BA Tournament 2006

What an excellent tournament we've just had.  The British Airways club invitational.  Right next to Heathrow Airport - lovely.  For those of you at your weddings and stag do's, let me tell you how much more we enjoyed ourselves than you did.  Blisteringly hot - especially on Saturday.  And that was just the weather.

We had a decent start on Saturday.  All keen and ready to go.  We had Carrie, Liz, Tree, Ruth and Barbara (a guest from the Greensox) and Norm, Starship Dave, Johnny, Alan (another superb Greensoxer) and Roger (doesn't really count as a guest).  Our bonus ball was Graeme, who turned up to give us an extra fella to relieve a few weary limbs.

Saturday morning/early pm, we won two and lost one (just).  Some really fun games against friendly opposition.  A couple of us even lent ourselves to the Angels who were short of blokes - probably a mistake as we ended up playing 5 games on Saturday with the Oddsox alone.

Of course, in the afternoon, we had been placed second in our group, only losing out the #1 spot on runs difference.  The good thing about coming second: we could start our games at 11am on Sunday, instead of 8.40.  The bad thing: 2 more games in the afternoon of Saturday.  Anyway, we lost those (to the Nottingham Sheriffs and Itchen Nicks, I seem to remember).  But not by much.

Some of us stayed at a lovely olde worlde hotel on the edge of Heathrow Airport.  Maids in black dresses and linen head-dresses.  Valet service for us VIPs. That kind of thing.  I can't believe that we had the energy (actually, I didn't - I was just trying to keep up with Carrie and Johnny) but we went to the bowling alley next door and had a couple of games.  Not exactly exhibition stuff.  And then a bit of an air hockey tournament in the amusement arcade.  (Carrie's really good at that too).  Dave has, well..., a more direct approach and Carrie was lucky to have two good eyes left at the end of the contest.  Tip: whenever he's involved with anything with moving objects, it's always best to stand behind  him.  Even when he's got the ball at third base.  Especially...

Sunday - leisurely start.  Stiff as boards, and not in a good way, but had a good breakfast.  We lost Roger on Sunday, to be replaced by Martin, and unfortunately Graeme didn't make it back.  So Barbara moved to short stop and showed us all how to play properly.  Norm and Johnny alternated with the pitching and we ran around like little gamboling lambs.  Lost again (of course) to a team that we'd beaten the previous day - the Vampire Batters.  Sounds scary, but they were all very cuddly.

Somehow - and don't ask me how they work these things out - we ended up in the 'silver cup' knockout stage (the 2nd of the 4 knockout competitions, after the 'gold cup').  And we won the semi final!  And to a really good team - the Splitters.  They were excellent, although had possibly been drinking heavily - which was an advantage to the Oddsox which is dominated by Methodists and Quakers, as we all know.

Much celebration and we were early enough to play the final and finish before the England footy game against Ecuador.  No, we didn't play Ecuador.  Keep up!

Of course, we ended up playing the Vampire Batters again - for the third time.  We should have beaten them, maybe, but - as their name suggests - they can bat.  However, they were so very nice we didn't mind at all.

Saturday was pretty gruelling and we thought that Liz was going to need medical attention for a combination of too much sun and extreme leg inflexibility.  But she pulled through.  Carrie had a difficult time on Sunday with painful tendonitis, but then took some amazing drugs which pulled her through.  We all passed dope tests, of course.  Yes, we were all dopes at the end of the tournament. [ Kerboom... tish!] Was I safe to drive?  I believe Barbara (very predictably) took the female MVP award for our team (as nominated by other players).  I'm informed that I may have won the male version - I'm a little surprised by that (not the male bit, you'll understand) as Johnny and Alan were super strong and Dave just got better and better, especially on the Sunday.  Everyone, male and female, played probably some of their best softball ever - so we've got to be happy with that.  AND we've all got nice t-shirt tans!

Let's do it again...  Bristol Rec. next (and yes, let's take more players!!),

- Norm