Thursday, July 06, 2006

Loan Wolves 18 - 18 Raiders 'A'

Battle without honour or humanity...
Actually it wasn't - it was a mostly good-spirited fixture. The above is just what I'd been playing to psych myself up for the long-awaited clash with the only other team in the league to have lost all their games so far.
The weather finally settled into warm and not too muggy, after a day of heavy showers alternating with sauna-like humidity. Illness and holidays meant that we only just had enough women to field a legal team, with Alison playing as catcher and stepping up to bat hoping for a walk rather than a strikeout. Scores were close all through, with the Wolves gaining then losing a slight lead, until a great fifth inning for us gave a renewed lead and a real shot at victory. It was at this point that Tigger started jumping up and down, shouting; "we've won! We've won!", until it was pointed out to her that the game wasn't over - our games usually stop after the fifth only because we're losing so badly that "mercy" gets called. We had one more innings (bad light was threatening) to play. A home run with bases loaded for the bad guys left us trailing by three in the middle of the last (see how I unselfconsciously use the technical terms, now?). We scored three. Exactly three. So the ump called "tied ballgame!" and honours were even. And it is no longer true that the Loan Wolves lose all their matches. Also, as the Raiders had forfeited a game earlier, we are still one place above them in the league.
Could easily have been a victory (probably what the opposition were thinking, too). A lot more fun playing a game through to the end with both sides in it.

2 comments:

Julian said...

I would like to mention that Paul did some skilled base running - causing the Raiders some panic and confusion

Manj said...

yeah...that was funny too!