It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I'm pretty sure when Dickens wrote that in A Tale of Two Cities, he didn't have the image of post-game beers and outdoor urinals in mind, but I think its a pretty accurate way to describe how our day went on Saturday. With our first game at 10 against the Comets, we came out playing well. Steve Boor led us off with a home run, and we got some great defense that inning as well from Liz who managed to scoop up a low throw at first as she fell backwards to make the out. Unfortunately for us, there were four more innings in which we got clobbered. Balls were going through legs, strikeouts and popflies were rife, and in the end we got smoked 11-1.

Game two wasn't looking much better against the Angels, and by the time we came up in the bottom of the 4th inning, we were down 7-2. This was where we turned things around. We scored 5 that inning to tie it back up, held them scoreless in the top of the 5th, and then with 2 outs in the bottom of the inning with no new innings available, Becky delivered a walk-off single to win us the game 8-7.

That win must have woken us up, because in the next game against the Kamikazis, we unleashed a 19-3 victory, led by Sean's first grand slam of the weekend, Liz's diving slide into third to stretch a hit out to a triple, and Ben's sassy knuckleball strikeout. That was just a warm-up for game four against the Rhythm where both Steve Boor and Sean had two home runs. The defense was in high gear as well, with Sean making a diving catch in right-centre and Ben snatching a ball over the fence down the third base line, all backing up Becky's near-shutout pitching.

The pièce de la résistance was the last game of the day against the R. Swarm (part of the Raiders team). Sean continued to dominate at the plate with another home run and seven RBIs, but Ben managed to upstage him by ripping three home runs and racking up eight RBIs. Liam tried to emulate Becky's masterful pitching, only allowing one run over four innings. The defense was stout, the offense was relentless, and Ben was informed that his pitches were hitting the corner like sex workers (well, that's the PC version of what I said. In the end we won 30-1, and as I got on the train home it left me thinking about another famous line from a Dickens' novel: please sir, may I have some more?

Bill

Sunday started with some fresh faces in the form of Scott, Jazz and Amy and first game was up against Thundercats Square. Becky didn't listen to her base coach and got out by greedily trying to take 3 on a hit behind second base.

But it didn't matter, Sean was in there saving the day with yet more monster hits, bringing Emma home almost every time. Steve Boor cemented the defense by swallowing any flies foolishly hit in the vague direction of left field, whilst Amy took care of right centre. Ben topped it off with a home run and we delivered a sound beating to the Thundercats with a score of 11-4.

Then came the friendly against the Comets. Beachcombers waded in, determined to get our own back after our thrashing on saturday, and that is exactly what we did, beating them 10-4. Congrats to Emma and Jazz for getting those hits in.

All fired up, we faced the team in party hats, the tornadoes. Even a massive hit out to right centre couldn't put a dent in us as Sean deftly brought the ball all the way home for an audacious tag play by Liam. Unfortunately Sean got injured running to second base and had to nurse a pulled hamstring. Feel better soon Sean! (we need you at Diamond 2!)

Last game and we faced our nemesis the Comets again. Despite some early control, our injured team, weary from the sun, lost some focus and we ended up 6-12. All was not lost however, as we got to see Bill turn into the BEASTCOMBER as he hit a effortless home run and came sailing round the bases, engaging in a bit of bodyslamming with Ben to celebrate.

All in all, some sound hitting with more work needed on the dreaded pop up, some excellent teamwork and relay plays, and some fantastic encouragement and gentle reminders from teammates to get your ass on the grass!

Becky particularly appreciated the team love and creative pitching compliments offered out in her first time on the mound. By the way, neither saturday nor sunday was Emma's birthday.

Becky

As the first outdoor tournament of the season, Diamond 1 attracted a lot of interest from the Beachcombers players. There were 16 of us in total, and about half of us arrived on Friday night. Once the tents were up, the booze started flowing and we all prepared for the long day of softball ahead of us (by staying up drinking until about midnight).

