With the last tournament played over the weekend the season has once again gone by in the blink of an eye. For the second year running the Pirates have secured third place again although with losses to teams such as the Heat (double loss), Raiders and especially the Voodoos we could possibly have finished in second especially after our victory against the Mob.

A late season revival from the London Tigers culminated with a surprising 14th game win against The Mob, which meant that Hampstead Heat were relegated alongside the Kamikazes. The relegation was decided on Head-to-Head record against the London Raiders Green having lost both games to them after both teams finished on 15 points.

Regardless of of finishing positions there have been some great plays this season and with the end of season awards approaching soon here’s a reminder of some of them:

Defensive plays:

Nadine double play vs Tigers:

Nads fielded the ball, tagged second (out) then tagged the runner who came off second (2nd out)

Bola fake throw and tag vs Voodoos:

In an ill tempered game Bola kept his cool to sucker the runner on second to go for the third with a fake throw and tag

Phil’s flying jump catch vs the Mob:

This leaping catch helped Phil pick up the double against the second best team in the league

Dave’s diving catch vs the Mob

One run in it and Dave at Pitch takes a diving catch ending their comeback and the game

Baldeep’s backhanded throw to Chris on 2nd vs Raiders

Baldeep made a great stop and backhands the ball to Chris for the out on second and subsequent double play

Dave’s overhead catch vs the Monkeys (Edinbugh)

Not a league game but with Monkeys on two outs, two run behind but with bases loaded Dave took a great overhead catch to prevent the home run and win the game

Gids running catch vs the Raiders

After a ball to the head Gids showed great speed and strength to take an amazing running catch earning him joint MVP

Sohan short stop vs the Raiders

A fake throw and run down plus a faultless performance at short stop gave Sohan his second defensive award

Offensive plays

Neil vs Mitch (Voodoos)

Who could forget that run in with Mitch yelling those famous words “you’re out of here”

Shaz home run vs Fuzzy Ducks

Shaz’s first homer from a huge hit and run against the best team in the league, earning her MVP and the only girl to score a homer!

Alice vs The Raiders

Best described as a batting machine that day as Alice made second base twice and third base twice to take joint MVP

Chris vs The Tigers

Hitting 5 from 6 including and completing the elusive  ‘bicycle’ (1-2-3-4) gave Chris his first MVP

Neil’s double home run vs The Voodoos

Not your classic home runs but Neil showed how aggressive base running and capitalising on mistakes can bring in the runs

Viene bombs!

Pick any game and you can be sure there’s a Viene bomb involved. Stand out play was at lastball with a triple RBI to help win against them

Marines vs The Kamikazes

Playing a much tougher Kami team second time round Marines let loose with some huge hits earning her the MVP and the ‘scorned woman’ title

Josie vs Hampstead Heat

Whilst HH might be the most annoying team to play against (they beat us twice) Josie seemed to love them earning MVP in both games with excellent batting.

Shorty vs Hampstead Heat

Not only did Shorty pick up the prestigious Bola award for base coaching himself to run home from third he also picked up the only home run of the game.

Team plays:

Pirate boyz vs The Kamikazes

For the first time ever all the boys hit home runs against the Kamis to record our best at bat of the season Sohan fake throw and run down vs Raiders (Neil, bola) Great play from So at short stop that saw a fake throw and subsequent run down. We came so close against the Tigers and this was our first ever team run down!

Pirates vs The Mob

Perhaps the best game of the season as we got off to a flyer with home runs from Phil, Chris and Dave and kept the lead for a narrow victory

Battle of the stats

Offensively this has been our best season stats wise with Chris just edging ahead of Dave in the last game of the season whilst Gids took third. That’s an amazing result for his debut season. One bad game saw Phil drop out the Usual Suspects and Shorty take fourth place.

Despite a rough game against Hampstead Heat Viene lead the girls from midway though the season with Nadines taking second and Alice and Marines joint third. A special mention must to go Josie and Shaz for raising their stats so much from last year.

Tournaments:

2013 wasn’t the best season for the Pirates in terms of tournament success but it was perhaps the most fun. Technically we were plate winners at firstball, runners up at lastball but struggled at both Edinburgh and Solent Lastball where the standard was very high. Next year you’ll be back with a vengeance and our names will be on the trophy!

Special mentions:

It’s been a season without Tom, Fiona, Donna and Ruth which clearly had a big impact on the team. From nursing knee injuries which later transpired to be baby bumps both Donna and Ruth were out from the beginning which left out short of girls all season after their after replacements dropped out. Fortunately we were able to call on the services of Viene to help us out and in doing so she became an official Pirate! The guys on the other hand were as strong as ever with Phil joining the team as well as Gideon who had a fantastic season considering he had never played before.

Shorty missed the early part of the season with his amazing wedding to Jacqui and subsequent honeymoon. July saw the return of Paul ‘The Glove’ Mendoza. Whilst he wasn’t hugely happy with his performance on the pitch his off the pitch partying is still the stuff of legends! Off course this season will never be forgotten thanks to the Mendoza base dive at Solent Lastball.

MVP:

After the 3 way split between Alice, Neil and Ruth last year we’ve gone two better this time around with an amazing 5 way split!

Josie-Marines-Phil-Dave-Gids= DRINK OFF!