together - we can win any game.

“And we showed ourselves that in 2022 with a good result at Worlds, so doing so again this year would be amazing. I’d be really happy for all of us.”

A phrase often slung around in training is ‘work hard and do it simple’ which really illustrates what Clapham Ultimate are all about and what these athletes are out to achieve.

But the questions still remain, does CU have what it takes to claim the title, and will their opponents be left to ‘Fear the Frog’?