Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Loan Wolves @ G & T

This was the big one. The winner of last night's game at a stormy Regents Park was assured a place in Divison 5, the loser was looking at another season in Div6.

G & T had started their season slowly and initially looked to be one of the weakest teams in the division. However, they certainly got their act together and have been clocking up the wins in the middle and latter part of the season. In contrast the Wolves started well, had a bit of a wobble in the middle, but have picked it up again for the last few games.

The skies were blue as we started out. The first few innings were very tight. Neithe team conceding much, and runs were hard to come by. As the Wolves came up to field at the bottom of the third the score was 1-1. Then, as they say, down came the rain. With the wolves fielding into torrents of rain, G&T started to pile on the pressure. Two rain (or rather lightning) breaks saw the opposition go through their batting order in one innings and put 5 runs on the board. It was starting to look like weather was going to scupper our hopes of promotion once again. 1-6 to them.

However, Wolves are wet weather animals. We may have wobbled with the wet conditions, but we took advantage when it was our turn to bat, putting on an impressive 8 runs in one innings and taking the score to 9-6. The girls consistently got on base, and they guys moved them around and brought them home. Everyone was batting to their potential and things were suddenly looking a lot brighter. G & T still had a batting turn in hand, though, so it was important to shut them out. This is just what the wolves did and repeated for the next innings whilst adding another 3 to our tally at the top of 5.

It was pretty clear that the light was only going to give us 6 innings, and so the Wolves focused on adding as many runs as possible to set G&T a decent run chase. As the opposition came up to bat the score was 15-6. The wolves knew that they had to get three outs before conceding 10 runs to win. Playing the odds we went for easy outs at first, letting a couple of runners get around in the process. As the plate umpire declared 'Ball Game' the score was 15-8 to the Wolves! Divison 5 here we come!

Fair play to G&T they made us work for it, and they were a very sporting bunch. I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.

7 comments:

Kevin Wilson said...

I'm not sure how sporting they were in the game though - calling for Blasey to drop a catch and the sly words to the umpire about Gareth's pitching. Probably just shows the pressure was getting to them. They seemed alright afterwards though.

Unknown said...

I know we've been talking about Joel delivering the big innings all season, but last night Jeter arrived. His hitting to right field was tremendous driving in the runs and getting the girls home.

Kate said...

And let's not forget Joel's contribution to the LW's chant repertoire:

"If they're low, let them go. If they're high, let them fly!"

Brilliant.

Julian said...

I heard that cloudburst when I was in the Albert Hall and I thought of you all - you came through that and won in style - wish I'd seen it!!

Andy said...

I am holding my manhole cheap, that I was not there...

Anonymous said...

Congratulations everyone, any chance of still winning the league?

MAD

Blasey said...

Moments of the Match:

Vic's hit that got her to 3rd
Kevin being run down by the catcher
Matt watching Kev being run down but not moving Manjiv on from 1st base
Kev hitting the ball into the girls leg

3rd - Blasey's outfield catch
2nd - Vic's inspirational rant in the rain break

1st - Donnacha's superb hit that got him to 3rd

Highlights of the game:

Gareth's pitching
Nisha's 1st base catches
Every girl hit to at least 1st
Every guy hit to at least 3rd