Winter time, Dublin is flooded and the ground frozen over, most softballers have joined Yogi bear and gone into hibernation but some of us need a fix and the last bastion for the softball cure resides in the form of of the Dublin Indoor Softball Tournament,extreme softball for the dedicated few.

Every year Indoor softball footprint in Dublin grows and with the move of the tournament to A.L.S.A.A. sports complex, we gave ourselves the opportunity to handle 12 teams and we weren't disappointed. Most teams were entered months in advance and a few teams had to be refused entry as the maximum number of 12 teams was achieved by October. Amongst these were our two previous Champions, Originals and Packers, the three constant challenger's, Oddsoxs, Marlay1 and UCD1 and the ever present Suspect Devices. We also had several new teams with Marlay and UCD bringing second teams, Galway making the trip up, Kegs getting a team in and a special quest appearance from the Roses of Tralee, in the form of Mary's Roses and Escorts. Unfortunatley a second Galway team dropped out the night before but some quick work from the D.I.S.T. management crew saw the formation of the "Allsorts" led by Adrian from Limerick and Ian from Sluggers.

Saturday the 5th of November, 12 teams, 120+ people facing 9 hours of sweat, sprints, fun and glory, all knowing the next day pain will fall on them in places and muscles they had never heard of before. The twelve teams were split into two groups of six, to play round robin with the top two placed teams in each group heading to the semi finals.

Group 2 started the day with two of the favourites facing off in Originals and Marlay1, and it was a tight affair. However Originals put the first marker down winning both innings and finishing the game 55-47 winners. UCD1 beat Kegs and Allsorts upset the cart with a great display, defeating the Suspect Devices. Group 2 continued to unfold as the pre tournament odds suggested with Originals going 5 and 0. Marlay picking themselves up after the first loss, to win the next 4 in a row and getting some huge scores including one win of 90+ points. UCD1 kept improving and they only just missed out on a playoff position, unfortunatley losing to Marlay and Originals. Soon they wiil break the top four. Allsorts finshed 4th in the group with two wins but a great display all the same from a team formed on the day. The last game of the group saw the Suspects Devices and Kegs play with the winner getting their first points. Suspects have been in every D.I.S.T. and their experience shone through with both their defence and hitting falling into place and they blew the Kegs apart.

Group 1 didn't go so smoothly. Packers disturbed the status quo in the first game with a powerfull yet close 25-18 win over the Oddsoxs, Galway ungemtlemanly beat the Roses while UCD2 showed their intentions, defeating Marlay 2. Oddsox pulled themselves up after the loss to the packers and won their next four games to finsh the group with 12 points. The rest of the results did not go to script. UCD2 full of confidence after beating Marlay2 ,came up against the Roses and were expected to win. An incredibly tight game, seeing Mary's new team coming out smelling like.......Roses! just beating UCD2 by 2 points. That lose for UCD2 stopped them from getting into the top two for the group and they finished the day with just 2 wins despite some great play including a great win against the Packers Packers would have been expecting to go on undefeated after their win over the Soxs but with captain Steve messing with the formation, Packers lost to both Galway and UCD2 and finished the group stages with just a 3-2 record and all but certain they would finish outside the top two. Galway were now favourites for a top two finish but the loses to Marlay 2 and Oddsox left them with a 3 and 2 record, tied with the Packers. A rush to the computer to see which team had the better record, Packers won out with a points difference of +54 compared to Galway''s -34 and so Packers once more make it to the playoffs.

On to the Semifinals, Originals v Packers and Oddsox v Marlay1.

Packers were tired but up for the game, however they chased outs, which helped the Limerick team and with some great hitting, Originals took the first semi final fairly easily. However despite usualy being the youngest, the Originals seem to be tiring. The second semi final had Oddsoxs favourites over Marlay1, but with Paul Peake gone home, they had no one to lash the ball at on 1B. First inning was really tight with Marlay1 just edging it 15 to 12. Marlay came out swinging in the second inning, smacking in 17 points. This left Oddsoxs chasing 20, achievable but tough and as Oddsox chased the points they forgot the simple mantra of "just hit singles" and the more they went for the big points the further back they fell. finishing that inning on -6 and giving Marlay1 a 32-6 victory.

The Final

Two time winners Originals were clear favourites for the final, especially after beating Marlay1 in the first game of the morning. However Marlay1's confidence was high, they had scored big during the day and with their experience in the Indoor league to back them up. Originals won the toss and so Marlay1 batted first. Originals lined up with Hehir and Coonan on the Back wall, Sully at SS, Ruth at 2B, Barry "the stretch" on 1B, Pete inside  3, Maeve catching and Kerry Toomey in her last game in Ireland pitching. Marlay came out hitting hard with Mark getting a home run and Marlay finished off the first inning with a huge 35 points. Marlay1 then went out to defend their score with Grant and Adrian defending the wall, Dave 2B, Austin at SS, Mel on 1B, Shell playing inside 3B, Sinead catching and Mark pitching. Originals came out bunting and hitting the netting short for the singles but when they went big Marlay had the back wall covered and caught everything, preventing homeruns and gettng the all important minus points. After the first inning Originals only finished with 10 points, Marlay leading 35 to 10.

Marlays second inning didn't start so well, Sully made a double play, Barry cleaning up on 1B and some Marlay fly balls started to eat into their lead but they quckily reset themselves, started smacking the ball into the ground and with some quick base running picked themselves up and got the scoring going again. Marlay finished the second inning with 20 more points and a grand total of 55. Originals down 45 points, a huge margin to make up and the title seemed to be going to a new team. Barry led off what was hoped to be the come back with a single but then got stranded on base as Originals hitting went missing. Eventually Barry got home and Originals started heading towards a positive score but too little too late and with Austin pulling off some great tags on 3B and Marlay refusing to give away any cheap homeruns, Originals just couldn't get the points they needed.

D.I.S.T. had a new Champion, Marlay winning 55 to 19 and Dave Burke getting a shiney new trophy for his mantlepiece.

As all the players headed off to spruce themsleves up for the Softball Leinster party and the epic Flip Cup Championships, there was just some people to thank. Big thanks have to go out to Julie Trundle for organising D.I.S.T., A.L.S.A.A. for the the use of their wonderful complex, all the Umpires and Scorers (especially Nadia and Ollie for doing the Final) and everyone who helped clean up afterwards. Roll on the Winter Indoors on 28th of January, when Hairy Coo's will travel over from Scotland to test their skills against the Irish Softballers.

And for those that missed it, the two UCD teams faced off to prove who was the better of the two and luckily for Andy, UCD1 got to keep their name as they beat UCD2 to hold bragging rights......till January.