Blackout News

Breeon's Back!

2011-09-19T15:56:00.000+10:00

After a long holiday away from cricket land I've dusted off the blade and washed the cricket kit as I return to join the fight against Avanti. So now that I come back I find cricket all changed thanks to Sportsworld's decision to turn the 16 over format into a Twenty 20 affair. Should be interesting with more big hitting I imagine. What a better way to make a return than to face up against old foes, Avanti.

As for the website and it's updates... I gots some work to do but I hope to get the site back to it's former glory soon over the next coming weeks.

It's a Boy! Well done Coulto

2011-07-06T21:55:00.000+10:00

Big news from the big fella via Facebook. Brett is now the father of a new baby boy! Introducing Logan Coulton. Born today 6th July 2011 and both mum and bubba are doing well! He played only just last night with a warning that she could "drop" at any minute. So with that he took to the field with Blackout already depleted but could be even more short on numbers if nature had it's way! But thankfully Brett's dedication to the Blackout cause was fully realised as he played out all two innings. I'd also like to extend a personal thanks to his wife (who I haven't met as yet) for releasing the big guy to play his beloved sport despite the crisis looming on the home-front!

Blackout Have Their Pizza And Eat It Too!

2011-07-01T19:53:00.005+10:00

Blackout devoured the entire Avanti pizza with a 141 - 65 run victory and captured all slices... I mean skins.

With almost the entire team absent, the Blackout 3 of Langy, Bruce and Rob were joined by the Master Batters 3 of Ahmed, Huss and Zane in a 6 v 8 match.

Opening the batting for Blackout, Bruce and Zane scored a solid 25. Knowing they were likely to bat and bowl again, veterans Langy and Rob were next in and added 29 before Ahmed and Huss took the score to 102 with a 48 run partnership. Without many options, predicably, Langy and Rob were invited to bat again and effortlessly added another 38 runs for a total of 141.

Chasing, Avanti added 22, 11 & 24, before Langy & Rob's additional 4 overs, restricted big hitters Rob Jr & Pete C to 7 runs. Blackout highlights included Rob Jr being clean bowled by Rob and C&B by Langy. Happy to bowl again anytime!

These sort of games are bitter sweet. In a positive way, Blackout didn't forfeit and waste Avanti's time. The Blackout 3 lifted across the park and contributed greatly to the result.

In a negative way, it cost Blackout a $hitload and put our opposition in position that may unwarranted impact their position in the finals.

For that I apologise to Avanti.

Thanks goes out to the Master Batters 3 for ensuring we had a game. And finally, congratulations to the Blackout 3 for lifting and being solid.

Avanti probably preferred the forfeit.

Blackout batting...
Extras 32, Bruce 16, Langy 14 & 6, Rob 13 & 7
Blackout bowling...
Langy 4 overs 4/11, Rob 4 overs 4/19*, Bruce 2 overs 1/15**
*denotes powerplay over

Stars... 3 Bruce, 2 Rob, 1 Langy

Blackout Channel On Youtube

2011-06-18T11:45:00.000+10:00

Apparently this went unnoticed by a lot of you out there in Blackout land. We have our very own channel on Youtube. That's right. Well it is under my personal account on Youtube but the channel will only feature Blackout video and not the other stuff I post. I swear to god! But what is this channel? Well think of it as an archive for all our Blackout moments. I'll be posting the videos on here for you to view and you can dive into Blackout's dark past to see some of our lighter moments! So how do I get to the Blackout Channel? Easy:

Head to blackouthouse.com (you should be checking our site everyday! LOL)
Click on the VIDEO button on the top of that homepage and WHAM! You're there dude!

Just remember that if you watch a video please comment and LIKE the video. This gets us recognition and may lead to other cool things!

Latest Blackout Highlights Package Now Live

2011-06-16T13:46:00.003+10:00

For those of you who missed it the latest Blackout Highlight Package is now live in Youtube land. This was very very late in the making due to what we'll just call production problems (damn you Microsoft!). We got a thrashing handed to us from the Avanti lot but when you are playing with one short that never helps. It was still a fun game to play despite this handicap.

The next video highlights package maybe delayed due to more production problems (damn you Sony!) but we'll keep you posted.

Big Win Over The Heavies

2011-05-17T18:04:00.001+10:00

We had ourselves a big rest and then came back after those three weeks squandered off field to register a big win over The Heavies! Click the above pic to watch the Youtube highlights. Not my best video package to date due to lack of footage but still worth a watch.

It's a pretty interesting win as we lost six wickets in total to their eight so not much in the way of an advantage their. But we simply thrashed the back net more and so our match was won with the bat. Greg got himself a hat trick with a Catch, Runout and Bowled Out on the 15th over. There were plenty of run getters with Brian on 39 runs (where did that come from?) which was mostly brought about by two sixes in a row (one off a Power Play). Also Brett grabbed 38 runs, Keith also scored a decent 24 total and Greg got 21 runs to make good on his already decent bowling effort. Earning him three stars. Brett was awarded the Two Stars and Rob made it in with One Star. Brian was gutted to not receive a star at all! LOL

End score was Blackout 185 def The Heavies 103.

Blackout Receives a New Toy

2011-04-18T14:45:00.000+10:00

Just letting you all know that "THE PACKAGE" arrived today. Finally I received the new addition to Blackout's arsenal, The Flip Mino HD . It can store an hour's worth of footage with it's 4G internal memory, takes HD video and also boasts HDMI output. What's this mean for you? Means you'll be getting your mugs online in full HD with more highlight packages to come! We may not look like winning many prizes (unless things change and more of you sign up for the competition ) but one prize I have my eyes on is the $500 for "best video of the month". But highlight packages alone won't do it. I need ideas from you lot as to what other videos we could do to win the dosh for the team! If we get that prize we'll have a snazzy new uniform in no time!

So... let's keep the Blackout brand rolling in the black with new money for shirts! Reply back with some cool ideas. The best ideas will be published on the site and also don't forget to sign up for the Third Half and keep posting new comments on there! Every comment contributes to more points and maybe we can win even more dosh.

Head to our team page to see what the fuss is about!

iBlackouthouse Mobile Site

2011-04-17T11:51:00.000+10:00

During our match up against Avanti new player, Scott, asked me do we have an iPhone/ Android friendly version of the site. I was able to proudly tell him sure we do! But... no one knows how to get to it! LOL So, here's the link to a more portable Blackouthouse for you all to get your Blackout updates!

Might be a good idea to save it onto the homepage on your phone to get to it easier as the address is quite a mouthful!

Click on this link to get to the iBlackouthouse site! --> http://m.wbx.me/blackouthouse

Avanti Run Over Blackout

2011-04-16T21:33:00.000+10:00

It wasn't pretty but a fun filled match anyway. We had new player, Scott, hit the field for the first time and manage to walk off the field at least without losing his sense of humour! But Bruce wasn't laughing after being run out multiple times in bat. All up we just couldn't gel on the night and as a result we only managed to snare six wickets to their eleven. A more detailed report to come!

Full Line Up for Avanti Match!

2011-04-12T15:03:00.000+10:00

A very quick post to announce that tonight's match against Avanti will feature a pumped up full Blackout line up. Here's the roster for tonight:

IN: Brian, Bruce, Langy, Brett, Scott, Rob, Keith, Wayne

OUT: Mark, Tim

New face Scott will be in for a shock with the competiveness of tonight's match up me thinks which will only be a good thing! Looking forward to taking these guys on again!

Stomped By the Pud Boys

2011-04-06T14:04:00.001+10:00

It wasn't expected to be this difficult! Match ups against Pud Boys have traditionally been a light hearted affair. But a couple of ring ins and a pumped up bunch of Pud Boys meant that Blackout were gonna be up against it. We started off on the field with a full team thanks to a late entry of a new player to the team, Wayne. Our first challenge was kept to 28 runs partnership but a lack lustre effort on the field meant only two wickets were taken in that exchange. This partnership also managed to slam a six in one of the overs to not help our cause. Pud Boys followed up the steady flow of runs with their next pair with 32 runs with only the loss of three runs.

We then had Fabio (Pete) and Grumpy Pete come on for a fun match up. But it was Grumpy Pete that was gonna be the victim of some of my better fielding attempts with a run out thanks to a slap on shot at stumps. This was followed up next over with a Third Ball call leading to a pre-empted catch as I was just sweating on Pete doing ANYTHING to get bat on ball! They did still manage to rack up 27 runs which was quite an effort despite the pressure we were placing on these two! But it was the last pair that hurt us... BAD! Peter and (One Inch) Jacob really put together a powerful 42 runs with a Power Play over six (giving them 13 runs in one hit) plus only a loss of two wickets.

So with 129 runs on the board we took to batting with a tough assignment. In the past it's been shown quite often Blackout struggle with 100 runs or more to chase. But the first pair got us on the right path as Keith & Wayne blasted 46 runs. Not too shabby! This included a fantastic effort of 31 runs from newcomer Wayne. Man that kid gets angry with the bat! They both only lost three wickets in total.

Things weren't so great though for the next pair. Due to a quick change in the batting order (guys you gotta time your toilet breaks better! LOL) Rob and Langy took to the field and got off to a dusty start. One run off the first over. This led to a better over thanks to some graceful batting (and a few wide balls) in particular from Rob and his opposition crushing bash into the ground shot to eliminate any run outs. Some more wide balls and good shots in the third over snared more runs. But then Jacob and his crushing fast bowling just blitzed the boys in the final over to bring 11 runs off the total. This meant that Rob and Langy left the field with only 5 runs to their account.

Things didn't much better with Tim and myself heading out next. Newcomers do struggle with indoor cricket and the fast paced nature of the sport and Tim was no different. He lost four wickets all up as Fabio was all over him with the stumping and Tim getting into trouble with some ordinary shots. I was doing OK for the most part up until a leg side ball went a little wider than I expected causing me to scoop it up more than I wanted and leading to my only wicket. It was a small victory though when the last over gave us 8 runs in extras alone and we score 19 runs in that over. Giving us a total of 20 runs. Sweet!

However at this stage the game was pretty much up. 129 runs to chase and we only had 71 runs. Bruce and Brett were not on their game tonight (as the video highlights show) and the struggled to limp across the line with 16 runs.

All up it was the lack of wickets when we were fielding that cost us this one. They grabbed 18 wickets and we could only muster 9. Hmmm...

Stats of note :
Wickets : Pudboys 18-9
Skins : Pudboy 3-1
Extras conceded : Pud Boys 30, Blackout 20

Best for Blackout :
With the bat ... Wayne 31, Brian 17, Bruce 14.
With the ball ... Wayne 1/7, Brett 1/8, Keith 2/9.

3 Stars ... Wayne 3, Keith 2, Brian 1.

The Third Half - Hahn Super Dry Promo

2011-04-05T16:22:00.000+10:00

A big event is about to engulf Blackout and all other casual sport teams throughout Australia. I'd like to pretend that I know enough details at this stage to give you a proper update but all I can tell you is that Blackout was contacted personally by phone from the guys at Hahn Super Dry to ask if we'd be in on this promo and the website for the comp has gone live as I type this. You can head to the site yourself or simply watch their video below to see what the fuss is about. Hmm... Bruiser Bruce vs a professional Sumo Wrestler? I'd like to see that! LOL

Rd2: Blackout 203 def The Heavies 69

2011-04-04T21:17:00.014+10:00

With player shortage threatening Blackout to field a competitive team, mobiles again ran hot in an effort to to get the numbers required for their Round 2 match against The Heavies. By start time a full complement of eight took to the court albeit with the late inclusion of Peter C & Bart from Avanti Pizza and Peter "X" (from another team whose name escapes me) whom Blackout thank for playing.

