HERTS FALCONS FAIL AT THE FINAL HURDLE

The Herts Falcons, having won their division, and gained promotion to the Premier South, faced the top two teams from Division 1 North this last weekend 18^th/19^th September.

The tournament to determine the first ever division 1 National Champion was reduced to a final 3 after Croydon Pirates 2, who were the other representative from the South, withdrew. This meant a round-robin tournament, with the Falcons facing Sheffield Bladerunners and the host team, Halton Jaguars. The two teams with the best records would then contest the final.

The Falcons made the long trip north in good spirits, having had an excellent season, and were determined to continue that form.

 

Saturday 18^th – Sheffield Bladerunners @ Herts Falcons

The game on Saturday afternoon deemed the Falcons the home team, facing an undefeated Sheffield team, who had won earlier in the day against Halton. With John Delborello starting on the mound backed up by an impressive infield quartet of John Oliver, Shunji Kakutani, Geoff Hare and Lee Manning with Andy Cornish behind the plate, they were expecting a competitive game.

Unfortunately, that message did not get through to the Bladerunners, as they managed to get to Delborello early on, and plated runs through each of the early innings. On the mound for Sheffield, Tommy Booth managed to keep the Falcons bats quiet, as the excellent season-long hitting performance from the Falcons deserted them. Fly balls were hit straight to Sheffield fielders, whilst Sheffield managed to find the gaps in the Falcons field. The Falcons were kept off the scoreboard until well into the game, with Manning scoring the first of their 3 runs.

Some interesting strike calls from the home plate umpire continued to frustrate the Falcons, and one such call resulted in the farcical removal of the entire team from the dugout. Whilst no player was actually ejected from the game, only players preparing to bat were allowed in the dugout.

Paul Raybould replaced Delborello on the mound in the 6^th inning, and managed to shut down the Bladerunners, keeping them scoreless through the next two innings. However, it was not enough and the Falcons went down 10 – 3 in 7 innings.

 

Sunday 19^th September – Herts Falcons @ Halton Jaguars

The Sunday morning game saw the previous days’ two losing teams battle each other for a place in the final and a chance for revenge over Sheffield.

With Raybould starting on the mound, it was hoped that the Falcons could get out to an early lead, hold the Jaguars, and reach the final later in the afternoon.

It started promisingly, as Falcons batters were able to reach base more often than in the previous day, and the Jaguars’ bats were shut down over the first couple of innings as the Falcons took a 3 – 0 lead. However, they were again frustrated later in the game as fly balls continually seemed to find fielders, with the Jaguars’ centre fielder Nick Bustin grabbing 4 or 5 outs over the game. Some untimely errors from the Falcons fielders allowed the Jaguars to score consistently over the next 3 innings, to lead 7 – 4 going into the 5^th.

The Falcons pulled to within 2 in the 5^th courtesy of a Delborello home run to centre field that also scored Raybould, but the Jaguars again scored, and going into the final 7^th inning 9 – 6 down the Falcons needed 3 to make the Jags bat again. Unfortunately, the first two batters went down in order, and although Oliver reached base, Kakutani hit a deep fly ball to centre field to end the game.

 

An otherwise successful season ended on a disappointing note for the Falcons, as they lost both games. They will look forward to a new season next year in the Premier South division, although it will be tough going. The club will be actively recruiting during the off-season, so anybody interested is welcome to contact the club for further details. 

 

written by Paul Auchterlounie