With heavy heart, the softball blog has to report the departure of one of the giant of the bd softball team, after the apparent crushing news that captain caroline left to go to ..shh..Mother...(softball ed: commies) and then with the coach departing to the refined air of jwt... Jackyln Magafa, the girl on first base. hands or no hands.
has not only decided to leave the softball team, but has taken it a step further and has decided to leave the country..

She's going to Australia..

What have they got that we haven't??
sunshine, Little creatures, more deadly animals than you can shake a snake (careful with this link)at , men at work

okay admittedly it's an impressive list.

but what the fu...

In Breaking News :
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Harry is no longer fighting the Taliban but has returned to convince Magafa to stay by order of the MoD.

A royal spokesman said "It is a national disaster, we must try and keep all the good ones, and fighting the Taliban must take second place to the requirement of First base for the BD Bulldogs."

Harry was heard to say "Of course, I'll return to England! I'll give her the full court press,if Chelsy will let me"
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End of Breaking news alert

Antonio Lulic the incumbent captain and organiser of the bulldogs sobbed quietly as he said "It won't be the same, she said of all the things she was going to miss, it was the softball that nearly convinced her to stay"

Rob Swainson chimed in with "Let's f*ck their sh!t up"

drinks are to be held , check out jacki's facebook page

just a little bit more ... to quote the acceptable but thankfully very short lived career of Gina G....

The Bulldogs (Woof! ) brimming with confidence despite the absence of Star pitcher Calvin came to the rescheduled game... on Primrose hill to find no umpire , no kit... and an opposition stunned by our new amazing t-shirts (which are a tiny bit tight around the neck).

However with No umpire slated to look after the game , and none of the opposition being ready to call a game it fell to yours truly to put of his impartial hat and become Switzerland (without the Swiss Army knives , the guarding of the Pope (no I didn't wear one of the suits said to be designed by Michelangelo, apochryphally ) or the banks ), and umpire both sides of the game.

Surely we should be getting extra points for that alone...

The game started with pitcher Matt H throwing well getting a number of induced swings, however having pitched and fielded with composure the middle the third were to be the undoing of BD.. Adam a , came in for relief and initially struggled to get a good line and length and conceded a number of runs, which were alter to prove critical.

down 9 -4
going into the top of the fifth inning , Geronimo suddenly mentioned that the game should only be 5 inning as we had changed the day (despite agreeing this well in advance)

giving up one run on a walk set up the play of the game ..

Ian W having had a reasonably busy time in the out field , was called upon again, when a long hanging fly ball was hit.. tracking it down he made a great snatch out of the air, and proceeded to bask in the glory by indulging in some well executed keepie-uppies.. however one of the opposition players had gone to early expecting a fumble, and was having to retreat.. not having tagged up...

suddenly the realisation dawned that a double play might be on, Ian , plucked the ball out the air , and fired in an absolute rocket , straight in to the glove of Rob Swainson at 2nd

coming into the final inning we scored lots of runs and put immense pressure on the opposition

we lost by a single run...we had a lot of moral victory , but they feel more Pyrrhic. we need to play a little bit more consistently...

Player of the game: the opposition pitcher who like a gold fish with a bad memory kept trying to turn a safe single into a double , and kept getting tagged out each and every time.. surely he should have learned , he just kept giving us easy outs..
Super Honorable mentions to Adam A and Matt H who pitched heroically to keep us in the game long enough to make it almost possible for our bats to win the game

Play of the Game: the Woodley shuffle, great catch , great keepie ups, great throw, and a brilliant hold by Rob to cap it off
Super Honorable mention to Rob Sw for great hitting , and keeping his head despite a dubious call because everyone was not paying attention

The Kissoff :
We lost breaking the bubble.
nuff said.. the batting is still getting better and we are getting contributions from everybody.. now we just need to sort of the rules , on base running , and be a bit sharper in the field... oh what a a great thing hind sight is .. this was so about to bite us in the next game...

Roughly on time, in the darkest depth of regents park!!! Pitch 8 so far it some where near Northwick park ....

a pretty rag bag but battle hardened bunch despite our jeans and casual appearance we were ready behind the motivator Azor , who I am pretty sure never stopped talking apart form when he dropped that catch...

We were missing the combined talents of:
Chris C (No Nickname yet!!)
The intimidator..nuff said (exams)
Nick 'the face' Collins / or Nick 'The bunny hop' Collins
and Antonio "the slider" Lulic ,
however we bit the bullet and carried on and the usual suspects started ip

we started the game a man.. or should I say woman down but after heroics and commitment to the cause, got our full complement from Jacki No Hands M(Sorry!!)

Metrica were game for a laugh, and were about as serious as we were, regardless of the the lack of the Intimidator, and "I really need to win" Azor...

