GG Premiership Victory!

Following the success of the Popped Collars last season, Friday night saw the claiming of a second consecutive premiership for the team through their offshoot 6-a-side institution, GG. The Grand Final victory was made all the more sweet by the fact that it was over a extremely vocal Indian Kangaroos - the team's arch rivals throughout the competition.

GG and the Kangaroos had met twice during the regular season, and had been in a constant struggle for top place on the ladder. On the first occasion the Kangaroos defeated a rather understrenth GG team quite comfortably. In the second encounter, the Kangaroos pulled off the narrowest of victories by scoring a three (doubled to make six) off the final ball of the match to win by 2 runs. They also held on to top spot on the ladder by a narrow margin for almost the entire season - in the end holding the position by just 6 points over GG.

The two teams dominated the competition; the only other team that looked like being a chance were the Wickies who were unfortunately disdvantaged by being placed in the top grade for the first portion of the season, and then were only able to come back enough to finish 5th.

The Grand Final itself started with an extremely lucky batting pair for the Indian Kangaroos. They managed to poke around with shots off the edge, shots off the body, awkward bounces of the ball out of net corners, missed chances by the fielders, and at least one umpiring decision in their favour. Through all of that they lost no wickets and scored 47 to give the Kangaroos a solid start to the game.

From there it all went to GG. The second pair played more aggressively, and the bowlers and fielders took advantage, keeping them below 30. The third pair played more aggresively still, and scored less runs still - unable to even reach 20.

Chasing an opposition total of just 92, it was the captain leading from the front. Brad and Sanjit batted first with plenty of safe play interspersed with the occasional putting away of a bad delivery. Brad made a solid 43 in a partnership of almost 60.

Rian and Xavier continued accumulating runs by incorporating the much-unloved "pro indoor" style of play. It was unexciting, but with the Kangaroos persisting with 2 fielders on the back net for the entire game, it was ridiculously easy to rack up the runs.

The final over of this pair brought some life back to the game. Rian popped the first ball up on the off side, but the fielder completely misjudged a catching chance. Xavier mishit a shot to the back net, presenting a sitter of a catch to the fielder there, who proceeded to drop it. The bowler was ropeable. And then... on the final ball... the game came alive! Xavier, with his team clearly on ttrack for victory, was looking to bring some excitement back to the match. He charged, swung, was beaten by a slower spinning ball, and was stumped, for -10 runs.

...and the Kangaroos bowler celebrated. Well, celebrated may be an understatement - he was down on one knee, he was pumping his fists, he was roaring with jubilation. Never have I seen such an exquisitely out-of-proportion (but still genuine) celebration of a wicket. GG still led by a run with an entire batting pair still to come, but the excitement was that of a man who had just taken a wicket from the last ball of the match to claim victory.

Even the umpire on the next court was enthralled by the celebration, and decided that this game must be the one to watch.

Throughout the final batting pair, with the result of the cricket game beyond doubt, there was a new competition underway... which team could roar the loudest in approval of and support for themselves. But the Indian Kangaroos could not even win this battle. While they cheered, high-fived, back-patted, and jumped around at the fall of every wicket, GG (and their small cheer squad) were screaming at everything else. Twos, singles, dot-balls, leaves outside the off stump, wides... everything that didn't lose them runs brought a roar of approval. GG officially claimed victory in the shouting match when some guys off-court in another game called for them to "Shut The F#@& Up!!"

The final over was subdued , but Andy continued to strike blows in the mental battle by asking for all 4 wides to be rebowled by the man who started the outrageous celebrations 4 overs before.

Upstairs after the game, GG indulged in jugs of beer, plates of wedges, beer glasses of victory and premiership shirts of glory. The unfortunate part of it all was that Gareth - the man whose oft-injured groin was the namesake and mascot of the team - was not around to share in the moment.

GG shall now be retired from indoor cricket with a 100% premiership record.

A match to remember

For anyone who wasn't there, sit right back and listen to the tale of tonight's indoor cricket game. For anyone who was there, sit back and re-live the event.

The story begins with the incomprehensible revelation earlier in the week that our Friday night 6-a-side team, "GGs", had been placed into D-Grade. That's right, a team made up mostly of players from a team which won the top division premiership last season at Weston had been placed in the 3rd of 4 grades at Lyneham. Don't forget that a couple of years ago the team abandoned Lyneham due to continued frustrations over their incompetence in grading teams properly. Well, now we are back, and that same incompetence has this time gone in our favour, rather than against us.

The story continues with a lot of people being unavailable to play, and no one being able to find people to fill in. Xavier and Brad decided that it didn't matter, and it would be an interesting challenge to try to take on a D-Grade team with only 4 players. So they did.

Friday debut, semi-final, and golf

First off, you can download the new data file here, which now has the semi-final from Monday night included in it. Just replace the old "data.icd" file with this one.

Victory in the semi-final (against "Just One More", rather than "501" as I thought last week) takes us to the GRAND FINAL next week. Once again at our favourite time of 6:00!

Last Friday saw the debut of the Popped Collars subsidiary, GG, in the six-a-side comp at Lyneham. Some terrible fielding meant we began with a solid loss, but against a team who must undoubtedly be one of the top sides in the usually low-quality Friday comp. Once we get used to the ways of 6-a-side cricket, I think we should have no problem being fairly competitive in the top grade. I predict a top 4 finish.

And next, apparently, Popped Collars are branching out even beyond indoor cricket and into golf. We'll see how that goes.