The had been bright sunshine and some heat in the sun over Dublin Airport.  Instead the teams arriving at the grounds on Saturday morning faced an overcast and cold start.  The two Captains of BatPak and Dublin Bay Packers had decided that they were sufficiently prepared for the season, and left the 2Pak team in the control of a somewhat maverick combination of Stephen Ralph and Dave Pepper.  Four group games gave the co-captains plenty of opportunity to give everyone some game time, with the primary objective being to reacquaint oneself with a softball diamond, a bat, a glove and a ball.  Captain Trundle was already contributing from afar, noting that the usual efficient Twiter feed of information was somewhat lacking, and that the archaic technology that is SMS was just not good enough.

First up was Marlay II, and 2Pak, under the leadership of Cpn Ralph, secured an 8-4 victory to give everyone faint hope that this would actually be good fun!!  A very tight game against Blazzers followed, where 2Pak came from behind to cluth-hit five runs in the top of the last inning, successfully defending the lead to take the game 9-6.  Two out of Two, and it was lunch.  The majority of the team disappeared, perhaps thinking that the day was over and that in fact a 2-0 record was a sufficient warm-up for the season.  Game 3 start time approached, and magically everyone reappeared as if transported from the Starship Enterprise.  Cpn Pepper had spent the full hour trying to work out a 7-5 team, unsucessfully, and so reverted to the 6-6 formation that had worked in the morning.  The next opponents was Renegades II.  A fifteen minute delay meant that the game was played under a tense atmosphere, with 2Pak grinding out a 3-2 (or was it 18-2) win.  A mad dash to a pitch that was possibly part of the Terminal Two Airport development for the final group game against Marlay I [ish - to quote one of their players] where both teams hit well, a thirteen run inning the highlight from Marlay giving the southside team the win they needed to progress to the semi-finals, as did 2Pak.

All the teams huddled around the control tent to await their fate!  2Pak and Marlay I [ish] were drawn together for a repeat of the game that had just ended.  Talk of both teams retiring immediately to the ALSAA bar and decide the result with rock, paper, scissors was deemed far too unsporting, and once we had found an umpire, and he had found his umpire's shirt and clicker, the game got under way.  Cpn Ralph named a strong looking team, strong enough indeed to see Paddy Mehan on the bench.  There are rumours of a disagreement with Cpn Pepper over tactics and filed positions in the final game, neither of which wished to comment atfer the tournament however.  To summarise the semi-final.. Marlay hit a lot, 2Pak did not.  They had run out of petrol, giving their all but unfortunately falling at the last hurdle.

In what was a fundraising event for the Irish National Squad's trip to Bulgaria later this year, Softball Ireland will be pleased to see what appeared to be a good turnout of players and teams.  For BatPak and Dublin Bay Packers, the objective of their players dusting off the cobwebs was fulfilled, and Cpns Ralph and Pepper can hand back the reins to Messrs Trundle and Mullen safe in the knowledge that twenty-one went out, and twenty-one came back in... perhaps a little jaded and certainly in my case, aching in every part of the body!!!