Tim Pearl also made his debut appearance for Blackout in his first game in any form of cricket since the year the "Super Nintendo" was released in the United States... (that's a little trivia quiz for all you viewers out there - answer next week).

The Heavies won the toss & elected to bat. After Blackout's first over saw 15 runs on the board, Blackout rallied to restrict The Heavies opening pair to only 5 runs for the remaining three overs. Wickets fell consistently which saw the remaining batting pairs put on 20, 27 and 2 for a total score of 69. Special mention to Keith who fielded well on the back net & taking a couple of sensaaaaaaational catches.

Keith & Bart opened Blackout's account putting on 40 runs with Keith smashing a six off the last ball.

Tim & Peter X were the next pair in & after a shaky first over, settled in & ran well between the wickets putting the Heavies under pressure to add 41 in their four overs.

Bruce & Peter C followed with Bruce's power hitting making light work of The Heavies attack as he smashed 51 runs off 10 balls. Yes, that's a strike rate of 510.00%. The Heavies did snare a couple of runouts but couldn't contain "Bruiser" as Blackout's 3rd pair added a further 65 runs.

With a 77-run lead at the end of 12 overs, the last pair of Brett & Langy added a final 57 runs to the scoreboard with Brett hitting two sixes in the last over of the match to have Blackout notch up the 200.

Stats of note :
Wickets : Blackout 17-5
Skins : Blackout 4-0
Extras conceded : The Heavies 72, Blackout 16

Best for Blackout :
With the bat ... Bruce 51, Brett 26, Langy 17.
With the ball ... Peter C 4/3, Brett 3/1, Langy 3/1.

3 Stars ... Brett 3, Langy 2, Bruce 1.

Round 3 Game Time Announced

2011-04-01T19:02:00.000+11:00

We have a game time from Sportsworld for next Tuesday's game. We'll be playing against the infamous Pud Boys at 8:15pm. So check your inbox or Google Calendar for the game invite. No invite? Email me on brian@blackouthouse.com and I'll hook you up!

Rd1: EFI defeat Blackout

2011-03-26T20:27:00.005+11:00

Blackout return from their second official off-season with a disappointing 62 - 142 loss to EFI.

New season, new look... same old, same old. Heading into the season opener with nine players available (including three new faces), it was frustrating to see a no show from any of the new guys. Looks like Blackout need to keep recruiting.

For the five regulars and Fabs & Rob Jr, thanks for playing!

Blackout batted first with Keith and Bruce scoring a solid 43. Three wickets in two powerplay overs restricted Langy and Rob to 12 while Brett and Rob Jr added 31. The less said about the final pair of -24 the better.

In response, EFI scored 47, 50, 36 & 9 to take out all skins. Big effort by Keith on the back net who was still complaining about his sore hands from his catches during the crucial warming down session at the pub.

Best for Blackout
With the bat... Bruce 27, Rob Jr 15, Langy 7
With the ball... Bruce 2/8, Rob S 3/16, Keith 0/18

3 Stars... Bruce 3, Keith 2, Brett 1

Meet The Heavies

2011-03-24T14:33:00.000+11:00

After a average start to the season with player numbers despite our efforts we hope to change that with Round 2. The game time and opposition have been announced by Sportsworld. It's going to be an 8:20pm match against new team "The Heavies". I have to ask you to please reply to the game invites that have been sent out via email. It's fairly simple. Click YES if you're in or NO if you're not. Hope to see a full side this week!

New Faces and a Full Team for Season Opener

2011-03-22T13:56:00.000+11:00

Round one's match up against EFI will see Blackout field a full team. With a new season we'll also be seeing some new faces too which is exactly what we had hoped for with the season off. New season. New look. We'll have three new guys in our first match up with maybe one or two more to come later in the season. Our first line up for 2011 is:

IN: Rob, Abbas, Kazim, Bruce, Langy, Keith, Brett+1.

OUT: Mark, Richo, Jeff, Brian

A special thanks goes out to Wayne Gormley. He did put his hand up to play if we were short (he said he couldn't stand to see Langy cry!). Appreciated big fella!

Blackouthouse Given Fresh Look

2011-03-18T01:26:00.000+11:00

Just in time for the new Winter 11 season Blackout gets a new look going on for their site! Partially through a need to give the site a fresh new look and mainly due to the fact that my PC decided to muddle up the site's files, you guys are being spoilt with a bolder, snazzier and more functioning site. The beautiful part about this upgrade has been the ease I've had this time around in getting all the pieces together. The program I'm now using makes putting this all together so much easier. The existing blogger news site (which you are reading now) is so easier to integrate to the site thanks to the widgets at Widgetbox. All the hard work is kept online and I now just... link it! Sweet!

Anyhow... enough of that nerd talk! All you need to know is that there will be more stuff added to the site as the season goes on. Don't forget to check out the photo gallery with it's cool new look. If it proves a hit then I'll be adding more to it as well!

Player Registrations

2011-03-18T01:00:00.000+11:00

Just as we go into yet another season we got to let some of the new blokes know about the costs involved. Currently most of us are not registered so it's time some of you more senior players guys got a wiggle on and re-register. As for the new guys just follow this link to get the pricing details direct from the Sportsworld site. Remember you'll need to be registered to play or you'll not be allowed to enter the court. We recommend the Gold card to get a full year's worth of coverage rather than the Silver one but in the end it's your choice!

Winter 11 Opener Announced

2011-03-17T22:03:00.000+11:00

Today the centre published their game times for next Tuesday and Blackout's name pops up as a fixture against EFI for a 9:30pm match. So we're in the process of gathering troops... er... I mean players for our cause. So far it's a case of slim pickings from our stable roster and so a list of new players to debut may be a feature of not only this match but a feature of the Winter 11 season.

Out so far is Richo (out till further notice), Mark (match time is an issue) but we're yet to hear from most of the others. In will be Rob (of course), Brian and new gun Abbas.

Watch out for our new site too which should be up and running by the time you read this! It's not 100% complete with some tweaking to come but I just couldn't wait to get it out there!

New Look Blackouthouse - Coming Soon

2011-02-17T01:39:00.000+11:00

With the season off it seems my PC decided to go nuts and lost some files. This meant that the files needed to update blackouthouse.com page had been lost (the formatting information). So rather than spend ages trying to retrieve it all and piece it all back together I've decided it's time for a new look. Not that I had anything against the current layout... except... the links are all broken and it's all a bit of a shambles right now to be truthfully honest. So... in the meantime you'll still get your updates via these news blogger entries. But you'll need to be a little patient while I knock some pages together to give you the new look Blackouthouse.

Hopefully should be ready to go before the start of the new season... if not much sooner!

Blackout Prepare for Winter 11

2011-02-16T12:48:00.000+11:00

After only the second break in Blackout's 21 year history we are gathering troops to hit the nets once more. The season starts on the 22nd March 2011 according to the centre so that's oodles of time to get some players ready. Now's the time to do the following if you're interested in playing:

Contact me (brian@blackouthouse.com) or Rob (rob@blackouthouse.com) so we can get an idea of player numbers for 2011
Existing players need to update us with your mobile and email address for game invites
Be committed to play all season long!
Ask anyone if they're interested in playing!
Join our Facebook page for more updates (click here)

So far I've managed to get some interest in people wanting to play for us this season but the more the merrier! Stay tuned for times and events right here on blackouthouse.com!

MOvember 2010 is almost here

2010-10-31T17:44:00.000+11:00

There's a movement occurring. People are starting to notice a strange phenomenon taking place. Moustaches are popping up everywhere and it's catching on! MOVEMBER 2010 is here! Rob and Brian will be leading the charge for Blackout in this years Movember but... I encourage EVERYONE to do the same. The cause is a just one. Men's health is at stake here. All money raised will help depression and also prostate cancer. With every MO out there as a representative to our cause we can help raise awareness on these issues and... have a fun time in the bargain too!

If you want to take part then please email me on brian@blackouthouse.com to ask how to join our MOvember movement for Blackout.

To donate to our MOvember cause head to http://au.movember.com/mospace/34013/ and follow the instructions on how to contribute!

To join our team head here: http://au.movember.com/register/106166

Prize Fight Leaves Both Knocked Out

2010-10-20T14:34:00.000+11:00

With only four regular players showing up for this one (Rob, Langy, Bruce and Brian) and was a battle for player numbers before we could even hit the court. We managed to get Rob D and Pete from Avanti to play for the Blackout cause. With six players we knew we were going to face a huge battle. The job of keeping was left to me but after the first pair we quickly realised that this was a waste of a fielder. We got smacked for 43 runs with the first pair. But two quick power plays into the next pair started to turn things around slightly for Blackout. We started snaring some run outs and even stumpings without a keeper as I was left to the task of diving in to grab loose stuff the keeper would normally grab. We kept Ahmed and Fahdi down to a measly 11 runs. Things even got better for us with Bill and Omar coming out and not looking at all comfortable. 7 runs from them thanks to four wickets falling for them.

Their last pair offered more resistance and tallied 33 runs despite losing 3 wickets. This left us to beat 94 runs and we had walked off the court feeling proud of the big effort that we had put in to keep them under the ton.

The ring ins had done a lot to keep the normally loud Prize Fights to barely a whisper as they failed to lose a wicket and rallied up 46 runs to take out the first skin. But this is where the game became a bit undone. Bruce and Langy came out and Bruce started with a six. We thought that the good times were gonna keeping rollin'. But Langy had a bad mix up with a run out/ stumping, still not sure as it was pretty ugly. This followed by two more quick wickets giving Ahmed a hat trick and Blackout a depleted score board. Despite this they still managed to finish the over on an even zero runs. But this even zero was maintained right through their partnership and that's exactly what they walked off with. ZERO. Six wickets (four of them in Power Plays) can do that to a team.

In comes Rob and Brian. I was playing the most sensible game in batting I have done in a long time. No wickets to speak off and hitting nets, basically frustrating particular players deliberately with cheeky, well placed shots. That is until the final bowl and I had a brain snap and went for a much talked about shot for the back net. It was caught and instead of having a personal tally of 20 plus runs (or possibly 27 runs if I hit the six properly!) I was brought down to 15. This left the team, more importantly, to a total of 78 runs chasing 94.

Prize Fight picked Langy and me to re bat the final stint. It was tough doing. Langy was leaving leg side deliveries, much to my anger, and not much hitting was going on. They were picking up wickets and getting a sense of victory. But a wicketless third over brought us back into the mix leaving us with 88 runs for the final over. I fell for a wicket (I think a run out as the stupid umpire didn't fill in the scoresheet properly) on the first ball and this brought us back down to 83. A no ball and two runs on top back to 87. I hit a side net for two runs making it 89. Langy dabs it to the side and I call a quick YES to grab a single giving us 90. I then tried to send it up to the back of the side net but fell short of the mark but grabbed two runs. 92 runs... FINAL BALL. Langy facing. He somehow send it to the off side net and we pick up a double to DRAW IT EVEN!

Every one was gutted. But... I walked off the court and yelled to them... "a draw with six against eight is a WIN!".

A Struggle for Numbers

2010-09-21T11:52:00.000+10:00

With people overseas, injured, working etc this weeks match up against Pud Boys is proving to be a bit of a nightmare to roster for. We have four players locked in as available. The line up so far reads like this:

IN: Greg M, Bruce, Lachy, Langy

OUT: Rashid, Brian, Mark, Phil, Richo, Jeff, Greg R

MAYBE: Rob

Keith and Mick are the only two yet to respond.

