The Misfits Softball Club headed off to the Manchester Tournament with a strong squad and                                                                  high expectations after reaching the Finals in their first Tourny in June at Leeds. The Misfits got                                                              off to a fantastic start winning all their games on Day 1 being the only team to do so out of                                                                  the 18 teams present.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              With a positive mood on day 2 the team continued where the left off with some strong batting                                                              in their first game on Sunday morning only to be pegged back in the final innings which ended                                                                in a 12 -12 draw. Still undefeated the team played their final group game and suffered their                                                                   first defeat of the competition, however, due to the teams epic performance on Day 1                                                                         squeezed into the semi - finals in fourth spot and now faced the number 1 seeded team.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   The Semi - Finals was a tight affair with both teams playing exceptionally well defensively givin up the                                                     odd run in each innings. Going into the bottom of the last innings the Misfits found themselves 7-6 down and needing at least a run to put the game into extra innings. Nigel Peters lead off and got himself to first (the tying run was onbase) and with Kat Peters up next who had been hitting well all tournament drove a fierce deep line drive up the middle that was brilliantly caught by the opposition short stop. Dave cartwright then hit a safe line drive into right field that brought in the tying run and put him on second base with Sherry Kenyon up next the game was becoming tense. Sherry kept her cool and hit a single into right field that put the winning run at 3rd base and with only 1 out Andy Cartwright was instruced by the team coach to hit a deep sacrafice fly and did just that bringing home the winning run.......The Misfits where in the FINALS AGAIN winning 8-7.

By the time the finals arrived the team were counting the injuries with 7 of the 12 players carrying some sort of strain, knock or ailment and this showed in the finals as courtesy runners where requested for three players and the pitcher struggling with a badly swollen knee. However, although the team from Scotland surged ahead 6 - 0 the misfits dug deep and pulled it back to 6 -4 and by the 4th innings it was all square at 9-9.  In the 5th both teams played wel defensively only giving up 1 run each, although the Misfits missed out to take the lead with bases loaded could only score once. The opposition took advantage and with some very impressive batting surged ahead in the next two innings scoring 10 runs to Misfits reply of 4 and the game was over 21-14..................But runners up from 18 teams is still a fantastic achievement from a team in their first season :-) 

A big thankyou to Dan Paine for guesting and Talha Iqbal for flying in from Canada from winter training to help out ;-)

Please ejoy some fun memories from the gallery below..............