As the home team we started fielding but our typical slow start saw us conceding 3 runs mostly with induced ground balls being misfielded.. this is our best first inning in the field..

BD 0 Metrica 3

Then we went to work and after to quick outs from our leadoff men richard and Adam, we continued to bat right down the order scoring 5
and a good strong performane with the bats was again highlighted by a strong first inning where we scored 5 runs

which could have been more had Adam "second chance" A ran clean by second and got tagged on the way back... booger.!!! and we also left Dee and steph on base...

To quote Wil ... RUBBISH (in joke alert), however something which is not in the slightest bit rubbish are the domino state

BD 5 Metrica 3

we then got blanked... gutted.. with Don Bradman .. err...Richard Wood s getting struck out on low cricket shot balls..even if he has the smoothest swing apart from "slo mo" Horobin...

remember Richard by the ankles is a shot to leave!!!

the top of the 3rd saw metrica catch up and the tension ratcheted.. well just a bit, okay not in the slightest, apart from the bit where I couldn't find a bottle opener.. that was quite tense

BD 5 Metrica 5
A good next half inning in the field saw us only give up 2 runs but were were behind

BD 5 Metrica 7
No problems
bottom of the fouth and we showed our class, and everything we had learnt (including Staying on bases)

our late arriving aussie (Jacki..yay!)/ Stef combined to provided a platform to score more, despite steph's (I hate the ball) of the ball to score more runs.. on the back of louisa still not being able to run, (Major props to stef and the Jacki, for doing Louisa running)

Bd 9 - metrica 7

we then traded zeroes and we were then reinforced by our cheerleader... yay! sheila!!! Is sheila our Lucky charm possibly??...you decide dear readers

Then Calvin shone despite a couple of plays where he slipped.. he shone by dominating like Josh Beckett, or Johan Santana without the promise of a Cy Young or a gold glove.. a clever tag out on one guy who ran to third and didn't hit the bases properly...and then 2 sharp catchs off the bat put an end to the Metrica revival..

We ended up putting one more run in the top of the fifth. Dee being brought home by good base hitting... Dee in action

BD 10 Metrica 7

While one of the previous innings was all about Calvin, the rest of the team were well in to it even Steph ,who despite her protestations ("I hate that ball!!!") seemed to attract a lot of the ball especially at second base...

Adam A then proceeded to give the opposition hope by dropping a simple fly ball at shortstop by not calling. (We are a communications agency .. talk to each other people!!), however redemption was soon at hand when he caught a much tougher catch.

and this along with a VERY sharp catch and throw by Ian W to our cap'n fantastic Caroline got us out of one inning and put up another zero with runners on base,

Caroline was also involved in some good catches and a clever force play...

With our confidence brimming, we entered the top of the 7th and Final inning leading by 3 runs..

good pitching sensible fielding and bosh.. BD won

....AGAIN


Notes: We can still play better, we are learning to back up, we are learning the talk and to talk to each other and oh and did I mention,we are winning. More of that please

Play of the game: Ian W to Caroline.. this was a pivotal moment , we were just up and between Ian's great catch sans "Bunny Hop" (take notes Nick C, making "the face" is all well and good, but you need to complete..grin)... and a good throw to Caroline who watched the ball all the way to her glove....

honorable mention : Adam dropped the longest and easiest catch ever , and then making a much tougher one , 1 batter later

Rookie of the Week .Stef.. went 1 for 4 but ran for lousia and played great in her first game.

props to Adam A who was still intense but hit each time at bat..rather than trying to hard like glory hound motha

Player of the week: Caroline P for improving and playing a good turn at the hot corner even in one case with a camera....
Super Honorable mention for Jacki, who turned up .. hero

Calvin S for quality hitting and pitching , plus a 5th inning where he made all the outs with a tag .. and 2 catches from sharply it pitches...

Props to our cheerleader.. Sheila..who has promised to wear a cheaeerleader outfit if we win 5 games.. right only 2 more needed lads!!!

Commitment to the Cause award: Jacki M

special Softball mention to the man with one hand.. Tim "he got a broken wrist but still played on, okay he didn't realise it was broken but it was worth it for BD brasil" Dalton.. or TIMMEH! listen to him here .

The kiss - off
The Bulldogs (woof!) 10 - 7 Metrica
Our record w in 3 lost 3 pecentage 0.500 we were 5th last week and we are certain to go up... at least one place

The team

Rich "Bradman" Woods
Adam A
Louisa "Drama" H
Jacki M
Caroline P
Dee A
Stef D
Calvin
Ian W
Ravi "Statto/or Coach" M
Look No Hands

Oh and there are tryouts for the Allstar team with a trip to the US of A .. we are told this by our umpire who tapped up both Calvin and Jacki..

For more photos check out BD softball on Facebook