Update: Blackout Lose to EFI

2010-09-15T01:30:00.001+10:00

Blackout were just not good enough in the fielding department despite a respectable 119 being posted in batting. E.F.I. snapped back to record 178 and winning three out of the four skins. An in depth review with photos coming soon.

Team Line Up For Round 8

2010-09-14T14:48:00.000+10:00

Blackout have a full team to announce for tonight's match against EFI.

Brian
Langy
Sheeds
Lachlan
Greg
Mick
Keith
Pete

You'll see that Rob is still out due to injury from a few weeks back when he got a finger caught up in the nets going for a catch. Also the other big news is the return of Keith who is back from injury.

Table Update - Round 7

2010-09-08T23:20:00.001+10:00

After last night's win we are still lurking at the bottom of the ladder. Sigh... but. We still have some weeks left to make good on a finals showing. Tables mean nothing if you string the wins together in the finals. But you got to make them finals! We are in 8th placing on the ladder with the second lowest skins won tally up there with only Pud Boys fairing lower in that department. We need to focus on getting the skins more from here on if we want to be there for finals in this massive division!

Great Win Over Nick's Team

2010-09-08T22:42:00.000+10:00

Again we struggled to make a full team but again we somehow drew on our roster to rack up eight. Our last game against Nick's Team was a loss. In fact since record keeping began last season in Google Docs we have failed to register a win against Nick's Team. Thanks to Jeff calling on one of our work mates to help fill in and also Avanti's two stars, Pete and Rob helping to fill the void.

We fielded first and got off to a flying start against what I suspect were a top batting pair having an off night. Theo and Pete just couldn't get started and lost a wicket per over. We kept them to a dismal 10 runs. Their next pair faired better with a tally of 31 runs. Only two wickets falling here with one of them being new gun, Jawal bowling out Charlie.

Next out of the guns were Justin and Spyro who lost only 3 wickets but it was enough to keep them to 23 runs. Their last pair were shell shocked and just couldn't get much right at all. They were peppered by Rashid (3 runs), Bruce with a awesome display of dominating bowling (1 run), Rashid again (-5 runs) and last of all Rob Donovan (7 runs) who was on a hat trick on the final ball after bowling Nick himself out twice.

Next it was Blackout's turn to bat. It got off to a dreadful start. Rob D and Pete must have used up their mojo from their earlier game. They looked flat and unfortunately registered a minor 9 runs and lost what should have been a given skin. Well done to Nick's Team for snaring that one. But then the real Blackout attack entered the nets. Blackout unleashed Bruiser. Langy did well to support him too by only losing the one wicket. We saw a ferocious attack on the scoreboard. All done with only three back net scoring runs. Bruce rocked up a total of 40 runs! They walked off the court with a total of 58 runs for the skin. This left Blackout in an ideal situation.

Rashid and myself went out next and suffered only two wickets but despite a lunge at the back net on my last ball I fell short of the total by only one run as I only managed three of the last. Another vital skin lost. The last two pair were as up and down as it gets. They cruised to 27 runs by the end of the third over in a flurry of some awesome batting prowess shown by newcomer Jawal. He simply lobbed two back net sixes in a way that looked disturbingly easy. He also managed to dismiss a head high bowl aside like a toy that made my previous similar effort look amateurish. But in the last over the wheels really fell off in what could only be put down to lack of Indoor Cricket experience. He managed to get run out three times in a row. This ate away into his awesome total of 19 runs and left him with only 1 run to talk about.

But all that aside this was a great win over a dominating side. This shall help us later on in the season as all points are needed to get into the finals!

Cromford Beaten by Blackout

2010-09-02T01:20:00.001+10:00

First time against this lot and our introduction to Cromford was a good one for our team. After waiting to have an umpire assigned to us we had Andrew take to the umpires ladder and we were underway. We quickly learnt that they were anything but NEW to Indoor Cricket. There was some great fielding and bowling from their lot. One or two batsman that frustrated our players with sneaky runs here and there as well. Our first pair plotted along to record 23 runs with only one out. That was Bruce and Brett in that lot finding out the hard way that runs were not to come easily.

Langy and Peter (who was presented with an honourary Blackout Hahn shirt) also struggled grabbing 16 hard fought runs. Three wickets here with two of them being run outs. Not good.

It was time for Rashid to turn up the heat. Sheeds rocked the nets to record 24 runs and the total of the pair ended on 41 runs here! Langy was picked again to bat with me and we struggled slightly to record 19 runs.

Luckily for us that fielding was a happy hunting ground. 20, 17, 18 and 27 runs being the totals recorded against us here with Rashid recording the best bowling figures (2/1) and Brian recording good figures too (3/3).

Avanti Down Blackout

2010-09-02T00:02:00.000+10:00

Avanti made mince meat of Blackout. I contributed to this by falling asleep and missing the game. Scoresheet shows a thumping to the tune of 177 to 64 runs. Lachy was one of the few shining highlights of the match and received three stars accordingly. Also Mick slammed 18 runs with the bat to take out two stars and last stars went to Sheeds who continues to dominate the Three Stars Selection ladder this season!

Sadly the game was a total white wash with no skins won. We'll need to go re-think our approach for our next match up!

Avanti Showdown

2010-08-21T20:28:00.001+10:00

ROUND 5 - Blackout vs Avanti 7pm. Our next match is penned in for a grudge match against Avanti. It's been sometime since we last faced these blokes but we now have a chance to execute a win to back up our last week's winning game. We lost to Avanti in our last encounter with them with a score of 107-129 back in Round 13 last season.

Farewell Arty

2010-08-21T20:14:00.000+10:00

Sometime during the week I received some sad news from Andrew at the centre via Facebook. Last weekend we lost Arthur Townsend. "Arty" was the man who started up the Sportsworld centre under the name of All Seasons centre. When I first started playing at the centre he was still at the helm and was just a super friendly top old bloke. He retired after selling the business in the late 90's and moved up the coast to go fishing from what I remember him telling me! Here's the message from the centre:

"I am sorry to announce that Arty passed away on the weekend. not sure on all the details as yet but will let you all know of Funeral services.
Arty Started up Peaky Indoor sports some 30 years ago then sold it to the sportsworld group approx 13 years ago. Court 1 at peaky is named after Arty.Our depest sympathy go out to his Family and friends"

He'll be sadly missed by all who remembered him at the centre.

Blackout Goes Mobile!

2010-08-19T23:44:00.000+10:00

A quick announcement but an exciting one. Blackouthouse is now iPhone and Android friendly! Introducing iBlackouthouse! All news feeds will be found to be available on a nice cut down site at the following address:

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/msite/blackouthouse

Click this link and book mark it on your iPhone or Android phone. Then you can view all sorts of goodies right there on your phone without having to squint! SWEET!

Throwdowns Blitz Blackout

2010-08-11T14:36:00.003+10:00

In last night's match up against Throwdowns we were given a lesson in how to field AND bat. They convincingly took command of the scoreboard for the most part of the match but mostly thanks to an onslaught by their opening pair. The end score was Blackout 54 against Throwdowns 122 but their first pair got more than half their teams total. But lets go back to the start of the game. With eight players locked in for this one it was a bit of a nervous wait for players to rock up but sure enough all eight did arrive. "Coulto" and "Muscles" were presented with their "Saggy Whites" which is the Blackout equivalent to the Baggy Green. So with a fully kitted up team (with the exception of "Free Hit") we took to the field to bat first. We quickly discovered that Throwdowns like to bowl... WELL! They also like the odd run out too! Poor Mick and Richo (AKA Muscles) could only amass a total of 2 solitary runs! At least it's a plural! They fell with wickets five times with two run outs and three catches.

We picked up a little more but never got fired up with the ball doing all sorts of crazy things out of the bowler's hands. Langy and Rob got out there to tally up 17 runs with two wickets. Sheeds and Jeff had similar success with 18 runs. Finally Brett and Brian were looking dismal with only 1 run after three overs but had a minor come back in the 16th over to walk off with 17 runs. On a personal note I have to say that Ryan from the Throwdowns had some wicked bowling as he was bowling at approx 115km/h and it was swinging crazily all over the pitch. I had a third ball facing him (something I'm not use to) and so I did my trademark run and block to actually connect!

So with that 54 run total to hold onto we took to the task of defending. First ball was a catch. Good start. Only six off the first over. But then a power play over with Brian bowling saw 23 runs smacked with a six (13 runs) but a wicket to save some face! Joe and Daniel from Throwdowns continued to pepper the back nets to net 65 runs. OUCH!

But we then sort to nab some skins to at least walk off with some points from this match. The next pair were nowhere near as devastating as the openers so we saw a chance to steal some points. At was a miracle over by Langy with three wickets including two bowled outs to seemingly steal the skin. But it was later found out that Shorty the umpire had screwed the tally on the scoreboard up and had us actually LOSING the second skin despite displaying that we had won it by a run. Not happy Jan! It was a major shame as Langy did magnificently against an arrogant batter who was marching up the pitch seeking to dispatch his bowling for a six on the final ball (after just being bowled out) only to swing and miss and have his (invisible) bails dislodged! A highlight for Blackout to walk away with.

We had better success with the third pair five wickets going down (two in Rob's over) to win the third pair's skin. We also had a chance to win the final skin but they just got away from us to secure it by 6 runs. Overall the match was actually a lot closer than the score suggested as we had the chance to gain three skins but marginally lost two of them. We had some minor successes with the bowling with Rob (3 wickets) and Langy (4 wickets) being the stand out.

Langy was an easy choice as with Three Stars, Two Stars went to Sheeds and the last Star went to Richo. Thanks goes to all players for voting in the Three Stars Selections for tonight and hope you are all looking forward to next week's match up as we seek revenge against... PRIZE FIGHT!

Full Line Up for Season Opener

2010-07-27T01:32:00.001+10:00

After some slight problems with Google Calendar we have finally managed to put together a line up to take on the much talked about "Prize Fight" team. The season opener line up will be as follows:

Brian
Rob
Keith
Mark
Rashid
Langy
Mick
Greg M

As you can see after last games surprise inclusion of Mark we have yet another surprise return. Rashid enters the line up after many months away from his beloved Indoor Cricket! Here's hoping that he hasn't gotten too rusty with his time off!

Blackout Look to Spring 2010

2010-07-16T16:43:00.000+10:00

Blackout's season has officially come to an end with the Sportsworld centre having released the game times for next Tuesday's Semi Finals. A few good things came out of the Winter 2010 season. We had a mixed season with 7 wins and 8 losses. We struggled somewhat for player numbers at the beginning of the season but by mid way through the long Winter we found new players and that helped fill the void. A couple of new rivals in Chak De and Prize Fight were found as these clashes were more exciting than the usual match ups. Speaking of rivals, Grumpy Old Men lost their Hooters to become Avanti. This led to them gaining black shirts as their new look. So not to be out done we launched a new "Whiteout" look. Thanks to Hahn Super Dry's shirts we had them personalised to make them feel more at home with Blackout. We also announced a new Blackout strip to be launched sometime soon for the new season. We also had two new players join the line up. Jeff (Wiggle) and Lachlan (Lach) have entered the teams long list of players to don the Black. Would be interesting to see a total 21 year roll call list Rob!

