Buttheads 0 - 7 Loan Wolves
That's a forfeit score. The official score. The real result was Buttheads and Loan Wolves 11 - 11 Loan Wolves.
Confused?
I knew it was going to be a strange evening when I turned up to find Wolves but no sign of the opposition at all. Eventually, some guy did turn up. He wasn't from the other team, though. He had a metal detector. Seemed he had lost his wedding ring during a game the day before, and was trying to find it. All evening, we saw him beeping and wandering disconsolately round the outfield.
Eventually, just as we were resigned to holding a practice session instead of a game, a few people showed up from the Buttheads. Not enough to be a full team, by a long way. They asked if they could borrow some of our players. I agreed, with the proviso that the official result had to be a forfeit - it would be a pretty Alice-in-Wonderland result if they had won with a team almost half composed of our players and claimed it as a victory. So, as we had exactly enough players to form two full teams plus Duncan to umpire, we had a match.
And a strange affair it was. Being a friendly, I think we were less focused than we should have been. We tried to tag Doug out at one point - which would have been a valid tactic had he been a runner and not a base coach. Some wild throws let down our generally good fielding, and there was at least one bit of fielding which resembled the Mad Hatter's tea party as we let three runners get round due to errors when we could have held the play had we been a bit calmer. Rob at Shortstop made some nice outs, but he was also looking for some low-percentage chances that I hope he wouldn't have risked in a competitive match. Good performances overall. When we weren't being silly, there was some good tactical sense and backing up. Strong outfielders kept a lot of potentially big hits contained. Julian's steady pitching was rewarded by many strike outs and outs to Liz at First. Good batting across the team, including that part of it on the other side. Though both Kate and I got into a bit of a slump at the start of the match, until we made a pact that we wouldn't get struck out again. Paul played well, with some nippy running between the bases. Lucy took "friendly" to its logical conclusion, cheering on the opposition batters, and shouting "good eye!" when they left Julian's occasional balls - louder than the Buttheads themselves. But then she was spinning round in the outfield, fuelled by a heady cocktail of sushi and wine gums. Anita played well as catcher, despite her lack of experience and being endangered at one point by a flung bat. And she has promised to come to the pub after her next game. Just recording that here, so it's official.
I got exactly one ball straight to me at Second. Line drive past my right shoulder. Well, about level with my shoulder when it ended up in my glove and stopped moving...
The game ended in a tie, and both sides had fun. There were a couple of newbies on the Buttheads' side, and they had enjoyed their first taste of softball, which was good to hear. We formed a search line to try to find metal-detector guy's wedding ring after the match. We didn't find it, but searching for the One Ring like so many orange and black Nazgul was a fittingly odd end to the evening.
Confused?
I knew it was going to be a strange evening when I turned up to find Wolves but no sign of the opposition at all. Eventually, some guy did turn up. He wasn't from the other team, though. He had a metal detector. Seemed he had lost his wedding ring during a game the day before, and was trying to find it. All evening, we saw him beeping and wandering disconsolately round the outfield.
Eventually, just as we were resigned to holding a practice session instead of a game, a few people showed up from the Buttheads. Not enough to be a full team, by a long way. They asked if they could borrow some of our players. I agreed, with the proviso that the official result had to be a forfeit - it would be a pretty Alice-in-Wonderland result if they had won with a team almost half composed of our players and claimed it as a victory. So, as we had exactly enough players to form two full teams plus Duncan to umpire, we had a match.
And a strange affair it was. Being a friendly, I think we were less focused than we should have been. We tried to tag Doug out at one point - which would have been a valid tactic had he been a runner and not a base coach. Some wild throws let down our generally good fielding, and there was at least one bit of fielding which resembled the Mad Hatter's tea party as we let three runners get round due to errors when we could have held the play had we been a bit calmer. Rob at Shortstop made some nice outs, but he was also looking for some low-percentage chances that I hope he wouldn't have risked in a competitive match. Good performances overall. When we weren't being silly, there was some good tactical sense and backing up. Strong outfielders kept a lot of potentially big hits contained. Julian's steady pitching was rewarded by many strike outs and outs to Liz at First. Good batting across the team, including that part of it on the other side. Though both Kate and I got into a bit of a slump at the start of the match, until we made a pact that we wouldn't get struck out again. Paul played well, with some nippy running between the bases. Lucy took "friendly" to its logical conclusion, cheering on the opposition batters, and shouting "good eye!" when they left Julian's occasional balls - louder than the Buttheads themselves. But then she was spinning round in the outfield, fuelled by a heady cocktail of sushi and wine gums. Anita played well as catcher, despite her lack of experience and being endangered at one point by a flung bat. And she has promised to come to the pub after her next game. Just recording that here, so it's official.
I got exactly one ball straight to me at Second. Line drive past my right shoulder. Well, about level with my shoulder when it ended up in my glove and stopped moving...
The game ended in a tie, and both sides had fun. There were a couple of newbies on the Buttheads' side, and they had enjoyed their first taste of softball, which was good to hear. We formed a search line to try to find metal-detector guy's wedding ring after the match. We didn't find it, but searching for the One Ring like so many orange and black Nazgul was a fittingly odd end to the evening.