We had an early start as our first game was at 9am. It was my duty to captain the team on Saturday so upon arrival of our remaining players, we were warming up and ready to go. With my lineups done and my laminated schedule in hand, our first game against the Ascot Blue Sox got underway on a cold and damp morning. The wet ball brought trouble, and Bill took a hard grounder to the ankle. Becky didn't get off lightly either with a ball to the face! But both of them stayed strong and pushed on through (love the commitment guys!). This game had some high points too, with Tor's awesome slide into 2nd, Jazz's line drive over the 3rd baseman's head, and a nice 6-4-3 double play, but we couldn't hold off the Ascot Blues and finished with a respectable 16-10 loss.

Our second game against the Multiple Monkeys lifted the team's spirits. With 5 runs in the first inning and a 6-run, 2-out rally in the second we were in the zone. This included home runs from Bill, Roger and Phil. Amy also hit a great triple over the head of the left-fielder. We held our cool with some tight defence too and finished with a 13-7 victory.

This victory was rewarded with a delicious chocolate & cherry cake thanks to Roger, and we all enjoyed a nice big slice each in the bar.

The third game commenced at 1pm. Needless to say by this stage the drinking got underway - to soak up the lunch, naturally. This game was very tough against a strong RP Falcons side and the Beachcombers struggled. We finished with a hard loss at 24-2 but this didn't dampen our spirits, since the weather was doing a good enough job of that.

We got started with our penultimate game of the day against the Zambezi Warriors. This game saw some great defence from the Beachcombers. Jenny and Nic were impenetrable at 2nd and 3rd base and we held the Warriors to just four runs. We also saw some nice pitching by Scott, with Bill referring to one great pitch in particular by saying " This game went right down to the wire though, and unfortunately we were defeated 4-3.

Our last game of the day was against the Vampire Batters. We were 6-3 down after the first inning, but held the Vampires to three scoreless innings with some great line drive catches by Becky and Scott and a tag at home by Jenny. We came back to 6-5 but the Vampires scored one more in the top of the last and left us with a job on our hands. Bill stepped up and hit a huge 2-run homer to tie up the game and finish off the day.

Once we hit the warm(-ish) showers it was time for dinner. Jazz did a great job sorting out pizza for 11 people, and Jenny brought a BBQ too so everyone was well fed. The booze was still flowing so we all sheltered from the cold in Ben's outrageously big tent to drink and reflect on the day - a day littered with innuendos, double-entendres, banter, and various nicknames courtesy of Bill (Wizard Steve, Jazz Hands and Tor-nado to name but a few). Inevitably, a drinking game got started and the game of choice this time was "Never have I ever...". It was an eye-opener to say the least, but as the old saying goes "what happens at Diamond, stays at Diamond" - right Batman? You know who you are.

We headed out to the bar when the band got going and had a bit of a boogie on the dancefloor. For those of you who were at Diamond 2 last year, remember the 'Thumb 'Rule' from Shithead that continued into the night? Well it found its way back and resulted in lots of tackling and diving across the dancefloor with complete disregard for personal safety. It certainly turned a few heads and got people mindlessly joining in.

The night finally came to a close and we headed back to our tents for some much-needed rest. The end of the day also saw the end of my role as captain and I handed over the reins to the capable hands of Liam. To those who came to Diamond 1, it was an absolute pleasure to captain you all.

Cheers,

Steve

We have been practising for the last couple of indoor practices and boy did it pay off. We went there with our game faces from the very first game.

A strong Knick's team put up a good fight but home runs from every one batting blew them out of the water.

We then took on the Dodgers and had another very tight game with the only thing separating us from them was a monster GRAND SLAM from Beachcombers veteran Sarah!!

We eased past the newcomer team of the Bombers with a stellar display of base running.

Being 3-0 our final game was against an first class Shafting team who were also unbeaten. We made all the right smart plays and were putting pressure on all there base runners. A fantastic instinctive catch from Steve wowed the crowd and Liz had a game winning tag at home. She held onto the ball despite a hard collision with the runner.

Unfortunately we lost full fitness to two key members of the team in the forms of Liam and Roger but they got patched up and ready for the final. That is what I call commitment.

So in the same position as the last two tournaments we were playing for the overall win against a younger, less experienced but lethal Shafters team.

They batted first and showed good base running but a lack of home runs would be their downfall. Up stepped the Beachcombers to show them how it's done with all members of the team getting at least one homer. With the final score 19-24 we walked away with the gold.

One tournament, one trophy: nice work guys.

El Capitano Ben