Nottingham
Trailing 10 - 16 half way through the 7th Innings of the plate final the Lions roared back to
force the game into extra innings, held the Wombats to a single run in the top of the 8th and took the game 18-17 in the bottom of the innings.
A six run top of the first had given the Wombats an early lead which they never seriously looked like losing until the Lions late, late rally.
The Lions were never in the lead until the winning run crossed the plate. An epic games that had it all, the first Lions final to go into extra innings and the first one we have won !
In the group stages morning wins against the Badgers and Swingers had been followed by a heavy loss to the Sheriffs and then a
come from behind tie against the bashers before a straight forward win against the Redbacks in the plate semi.
It was a long day but very enjoyable with some silverware in Felix's last game for the team before he returns to Florida.
Everyone contributed to some real team performances but the batting of Lindsay and Gill really took the eye together
with an encouraging first day of softball for rookie Carrol and some spectacular grabs in the deep by Ben.
Edinburgh
A small but select group of Lions enjoyed their first trip to Edinburgh with
some good on field performances mingling with the
consumption of large amounts of food and drink.
The whole team hit well, particular highlights being provided by Michelle,
who looked as if she'd never been away and Kfir, who got stronger as the
tournament went on. Darrell worried the opposition all weekend and Lindsay's
first ever homer (the first of many) also deserves a mention. In the field
Tony pitched well all weekend, Lindsay took some impressive catches at
third, Ben and Kfir both gained valuable experience at short stop, and the
whole team worked hard all weekend.
Friday and Saturday nights were both relatively abstemious with the real
party animals staying on for an extra long night of excess on Sunday.
Finding the grounds had provided some excitement first thing on Saturday
morning and 8.30 and 9.00 a.m. starts tested some of us but everything
worked out well in the end. If only Edinburgh wasn't quite so far away !
Manchester
The Lions over achieved at the 2005 Manchester tournament, reaching the final of the Rec tournament (and leaving some illustrious corpses in their wake) before succumbing to a mix of tiredness and lack of ability.
Saturday had seen a clean sweep of our initial group, with the Peelers putting up the stoutest resistance, followed in the second group stage by a win against the Speeders that was more comfortable than the score line (11-6) suggested.
Sunday morning saw a straight forward win against the Potentials followed by stirring come from behind victory against the Splitters. In the afternoon we didn't fancy our chances against the Terriers but a seven run first gave us the momentum to sweep us to a 16-11 win and a final show down against the mighty Souls.
The final was a bit of a let down with our slightly suspect defence finally cracking under the strain and our so far rock solid batting also giving way. Still we got to a 'real' final for our first time as a team and whetted our appetite for more !!
