HAMPDEN – Brett Weymouth has no use for strategy.

The 36-year old from Howland realizes some wheelchair rugby teams work on game plans and set plays but he and his Maine Roadrunner teammates prefer what Weymouth calls the “helter skelter” approach.

“We play a rough, fast game and they play a slower, smarter game, but we have a lot more fun,” he said, after admitting “it’s quite fun” to gather up speed and crash into his opponents.

“It’s more entertaining to watch us than it is to watch two teams waste their time until they pick a hole and casually ride through,” Weymouth said. “I have more fun with it.”

With that in mind, the Roadrunners earned their first quadriplegic “quad” rugby trophy at the Maine Roadrunners Lobster Trap Invitational at Hampden Academy Sunday, with a 35-23 win against the Maritime Mooseheads for third place in front of 30 fans.

Boston NEPVA Pitbulls, who are ranked seventh nationally and finished the tournament with a 3-0 record, grabbed the Lobster Trap title with a last-second score by Adam Ellis for the 27-26 win against Team Quebec Sunday morning.

The victory salvaged Maine’s first invitational tournament after an 0-2 record Saturday, which served as the team’s season opener.

Holding a seven-point lead entering the fourth quarter, Maine outscored Maritime 11-6 as Weymouth scored five points and dished out three assists, including a pretty no-look hook pass to Gary Pelletier in the key area for the goal.

Weymouth, who was paralyzed in an April 1989 snowmobile accident, poured in 19 points and Mark Hughes raced across the goal line with six.

Rick Famigliette, one of two Connecticut Jammer players who joined the Maritime team because their Jammer teammates didn’t make the trek, led the Mooseheads with 14 points and Stephen Dunn added eight.

Maine’s Mike Raye was the Roadrunners’ sole representative on the All-Tournament team, although two-year Roadrunner Steve Gilman, who now plays for the Connecticut Jammers, also made the squad.

Racing around in specially designed, lightweight chairs, the Roadrunners blocked and guarded opposing players, often banging chairs violently in pursuit of the ball, or to block the path across the goal line.

The chairs are light enough so players can gain speed, stop quickly and change directions sharply, and are tougher to upend than the “everyday” chairs. And there are no electric chairs here.

Originated in Canada where it wasknown as “murderball,” quad rugby is played on a basketball court with a volleyball and four players on each side. A key sits perpendicular to the basketball court’s key on each endline, and play takes place during four eight-minute quarters.

An offensive player may remain in the opposing team’s key for no more than 10 seconds at a time, and must get the small front wheel and larger side wheel at least over the line to score the one-point goal.

Crowding the key are three defensive players and four offensive players, all of whom are trying to get position on the opponent.

Play moves as a player dribbles the ball once every 10 seconds while wheeling around or passes to a teammate. Errant throws cause some of the biggest bursts of action as players grind their way to the ball, banging chairs and making grabs.

Yet players are not allowed to hold another player’s chair, or hit an opposing player with anything but his chair.

A one-minute penalty is awarded for hitting an opponent with an arm, hand or elbow, or if a fourth defensive player wanders into the key as the the squad moves around to cover open routes and offensive players.

The United States Quad Rugby Association, which governs the sport, has a seven-step classification for players to measure the extent of their muscular abilites with the quadriplegia.

A .5 player has no finger movement, weak wrists, and no use of the triceps or trunk, while a 2.0 athlete, which is middle of the road, will have no trunk movement but normal triceps, some use of the wrist and weak fingers. At the top of the scale is the 3.5 player, who has almost normal hands, strong arms and good trunk strength.

The classification provides a level playing field for the wheeling speedsters. A team of four players on the floor must not exceed a total classification of eight points, which ensures each team has four players of equal physical ability on the floor.

But it was the speed and the banging which first attracted Weymouth and his teammates.

“Actually, I have to give Dave Pellegrini [team manager and MASR’s executive director] credit,” Weymouth said. “He called us up and asked us if we wanted to play quad rugby and I thought `Yeah, right.”‘

But then he and team captain Tim George each saw a tape of a quad rugby match and by March 1994, the Maine Roadrunners team was born.

“I went to a meeting and on the TV, Dave had quad rugby running and I went over, and I was like, `Wow,’ ” George recalled. “I was in awe of it.”

“I remember we were out there in our regular chairs at the Brewer Auditorium, hitting each other – not even knowing what we were doing,” he said.

They do now.

Lobster Trap Invitational AT HAMPDEN Saturday’s Results

G1: Quebec 31, Maritime 12

G2: Boston 38, Maine 23

G3: Quebec 41, Maine 28

G4: Boston 41, Maritime 18 Sunday’s Results

G5: Boston 27, Quebec 26 (Boston wins championship)

G6: Maine 35, Maritime 23 All-Tournament Team

Yyan Veillette, .5, Quebec; Steve Gilman, 1.0, Connecticut; Mike Raye, 1.5, Maine; Serge Raymond, 2.0, Quebec; Steve Killilea, 2.5, Boston; Robert Labbe, 3.0, Quebec; Adam Ellis, Boston, 3.5

(Numbers indicate level of quadriplegic athlete’s physical ability)

Most Valuable Player: Robert Labbe, Quebec