In other developments for the season off the field. We saw the site evolve again even further in it's on going change since it started as a TAFE project all those years ago! With a new homepage theme we saw the introduction to a News bar which houses not only the latest in Blackout headlines but also contains past photos, videos and gamesheet scans! Not bad for a non-professional site eh? Also we saw the start of something that has been overdue for many years. Google docs have now been used to house records of past results. In the past we use to be super nerdy with stats and the like. We use to have the worm to show the games dynamic scoreline. Also we use to keep an eye on other stats such as 6's hit and wickets. With the new season I hope to start this once again.

Click here if you wanna check out the Winter 2010 Season results!

But all in all we can be excited to see that the Blackout movement is showing no signs of slowing down. With a new player this season taking out the Season Star Selection award, Keith! It was down to either him or Mick to take out the big prize. Also Richo was lurking in third place to threaten the both of them. But in the end Keith was just too strong with game changing performances that were not only enough to convince us that he was the season's best but also he was the highest rated Blackout player in the centre's very own "Best & Fairest" tally. So on behalf of the whole Blackout outfit I'd like to say congratulations big fella. I hope that you continue to pour on the pressure for the other teams in the seasons to come!

So with Spring 2010 coming soon I'd like to say that my ride with Blackout has been a fun one since I joined up in '99. I hope to see another premiership soon though as it's been a long time between drinks but more importantly I'm just glad to be doing this whole Indoor thing (both the on court and off court stuff) with a great bunch of guys! Now I'm gonna sign off now before I cry! LOL

Sportsworld to Announce Semi Finals

2010-07-14T02:14:00.000+10:00

Blackout is currently waiting on an announcement of the draw for the next couple of weeks. It looks likely though, at this stage, that there'll be no game for Blackout next week as our season should be now effectively over. But there may yet be an additional round announced before finals are announced which would mean game on for next Tuesday. Either way we'll be updating everyone as soon as Sportsworld give the word. Till then... stay premium gentlemen! LOL

Season Ends on a Loss

2010-07-14T01:37:00.001+10:00

The big news from this game was the new shirts. All (except a late running Mick) donned the Hahn Super Dry get up and generally the new look, Whiteout shirts, were well received by all. The annoying news was that we were well and truly beaten!

For the most part we kept the Chak De outfit to a modest score with the exception of one partnership slipping away from us. Kaleemjit and Samjit racked up a total of 59 runs to really boost their teams total to a respectable 127 runs. Keith was the stand out bowler with 2 wickets in one over and only a total of 3 runs against him. We managed a total of six wickets which in hindsight is simply just not enough. But having said that it was generally a good batting effort on their behalf that got them there.

As for our batting again it was Keith and Bruce who got us the most runs but only a total of 32 runs which is below their par. All up Chack De grabbed 8 wickets but it was our lack of back nets that really hurt us in this one.

With next week being a Bye that should put Blackout's season to an end. Which is a shame since we figured we had a reasonable season but ultimately it was not enough to get us through to the finals. With our new shirts (the Whiteouts) and new Blackout shirts on the way, the Spring 2010 season is looking to be on the up for us. With fewer player shortages than in the past and a more aggressive attitude on the court hopefully we can snare that elusive Blackout 4th premiership!

Hahn Super Dry "WHITEOUT" Shirts to Make Debut

2010-07-06T16:02:00.000+10:00

After months of waiting we are proud to unveil the new look Blackout "away" uniform. They'll be on debut tonight versus Chak De. We've said it many times before but we'll say it again. A big thanks goes out to Hahn Super Dry for organising such a generous promotion and we'll be putting it to great use as you can see.

Over the next season we'll also be arranging the new "official" uniform to compliment this new look to be the only team in the competition that has both "home" and "away" strips! This will fulfil an ambitious goal we had set many years ago to do such a thing and sport a "whiteout" shirt to go with our usual Blackout strip.

More information to come on the new look Blackout shirts this next season but till then enjoy the new Whiteout look! LOL

Full Team For Must Win Game Against Chak De

2010-07-06T02:02:00.000+10:00

The ladder is really tight and every skin here counts. Here's why:

1 NICK'S TEAM 97 Pts
2 AVANTI 84 Pts
3 PRIZE FIGHTERS 70 Pts
4 EFI 66 Pts
5 BLACKOUT 64 Pts
6 CHAK DE 55 Pts
7 PUD BOYS 39 Pts

Interestingly enough we have had the highest runs in the comp with 1691 runs. However we have the 2nd highest runs against (Pud Boys are 1st highest with 2019) with 1765 runs against us. Maybe this has been due to playing short handed? Not really sure as to the reason. But right now the only important stat is the points. We need to over take EFI by winning with as many Skins as possible to possibly make the finals.

This season has come down to this. Final round. Final chance!

Half Priced Bats!

2010-07-01T17:50:00.000+10:00

This is not a paid link but a service announcement to all Indoor Cricket players. If you're looking for a new bat then the place to be right now is Rebel Sport (Miranda only). They have reduced all remaining bats (and there's quite a few of them indeed) to 50% off! I picked up a Slazenger today worth $165 for half price! Click here to see my new bat!

Mark's Big Motocycle Bash!

2010-06-30T13:51:00.003+10:00

Mark as feartured on www.transmotosport.com

Just received an email from missing lad, Mark. Turns out the guy's been frolicking all over Asia on a motobike! He was travelling along Northern Thailand, Laos & Vietnam border area with Trans Moto Sport who do tailored bike tours all over Asia. Makes me wanna get a bike license! I'll try to get more videos from Mark over the next few days to post up here!

Fireworks in Win Over Prize Fight

2010-06-29T23:55:00.002+10:00

All I can say is what a game. It wasn't close or anything but just emotional. Only because the team we were playing against were getting all worked up over every ball. Especially one player in particular who kept repeating "I love it! I love it!" any time his team did well. But the game itself was a dull affair.

One a record cold night Blackout elected to field first (a decision I'm still not sure why it was taken) and we had 'em on the ropes right from the start. Rob's excellent opening over saw two wickets (bowled) and the first pair only walked away with 10 runs all up.

Their second pair mutilated us to gain back some respect. Despite losing two wickets they belted a couple of sixes and boundaries to nab 45 runs. A total that saw them win that skin.

But Blackout went straight back into the attack. In what I believe to be the turning point of the game a capable pair were humiliated. I do mean humiliated. Their first two overs had a couple of wickets but they were admittedly still in it. But it was a hat trick to Keith that really pinned defeat into this side. Especially the third wicket itself showing a team that had self destructed. Their runner had thought the over was complete. He was walking to the crease when the team were yelling at him to get back. Mick was onto the case right away and hurled a shot on stumps from the keepers end to the bowler's stumps. A direct hit saw Keith get his hat trick! Seriously was a bizarre moment.

Their final partnership attempted to had some credibility to the total and managed to rack up 27 runs to see Prize Fight finish with 87.

Bruce and Keith took to the task of mounting an attack on the opposition. It worked! No flashy sixes, not many back netters. Just some good honest batting with no wickets scoring 55 runs. 'fing brilliant!

The next two (Mick and Yours Truly) not so flashy! LOL But despite losing three wickets we walked off with 23 runs. Our partnership was marred by an incident on the field which went like this. A free hit was on and Mick hit it right into one of their players who took a brilliant catch. It was so good that even I forgot that it was a free hit. I finally remembered to run on to avoid a run out. This left their team celebrating but being told not out. To which Mick yells "it's a free hit you idiot!" which set off their most excitable player into a fit! Game stopped play as he storms over to Mick yelling "who you calling an idiot?" and then I interjected by yelling out don't worry about it. Their player then turned his attention to me saying "who you telling to forget it?" and then he yelled "he called me an idiot!" and I snapped back saying "big bloody deal! Get over it!"

After a stand off it all died down and play was eventually allowed to carry on. Greg and Brett started shakily but snapped out of it to tally 32 good runs! In this mix Greg's six was glorious to watch which was off a power play over.

Rob and Langy steered us home with 38 runs and only the one wicket (run out) in their partnership. Overall it was an emotional match played in pretty ordinary conditions (Sydney's coldest day since 1983) but we managed to walk away from it was three skins and a win that'll see us in a good placing for the finals!

Best Bat – Bruce 31, Keith 20, Greg / Rob 17

Best Ball – Keith 4/-14, Rob 3/-2, Mick 3/2

3 Stars - Keith 3, Rob 2, Bruce 1

Avanti (Hooters) Snare Win

2010-06-16T21:11:00.000+10:00

I must admit that I was unaware of who this "Avanti" team was. But then I saw a bunch of guys on the court in black who looked suspicously like Hooters (AKA Grumpy Old Men) and sure enough it was a re-branded version of the former "tacky yet delightfully tasty" team! LOL

We had 10 players to choose from due to a mess up with the roster. So we had to arrange a game plan around our best 8. Brett and Michael opened the account for Blackout as we took to the bat first. They scored a handy 19 runs.

Keith and Richo got given the role of scoring runs next and did so almost without loss of wicket till Keith fell victim to Ryan in a couple of outs there. They managed 33 runs. Lachlan and myself took to the field next and I struggled to even sight the ball. So much so that I only tallied 2 runs with a personal record of 6 dot balls. Something I am not use to getting but lately it's becoming more commonplace. We at least walked off with 14 runs.

Last was our best pair and unexpected shot in the arm with Langy and Jeff. A sensible, test match style 41 runs. Only a couple of runs stopped them climbing past the half century.

We then got off to a bad start on the field. First only the one wicket off the first partnership. That meant a 40 run getaway for Brian and Ryan of Avanti. We had better luck with the next two partnerships with 19 and 29 runs. But it was a runaway effort from the final pair, Peter C and Rob D. They should have done it easier. But it was a run grab off the final two overs that truly got them over the line scoring 16 runs in round 15 and 16 runs AGAIN in the final over. A six off the final ball also meant they stole the last skin.

A bad loss on our behalf which won't be forgotten in a hurry. We'll be needing to regroup quickly being in the hunt for the finals. Next week looks like maybe an understrengthed team fielded by us. This means an extra level of spirit from us will be required.

Tonight's Line Up!

2010-06-15T14:18:00.000+10:00

We're only hours away from our next match and without any further ado... here's our line up to take on Avanti:

Keith is IN.
Langy is IN.
Rob is IN.
Brian is IN.
Jeff is IN.
Lachlan is IN.
Brett is IN.
Mick to be confirmed.

Changes to Blackout News

2010-06-14T01:36:00.000+10:00

We're happy to announce that thanks to Blogger our news pages have a nicer, fresher look. But it's not all just cosmetic changes that have been made to the news pages. You'll now be able to leave comments (as per normal) or a mood vote and a rating! Dislike an article? Share your hate with the unhappy face and a lousy one star! But if you loved an article... then share the love with a smiley and bring on those 5 stars!

Remember that if you are having trouble leaving comments that having a Google account helps. If you are still unable to leave a response then fire off an email our way and we'll help you through it!

Hahn Super Dry Continue to Show Their Love

2010-06-09T22:43:00.000+10:00

Blackout is again in a position to THANK Hahn Super Dry! We needed an extra shirt for one of the troops. Hahn were unable to give us a matching uniform but were sporting enough to express post us out a replacement shirt (and an extra beer cooler! THX!) to help us feel united as a team! So we'll be all united as a team once the screen printing is done!

Keep it Premium Gentlemen!

Runs Keep Pouring On For Blackout

2010-06-09T20:20:00.000+10:00

Plunky and his boys were in a casual mood in approaching this match as they were running late. Seems the pizza shop across the road captured their imagination, if not their appetite, longer than expected! Blackout was short on players, again, but thanks to a quick phone call to Pete we managed to up the numbers to seven. We hit the field first and despite a quick wicket in the first over only managed two more wickets in that partnership to keep them to 29 runs. Their second pair were more of a benefit to us after some good fielding keeping them to a poultry 10 runs. This included a special over from Langy which was only marred by a couple of power play boundaries.

