DAY TWO The Sunday of the London tournament, dawned bright and sunny, unlike the majority of the Mavericks, who seemed to be suffering from a combination of sleep deprivation and alcohol poisoning. Apparently an evening spent ten-pin bowling, had at least proved, that there could have been worse decisions made than deciding to play baseball.

 

Coach Wheeler, however was enthusiastic as ever, and had the line-ups for the day written out, before the the rest of the team had finished their breakfast. The maginicient seven, where then joined by the more intelligent members of the squad, who of course had had an early night, and light breakfast, in preparation for a days baseball under the hot sun.

 

As holders of the Frank Brady trophy, the Mavericks had been given two tough fixtures, firstly against the Milton Keynes Bucks from the Midland division, and followed immediately after with a matchup against Premier division leaders Cambridge. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Graeme Lloyd, albeit, not with quite the same physical presence on the mound....which was hindered further by the lack of a mound (!) Jamie Barnett made his first start for the Mavericks, having previously enjoyed the game from the depths of the outfield.

 

It turned out to be a game that was closely fought, as the two teams traded the lead a couple of times before a couple of Milton Keynes Home Runs down the right field line gave them an advantage which they were able to hold on to for good. Ally Carr, had another good game with the bat, and Tom snr, homered for the Mavericks, driving a pitch down the left field line, which on day like this, was always going to be a chase for any outfielder. Jamie pitched a solid game, and would certainly improve the Mavericks rotation, whilst Jazz Brown drove in a couple of runs, with an infield groundout, and a single into centrefield.

 

However, with the 1hr 40min rule on all games on the Sunday, the game eneded as a 13-8 Maverick defeat in 6 innings, as time was called after the bottom of the 6th.

 

The Mavericks fielded a slightly different team in the second game, with Tom Sheridan coming in to replace Jamie on the mound, who himself, replaced Ally at SS. Heather took a welcome break, and Rob Wheeler, came into catch.

 

Watching the Monarchs warm up, didn't exactly fill Guildford with confidence, however, Tom Sheridan proved it had no effect on him, as he struck the side out in the first two innings, and only a dropped third strik prevented him from shutting them out completely. In the meantime, the Mavericks, had opened up a 3 run lead, on a couple of lead off walks, and RBI singel from Michael Burdett, and then Tom and Jamie driving in a couple of runs. However, this was as good as it was to get, as all of a sudden the Cambridge bats, suddenly resorted to their pre-match form, and turned Nick Jolly and Marty Poulter into a pair of scampering field mice, as they chased fly balls around the straw coloured outfield. The Cambridge pitching also improved, cutting down the number of walks, and making the Mavericks really earn their runs.

 

With the game decided by a couple of large Cambridge innings, it turned into a comfortable victory for the "visitors", although Tom Sheridan became the second Tom Sheridan to hit a Home Run in the day (surely some sort of record?), and also continued to trouble the Cambridge batters.

 

As always with the London tournament, the games were played in good spirits, and add to that the great weather we had this year, the whole weekend was a great success. Unfortunately there was no trophy this time, but that was only minor downside.