Archive - 1999
And so, the 1999 season and the Blazzers were back in division one. In any case, our dramatic victory over the FatCats was to prove academic, as the reconfiguration of the divisions led to an expansion of the first division to 16 teams. We kicked off our season with some friendly games, as had been our habit, and although we weren't successful in any of them, we still looked forward to the season with some optimism. After all, the last time we had graced this level of softball with our presence we had won almost half our games, and now with 16 teams in the division instead of 12, we were sure to win a few more games.
Nice theory. Unfortunately, our 'easy' opener against The Troops proved to be anything but, and they deservedly beat us. We never got our hitting going, and their base-hitting just kept the game beyond our reach. The Oddsox blue were next up, and with some useful off-season acquisitions they were being touted as one of the teams to beat. We put up a good fight before going down by two runs. We needed some wins now, to get some confidence going, and the pennant competition seemed a good place to start. Win we did, but we made very heavy weather of putting away two average sides in Thirteen Three and Oracle.
Our next game in the league was against Los Bandidos, the side resulting from the merger of the FatCats and the Angels. On paper they had an extremely strong side, and were many peoples pre-season favourites for the league title. We played reasonably well, but were just outclassed by a better team, losing 19-6. We now had a chance to get some match practice in at the Flyers Blitz. An excellent day out, showing just how a blitz should be run, saw us do fairly well with the squad we had. In particular excellent performances from some of the schoolgirls and Liz augured well for the demanding league games to come. Perhaps more importantly, the feel-good factor was starting to re-surface. Tellingly, we put up a really good fight against the previous seasons runners-up to leave us facing their sister team, the Reds, the following week. A good performance where we rode our luck against the 5:5 Reds saw us getting a deserved victory; our first league win of the season !!
The monkey now lifted, we headed away to Glasgow feeling we were turning a corner. We probably were, but given the amount of drinking we did in Glasgow it was more of a stagger than a march. Our softball in Glasgow was mixed at best, combining some excellent performances with some very poor ones. Crucially though, the team was really coming together spirit-wise and even the many injuries didn't dampen our ardour ! We had our first game in the cup match against K2 when we came back, but unfortunately they proved unable to field a team and took the walkover. The following weekend was the National Softball Trophy, which was everything that the Flyers Blitz wasn't in terms of organisation. We were struggling badly with injuries at this stage, but we muddled through our 6 games over the two days, making the semi-final of the junior tournament.
Now entering the final games of the first section of the league, we knew we were going to be in the relegation half of the division, and the priority was to get a few wins under our belt before the second round of games kicked in. We managed to scrape a win against the Flyers in a somewhat bizarre game, where in truth neither team could complain about losing. Still, we were now on a 3 game winning roll in domestic competition and facing old adverseries the Loan Homers, knowing that a win would take us into the next series of games as one of the top seeds. It wasn't to be, and despite a brave performance from a nine man team, we lost 14-9. Our next game was a postponed cup match against the Oddsox green, where playing with 3 novices, 2 injured players and only 3 people playing their normal position, we were blown away.
We were now facing the Flyers in the league, and intent on avenging their earlier defeat they despatched what was at this stage an injury ravaged side with some ease. The redoubtably-named Underpant Gnomes couldn't field a team so we played a friendly which we won convincingly. The following week, in the pennant QF we lost to the Slammers in a game we could well have won, and if everyone had been able to make it in time, we probably would have won.
Another weekend and another tournament; the Triple III. Still struggling to put a fit team on the pitch we were fighting an uphill battle against some serious teams. We never really threatened to do any damage, but we did apply some pressure to every team we played, the highlight probably being a fighting performance against Marlay.