But the table turned somewhat with the third partnership. Plunky and Colin somehow managed to rack up 58 runs. The fact that they had no wickets helped their cause somewhat. A bit of a fight back from Blackout put things right for us though in the last pair seeing them only notch up 15 runs leaving Pud Boys to defend a 112 total. A personal thank you for almost copping a black eye from Big Pete (Fabio to his friends) as he belted one my way in close but luckily it only belted me in the cheek. After a week on dentist visits the pain was bearable! LOL

Mick and Grumpy Pete got out to a rip snorting start to place 42 runs but could have been much more if not for a couple of wickets at the end. Next up were Keith and Greg but some bad luck kept them to 30 runs despite looking like setting another huge total. Chasing 58 runs was the next task for Rob and Langy. Getting no wickets was enough to almost see them hit that target. But they only scraped in two runs short of their target which was a brilliant result. The last pair was yours truly with Rob (being sent in again by Pud Boys) and we only had to get 15 runs. But we had so much bad luck we also fell short with 12 runs to our total.

All up it was a great win and an enjoyable game. Pud Boys are always a hoot to play against. Next week we face up against Avanti and we hope to maintain a record that we've managed to snare up. A look at the table and we are leading in runs for on the ladder! With last night's win we should hopefully move up to third spot on the ladder. Being Round 12 means we timed our string of wins at the right time!

The Return of The Pint Challenge : Fact or Fiction

2010-06-03T03:09:00.006+10:00

Heard over a beer at the Peakie Inn recently after a match was talk of the possible return of the famous (or infamous!) "Pint Challenge" between two long time stalwarts of the Blackout team. Whilst we ponder this possibility, some Irish wit & wisdom....

"Bring back the Pint Challenge."

Watch World Masters Indoor Cricket LIVE!

2010-06-02T15:12:00.000+10:00

Want to watch world class Indoor Cricket right here on your PC? Well now you can. Indoor Cricket is now an integral part of Cricket Australia and as a result they have arranged to have the Australian Masters Indoor Cricket championships held in Frankston Victoria from 30th May 2010 to the 5th June 2010. If you want to view the action you can log in to the official site and watch past matches to see Australia's best in action. Thanks to Andrew from the centre for the link!

Psychological Win Over E.F.I.

2010-06-02T14:46:00.000+10:00

Blackout have defeated E.F.I. (95-80) and as a result gotten rid of a huge monkey from it's back in the process! Back in round 4 Blackout was spanked by E.F.I. as we fielded a much undermanned side. E.F.I. took full advantage of this and absolutely canned us with the bat. But last nights result is a big result and I personally am looking forward to the match report. Over to you Rob!

Round 11 Line Up

2010-06-01T11:32:00.001+10:00

We are just hours away from tonight's clash after a rested week off. Tonight we face our demons as EFI demolished us last time we faced by a record thumping. We will need to keep a lid on it this time around as they demonstrated their ability with the bat last week. The line up currently looks like this:

IN: Lachlan, Richo, Langy, Rob, Mick, Keith

OUT: Bruce, Brian, Phil, Greg R, Greg M

MAYBE: Jeff

Game Sheets Posted Online

2010-06-01T01:13:00.002+10:00

Just so you all know, along with our recent upgrade to our record keeping here at Blackouthouse.com this is to sit along side our current posting of past match sheets. You'll find a copy of past game sheets online at my picasa page. Just click here to head to the Winter 2010 page!

UPDATE: In addition to this I've now created a slide show of Winter 2010 sheets on the News Panel on our homepage. Just click the "Gamesheets" tab to view them! Cool eh?

Past Results Now Being Recorded

2010-06-01T01:07:00.000+10:00

We have had moments in our past where we kept a log of every match up and even had access to "worms" showing the run chase of each match. But it was a challenge getting this info out to everyone in order for the team to be up to date on past results. Now with Google Docs that is no longer the case! Blackout will be logging every match from here on in. The reason why I feel that the time is right to start getting rigorous with record keeping is simple. Because now ANYONE in Blackout can help out by logging into Google Docs and updating the file.

Anyone after access to our past records can either simply email us and we'll grant a VIEWING pass. Or if you're a team member wanting to correct a result or update a past match then you'll need to log in. Links to the Results Vault will be kept on our website. Look for the Google Docs icon on our website in future match reports.

Fired Up Chak De's Pin Blackout

2010-05-20T19:43:00.000+10:00

I wondered why these guys were so fired up. It was only after I Googled their name and what the reference was to that the answer smacked me in the face. Chak De is a Bollywood action film about hockey. The word Chak De simply means "Go For It!". Last Tuesday night that is exactly what Chak De did!

It was certainly a hyped up match with every... single... run... cheered and celebrated. Which got to us a little out there. In between every bowl just about the was a meet up with the team. The were pumping each other up, discussing tactics. Us? We just played cricket. But it seemed we got out played! They certainly took to the back net in a big way. In fact by the halfway mark we were already facing 115 runs! I personally was not impressed and tried to at least set about embarrassing one of their partnerships. Not to win. By this time I figured the score was too blown out. But to get some bloody pride back. It worked. My speech at half time seemed to have an effect on if nothing else... my bowling! I managed -14 off the one over with three weeks!

This was the start of some great fielding and a fight back on our behalf to send those guys back on only -6 runs. We were back in it. Until the final over that is. We got slammed for 23 runs off the final over. Sky rocketing the score to 154.

So with that score line we figured what the heck. Just... ha... GO FOR IT! Mick and Greg took it to the Chak De outfit with a defiant 45 runs. They didn't win the skin but they certainly got the opposition wound up. But... we didn't count on a couple of their bowler being 100km/h and lethal! Jtender is the guys name. He had a brush with one of our players WAY BACK in round 1. This time it was my turn to get a high beamer at 120km/h plus. After that I was ready to drop the bat and storm up the pitch. But he kept them down... not in speed though. I was not having a good day at the office and walked off with 1 run! LOL But thanks goes to Joe, our fill in from Throw Downs, to getting us across the line with 23 runs.

Langy and Rob put in a very honest 36 runs with NO WICKETS! This put us within gun shot of a win. Despite being in safe hands having Rob at the crease the opposition picked Rob again to bat. He still managed to keep it together while a NEW IMPROVED Lachlan took to the crease and muscled 27 runs to get us to only 5 miserable runs away from a win. DOH!

I am personally looking forward to a rematch. This time with a full team as I felt we were let down by our team mates somewhat in what could have been the difference between a W and an L going next to our name!

ROUND 9 - Blackout 149 Chak De 154 (Stars: Mick 3, Langy 2, Greg M 1

FINALLY - Three Stars Selection Update

2010-05-20T12:12:00.004+10:00

I've spent a good deal of time getting a new page ready for the site show casing the seasons best players. As a result I am finally able to show you the Three Player Selection tally to date:

Three Stars Tally - Updated Round 9
Mick (13)
Keith (8)
Richo (7)
Greg (7)
Brian (4)
Bruce (4)
Rob (3)
Langy (3)
Lachy (3)
Phil (2)

Blackout Line Up for Prize Fight

2010-05-11T13:07:00.000+10:00

We've got a line up to announce after some fumbling around with Google Calendar and some SMS's! Here's your Blackout squad for Round 8:

IN: Rob, Jeff, Brett, Lachlan, Keith, Mick, Richo, Langy

OUT: Bruce, Mark, Greg R, Phil, Brian

MAYBE: Greg M

Richo's Leading the Charge

2010-05-08T12:04:00.000+10:00

Just checked up the Sportsworld site and it seems that Richo's leading the charge for the Blackout cause in the Best and Fairest count for the centre. He's currently on 7th spot with 6 points. Couple more good efforts on the field and maybe the odd bribe here and there and he may get himself in the top three for a prize!

Richo at a WInter Comp Outdoor Match

Incidentally we are yet to tally our own Three Stars Selection (waiting on scoresheets from some previous rounds) but once this is done I'll post an update here straight away!

Nick's Team Hand Blackout a Hiding

2010-05-05T22:21:00.001+10:00

I'm gonna keep this short... just like our total of runs. We walked into this match with a full line up despite being without some of our regular key players. But we just never really did get going and as a result the wickets didn't come. We opted to field first. We managed four wickets in total. They rocked up to 138 runs easily enough and although we've reached some big run tallys recently... 138 was gonna be a big ask.

When we got into bat... well it was a bit of a slaughter. We were blitzed with wickets. All 18 of them. With the exception of Bruce and Richo we were all very average with the bat. Hopefully next week we'll be able to bounce back as we face Prize Fight. As for the stars we had three stars go to Bruce, two goes to Greg and Richo picked up the last star.

Blackout: 58 vs Nick's Team: 138

Round 7 Line Up Finalised!

2010-05-04T11:41:00.000+10:00

We've got a full team for tonight's clash against Nick's Team:

Brian
Langy
Richo
Bruce
Lachlan
Mick
Greg
Keith

Should be a good match coming off a win from last week. Rob's going to be out so captain duties will probably fall with Bruce. We'll see on the night!

The Night Blackout Fired Up

2010-04-28T00:30:00.002+10:00

Tonight we felt the need to man up. Man up the amount of players that is! You see for three weeks straight we had been suffering both a shortage in the roster and a lack of response from some of the players not playing. So to enter this game with two new fresh players gave us that much needed boost confidence. We allowed Happy Hooters the opportunity to bat first as their team were running late. This gave us a chance to work the new guys out and see what they were capable of.

We managed tight, controlled bowling to keep the first pair to a measly 23 runs. What made this more remarkable was the fact we only grabbed a single wicket in this pair. Things were more exciting for Blackout with the second pair crumbling to only register 7 runs. A wicket per over ensured that Peter C and Bart were never gonna upset the Blackout cause.

Hooters bounced (hehehehe) back to put the pressure back on Blackout to score 35 runs with the loss of only one wicket. But it was the last pair that Blackout showed true grit by keeping an in form Rob and Pete to 31 runs. It should have been loads more but we kept the fielding tight and snared two wickets. Both wickets involved me in the corner and one of them was a dubious call on the refs behalf. But the ref explained after that from his angle it looked like a run out and he called it as he seen it.

Our batting was pretty good. We had Mick and Keith take out the first pair with 32 runs despite some great wickets by Hooters. Bruiser Bruce and Langy confused them and ran away with our second skin with 26 runs. But the new lads, Jeff and Lachlan struggled in their inaugral indoor cricket match to walk off with 14 runs. It was a brave effort as it looked like it was going to be much worse at one time.

But the excitement was to lay with Rob and myself. We made the first two overs look boring. 12 runs, 8 runs. We were in control. But then the run outs just poured out. Scoresheet shows RO, 1, RO, RO, 7, RO. It was an up but mostly down over. So down that after Rob's great six I got out by tripping over and failing to get back up in time.

Last over things were tight. 96 was the target and we were on 80. But then enter Bart. My hopes raised. He didn't dissapoint! Both Rob and I smashed a six in the first two balls! Reducing the total needed to 5. After that we rolled it in to produce a win that I won't forget for some time!

A big thanks to the new lads who enjoyed their match and let it show on the field. Three stars go to Rob (3), Langy (2) and Mick (1). Crowd attendance was 6!

Click here to view the match sheet.

