Betsy in Battle Mode

This is a bit more like it.

Betsy was in 100% Battle Mode and as opening catcher played a great first game of the day. The team led for most of the game but were pipped in the end. Here, Betsy can be seen with a few of her teammates bellowing one of their more aggressive chants. They often invent their own and go to army websites to get the tunes and change the words. One of my favourites (to the tune of 'Sound of, Sound of') includes the lines;

We don't play with no Barbie Dolls!
Us girls play with bats and balls!

Another is a sort of call and response led (usually) by Theo (far left):

Pain! Pain!
In the knee! In the knee!
Suck it Up! Suck it Up!
Move on! Move on!!

They can go through the entire body, they absolutely bellow it and it is quite terrifying.

The other catcher, Caitlin, opened in the second and last game. Betsy and her pitcher, Kristen, came on and finished the game. Between them it was a shutout - no runs from the other team, a big deal. She played those last two innings as if her life depended on it and she absolutely stormed them.

The final night of the tournament was just hilarious and a great end to an emotional journey!


After their games finished, they had lunch and went back to the hotel to pack (aka all pile into Marlia's room and watch Mean Girls. Again). The coaches took them out for ice cream which was a real treat as they aren't allowed sweet stuff when training / playing. Then they went back to the field. The girls were supposed to be watching the final, but typical, they could not sit still, nor be apart. They have had even more fun than last year I think, and because there are just 14 of them as one team instead of about 22 as two teams, they have bonded even more tightly. So, they all went on the other field, and played catch, practiced pitching, ran about singing the dug out songs, and talked about the games. I could hear them; 'Remember when Betsy, Remember when Natalie, Remember that pitch, It was so funny when....' It was very sweet.

One of their favourite chants was inadvertently created by Betsy. Betsy and her roommate Isabella were mucking about one day and for some reason (which I'm sure made sense at the time), Betsy shouted 'One two - Shampoo!' And they thought it was hilarious, told the other girls who loved it, and it stuck. So for the last couple of days after every song they all bellow in unison, 'One two, shampoo!' I of course, thought it was some American thing, but last night I heard one of the mothers say to one of the girls, why do you keep shouting about shampoo?

So, the parents sat and chatted and half watched the game. By this time, my new friend Carrie and I had discovered that they had Prosecco on tap in the clubhouse and were making full use of it at just 1 euro a glass. After the final they went onto the field for the closing ceremony.

I felt very emotional seeing Betsy go out there for the last time. They played the national anthem and all the girls turned as one to face the flags where the Union Jack was flying. It was most unexpected and out of character really. These shambolic teenagers and their coaches - some of whom aren't much older than they are - and the entire 18-person group having only 5 British people with the rest being American, Dutch, Canadian, Hawaiian, Australian, Bulgarian, turning like that to face the flag, it quite choked me up.

The sun was going down and it looked really beautiful, all the teams lined up on the grass diamond. When the ceremony ended, as usual, all hell broke loose. The girls all break ranks and rush around (Team Selfie! Team Selfie!) and hug each other and sing songs and swap emails and instagrams.

Afterwards the girls went for dinner. Then at 9pm there was an unofficial 'Final'.

It was hilarious. The teams were all mixed up but made up of coaches from Italy, Russia, GB, Dads (only GB Dads of American origin I might add), staff from the grounds, (bar men, groundskeepers, cooks), the woman who drives the shuttle bus between the grounds & the hotels, older brothers and sisters, you name it.

It was rowdy, hilarious, very competitive and so funny. It was pitch dark by now so it was all floodlit and looked very atmospheric. The girls all watched (sat in a tight huddle like one giant person) and screamed, sang, bellowed and heckled their coaches, brothers and Dads. It was VERY loud as also all the GB parents who weren't playing stayed to watch and we did the same.

The younger brothers and sisters were up on a scaffold about ten feet up, 'working' the electronic scoreboard. This meant the score changed back and forward up and down and the lights for fouls, strikes, errors and whatever flashed on and off continually into the darkness like something out of Close Encounters. As the teams were mixed up I had no idea who was on what side and I don't think anyone who wasn't playing even attempted to follow the game.

Some of the staff from the grounds and the coaches were fantastic players. They were literally hitting it out of the park. The ball would sail into the night sky and there would be a rustle of trees and it would land in the wood behind the grounds. You can imagine how the girls loved that. They went crazy every time their coaches went up to bat, but the biggest cheer was always for Sarah, their Italian bus driver.

After that some of the parents went for something to eat. It was about 11 by then. The plan was to go to the girls hotel afterwards (they would all be in bed of course) and have a drink with the coaches but Chris and I had something to eat and came back to the hotel. It was late and the Prosecco had been flowing and I felt it was bedtime!

It was a lovely end to a great tournament, Betsy's last in Colleccio as an U13 player.

The only thing that is not good is how much I miss Al.