Voodoos 9 - 8 Loan Wolves

Don't fear the Reaper
Libs had brought her new bat to the game, the formidably-named and heavy metal styled Reaper. It didn't prove a game-winning secret weapon, sadly, but the game was thrilling enough without being decided by a magic bat.
I took the London Overground out to Gospel Oak, then made my way to Parliament Hill for the game. It was a crisp, sunny evening, a welcome change after the deluges of recent weeks. The field was attractive and well-tended, but with a marked slope which caused more than one player to stumble running up to First or misjudge their downhill run to Third.
With the Voodoos a houngan down, an automatic out helped our cause somewhat. Still, we knew they had some strong players and we had to be at our best. We had a good First inning, getting four runs on the board. Sterling fielding saw us shut them out, and though they returned that favour, we had held onto that 4-0 lead up to the top of the fifth. We made three more, but they made good on the threat which their batting had hinted at earlier and a few key hits saw them narrow the lead to two. By the end of the Sixth, they had drawn level.
So the weather was good, the evening still young, and the ballgame was poised 7-7, with all to play for in the final inning.
One Wolf made it round. Just one. We were defending the slightest of leads, with our opponents in the middle of their batting order. Could we close them down, make the outs we needed? Two would probably have done it, with that automatic out coming up. Sadly, the Voodoos kept their nerve and batted well, good base hits pushing players towards victory. Inexorably they drew level. The pressure was on us now. The automatic out came and went, but a fine hit saw them bring one more round to end what had been a thrillingly close match in their favour.
A fine showing by the Wolves, without costly errors or fumbles. Solid batting, good backing up, and an overall excellent team performance. If we stay as sharp as this, we should get some good results out of this season, which has effectively started afresh after the rain-enforced break.
The Voodoo sorcerers can take the pins out of that cuddly toy wolf now. Though doubtless they'll go back in again when we meet them again in a couple of weeks' time.

Loan Wolves 4 - 31 Comets Yellow

It started so well...
A close first couple of innings, with the Comets' batting giving them a slight edge, gave way to a bit of a disaster as we made unforced errors which let the game get beyond our reach.
Still, on the positive side we made some good plays interspersed with the fumbles and misjudgments, and there were good performances by both Kate and Julian as pitchers. We were playing a good team, we just didn't give our best performance against them.

Superball 2010

Early start on Saturday, as I headed to Richmond Old Deer Park for Superball 2010. The journey was delayed by having to find an alternate route after some poor soul went under a train at Richmond. I arrived in time to join the batting line up for our first match, against our friends the Meteors. An enjoyable game which we lost 12-9. then onto the next match - the schedule was full with only a short lunch break. We went on to face the Dazzlers, the Mob and Comer's Homers, then the Voodoos. Sadly, we lost each time despite some good performance. To be fair, they're pretty much all higher division sides with good batting and some very sharp fielding. And we weren't shut out in any game.
I missed our play off final for fifth place due to a prior engagement. I've heard how it ended, but I'm hoping someone who was there will post about it in more detail.

Loan Wolves 19 - 8 Strayz

The Devil Strays were the other development side in our first season, and there's always been a friendly rivalry to our games. With the league reorganisation this year, they split up - some of them became the Spartans, competing in Div 2 of the Majors, while a core of recreational players formed the Strayz. Who we were playing last night.
A close game for the first four innings, despite a depleted Strayz side playing with two automatic outs. Then a virtuoso fifth inning saw us turn from trailing 6-5 to leading 19-6. The very opposite of our "one bad inning" curse of yore saw the team batting and base running at its Wolfish best. The Strayz didn't give up, but we held an unassailable lead by the seventh and posted our first win of the season.

Raiders Orange 25 - 13 Loan Wolves

A sunny afternoon was followed by a chilly evening at Wandsworth Common. The Raiders colour-code their various teams, but they all play in navy blue. So it was "Orange" by name v "orange" by shirt colour.
We had support again - Gaz's daughters were off school due to it being used as an election polling station, and they were happy to cheer for us and act as bat girls. Sadly, they didn't get to see us win - though there were some fine performances, not least from Gaz himself. It was reassuring for Tigger and myself on base to see him coming up to bat to hit us round.
Raiders built a lead in the first inning, and though we fought hard we couldn't close on them. Kate pitched a good game, despite taking a nasty hit to her foot from a batted ball halfway through the match. One inning saw Libs take three outs at Third, and Donnacha had a good game with bat and playing Second. Nice home run from Blasey. Aside from getting caught out once, I enjoyed batting and base running. But then I always do.

