501 stats. Click to enlarge.
501 Table
Cricket stats. Click to enlarge.
Cricket Table
(Muggs Away and Social Lepers both play at Tiernan’s. I’ve indicated whether Muggs Away is the home or visitor when we play each other.)
This was a tough match. Back and forth. Up 2-0, down 4-2.
Et cetera.
The nicest thing about winning this match was that it was a team effort. I certainly didn’t play very well, but the other guys stepped it up and pulled out one or two games that we could have easily lost.
(My biggest contribution of the night was in a game of cricket. My partner had been carrying me the whole game, and I ended up at the line needing three bullseyes for the win. 1-2-3, the game was over. On our team, we call that a “vulture:” swooping in to snag the win from your more deserving partner. That was sweet.)
We had a similar situation in the final game of 701. We always have trouble winning that game. It was looking to get a little dicey when Vulture—that’s his nickname (see above)—hit a hat trick and gave us some breathing room. Not a “classic” vulture, since he didn’t win, but it was along the same lines.
Whatever it takes, right?
Final score: a 7-6 win.
In this match, we got off to a strong start and held on. We were up 3-0, and ended up 8-5. It wasn’t due to our having any kind of superior focus early on, but more because T E R D didn’t warm up enough.
Here’s why: the beginning of this season has been very confusing. We’re one match in and we’ve had four different schedules (the one above is correct as of 1/29/10, by the way) and one shifting of teams from division to division. I didn’t speak to T E R D about this (because I’m not the captain this time around—whoo-hoo!) but it seems likely that that’s the reason for the late start and their insufficient warm-ups.
I’m not torn up about it, though. A win’s a win, right?
Final score: an 8-5 win.
(Because of the reshuffling of divisions, there were two teams who played matches on Tuesday which won’t be counted. They’ll show up in the standings after their first matches in this division.)
The new season began on Tuesday, so let’s close the book on Fall ‘09.
Final stats:
Cricket Stats - click to enlarge.
501 Stats - Click to enlarge.
Final standings:
So we ended in 4th place and lost our playoff game. No trophy, no plaque, no nothin’.
That’s okay, clean slate and all that.
Moose did a great job standing in at short notice for Meister, who returns for the winter season. Moose has assured us that he’ll be available to jump in as a sub if he’s called upon, and he’s got an honest face, so I’m sure he will. Thanks, Moose!
You’ll notice that the look of the stats and standings has changed for the new season. I’ve switched over to a newer (and much faster) computer, but it doesn’t have Excel, so I’ve switched over to Google documents. It works great—and is free!—but it’s not as customizable as Excel.
Nothing else, I think. Here’s to a great season!
I said I wasn’t going to post anything about that playoff match if we lost, but I’m getting tired of people assuming that because we lost and I didn’t talk about it, that we lost badly.
We did lose badly, but you didn’t know that.
We lost in the worst possible way—walking into the lion’s den and taking a 6-4 lead before losing the last three games. I’m embarrassed by the result, but not by the team’s performance. We rose to the occasion and just couldn’t pull off the upset.
Casey’s RBs went on to win the championship, so congratulations are due them.
Final score: a 7-6 loss.
We’re playing Casey’s RBs tonight in the first round. They’re a very good team, but I’m not counting us out. We haven’t beaten them this year, but in our first match (also at Casey’s) we were tied 6-6 going into the final game, so I think we’re in with a chance.
The key will be if we can hang with them early. If we let them take an early lead we’ll be finished. We’ve got to at least hang tough with them through the first seven or eight games to put the pressure on them.
If we win, I’ll definitely be posting a recap. I might if we lose, but if you don’t see anything in this space for the next couple of months, you’ll know what happened!
After the disappointment of the last match, we needed to bounce back strongly against this team. We’d beaten them 7-6 at our place, and we had to do that again to have a chance at ending up in second place and getting a home game for the first week of the playoffs.
Didn’t happen. We were flat and listless. I don’t know if this had anything to do with it (I mean our performance, not the result) but Tracks, Good Strokes’ home bar, has become a terrible place to play darts. They used to have an area between the bar and the restaurant area with a couple of boards, but now it looks more like the darts equivalent of a bowling alley. Six machines lined up along a wall. Eight players per board plus assorted hangers-on, waitresses and other patrons makes for a very crowded, uncomfortable experience.
Anyway, what’s done is done. We went from second place (with a shot at first) to fourth place in two weeks. Not the best way to go into the playoffs.
Final score: an 8-5 loss.
I’ve discovered that the only thing worse than getting your hat handed to you is to have to recap the loss. I’d be a terrible NFL coach: “What do you want me to say, ‘we stunk?’ Okay, we stunk! Any other questions?!”
Actually, we didn’t stink at all. This team is very, very good, and all the more so because the two players we targeted as weak links last time have definitely improved over the season.
Not much else to say.
Any questions?!
Final score: a 10-3 loss.