Full Squad For Hooters Match

2010-04-27T16:17:00.000+10:00

After numerous weeks of playing with a half team we can finally boast about having a full squad. The line up features some new faces:

Brian
Rob
Bruce
Langy
Keith
Mick
Jeff
Lachlan

The two last names you see there are the new faces to the Blackout line up as they will be trialling to see about a full time position in the team. Our last match up against the Hooters saw the "Tacky Yet Strangely Delightful" team ousted from the comp due to a loss against us in the Semi Finals. Will tonight see revenge on their behalf? Or will Blackout further remind them of why they lost? In a couple of hours... we'll see!

RD5: Blackout v Pud Boys

2010-04-21T00:24:00.002+10:00

Blackout conceded 161 runs before responding with a big hitting score of 203 against the Pud Boys tonight.

The Pud Boys scored 28, 53, 45 7 35.

Blackout responded with 68, 18, 60 7 57.

Both teams captured just 4 wickets but it was the big hitting of Michael, Richo & Bruce that guided the team home with Greg, Keith, Pete & Rob.

Best with the bat... Mick 43, Richo 35, Bruce 30
Best with the ball... Rob 1/14, Greg 1/15, Bruce 1/17 (13 runs off 1 power play shot)

3 Stars...
Mick 3, Richo 2, Bruce 1

Next Week... 7pm v Hooters

Blackouthouse Homepage Update

2010-04-20T02:08:00.000+10:00

After some midnight tweaking I can now unveil some new changes to the site. Blackouthouse will now feature more updates thanks to a new nerdy software update I got. But what does it mean for the site? Well now we'll get more updates to game times, new look home page and scrolling news feeds with images straight to the home page. So now when news stories get uploaded by Rob or Myself (or anyone else who logs onto the news feed ) it'll appear right away on the homepage.

So check out the site now (www.blackouthouse.com) and expect more photos, videos, news, player profiles and updates soon!

RD1 - Blackout Win Prized Fight

2010-03-23T22:42:00.006+11:00

Blackout start the new season in solid form defeating Prized Fighters 164 - 115.

Batting first, Blackout posted scores of 41, 48, 54 and were on track for another large partnership before 4 wickets in the final over reduced the 4th pair to 23.

The prized fightback started well with the first pair taking the 1st skin with a total of 50 runs. However, scores of 15, 28 and 22 soon took the fight away.

Both teams had plenty of chances in the field. Blackout captured 10 wickets but should/could have more than double this. Prize Fighters also missed chances however 4 wickets were taken until the final over making the score a bit more flattering.

Best for Blackout
With the bat... Richo 26, Bruce 23, Greg 21
With the ball... Richo 3/1, Reidy 2/4, Richard 2/6
3 Stars... Richo 3, Richard 2, Reidy 1

Finals Night Full of Ups and Downs

2010-03-17T23:05:00.000+11:00

Blackout went into their first bout against the Happy Hooters full of confidence. After weeks of playing with a depleted line up we had the luxury of sitting some players out this week. Which meant we could tailor our attack on Hooters on our terms. Our fielding effort was average at best with many missed opportunities. But we still managed to keep the attack down to a getable 118. Not as low as we'd have liked to have been chasing but we came out on fire in the batting innings. Bruce and Richo smashed 46 off the first partnership with 35 runs coming off Mick and Mark's session. But the wheels looked to have fallen off when I fell into the role of "bunny" to their pip squeak, Chris! Despite he's young age he was still able to bowl me out twice. The second Bowled Out wicket was more of a played onto stumps but still goes down on paper as having been bowled out.

But when Rob and Brett came out with 97 on the board chasing 118 they were more than up to the task. They didn't start off quite to plan with a run out and at that point Hooters were getting their collective tails up as they could sniff a victory. But Rob along with Brett gathered up their composure and just walked in the last couple of overs to cruise in a win that effectively ended the Hooters season.

So this was at approximately 8:30pm and we then we sent to court 4 (Peakhurst Inn) to wait for an hour for the following Final against the winner of 1st vs 2nd. This winner ended up being the Spartans who had just been thrashed by Nick's Team. We were confident that we had a chance against this lot. But one thing that did bother me before the match was that the Spartan's were very calm despite having received a big defeat. I was personally looking to see if they were playing the blame game amongst each other but not to be.

First two pairs for us managed to steer us to a defendable 50 runs. But again the third pair for Blackout would come undone. A measly 5 runs was all we could muster all thanks to some great bowling and on song fielding to gain 6 wickets in that partnership alone. Things got even worse for the last pair with 4 wickets meaning only 1 run could be tallied to Blackout's final pair.

But despite only defending a weak 56 runs we took to the field to not roll over and die but to make a game of what we had to work with. Their first pair got away with 32 runs. But the second pair got us very much interested in the game again. After two overs they only managed 4 runs. I could see these two were fighting amongst each other so I tried to get our guys pumped up to take advantage. By the end of their third over they still only had 8 runs. Then it was my turn to bowl and I wanted to keep the pump on them by bowling without any delays between bowls. It worked. We grabbed three more quick wickets to drop their total down by 9 runs to put their total to a flashing minus one.

However despite Spartans total being brought down to 31 runs total their last two pairs pretty much walked it in only having two wickets taken thanks to Richo's bowling.

So ended a promising chance to grab the premiership and once again I am writing about how it got away. But we have a full new season coming up with shiny new uniforms to get the team looking like a team in Winter 2010. Let's do it all again and hope this season ends on a higher note!

Blackout Wins Hahn Super Dry Sponsorship!

2010-03-08T12:06:00.001+11:00

Blackout will be sporting a new look for the Winter 2010 competition thanks to a new sponsorship from Hahn Super Dry. The beer manufacturer was running a competition (which is still running!) called "Taste for Sport" to see why your team needed to be sponsored by Hahn Super Dry. I entered in a profile for Blackout and the rest is now history! Not sure as to when the pack arrives but hopefully we'll be decked out in our fine new threads for the start of the new competition! The pack is worth $1713 which includes:

15 x Hahn Super Dry t-shirts
1 x Evakool cooler
15 x Hahn Super Dry water bottles
2 x Water bottle carriers
1 x Set of training cones
1 x Hahn Super Dry sports bag
15 x Sweat towels
15 x Training bibs

Can Blackout Win a Hahn Super Dry Sponsorship

2010-02-24T18:32:00.001+11:00

For many months we have been contemplating getting updated uniforms to accommodate the newer players in the side. While new uniforms are not impossible for us to get we may have a quicker way to get into a new kit. If you head to www.tasteforsport.com.au and look up Blackout in the team profiles you can vote for us and hopefully get us into a new uniform for the team. Prizes include shirts, player bibs, training cones, team esky and other goodies. Hopefully, with your support, we can manage to get just enough votes to take this out. So click the link below to get us looking sharp!

http://www.tasteforsport.com.au/profile/&process=vote&teamid=425

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

2010-02-24T15:59:00.001+11:00

Blackout fronted up to the court last night with a very undermanned line up of five. But just as we were to hit the nets one of the five got called away in an emergency leaving us with half a team! Luckily the guys at Hooters are such a sporting bunch that they lent us two of their own players, leaving them one short themselves. This proved to even things up immensely. So with that out of the way Blackout were sent into bat first.

Brett & Mick were in first and after a couple of hiccups involving a run out and being bowled out they finally went on to make 26 valuable runs. Mark and Brian were sent out next and we managed to rack up a respectable 36 runs with no wickets falling. The two borrowed players went out to score 21 runs with a loss of three wickets. Bart was asked to stay on to bat again and the Hooters called on Brian to come out and face the music one more time. With the last pair we score 19 runs. So all up a pretty solid performance just managing to sneak over the century with 102 runs.

Fielding was tough. Holes in the field meant we were stretched to save any runs off the net. It wasn’t until Grumpy’s bowler, Peter C, we struck with two quick wickets but it was too late to win the skin. Their second pair smashed us but in all fairness it was our extras that killed us as all up in that partnership we gave up 28 runs as the majority of no balls and wides were in the Power Play overs. Richo reappeared at this point and it seemed that having that extra player on field had an immediate effect. Richo was unlucky not to get a hat trick and everyone else had a good result with their overs from here on. So we managed to win the last two skins. A special mention here goes to Mick who despite blowing his first over (19 runs off that Power Play over) he composed himself to comeback and had minus 10 to reward his blitz attack.

In the last over we were so close to winning the match it hurt. We only needed two wickets to win as we were defending 102 and they were on 107 at this point. However it wasn’t meant to be as they walked on with 14 runs off the last over to seal the match. This leaves us with only a few rounds left to keep onto our third place on the ladder and next week’s bash against the Spartans will need a full squad if we are to have any chance.

Click here for the scoresheet.

Blackout Get Welcomed to Sparta!

2010-01-20T14:58:00.000+11:00

Rob will most likely follow this up with a match report but till then all I can say is that we were comprehensively beaten. Mostly with our batting! We fielded first and despite some heavy totals in the skins managed to get alot of wickets with their final pair to put some respectability back on our side. But it came at a price. I collided with Mick and if you'd ever met Mick you'd know that it's not a good idea to collide with a guy like him! As a result I have rolled my ankle and need X-Rays to confirm if it's a fracture as the doctor is guessing it is.

But I'll have three weeks to get over it anyway as our next match isn't till 9th February! Next week is a holiday with Australia day. The following week we have been allocated a bye! So till then I'll rest up and maybe sometime in between we'll meet up with a pub crawl? Also we'll be working to have new shirts by then as well so we can re-start 2010 with a new look!

Almost Set for Spartans

2010-01-19T13:35:00.000+11:00

Second match up for 2010 sees Blackout take on the Spartans. We managed to defeat these guys a few rounds back but that was months ago now with the holidays just passed. Currently Blackout have a roster of seven players with an eighth player likely to be announced soon. Roster looks like this:

Brett
Brian
Langy
Keith
Mark
Rob
Greg

Richo is sitting this one out with no other players out at this stage.

Round:5 - Nick's Team Ends Blackout's Winning Streak

2009-11-24T23:21:00.002+11:00

Nick's Team's 155 - 129 win over Blackout may have entertained the crowd however the final result was not a true indication of the closeness of tonight's blockbuster.

Nick's Team overcame Blackout's early firepower to post scores of 15, 34, 58, 48. Their resurgence came by controlling the final 11 overs without losing a wicket (despite some tough/lucky chances).

Blackout's response became a concern of their opposition with scores of 29, 28, 45 & 27 placing Blackout closer than their rivals preferred. A couple of wickets proved to be the difference with momentum swinging in favour of the Nick's tonight.

Best for Blackout...
Batting Peter Kite 27, Richo 18, Brett 14
Bowling - Brett 1/9, Keith 1/11, Rob S 1/12

Tonight's Stars... Brett 3, Richo 2, Mark 1

Crowd Figure: 1

Hooters Lose The Grand Final

2009-10-29T14:06:00.000+11:00

This is a very quick entry to let everyone know that we walked into the centre just as Hooters finished their Grand Final appearance. When we spotted the opposition getting a team photo taken we realised quickly that not talking to the Hooters and company was probably a wise thin to do! Although when Rob Donovan walked past we did try to get a word out of him but was only brushed off as he was still shaking his head and was not happy. Still the fact they got their at all was impressive as they were lurking on the bottom of the ladder and should hold their heads up for getting such a respectable result in the end! Next season guys!

Spartan's Defiant in Defeat

2009-10-29T13:47:00.000+11:00

Well if I was to say that Spartans were a new side then I'd be lying. But they hadn't played indoor in just over a decade. I overheard a couple of their guys mention that this was the first game for them in 11 years! With Rob off for a birthday party or something (sheesh!) I ended up playing the role as captain (with the help of the guys!) but we had to really scrape the barrel to get a full team together. After sending out SMS's, emails, Facebook messages and finally ACTUAL phone conversations... we got our eight.