Loan wolves 17 - 17 Werewolves

Dog Soldiers

Our first opposition for the new season were the London Werewolves, who had been last year's league development squad. We'd played them in a tournament last Summer, and won, but they were a stronger, more experienced side now . And yesterday was the night of the full moon...
It was great to be back on the field. Finsbury Park looked lovely, the softball grounds had been newly-mown, and the weather was good - a mild, slightly cloudy Spring evening.
The Werewolves had a good first inning, putting five runs on the board. I had the honour of leading off our batting. Which I promptly threw away by hitting straight to the shortstop. The Werewolves extended a lead in the first few innings, but we managed to keep in the game and start a fight back. Some fine batting and clever base running kept us in contact with their lead. Determined fielding, spearheaded by Kate's pitching, held the Werewolves in check. We suffered a shut out inning, but returned the favour thanks to two back-to-back strike outs. Our spectators, former Wolves Paul and Joel, were gripped by the thrilling game.
The sun had set now, and the light was failing for the last two innings. Our opposition seemed to be hulking larger in the gloaming, light glinting on fangs and claws. Of course, it's harder to throw a ball or hold a bat with claws, so perhaps this helped us. Tense play led to us facing the bottom of the seventh with a five point deficit to overcome. We made three by the time welost our first two outs. Julian came in to bat, with captain Michael's orders to take a walk if he could. He kept his cool and did. We walked Tzippy next, bringing Gareth up to bat. This could be the decisive moment. All was silent and tense in Finsbury Park. Then the pitch - and a strong left-field hit brought two runners home, tying the game! The werewolves managed to get the next out before we could get another runner round, and light meant that the umpire wasn't going to call for a tie-break innings. So the first Wolf v Werewolf match ended honours even. We retired to the pub along with the Weres who turned out in fact to be Warren Zevon fans rather than lycanthropes.
[X-posted from my Livejournal]

Were Wolves @ Loan Wolves 28th April 2010

Low Point: My batting - or rather my judging of the pitches. Swung at completely the wrong pitches and just didn't get any power behind it.

High Point: My last at bat! Finally a good hit and easily getting on base...in fact, if I'd not been going so fast I might not have overshot first so much and been able to try for second... (next time!)

Nice day for a Wolf wedding

Loan Wolves' redoubtable Second Base fielder Victoria got married yesterday. The Wolves, as well as Tainted Glovers, were invited to the reception. We had co-ordinated our journeys to Strawberry Hill, so I joined the train at Clapham Junction to find a large party of Wolves already aboard. We all assembled at the Prince of Wales for a couple of drinks and a chance to sign the card. We sat outside in the sunny Spring afternoon, had a good old natter, and posed for pictures. Never had so many Wolves been seen together so smartly dressed. The Wolfettes were all stunning, and we guys didn't do too badly in our jackets and ties
We made our way to the reception venue, the attractive but warren-like St Mary's College, where we congratulated the happy couple and posed for further pictures - Vic had insisted there be a photo with the Loan Wolves on her wedding day. There was a buffet laid on, and the delicious home-made wedding cake was probably the best I've ever tasted. The atmosphere was good, and a great time was had by all. There was a live band fronted, apparently, by one of the girls from B*Witched. They played for the first dance - Vic and Mike had gone for an excellent old school choice of song:




We all had a dance, and the band reprised the Andy Williams at the end of the evening as we all formed a ring for the bride and groom to dance in. Things wound down after they left, and of course the Wolves ended up being the last ones to leave the party, loading up on the last of the cake to fortify us on our long roads home. I managed to cadge a lift into central London from Garry, and I was lucky with my bus connections, so I was home by half past two.
We'd had a great time, and it felt good that Vic had wanted us to be part of such a special occasion.

Our team won last night's dodgeball match. I say "our team" rather than the Loan Wolves, as the dodgeball team has a new name. For a change, and as we have three non-Wolves in our ranks, we have a new identity. Kevin and Garry finally unveiled the team name and colours last night. For dodgeball purposes, we are now...

Crouch End Tigers, Hendon Dragons!

