The More Lions in their new Heroes shirts got off to a sluggish start as we lost 7 games in a row against some strong opposition at Solent. However everything changed in the last two games where consective strong performances gave us a revenge win against the Fish, who had beaten us on the Saturday, followed by an extra innings victory against an Ichken Knicks team who had earlier beaten the Lions.
The wins were enough to win us some tee shirts and a trophy, but more important were the strong performances of many of the team, performances which bode well for next season.
Bev was awesome on second, Gary's pitching was fantastic and Fi was great in the field. Gary is also a slugger that every other team has to fear and Rob's hitting was great. Tom and Will have both improved their batting out of sight compared to the start of the season. Bev and Emma both showed that they will be batters other teams have to respect next year and Sally and Fi aren't far behind.
Fi also deserves special mention for keeping hold of the ball and getting the out when in agony after being drilled at 3rd base.
The More Lions had their best tournament performance so far in coming 3rd at a wind swept Nottingham Labor Day tournament.
In the morning we warmed up with a 'friendly' win against the Royals before winning our two group games against Pyros and Sheriffs 2. In the afternoon we started well in the semi against Sheriffs 1 before one big innings gave them a deserved win. In the 3rd and 4th play off we came back strongly from an early deficit to beat the Exiles and wrap up a really good day.
Thanks should be given to Gordon for adding a bit of class in the outfield as well as several home runs. Jeremy and Patricia both played their first tournament for us and looked really good. The Mad Cow also made it's first appearance. Other high points included the performances of Gary, who hit one of the longest home runs I've every seen, Jutta, who played when she should really have been at home in bed, Manda, who hit as well as ever, and basically the whole of the rest of the team who performed solidly throughout.
Low points were the wind, which made pitching an adventure all through the day, and also the base running of the skipper who managed to let his excitement at getting to third get the better of him not once but twice in the same game ! Work on reconstructing his legs will commence this week !
We had an up and down time at the Manchester tournament but came out of it with a 50% record and a place in the plate final that gave the team it's first silverware. Low points were a loss to the Redbacks and a scratchy win against the Mets AAA. Highs were the two wins against the Swingers and the group stage win against the Demons, the team who eventually beat us in the final. There were many good personal performances, but only room to mention a few: Jamie pitched well for us all weekend. Darrell gave us a boost with a strong showing on Sunday. Emma showed what a good player she is going to be. Will showed how much he has improved with the bat over the season.
Thanks to Jamie from the Potentials for putting up with us all weekend, and also to the various teams that lent us players, as well as those who gave the members of our team the chance to get additional playing time elsewhere. A special mention to Derek who by playing for us 3 times on Sunday helped us enormously.
The more Lions enjoyed a successful first week in the mid-season cup. As the only third division team in the event we didn't really know what to expect but performed really well in both games. In the first we ran the (first division) Dodgers close, being 5-1 in the lead after 5 innings before suffering a bit in the 6th.
In our second game we lead from start to finish in a 17-14 win over the (second division) Hackers. A consistent batting performance from top to bottom of the order more than made up for fielding that looked a bit tired at times.
MVPs (Dodgers): Manda / Pete
MVPs (Hackers): Nhan / Pete
Week 2 was as good as week 1, starting with a close fought and entertaining win against the Bats in the Plate semi. The game actually finished tied at 10 all but after rolling the score back to the previous innings we emerged victorious 9-8.
In our second game we took 4 innings to score a run against the Mets in the plate final. Again the game was a close one with us eventually losing 10-9 but only batting for half a game meant we had left ourselves too much to do.
MVPs (Bats): Manda / Pete
MVPs (Mets): Nhan / Tom
Overall we came 10th out of the 16 teams, not bad when we ranked 16th at the start. We won two games out of four and came close in both the other two.
| Game 1 | Dodgers | (H1) | L.5-14 |
| Game 2 | Titans | (A2) | W.17-14 |
| Game 3 | Bats | (A3) | W.9-8 (tied 10-10 but rolled back) |
| Game 4 | Mets | (H4) | L.9-10 (6&1/2) |
H=Home, A=Away, Number = Pitch
The more Lions, actually a mix of all sorts but including a few of the genuine article, had an enjoyable time at the Mets tournament. We won 4, lost 3 and drew one, a winning record, the highlight being tying the first of two games we played against the Division 1 Phoenix.