So I elected to bat first and put Keith in to bat first with Bruce. I wanted to start off with a strong message to the new team with our two biggest hitters. It worked. With these two guys the scores did fluctuate quite a bit with a couple wickets falling. But their tally of 42 runs was a great place to start. Then I sent the two brothers in, Greg and Tim. I kind of hoped the whole sibling bond thing would translate into runs. Again, I was right! But I wasn't to expect the new guy, Tim, to be so confident despite only being explained the rules just moments before taking to the court! He personally racked up 27 runs becoming the highest total for the night for Blackout. The two brothers clocked up a thunderous 58 runs to really cement Blackout into a commanding position.

The last two pairs held their own but didn't really trouble the umpires mathematics too much with 28 and 10 runs being the remaining totals. This did hold the team back somewhat and put the game back into a gettable total for Spartans.

In fielding we were to wait till the third over before Langy's magic produced the single handed most bizarre wicket I've seen this year and the ONLY case of this I have ever witnessed. If you look at the scoresheet you'll see the letters DH on his second bowl. Langy zipped up a few extra km/h to send one through to the players box coming off the bat on the way through. It bounced off after having hit his never region and landed just in front of the batsman. He then hit the ball away with his bat as I was running in to try and swoop on it as a run out was looming with the runner was running half way down the pitch but the batsman remained glued to the crease. I didn't even really appeal as much I was displaying my dismay to the umpire in a "oh come on" gesture. But Langy did appeal and got a Double Hit registered! This is the rarest method of dismissal I can now think of besides being ejected from the game altogether (I can only recall one such occasion WAY back in approx 1997).

Many wickets flowed on but we did let the third pair get away with murder with their score of 49 to take out that skin. As a result the last pair could really nail it and take out not just the skin but the game as a whole. They walked on to the court with 98 runs chasing down 138. I opened up with an over I am still paying for now as I type this. I send the ball down and it was quickly sent right back at me slightly to my right. I was still following off down the left after my delivery and saw the ball was catchable to my right and without thinking just dived to try and effect a caught and bowled. I caught it... but when I hit the deck, arm stretched out and horizontal, I had the air knocked right out of me and then the ball was dislodged out of my hand! With a thud and a large yell I came crashing to the ground! A quick check after almost blacking out for a moment and I realised that nothing was broken and that all I had was a headache, bruising to my hip and I was totally winded... oh and I had two more runs scored against me.

A tight over from Tim kept us in the game but the real cincher was Keith getting two run outs on the 15th over. Richo's minus 5 over to finish off still wasn't enough to win the skin as I lost it by 1 run.

The umpire gave Tim, Greg and Keith points for the best and fairest and Blackouts three stars went to Keith (3), Tim (2) and Langy (1).

Click the score sheet to enlarge.

Line Up for Round 1

2009-10-27T18:22:00.000+11:00

The line up for tonight's match up is:

Brian
Bruce
Dave L
Dave R
Greg R
Greg R's brother
Keith
TBA

With Brett pulling out at the last minute that leaves us still short by one. Hopefully we can snare a player at the centre on the night. Just have to see what happens.

The Return of the One They Call Bruce

2009-10-27T17:45:00.000+11:00

After many months injured on the sideline with a busted up finger from cricket, Bruce makes a dramatic comeback as he answered the call of Blackout. We were running short on players with the season's opener but Bruce heard and valiantly put himself before his injured finger! With Rob out due to "birthday" commitments (tsk tsk!) we will most likely hit the court one short. However we've been in tighter situations than this before and with a fresh season in front of us look likely to open up with a win!

The "Spartans" will be our first opponent and they have got no known prior history so we take them on knowing we are entering un-chartered waters!

Spring 2009 Ends For Blackout

2009-10-16T00:38:00.000+11:00

The latest game times have been released and Blackout have been omitted from the page! Which effectively means Blackouts season has ended. It's been a hard slog for the Black. Several full time players out for various reasons and lots of very handy fill in players coming to our rescue on most occasions. But being one of the offending players out due to injury means I don't feel I can bring the season justice personally if I wrote about it as I have only come back on board to play three matches. So we wait anxiously for the Captains Log on Spring 2009 and hope that the last season in Blackout's 20th year can be celebrated for more wins!

So next week Blackout are resting but if you feel the urge to visit Court 4 (Peakhurst Inn) don't be shy as they have re-fitted the pub with all new carpet and painted out the interior to give back that nice shiny new feeling it once had. Let's just hope that they hold off on the mud wrestling that ruined the carpets last time! LOL

Blackout will return on the 27th October so be ready for the next wave of Black Attack! Looking forward to the new season personally and hope to see you all there too!

Round 16 Match Up in the Air

2009-10-14T18:14:00.000+11:00

With round 15 now completed and a loss being recorded, Blackout now await their Spring 2009 fate. Sportsworld are to announce soon the draw for next Tuesday's (20th October 2009) match with an update to appear on their site any time soon. Keep coming back as we'll see if next week's Semi Final's affects Blackout next week.

News Back on the Homepage

2009-10-14T15:52:00.000+11:00

Not all the new changes to the site pleased. Not to fear! We're on it! News is now back on the homepage! Now you'll find a list of the latest news items from our Blogger site. These feeds come in the form of an RSS feed via a service called WebRSS. There'll also be a news page on the site coming soon. Just part of the many changes we have on the way.

If there's a feature or page you'd like to see added then email me on brian@blackouthouse.com!

Hooters Shine

2009-10-14T14:10:00.001+11:00

We went into this match up knowing that a win was needed to gain entry into the playoffs. Well... some of us knew! LOL Blackout went into bowl first and from the first couple of overs it was obvious that wickets were going to be tough. In fact we only got two wickets in the whole innings. Lowlights were a six hit by Rob Donovan of a double over and just the general lack of wickets. We just couldn't get a play to go our way. It wasn't that we bowled badly or fielded terribly it was just a general lack of commitment maybe. What ever the reason the result was two wickets only.

When we took to the batting side of things we were not very enthused about chasing down 151 runs. Gettable? Certainly. But with our recent batting record... unlikely! We did rather well however despite the tough challenge and this was mainly thanks to some energetic performances from most of the guys but Greg R was the highest runs getter with 23 runs against his name.

The end result was a score of Blackout (121) being defeated by Hooters (151). The three stars were Greg R (3), Greg M (2) and Reidy (1).

Movember Fast Approaches

2009-10-12T13:27:00.000+11:00

Last year Rob and I took part in a cool new way to contribute to Men's Health. Movember. For the month of November you are not to shave the moustache and this leaves all sorts of craziness to develop with normally clean, chiselled faces become dirty, sleazy and almost porn like in appearance! LOL What's it all in aid of? Well to explain here's a excerpt from the Movember site:

Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men.

Mo Bros, supported by their Mo Sistas, start Movember (November 1st) clean shaven and then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache. During Movember, each Mo Bro effectively becomes a walking billboard for men’s health and, via their Mo, raises essential funds and awareness for Movember’s men’s health partners – The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue – the national depression initiative. At the end of Movember, a series of Gala Partés are held to thank Mo Bros and Sistas for their support and fund raising efforts.

The idea for Movember came about in 2003 when a few mates were having a beer in a small bar in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Inspired by the women’s health movement, it was recognized that men were lacking a way to engage and actively involve themselves in their own health. During a conversation about fashion and past trends, the idea came up to bring the moustache back for one month, and in doing so, have some fun, raise a small amount of money and hopefully encourage men to talk about their health with each other.

Since this time, Movember has continued to grow each year, both in terms of participation numbers and funds raised. In its first year, 30 Mo Bros took part in Movember and last year, in Australia alone, 125,000 Mo Bro & Sistas got on board, raising more than $8million for each of Movember’s men’s health partners.

We'd like to see more Blackout players and friends become Mobro's and Mosista's. To sign up you'll need to visit the Movember site to get registered. Then sign up sponsors and grow that mo!

New Look Blackouthouse Now Live!

2009-10-11T23:14:00.001+11:00

Well it's been some years now but finally the site gets a much needed clean up! The site has NOW CHANGED!!!! Gone is all the clutter and outdated information and now has been replaced by a meaner, slimmed down new site. There is still loads more work to be done. I need to get pages for all the players, I need launch pads for the photos and videos (the buttons just take you to the Flickr and Youtube sites!) at the moment.

So for now just enjoy the new look site and be ready for more updates to come in the next few weeks!

Close Battle With Nick

2009-10-11T10:55:00.000+11:00

In one of the last match up of the season we almost produced a win! But it wasn't to be. Our fielding for the most part was respectable but again we let one pair tear away which in hindsight was really what cost us the game. Their first pair blitzed us for 54 runs. Leaving Blackout to go into salvage mode for the last three pairs. We succeeded in doing so with only 27, 16 & 17 runs coming off the last three pairs.

With the fielding out of the way a total of 114 (very gettable) was up on the board for us to chase down. Greg & Michael bravely attempted to win the first skin with 54 being the target but Justin from Nick's Team devastated any chances of that happening with three wickets from his bowling in the third over. Peter (from Hooters) and Rob S caused havoc with the highest partnership of 43 runs to put Blackout back in contention. However it was down to the last two pairs and with a player short they chose the weakest link to bat twice. The weakest link was personified in this case by an out of condition, obese chumbawumba, me! I managed to gain respectability in my first partnership with 13 runs (the partnership tallied 2 runs!) but it was a dismal effort in my second outing that brought us down.

This leaves Blackout to chase down a win in the last match before playoffs against Hooters to see us through. A loss in the next game means the end of the season!

Don't Forget to Join Our Facebook Group!

2009-10-06T12:36:00.004+11:00

With so many new faces in the Blackout line up these days it's probably a good guess to say not many of them know about the Facebook group. So here's your chance to join up! Don't be scared to post up something either such as photos, videos or stories about past games.

Click here to join!

Stump Pounds Blackout

2009-10-06T12:23:00.001+11:00

Last Tuesday was a walloping we'd rather forget! The boys from Stumped started off ordinary with their first two pairs only getting up to approx 40 runs. But the next two managed over 50 runs a piece. Our reply with the bat was ordinary with a lot of the Blackout boys misfiring back net hit attempts but mostly the fielding from Stumped was nothing short of extraordinary! Not many opportunities were dropped and run outs were taken with direct hits on the stumps. Frustrating times to be a Blackout player! LOL

The total score was Stumped (156) def Blackout (73).

Three Stars:
Rob (3)
Keith (2)
Langy (1)

Promise to Get Back Into the Black

2009-09-18T12:25:00.000+10:00

Just looking at the site again today and boy... it needs an update! So I'll be exploring different ways to get the site an overhaul. But no promises as to how long it'll take! Problem is basically the PC I used to monitor the site for all these years is... getting on the OLD side. I'll need to transfer it all over to the shiny new laptop I am typing on right now. So when the time is right I'll keep you all posted as to when that will happen.

Rob's 40th the other night sure was a success! I personally want to thank Karren for setting the whole thing up. Brighton Le Sands was a great venue if not windy on the night. But that only added to the atmosphere! Rob... man you sure can drink! LOL

On other news, I'm hoping to be playing in the side this next Tuesday if the doctor permits. It's been several months now since my last game thanks to a hernia operation but I'm keen to get back into the diving around the court. Also another blast from the past, Col, will be making a cameo appearance hopefully for this rounds game against Terry's Team.