Everyone got a film title shirt name, punning on their real names - Magnificent Kevin, The Kate Escape, etc. I got "Ghandy", though I think they missed the opportunity to go for something like "Freebie Andy Bean". The shirts, designed by Garry, are pretty cool.

The Four Dodgeballers of the Apocalypse (Or, Winning Hearts and Minds)

Went to a dodgeball tourney yesterday. Garry had found out about it at fairly short notice. We nominally had a team of seven or eight up to Friday, when it began to dwindle alarmingly. We picked up Julian as a replacement for some of the people who couldn't make it, but I arrived at the venue yesterday to find that Libs wasn't well and we were going to be down to four players for the day. Now a dodgeball team usually consists of six people, so we were going to be a bit short-handed. The surprised refrain: "are there really only four of you?" greeted us at the start of practically every match. Luckily, it isn't as much of a disadvantage as it would have been in most sports - fewer of you on the court means more dodging room for each of you.
It was a "fun" Christmas tournament, with fancy dress expected. Most teams had turned out in an impressive array of costumes. F*ckin Chuck Norris were in T shirts with Chuck on the front and a different CN fact on the back of each one. The Santa Claus-es-es-es were all in Santa suits, except for their Elf girl in pixie hat and curly-toed slippers. there was a big crowd for their festive match vs the Penguins, an almost all-girl side in matching black costumes with penguin-beak baseball hats and little gold bow-ties. One side were in dinner suits (I heard one of them ask his mate before their first game: "don't you think it might be a good idea to take the jackets off when we're actually playing?"). The best fancy dress prize deservedly went to the team who came as KISS, in full war paint and silver cloaks. Our team were meant to be 80s-themed, but Julian had had no time to get a costume together. He was wearing a Handel T shirt, though, so there was a 1680s, if not 1980s, connection. Kevin had a mullet wig and Frankie Says T shirt, and Garry was in full Hulk Hogan regalia - blond wig, padded muscle shirt and all. I went as John McClane from Die Hard. Was sad enough to draw Bruce Willis's tattoo on my arm in Sharpie, along with his tally of terrorists despatched. I had a cardboard cut-out gun taped to my back, and wrote "now I have a dodgeball - ho ho ho" on the front of my vest.
We set out our stall early, winning the first two group matches. Then we had a long gap between games, and came back to lose the next. The last match was against Team Oval Exiles, who'd won all their first three games. We rallied, kept our heads, and our tactical sense such as it was got us through.
I think it was just afetr the group stage that Matt came along - still not allowed to play till his injury heals, but a most welcome (and enthusiastic) supporter.
Our quarter-final drew us against a friendly bunch who'd come over to have their pictures taken with us earlier. We won the first set, lost the second, and had to play a decider. Garry chose this moment to Hulk up. The crowd went wild as he tore his T shirt off to reveal his fake muscles. We were inspired, and pulled out a victory to take us to the semis. Where F*ckin Chuck Norris put paid to our progress. We bowed out gracefully, watched the final and went to the pub with many of the other teams.
It was a good day. We'd more than punched above our weight, with Julian peforming brilliantly in his first outing, and could hold our heads up high. And we made some friends too. A lot of people from other teams congratulated us on our plucky outnumbered and outgunned performance. "You won our hearts!" one girl said,which was nice of her.

Christmas party

Friday was the Loan Wolves' Christmas party. We met up at the New Rose, and after a few drinks headed to a Brazilian restaurant. All-you-can-eat buffet, and waiters bringing joints of hjgh-quality meat products to serve at your plate. I fear the vegetarians among us didn't get to enjoy the experience to the full. We had the usual tongue-in-cheek end-of-year awards - mine was for the time I absent-mindedly went to the wrong park for the Tecumsehs match. As we left the restaurant, we discovered that Tzippy had somehow acquired a souvenir from the buffet cart...

Baseball movies

After a conversation with Blasey at rthe pub last night, I looked for a "definitive" list of baseball or softball movies.
This one's pretty good - how many have you seen?

Dodgeball update: "I'm gonna take that dodgeball and..."

After a shaky start last week, where despite winning three of the seven games we ended up 19 - 7 down in points to Who Let the Dodge Out at the end of the match, we picked ourselves up ready for the Dodgeball Furies.
Gabs was a welcome addition to the side, giving a much-needed option to rotate female players and also her lethal throwing arm. We had enough men to rotate complete half-teams of three, with Kevin and Gary as strikers in each. We managed to win most of the games, and even when we were on the losing end we held onto a couple of points thanks to a heroic display of dodging by Olivia and Tzippy.
Here is the last game, where we cemented our first dodgeball victory:

Dodge, duck, dip, dive - and DODGE!

