Ride Me, Dazzler

With Jody busy doing surgical things, we remaining Dazzlers giddied up   for a rescheduled match against the 11-0 BT Rookies. Gerard's delayed NY return flight left Tinkerman Tony free to swap and fiddle with field positions between each innings, confusing ourselves much more than the opponents. Some good defence, though, notably a superbly nonchalant catch from Lorna at second base, solid runsaving from the outfield by Rob and Richard, and fine base play from Karen Atkin and Mark Capell. Newcomer Nicole Pocock batted 2 for 3, 1 RBI, overcoming initial bewilderment at this strange slowpitch strike zone. And nice to see Amy (3 for 4, 2 runs scored) and Jamie (a huge 3-run homer anchoring our 6th inning rally) back from their holidays well refreshed.

Lost 22-8, but against the best team in the League, that's surely no embarassment. Can we say the same, though, for that big evening of beers and recycled cheap smutty gags in the Finsbury
Arms later? Dazzlers defeated, but not first out of the pub, yay!

Back to Finsbury, and alert defence was needed against the Swingers... 
 
 

We saw some close plays.... 
 
 

.... and some careful pitching (but watch that back foot, Paul!)    
 
 

Spectators were enthralled. 

Dazzlers lost 22-12, our first home defeat.   But hey, we had a full team, and our keys for the clubhouse worked!  Progress, or what?

 

Mill Hill thrills,

Just because Tim feels able to take several weeks mid-season break in Thailand doesn’t mean the rest of us Dazzlers haven’t been busy.    Fearlessly entering the Diamonds tournament, competing with teams from across the league’s divisions, took us to Mill Hill early on Saturday morning – although not early enough to make our 9.00 scheduled game, a shame as this was one of the teams we might have beaten.

Still, all but one of our games was close, including an 8-5 defeat to eventual finalists the Mob (3-0 down early in an error-prone first inning, but then matching them all the way).   Both Marks featured well,  M. Coombes pitching tightly, M.Capell powering a home run over the top.

Old foes the Panthers turned up in their breezy new uniforms (err, niiice…), but the Dazzlers still shone, with newcomers Morag and Mel impressing.   Our lack of a dress code made it easy to smuggle in 2 guest players from SPAM in our final match, helping us to a first tournament game victory – 15-10 over … the Panthers!       

So all smiles at the end.  



Happy as that in Ko Samui, Tim? 

 

Forfeit, friendly

Not a bad performance  last night from a very depleted Dazzlers.  It
needed a couple of loan players from BT (thanks due for 2 of our 4
runs) and Simon's youngsters padding out our lineup (kudos to
Dylan getting on base twice) for us even to field the, err, seven we started with.   Umpire obstinacy forced us to forfeit
the League match, but the 0-7 defeat that translates to is a lot
closer than most teams have managed against the league-leading BT
Rookies.

That settled, we got down to a very friendly game, with BT coach
Mo umpiring as well as catching for us and calling plays for them.
 The 16-4 defeat could have been closer without some of our
outfielding errors (OK, I still haven't found the right glove...),
but then big-swinging BT, boasting players competing this weekend
in the Nationals, are not what we think of as Rookies.   Just to rub
things in, their solid defence was based on an all-female infield,
mocking our trademark shortage of girls.   Dazzlers held them within
bounds thanks to very strong pitching from Paul (no walks allowed) and reliable first base play from Loureta, shrugging off an injured knee.

That Was The Week That Was

recapping the following week in Dazzling history :

6 July - at Tiger Cubs, Wandsworth Common. (match postponed)

With neither club being able to field the requisite 5 male / 5 female lineup, a decision was reached to play a friendly and postpone the league match to a later date.

Led by the power hitting of Simon Joseph, Tony Delahunty, Rob Tona, Tim Jaffier and Richard Cooper, the Dazzlers won, 24-11. To be fair, this wasn't the most competitive of games and perhaps a full-strength Tiger Cubs side could've given us a tougher time. Serious props to the Dazzlers' Zoran Ilievski who turned up some 90 minutes late in serious office attire. His sharp ensemble on the diamond gave the rest of us a new standard to aim for in the future.

11 July - Grand Slam Tournament, Chiswick

Perhaps the less said about the day's early games, the better. We were badly beaten by longtime foes the Sumatra Panthers, 18-2 in the morning's opener. And I take back my earlier comment --- the Panthers most certainly CAN beat a team that is shorthanded --- they've done it to us twice now this year, once in a league match and once in a tournament.

A couple of leads were blown later in the day as we lost to the Beyond Bermuda Shorts, 11-5. When the Shorts are augmented by ringers named Darren, they're not half bad.

There's a lot of blame to go around when the morning's myriad of defensive misplays are added up, so perhaps in the spirit of the Dazzlng Bobby Ewing emerging from the shower, we'll pretend it was all a dream.



Supposedly the day's final 3 games were a bit closer but as no one has forwarded the details, this correspondent will turn a blind eye to said results, much the way he ignores man's inhumanity to man on a daily basis.

12 July - v. Beyond Bermuda Shorts, Finsbury Park.

One of our best all-around performances of the season, a 22-5 victory.

Paul had a great game pitching and hitting, and we had a number of timely hits from Jody, Rob, Mark Capell, Richard, Simon and Tony.