So from here on I promise to get back into updating the site to it's former glory. Till then... keep celebrating the Blackout's 20th year and give us any suggestions you may have to end the year out with a bang!

Rob Sr Takes Out Players' Player

2009-07-08T21:26:00.009+10:00

Last season's runner up, Rob Spit (the other Rob), has taken out Blackout's 3 Star Award for the Winter 09 competition.

This is the most prestigious honour as it is voted on by his peers throughout the season. It is also recognition for consistent and solid efforts over the past two seasons.

3 Star Ladder...
Rob Spit 19
Rashid Rehman 15
Phil Reid 12
David Richardson 11
Greg Meridth 10
David Lang 9
Bruce Flint 7
Michael Byron 5
Brett Coulton 3
Mark Clover 2

Round 1: Blackout Fokked

2009-07-08T19:39:00.006+10:00

Phat Fokkers defeated an undermanned Blackout team 99 - 54 in the opening match of the Spring 09 season.

With just 5 regular players available, and Rob D filling in, Blackout's cause was dealt a massive blow conceding 10 early wickets. The 1st 8 overs were all Fokkers for Blackout. A mixture of frustration and unplayable bowling, saw the opening pairs score 3 and -6 before the two Robs (Jr & Sr) ground out 31 runs. The final pairing saw the return of Rob D and Micheal add another 28 runs.

With only six players in the field, the Fokkers all but sealed the win responding 45 & 33. Best overs during the opening stage were Michael 2/-5, Richo 2/0, Rob S 2/0.

Having used up all Powerplay overs, Blackout were left wondering capturing both skins with scores of 7 & 14. Special mention goes to Rob D conceding 4/-9 from 2 overs in the 3rd pair and Rob S and Greg for bowling out the final skin.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Rob D 28 & 13, Rob S 10 - the only positive scores :(
Bowling: Rob D 4/-9, Michael 2/3, Richo 3/20

Stars were... Rob S 3, Greg 2, Michael 1

Still to come... Round 2: v 2KY Big Sports 7:00pm

Lions Pride Premiers

2009-07-08T19:32:00.003+10:00

Congratulations to Lions Pride for taking out the Winter 09 Division 2 Premiership in their win over Kos Boys.

Lions Pride's win avenged the minor premier's loss to the Kos Boys in the 1st Semi Final that forced The Pride into sudden death against the Hooters.

Semi Final: Blackout Bow Out

2009-07-01T22:36:00.006+10:00

A focused Hooters team avenged last round's lost beating Blackout 127 - 107.

A middle order collapse saw Blackout posting 34, 19, 16 & 38.

The Hooters, batting in their preferred 2nd position, were miserly in their run chase scoring 32, 38, 23 & 34. The difference was in the wickets, with Blackout conceding 12 and Hooters 2.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Rob S 21, Greg 19, Phil 18
Bowling: Richo 1/9, Rob S 0/12, Greg 1/14

Stars were... Phil 3, Rob S 2, Greg 1

Round 15: Blackout Storm Into The Finals

2009-06-23T22:04:00.008+10:00

Blackout qualified for this season's Semi Final Series with a solid 150 - 129 win over the Happy Hooters.

With just 2 skins separating Blackout and 5th place Stumped, the win sees Blackout end their finals hiatus that has hindered them since Summer 08. The win also highlights the closeness of the competition with the Hooters now walking the tightrope and relying on the result of the Stumped v Lions Pride match to progress.

Batting 1st, Blackout posted strong partnerships with Michael and Greg leading the way with 31 (despite a last ball power play wicket). The middle order were on song with Richo, Brett and Phil posting 44 & 47 before Langy & Rob added another 28 runs.

The strong platform assisted Blackout's defence taking the 1st three skins 22, 43 & 20 before Rob Jr & Ross took out the final skin with 44. As usual for Blackout v Hooters matches, wickets were a premium with just 4 falling for Blackout and 6 for the Hooters. The potential of a rematch in the 1st SF will have fans of both teams excited at the prospect.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Phil 21, Richo 19

Bowling: Langy 3/4, Brett 1/6, Richo 1/10

Stars were... Phil 3, Greg 2, Langy 1

Round 14: 2nd Loss Could Cost Blackout

2009-06-16T22:28:00.007+10:00

Blackout hold onto 4th place by the skin of their teeth (one skin in fact) losing 136 - 155 to Stumped.

Batting first, Stumped gave out few chances and, when they did, Blackout fail to convert. Just 2 wickets fell in the entire innings, and they were the 1st and last overs to the two Robs. The result saw big scores of 30, 38, 48 & 39 posted.

The order of the day for Blackout's response was to concentrate on each skin.

Bruce led the way with Michael to take the 1st skin with 31.

The 2nd pairing of Greg and Rob D were on target until an unlucky 8 run turn around on the second last ball stole the skin with a total of 27. Brett and Richo were next and recovered from a slow start to post 30.

With 39 runs to chase, and knowing failing would see both teams tied on the ladder, Goanna led the final stand with Rob S to capture the final skin with 48.

Semi-Final positions now come down to the final round. Blackout v Happy Hooters. Stumped v TBA.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Bruce 33, Brett 28, Goanna 26
Bowling: Rob S 1/13, Michael 0/14, Greg 0/15

Stars were... Rob S 3, Goanna 2, Greg 1

Round 13: Blackout Sinners

2009-06-15T21:48:00.003+10:00

Blackout's recent good form wasn't enough to defend a low score in their 59 - 98 loss to Saints.

Scoring 13, -5, 22 & 29, Blackout fought hard to stay in the match conceding 18, 11 and 23 before the Saints ran away with an additional 46.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Rob S 12, Langy 9, Grumpy Pete 6
Bowling: Rob S 1/7, Langy 1/7, Brett 2/9

Stars were... Langy 3, Greg 2, Rob S 1

Round 12: Kos Boys KO'd

2009-06-13T20:25:00.004+10:00

Blackout defended a seemingly impossible total to defeat 2nd place Kos Boys 73 - 53 in one of the most inspiration fight backs in Blackout's 20 year history.

The match highlighted Blackout's rediscovered grinding attitude and see's the Boys in Black cement their place in this season's Semi Final campaign.

Kos Boys started the match on fire capturing 10 wickets in the 1st two pairs to have Blackout on the ropes with scores of 10 and 7.

The 2nd half of the innings was about posting a score (any score) which would test the team's composure. Sheeds and Rob D led the way scoring 30 runs before Langy and Rob S added a further 26 runs to the team total of 73.

Needing to stay close to the 1st skin to stay in the match, Langy set the platform taking 1/-6. With Rob S following up with 2 consecutive bowled, both veterans were bowled out early to take the first skin by 2 and use up 2 power plays.

The Kos Boys' next pair swung the game back with a wicketless 40 runs leaving KB's trailing by 25 at the halfway mark.

The defining point in the match occurred in the next 4 overs with Sheeds, Brett and Greg setting up a grandstand finish conceding zero runs before Rob D struck. In their final over, the KB's 3rd pair were bowled, run out and caught losing 4 wickets for a net score of -18.

KB's returned serve immediately removing their 3rd pair deficit by hitting gun bowler Bruiser for 19. Needing just 8 per over to win, Blackout took 4 wickets to take out a much deserved win.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Rob D 15, Rob S 13, Bruce 13
Bowling: Rob D 6/-18, Rob S 4/2, Sheeds 2/2

Stars were... Rob D* 3, Rob S 2, Langy 1

* Disclaimer - This season, players have made a gentleman's agreement to vote for full or part time players only. However, Rob D's contribution in this match could not be overlooked. As usual, Robbie's batting was solid and fielding spot-on. But his bowling at the tail end of the match gave the team a buffer and, in the final over, the finesse to finish off the match. Well Done!

Round 11: Blackout Take Out Competition Leaders

2009-06-13T19:38:00.002+10:00

In form Blackout bounced back from last week's nail biting loss to defeat Lions Pride 111 - 103 and take out maximum points.

The match was a grinding affair with 4 or less points separating each skin.

Lions Pride opened proceedings scoring a challenging 24, 29, 29, 21.

Blackout responded with a roller coaster ride for players and fans alike, including...

Grumpy Pete and Greg's comeback from -2 (after 2 overs) to take the first skin with 27 runs
Bruce unable to find a net score from the last ball to draw the second skin with 29
Phil blocking out the final 2 deliveries off gun bowler Harry to take the 2nd & 3rd skins by 1 run with 30
Rob S emulating Phil by,securing the win, then, securing the skin with 25

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Grumpy Pete 30, Phil 25, Brett 18
Bowling: Sheeds 2/2, Rob S 3/3, Grumpy Pete 3/4

Stars were... Phil 3, Sheeds 2, Rob S 1

Round 10: Hooters Rack Up Win

2009-05-24T11:44:00.003+10:00

Capturing 3 skins wasn't enough for a 7 man Blackout team with the Hooters holding onto a tight 108 - 104 victory.

A middle order collapse saw Blackout post (mostly) challenging scores of 38, 2, 39 & 25. In response, the Happy Hooters' 35, 12, 36 and 25 was just enough despite Blackout finishing stronger.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Sheeds 24, Mark 20, Rob S 15
Bowling: Rob S 3/-3, Mark 0/16, Sheeds 0/18

Stars were... Rob S 3, Mark 2, Sheeds 1

Round 9: Blackout Take Out Competition Leaders

2009-05-13T21:47:00.009+10:00

Blackout continued their rediscovered fire with a gritty 108 - 90 victory over front runners Stumped.

Stumped's pace attack took hold of the match early, restricting Blackout's pairs to 18, 24 and 22 before Sheeds & Hammer posted 44 for a total of 108.

In reply, 3 early wickets had Stumped on the back foot with their 1st pair scoring 3. The slow start didn't prevent Stumped's 2nd pair from taking out the skin and turning the game on it's head adding 45 runs. Stumped's resurgence was short lived with Blackout thumping the 3rd pair to a solitary run, leaving the Stumped's gun batsmen shot on 41.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Sheeds 20, Brett 10, Greg 10
Bowling: Phil 4/-16, Bruce 3/10, Rob S 3/7

Stars were... Phil 3, Rob S 2, Greg 1

Round 8: Saint Blackout

2009-05-13T20:59:00.004+10:00

A spirited Blackout team returned to the winners circle defeating chatty Saints 154 - 93.

Blackout recovered from a slow start of 12 runs to post big partnerships of 50, 37 & 55.

Saints response was polars apart, with their most least likely pair, taking the 1st skin with 32 runs. Any chance of a comeback was short lived with devastating overs from Bruiser 1/-1 and Sheeds 4/-14 (on a power play) restricting the final 3 pairs to 2, 21 & 38.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Bruce 28, Greg 25, Rob D 21
Bowling: Sheeds 5/-11, Grumpy Pete 2/1, Bruce 3/10

Stars were... Sheeds 3, Greg 2, Bruce 1

Round 7: Blackout KO'd

2009-05-13T20:46:00.004+10:00

Kos Boys inflicted a clean sweep victory over Blackout winning 156 - 92 and taking all skins.

A horror 2nd pairing saw Blackout short, scoring 34, 1, 30, 27.

In response, Kos Boys took advantage of a flat Blackout attack (despite a 1st ball wicket) to post 39, 38, 34 & 45.

Best for Blackout were...
Batting: Sheeds 21, Bruiser 17, Langy 12
Bowling: Michael 1/12, Brett 2/11, Langy 1/14

Stars were... Langy 3, Richo 2, Sheeds 1