Went along to the inaugural session for the Softballers' Dodgeball League last night. The Tecumsehs had decided to start an off-season event, and picked a game which could be played indoors and where everyone would be a novice. They picked dodgeball.
The venue was a church hall, so we had all been warned not to blaspheme or anything. I kept thinking of the phrase: "holy ground, highlander!".
There was a rules explanation, a couple of demonstration/test games, then we started playing to get the hang of it. It was interesting to see how quickly people picked it up. Dodging tends to come easier than throwing, especially as the balls are football-sized solid foam things quite unlike softballs. Which is as well if you get hit by them. Doesn't really hurt, and most hits tended to be scored on the legs or when someone failed a catch. Matches are made up of seven three-minute games, and you get a bit of a workout in that three minutes of running, throwing and dodging.
We had a mini-tournament, in which the Loan Wolves came fourth out of six. The game's fun to watch as well as play - lots of manic action, turnaround plays, close escapes and exciting finishes. Afterwards we went to the pub wher the draw for the tournament proper was held.
Oh, and of course, everyone there last night had seen the film...

Raiders Green v Loan Wolves - Highs and Lows

Inspired by Gabby's emails I am going to kick off the highs and lows of the last game of the season. Remember, finish on the high point!

Low Point - A classic ground ball fumble from me which, if taken well, could have been an easy out at first and prevented quite so many runs getting round on the next big hit. It also really hurt my thumb :(

High Point - Despite striking myself out it was my best batting performance ever with two sweet hits to right field, one of which certainly alarmed the Raider's first base. Onwards and upwards I hope.

Lesson Learnt - warm up with the heavy bat.

Raiders Green 12 - 11 Loan Wolves

Our last match of the 2009 season was the rescheduled game against Raiders Green. Sadly, we weren't able to maintain the initiative from that abandoned match, where we were seven up after our first inning. This was a close match, with neither side managing to dominate with their batting but errors in the field keeping the scores ticking round. Kate pitched well, and we had some great base hitting from Julian and Vic (hitting to right field to avoid the strong fielding at Third and Short Stop). We'd managed to post a three-run lead by the bottom of the seventh, but the Raiders had home team advantage and managed to get runners on bases without losing any outs then made the runs they needed to take the game.
This leaves us on the same points as the Tornadoes, but they played fourteen games and we played fifteen, and if I understand the cobbled-together league rules for this season properly we are going to have a 14/15ths multiplier imposed on our final points. This would leave us in the bottom three of eleven by .8 of a point, so if there's a Division Six next year we'd be relegated to it. Well, technically, it would be Division Three due to the planned splitting of the league into two.
It hasn't been as successful a season as we'd all have liked. There are areas where we have all improved, but game after game could have gone our way and didn't. Sometimes umpiring decisions went against us - this time, Matt ran into First, was called safe by the field umpire, who was then overruled by the plate umpire on their judgment call. Sometimes we had personal matters intrude into our softball - three of the Original Wolves, including one of our starting pitchers, going through redundancy through the season, for example (well, that's my excuse for turning up at the wrong park the other week). The heavens themselves intervened when we were on our best form all year in the match that was rained off. Still, though, we have to look at ourselves and how we could have done better. Batting overall is coming along well, but we need to make more of it and build the big innings that bring wins. We need to be able to have confidence in each other in our proper fielding positions, and to keep cool heads to make the right tactical choices quickly and decisively. As Michael says, when we play to our ability and work together as a team we can be a force to be reckoned with. We have the Winter ahead of us, with bi-weekly indoor training lined up. We are going to practice, to build up on what we've already achieved, and take it further. This was the toast at the pub after the game: "next year, whatever decision we end up in, they are not going to know what hit them - HERE'S TO NEXT SEASON!"