Big thanks to newcomers Amy, Nicole and Karen, all of whom made a difference. And we can't say enough about Magdalena reaching base 5 times and scoring 5 runs. There was a fairly amazing attempt at an unassisted triple play by SS Simon Joseph that only ended up on the cutting room floor at "Sportscenter" because there was already one out at the time.

June Recap

9 June - at Richmond Swingers, Wansworth Common (L, 42-5)

Suffice to say the Dazzlers faced excellent opposition and didn't exactly cover ourselves in glory. Were it not for some aggressive baseruning by Misters Tiu and Hall, there would be nothing to brag about. Which there isn't, anyway.

14 June - v Beyond Bermuda Shorts, Finsbury Park (W, 16-3)

The middle of June....and our first real home game, how about that.

20 June - Metoric Tournament, Finsbury Park

These games didn't count in league standings. Thank god.

22 June - at Tiger Cubs, Wandsworth Common (L, 14-9)

When Eddie Rabbit sang "I love a rainy night", this wasn't what he had in mind. And we really don't wanna think about what he had in mind, because Eddie Rabbit sucks.



The Dazzlers continued to make friends and influence people with excellent sportsmanship on this occasion, looking the other way on the nutty 5 male / 5 female rule and not insisting on an automatic out for the opposition. So much for that Championship Trophy, then.

28 June - v. Sumata Panthers at Finsbury Park, (tie, 6-6, 7 innings)

To our friends at the BS-UK website ; you've been misinformed. The result wasn't 4-4 and the Panthers didn't collect 23 (!) base hits.

The correct linescore for the evening :

Panthers : 6 runs, 11 hits, 6 errors, 10 runners left on base

Dazzlers, 6 runs, 5 hits, two errors, 6 runners left on base

I'm not sure how many weeks we'll manage to score more runs than we have hits, but taking advantage of walks and the Panthers' mistakes was key. Also of note was our lack of an extra base hit all night, which either speaks to our lack of power hitting or the oppositions great pitching (maybe a little of both). The Panthers, conversely, only had two extra base hits all night, both courtesy of their aspiring rugby pro who stretched a single into a double with his aggressive (some might say criminal) baserunning, along with a 2 run HR to deep left in the top of the 6th that might've killed us....were it not for the heroics by the top of our batting order in the 7th. Two runs down, Paul and Karen set the table...and much credit to Colin for getting the game-tying hit.

There was some dispute over the Dazzlers not having the requsite 5 female players in the batting order, resulting in an automatic out at the bottom of the order. The Panthers seemed to think we were arbitralily changing said automatic out to a different spot in the order when it suited us --- our version of events is that we had the automatic out in the 10th spot each time it came around, which our scorecard verifies.

For the guy in the Derek Jeter shirt who asked "can't you lot organize a proper game?", thanks for the constructive criticism. The Panthers, for their part can't manage to win when facing opposition handicapped by an automatic out every 10 at bats, nor can they keep score.

Tuesday night, we're back in Wandsworth to take on the Tiger Cubs.

Two WIns - One of 'Em For Real

Last monday's home game against the Tiger Cubs was ruled a forfeit when the Cubs failed to produce the required number of players. Score that one 7-0 in favor of the Dazzlers, our first official league victory, though I think it is fair to say that all of us would've prefered to play that evening.

An intra-squad game at Finsbury Park followed that evening and showcased some of the skills we'd hoped to put to use against the Cubs.

Last night, we returned to Clapham Common South for an away game vs. The Beyond Bermuda Shorts. Despite the Shorts' fearsome longball attack (I lost count of how many long homers they hit to the deepest portions of, uh, Clapham Common), the Dazzlers survived a nightmarish 4th inning in the field (8 runs allowed) to win 15-12.

Mark Coombes was tremendous pitching in relief of Paul Tiu. Tiu, for his part, made a number of sparkling plays at short late in the game, and his 2-out, 2 run homer in the top of the 6th capped a wild comeback for the Dazzlers. And said game-winning hit wouldn't have occured were it not for Leanne Simmons' preceeding double.

WEEK ONE - CONSIGNED TO HISTORY

11 May - a 10 run rally in the top of the 6th isn't quite enough to topple the Sumatra Panthers on their home ground. The Panthers pushed across a run in their half of the inning to cost the Bobby Dazzlers their inaugural game, 17-16.

Though some would maintain the game was marred by poor umpiring and strange groundskeeping, others will contend that boorish behaviour on the part of the visiting team won them few friends that night. Hey, guilty as charged! Kudos to the Panthers on a game well played, and we look forward to exacting some degree of revenge later in the season. In a purely sporting manner, of course.

15 May - A fair number of the squad shook off hangovers and brutal Central London traffic to take part in Saturday morning training in Finsbury Park. Only one of us suffered a debilitating injury and all things considered, Los Dazzlers, while not quite Dazzling, exhibited far more competency and skill than we've seen in previous workouts (or in last Tuesday's game), which bodes well for Monday's contest against the Tiger Cubs.

As the day wore on, the mix of UK garage & hip hop eminating from the far corners of Finsbury Park's baseball fields became deafening, and play was halted for an reinactment of Mike Veeck's ill-fated "Disco Demolition Night"