Editor's Note: A desperate quest for a silver lining ...
I think it's testament to how much I've enjoyed the rounders this year that I'm sat here writing this and feeling extremely deflated. After 4 highly exciting victories, we slid to a quite ignominious defeat against a motivated and strong Radcliffe outfit. Before I proceed with the details, I feel it's only right to pay tribute to a team from the division below who performed excellently in all departments tonight and thoroughly deserved their victory by the rather comprehensive scoreline of 201-122.
On a glorious night we simply didn't turn up - and that was almost literally true ... I was sat outside the derelict school on the other side of Radcliffe at 6.45 wondering where on earth everyone was! Thankfully a quick call to Wayne and I was pointed in the right direction! With others arriving in dribs and drabs and at the last minute, there wasn't even time for our normal focused warm up, a factor which added to the generally relaxed atmosphere.
In the early stages, all appeared to be going well. We fielded first and despite starting with only 10 players, the Radcliffe innings was kept largely in check by a combination of decent bowling from Jane and Michelle and some excellent backstop work from Trish (more later). With the home team kept to just 68, surely the powerful Totts line up could easily take the initiative? Sadly, no ... for once the normally solid batting failed ... a highlight was Danielle's now legendary "impossible rounder", where she somehow scampered all the way round despite virtually hitting the ball back to the bowler. That proved a pretty lone highlight, although there were useful contributions from several. A score of just 59 was pretty poor.
We've said it numerous times this year, Totts come good in the second innings, but tonight that just didn't happen! Radcliffe batted purposefully and scored heavily in their second innings, almost tripling their overall total in the process. It did not look good for TSJ, and when the key trio of Fluffy, Sue Thompson and Michelle all fell early in the innings, the writing was very much on the wall. To their credit, the girls kept fighting, and there was spirited batting from Alex, Ally and Trish in particular, with Ally "The Human Target" managing to be last girl standing - quite a feat considering she normally spends most of the game on her backside!
If this all sounds like doom and gloom, I would like to highlight a couple of performances tonight. Firstly, TSJ's player of the night by quite some distance (in my view) was Trish. I reckoned she was responsible for 16 of the 22 possible dismissals with some fantastic backstop work and excellent throws to first base. I've already mentioned Alex and Ally for their batting, and I was also impressed with Olivia in the field and with her batting - she was put under a lot of pressure late in the game with fielders surrounding her, and I thought she handled it really well.
The action off field was also decidedly low key. Without Lord Byron's massive sarcasm, things were quiet ... even the arrival of Wayne "The Tomato", fresh from catching huge sunburn at Formby, couldn't get things moving!
So with the cup gone, it's time to redouble efforts on the league - where we have an impressive record to date. With Tuesday's home fixture against the stars of Westbury to come, it's going to take some hard work and skill to get back to winning ways, but if I've learned one thing this year, it's that our ladies never fail to surprise me. Don't be too disheartened tonight - it was a thumping defeat and easily our worst performance of the year, but it's how we bounce back that matters!
In other news, I was asked for 7 separate items tonight, none of which I actually had on me at the time. Considering these included a hair grip, a plaster and a bra, is it any wonder?
With little in the way of dramatic incident to report on, I've decided that a cartoon montage is not in order tonight. However, do not despair, dear reader, a match report is not the same without something ridiculous to look at ... and tonight I'm pleased to present a sneak preview of the forthcoming smash arcade game, dedicated to "The Human Target". Have fun!
Reports are brought to you by Dr P, who actually is a doctor, but not a medical one. He's a world expert in shocking puns, and songs with brackets in the title. Team roles include: Motivator, Coach, Navigator, Fluffy's Bat Repairer, Match Reporter and Comedian. He is available for childrens parties, bar-mitzvahs and any dance-related activity. (Testimonial from Jane: "now I fully understand why people believe genius to be closely related to madness"). All comments welcome to webmaster@tsjcc.co.uk.