Loan Wolves 4 - 9 Meteors

Sociable softball
The Mets are a team we've known and liked since we started playing softball. Tonight's game was hard-fought, but entirely good-natured. Determined, effective fielding from both sides kept the score low, and for three innings it stood at three all. Then the Mets nosed ahead by one, and in their sixth at-bat they managed to increase the lead to five. We still didn't waver, though, and refused to let it turn into a rout. Sadly, we didn't manage to pull that lead back, and the match ended as it grew dark. Considering our relative places in the table, though, we can be proud of our performance.
The Mets had advised us beforehand to bring food, and as the match ended they fired up the barbecue. A picnic table was soon groaning under the weight of food, and the satisfying smell of burgers, sausages, chicken and salmon being cooked over coals filled the air. Wolves and Meteors gathered together to break bread and toast each other, and the sound of laughter and friendship rose into the summer night. The Meteors were celebrating the eighteenth birthday of one of their number, and bidding farewell to Di, stalwart of their team and a credit to the sport, who's off overseas for a while. It was a lovely occasion, following a great game. And somewhere above our heads, hidden by the cloud cover, our friends' Perseid namesakes were streaking through the heavens...

Lastball

On saturday, the Loan Wolves entered the Lastball tournament. Which, for some reason, is nowhere near the last tournament of the year. Lovely sunny day in Richmond Old Deer Park. By the time our first match, against the "Werewolves", a new development side, was due to start, we only had seven players. Most of the others were still on their way in Michael's car. So we were taking our time at bat, letting strikes get past us to give ourselves more time, and praying for rescue. We had just run out of batters when we spied the others, running across the field to our rescue like the Seventh cavalry in Stagecoach. Despite the chaotic,. unprepared start, we won the game comfortably. Next up were Comer's Homers, who defeated us solidly. Then the Thundercats. The Sword of Omens must have been working overtime, as we started with our worst ever fielding inning in a tournament game. Although we got our act together by the end, we were never in contention. Only a sterling base hit by Donnacha prevented their pitcher from achieving a perfect game. We were wilting in the sun by that stage, but we still should have done better.
As there was a plate as well as cup competition, every team was assured of a semi-final. We found ourselves playing a mixed Meteors and Marauders team, and though we started better this time we couldn't quite force the win. We then had a warm-down practice among ourselves and including ex-Wolf Ben, while a couple of our women players filled in for the Mob who were short of girls for their final. It was a fun end to the day, and I noticed we were the only team not in the finals to have stayed around en masse. Which was good, because Ben had set another quiz - this one much harder than the last - and we had won once again. As we had a tournament victory of sorts, we went to The Sun to celebrate. Nice place, but a bit pricey.

Tecumsehs 19 - 5 Loan Wolves

I was a bit distracted last week at work. Came late from the library to the game, having calculated that I'd be there for ten to seven. Which I was, only to instantly remember that we wer not playing at finsbury Park and I should have turned right rather than left from the Tube station to go to Clissold Park. Oops. I hurried to the correct venue, but the game had already started when I arrived at five past seven. We were fielding, which meant we must have already batted and got out. I hunkered down at Catcher in my jeans (had only had time to change my top before setting off) for a match with Duncan Devil Stray at umpire, giving his usual running commentary on the game in progress. We were unable to repeat our early season win vs the Tecumsehs, I'm afraid. Some great plays by our outfield were let down by us not keeping a tight enough control in the field overall and not having the batting strength to keep ourselves in contention. After the match we went to the Brownswood, a pub I'd never been to before, for a beer.

Loan Wolves 6 - 17 Finsbury Dazzlers

You've come a long way, baby...
Our first ever league match, in May 2006, was against the Dazzlers. We lost 25-1 in four innings, and had a player taken to A&E afterwards. This time, though that final scoreline doesn' reflect it, things were very different. We were 4-2 down after one inning, but took the lead and were 6-5 up at the top of the fifth. Sadly, their strong batting brought them enough runs to regain the lead and put the game out of our reach at the end.
so we lost. But looking at us as a team, you can see the difference those four seasons have made. Our offense still isn't what it could be, but everyone's batting's so much stronger than when we started, our judgment of what to swing at and how to time our hitting has come on so much. Birthday girl Kate was pitching excellently, and we were fielding well to make the outs we needed. We didn't make every play, but we weren't making silly mistakes and our tactical sense was fantastic. we were putting one of the strongest sides in the division under real pressure, and for a time it looked as if the game was going to go our way.
The Dazzlers beat us again, but this time they weren't playing novices, tharn like rabbits trapped in headlights. They'd had a fight against a pack of WOLVES! And they knew it.