Blazzers Softball Club, Dublin, Ireland

This was a game between third from bottom in the first division and third from top in the second division, with the prize on offer being a place in the first division for next season. The Fat Cats surprisingly were well beaten by the Reindeer Bucks to decide which team would contest the match against ourselves, with the winner playing the Jammy Dodgers. We were a little apprehensive having to play the Fat Cats rather than the Bucks, who would be rated by most neutral observers as an inferior team. However, taking the attitude that we had everything to gain and that they had everything to lose we took to the field looking to put pressure on them and hope for the gaps to appear. Fortunately for us, their batting on the day was weak, as ours was also well below par, with the honourable exception of Susanne. However, our fielding was pretty good throughout, and the attitude shown by the team in general, with some great hustling by the girls to get on base, was probably the basis for our victory. The Fat Cats will obviously be disappointed by the loss, all the more so, as they led for virtually the whole game, with our 4 run seventh innings bringing the breakthrough for us. They now go to ply their trade in the second division for the first time in their history, while we look forward to life in the first division for the third time. A great end to a season which promised much, but only delivered in fits and starts, lets hope that this is the springboard for some competitive and high-quality softball from us next season

A shame that there had to be a loser in this game, especially as we were the losers !! In an excellent game of softball, during which the lead changed hands several times, The Homers prevailed with a two run double (from 0-2 down) with two outs in the bottom of the last. Of all the many tightly fought games between these sides, this was the best by some distance. Some great hitting by both teams, few errors, and ruthless punishment of those errors that were made. The match was well controlled by Gary Patterson behind the plate and while no quarter was given or expected, the match was played in great spirit. Many thanks to Sean Bredin who kindly stopped an overthrow by us at third, by collecting a third ball ;-)

The Homers were probably deserving winners, although they could have had few complaints if the result had gone the other way. If they can carry this form through to the first division they will have a good chance of survival. The Blazzers on the other hand, live to fight another day, with the probablility of a play-off game against the Reindeer Bucks to gain promotion. Again, some consolation can be taken from the good form showed in this game, with good performances from Dee at 2nd, Kevin, Buzz, Martin and Joe.

Congratulations also to Noddy for making the difficult (but correct) call to substitute himself with Joe after 4 innings.

Another week, another false dawn. This was a regression to the worsdt of the worst after what was in some respects an encouraging performance last week against the Jammy Dodgers. Traditionally we have had many close games against the Fat Cats, beating them on two occasions in the past. With three girls involved in the national softball squad, if anything the Cats are a tougher proposition at 5:5 than they are at 6:4. However, given that they fielded none of their 3 international baseball players, and played 4 guys and 6 girls against us, this was a match that we should have had a decent chance of winning. Even allowing for the fact that everybody was given a run-out, some in unfamiliar positions, this was a pretty dismal performance.

In fact about the only encouraging thing from this game was the fact that Joe was able to complete it without further injuries !! Yet again it was primarily our hitting that let us down, although fielding errors allowed them a lot of lee-way, with two two-out rallies in particular making things difficult. The individual ba