As the season began drawing to a close, we were left desperately needing some victories to take us out of the relegation/play-off zone. The Jammy Dodgers had sprung a few surprises and we were concerned about being ambushed. We won, but made hard work of it and faced into a return game against the Loan Homers. Some superb hitting blew us away, despite us not being that bad, and we had to look to the Strike 4 charity tournament at the weekend to get some confidence back. Some late withdrawals hit the scheduling fo this tournament badly, but we had a fun day out in a good cause and were getting wound up for our 'revenge' game with the Troops. This was definitely one of our better performances of the season as we crushed the ball all over the place. Everyone present got a run-out and almost everyone managed to cross the plate.
It was therefore in good heart that we headed into our crunch game against the Batpak the following week. They were undoubtedly favourites to top our section, and paid us the compliment of fielding a full strength team for one of the few occasions in the season. A disciplined performance saw us take them all the way to the wire, but their mental toughness was the difference in the end, allowing them to put in a big seventh innings to snatch the game from us.
For the last weekend of the regular season we headed to Galway for the Irish Open Softball Trophy where we struggled badly in the morning games before waltzing away in the afternoon in the intermediate competition. Over-indulgence that night saw us in ropey shape the next morning, but we managed to keep the momentum going to the final where we lost a close game against English visitors, The Breakers. Our last league game was against The Kegs, one that we had to win to avoid the play-offs. We managed to do this, in a tense, very poor quality game.
In general terms there were several pleasing aspects to the season, none more than welcoming 11 new players into the club. Mention should be made of the outstanding attitude displayed by two individuals in particular:
Mick, who turned up at every event, helped out on numerous occasions (and batted us out of a hole against The Kegs), having only joined the team this year, and John who despite being ruled out for virtually all the season with injury was always supportive and helpful and did Trojan work in getting equipment and uniforms.
In terms of team and assocation events, we struggled at times for bodies, with the usual suspects turning up again and again. Our table quiz was disappointing with only ten tables and minimal participation by many of the team. The Race night was even more succesful than last year, but it could be even better with greater participation and effort across the board. In terms of the events run by other teams, etc, we were embarrassed by having only two representatives at the Loan Homers poker night, despite them having two tables at our table quiz a week prior to this. We did redeem ourselves however by having two tables at their table quiz, and winning the thing! We were also represented at most IBSF events. Overall, there was a big improvement this year on previous years, in terms of how we 'mingled' as a team, entering all blitzes and tournaments and having representation at most events.
Nice theory. Unfortunately, our 'easy' opener against The Troops proved to be anything but, and they deservedly beat us. We never got our hitting going, and their base-hitting just kept the game beyond our reach. The Oddsox blue were next up, and with some useful off-season acquisitions they were being touted as one of the teams to beat. We put up a good fight before going down by two runs. We needed some wins now, to get some confidence going, and the pennant competition seemed a good place to start. Win we did, but we made very heavy weather of putting away two average sides in Thirteen Three and Oracle.
Our next game in the league was against Los Bandidos, the side resulting from the merger of the FatCats and the Angels. On paper they had an extremely strong side, and were many peoples pre-season favourites for the league title. We played reasonably well, but were just outclassed by a better team, losing 19-6. We now had a chance to get some match practice in at the Flyers Blitz. An excellent day out, showing just how a blitz should be run, saw us do fairly well with the squad we had. In particular excellent performances from some of the schoolgirls and Liz augured well for the demanding league games to come. Perhaps more importantly, the feel-good factor was starting to re-surface. Tellingly, we put up a really good fight against the previous seasons runners-up to leave us facing their sister team, the Reds, the following week. A good performance where we rode our luck against the 5:5 Reds saw us getting a deserved victory; our first league win of the season !!
The monkey now lifted, we headed away to Glasgow feeling we were turning a corner. We probably were, but given the amount of drinking we did in Glasgow it was more of a stagger than a march. Our softball in Glasgow was mixed at best, combining some excellent performances with some very poor ones. Crucially though, the team was really coming together spirit-wise and even the many injuries didn't dampen our ardour ! We had our first game in the cup match against K2 when we came back, but unfortunately they proved unable to field a team and took the walkover. The following weekend was the National Softball Trophy, which was everything that the Flyers Blitz wasn't in terms of organisation. We were struggling badly with injuries at this stage, but we muddled through our 6 games over the two days, making the semi-final of the junior tournament.
