How to almost have a heart attack

We won!!!

Yesterday, on our Bank Holiday Monday, the ladies cricket team were part of a 6-a-side cricket tourney. We were definitely NOT the favorites by any bit of the imagination. The team that everyone thought would win was the Alexander Palace team (aka Ali Pali). They have a few women who have played for years...and they always bat first. They are just strong & good (somewhat manly, but you know, that's nothing against them). No one else got a chance to bat for them but these two ladies. Other teams used the day to let their entire team bat...but this team was out for the kill.

So we lost the first game versus the hosting team of Potters Bar (I love English town names!). Then we beat two other teams to get to the semi-final. Let me tell you...these games were close...tense...crazy! Then came our game versus Ali Pali. Previously, they had murdered us in our cricket games. Slaughtered. We didn't have high expectations. But we had tactics. Our coach, Tom, put us in specific positions so that they couldn't get high scoring runs (4s). And it worked. We kept them to 41...the lowest score they had for the day. Then it was our turn.

I was up to bat...and stayed to the end. We had ONE more ball to be bowled. And the score was 41 - 41. I decided to just run irregardless of what happened on the other end. So as the Ali Pali bowler let loose the ball, I took off for the stumps. And there wasn't a hit. The ball bobbled around by the wicket keeper (like a catcher)...and I screamed to the other batter, Lucy, "Runnnnnn!!!!!!". She took off, I got to the stumps in time and she was not run out. WE WON!!! A score of 42-41. Yup - I had saved the day. And our best win ever...against Ali Pali!

The last game was sorta ridiculous...it was played in the dark. And we won due to the fact that the other team just couldn't SEE the ball. We didn't really care about this game...but we won anyway! Woohoo...it was a long, hungover and lovely day!