Blazzers Softball Club, Dublin, Ireland

Back to the miserable weather, with all of us soaked through during the warm-up! However, we actually had 12 people this evening, a lot better than all the '9 player' games this season! And while we didn't get the win, the difference showed. Some good hitting from the Renegades gave them an early lead, but some good hitting of our own pulled it back. The infield was wet and slippery, which gave us quite a few 'interesting' plays during the game, the ball never bouncing like you thought it was going to. During the middle innings, it was very close, with some nice infield plays getting us the outs, including a great double from Claes catching in the outfield to Jason getting a tag on 3, though we were all a bit surprised that the runner tried to go for home! However, the 1Z's curse of a bad innings came back to haunt us again, and a 8 run bottom of 5, on the back of some errors on our part, really put the pressure on us. We responded well with 5 in the top of the 6th, but with the weather not letting up, and light failing, the Umpire called time. Everyone was glad to get to the warmth of their cars.

Last league game of the season, and in order to keep as many people available as possible for the 1Zs playoff game we got the strongest possible squad out. Pity for the Banditos as they only had 9, and the weather came up as the worst of the year to date. We stacked the outfield with Paddy and Scud to counteract their big hitting guys and relied on the long wet grass to stop grounders. We got off to a decent start with a couple of monsters from Mike and basically kept it tight (ish) from there. With an automatic out the Banditos were always struggling but they did their level best and probably would have made a very interesting game of it with a full compliment. The game was sensibly called after 5 innings due to rain, light and end of season thirst. Good to win the last one and get to a respectable 6-8 overall record in Prem 1 for the year.

After the terrible summer we've endured weather wise, it was lovely to play a game on a perfect summer's evening for a change, even if it is Autumn now! Unfortunately, we had problems getting a full team again. It's the 7th time this season that either the first or the second team have played with 9. And as usual, it hurt us, especially the automatic out. However, the big problem was not hitting the ball! After a decent enough start, for both teams, we promptly forgot how to bat ( with yours truly hitting 3 fly balls to SS in a row! ) and we didn't score again until the 5th inning. However, some good defence by us ( and some great running by Cleas, who was on his own in the Centre Field ), kept them within touch. They never got their bats going in the middle innings, helped by some nice infield plays ( including a great 1-3 double play accompanied by Jason's over-dramatic screams at third! ) which showed us that the infield drills on Sunday do work. But we never took advantage of it in the Offence, and finally a couple of errors at the top of the last gave them the few runs they needed to feel safe. We actually managed to get a couple of runs back, but with the Automatic Out looming, it was never going to happen.

Another fine mess saw us a girl short, no pitcher and Ronan coming from the 1Zs to play the joint league leaders. Get your chequebook out Mr. Chairman! After 4 innings we were 29 - 3 down due to walks, errors and some excellent hitting by them. One of the walks was due to sticky stuff on the ball from the newly mown grass, two were down to shit pitching and the last was due to Ruth for telling us all that she 'pulled it out at the right moment'. This we hasten to add was a reference to her catching of a pop fly with the assistance of a part of her anatomy more typically associated with the third page of a tabloid. The laugh did us good, as a change of pitcher ( only 2 walks ) and some aggressive hitting and running saw us close the gap to 31-13 by the end. Another record was set for the Gonzaga field, with the highest ever pop fly ( Ken for a change not KevinK ), hopefully Air Traffic Control will forgive us.

A rearranged fixture, which left us with literally 8 players !! Cue Jane and Killian to play their first ever game alongside 3 members of the 1Zs. The Pak didn't know this and ripped in 18 first inning runs ( on about 3 errors - the hitting was manure hot ). Urgent changes to the field shored up the outfield a little and we gradually improved. Hitting was poor again, but the order was right and we maximised what hits and walks we got. Highlight of the game was a monster homer by John Barry, who became the first non-Blazzer to score a 'Point' ( Ken Murphy -yours went wide!! ) in Gonzaga since that psycho marine that Marlay had years ago.

We played with 9 bodies here, and both teams hit poorly after Dodder opened up a 9-0 lead after 2 innings. Highlights were Ett's fine play to get a tag out at 2B and Joe's throw to Martin at 2B for what the umpire ( De Badger ) described as an excellent sweep tag. Other than that all I remember is KevinK popping out to first with 2 runners in scoring position, 1 out. The automatic out was next !! Hit the m%&erf^&* on the ground next time. All credit to Dodder and Derek Ward (P) being the first team ever to shut us out. We should have exited this competition earlier to avoid the shame!!