Now entering the final games of the first section of the league, we knew we were going to be in the relegation half of the division, and the priority was to get a few wins under our belt before the second round of games kicked in. We managed to scrape a win against the Flyers in a somewhat bizarre game, where in truth neither team could complain about losing. Still, we were now on a 3 game winning roll in domestic competition and facing old adverseries the Loan Homers, knowing that a win would take us into the next series of games as one of the top seeds. It wasn't to be, and despite a brave performance from a nine man team, we lost 14-9. Our next game was a postponed cup match against the Oddsox green, where playing with 3 novices, 2 injured players and only 3 people playing their normal position, we were blown away.
We were now facing the Flyers in the league, and intent on avenging their earlier defeat they despatched what was at this stage an injury ravaged side with some ease. The redoubtably-named Underpant Gnomes couldn't field a team so we played a friendly which we won convincingly. The following week, in the pennant QF we lost to the Slammers in a game we could well have won, and if everyone had been able to make it in time, we probably would have won.
Another weekend and another tournament; the Triple III. Still struggling to put a fit team on the pitch we were fighting an uphill battle against some serious teams. We never really threatened to do any damage, but we did apply some pressure to every team we played, the highlight probably being a fighting performance against Marlay.
As the season began drawing to a close, we were left desperately needing some victories to take us out of the relegation/play-off zone. The Jammy Dodgers had sprung a few surprises and we were concerned about being ambushed. We won, but made hard work of it and faced into a return game against the Loan Homers. Some superb hitting blew us away, despite us not being that bad, and we had to look to the Strike 4 charity tournament at the weekend to get some confidence back. Some late withdrawals hit the scheduling fo this tournament badly, but we had a fun day out in a good cause and were getting wound up for our 'revenge' game with the Troops. This was definitely one of our better performances of the season as we crushed the ball all over the place. Everyone present got a run-out and almost everyone managed to cross the plate.
It was therefore in good heart that we headed into our crunch game against the Batpak the following week. They were undoubtedly favourites to top our section, and paid us the compliment of fielding a full strength team for one of the few occasions in the season. A disciplined performance saw us take them all the way to the wire, but their mental toughness was the difference in the end, allowing them to put in a big seventh innings to snatch the game from us.
For the last weekend of the regular season we headed to Galway for the Irish Open Softball Trophy where we struggled badly in the morning games before waltzing away in the afternoon in the intermediate competition. Over-indulgence that night saw us in ropey shape the next morning, but we managed to keep the momentum going to the final where we lost a close game against English visitors, The Breakers. Our last league game was against The Kegs, one that we had to win to avoid the play-offs. We managed to do this, in a tense, very poor quality game.
In general terms there were several pleasing aspects to the season, none more than welcoming 11 new players into the club. Mention should be made of the outstanding attitude displayed by two individuals in particular:
Mick, who turned up at every event, helped out on numerous occasions (and batted us out of a hole against The Kegs), having only joined the team this year, and John who despite being ruled out for virtually all the season with injury was always supportive and helpful and did Trojan work in getting equipment and uniforms.
In terms of team and assocation events, we struggled at times for bodies, with the usual suspects turning up again and again. Our table quiz was disappointing with only ten tables and minimal participation by many of the team. The Race night was even more succesful than last year, but it could be even better with greater participation and effort across the board. In terms of the events run by other teams, etc, we were embarrassed by having only two representatives at the Loan Homers poker night, despite them having two tables at our table quiz a week prior to this. We did redeem ourselves however by having two tables at their table quiz, and winning the thing! We were also represented at most IBSF events. Overall, there was a big improvement this year on previous years, in terms of how we 'mingled' as a team, entering all blitzes and tournaments and having representation at most events.