April 20-22

Had lunch at the mall on Monday morning, after supper I went to the rink to do some preliminary work in preparation for the start of the season. We started playing there in the late fall of 1979 and have had a season every spring and every autumn since, on Tuesday we began what would be our 72nd championship season at Reservoir Park. We've done informal summer seasons in the past that did not include playoffs but they haven't happened in recent years. We have twelve teams in two divisions, four in the East and eight in the West. All eleven from the fall season have returned (some with new identities), the lone new team is one that played in the league previously and has reformed. The Tuesday openers featured two crossover games and two within the West Division. In the crossovers MSB defeated 551 West and the Steamers beat Union Station, the West games saw McCleary's Pub over ProQuality Group and JBE Auto Transport over American Bar&Grill. Derek and Devyn refereed, Derek's new wife Kathy ran the clock (they were scheduled to be married back in October but the date was postponed when Derek was injured, their union finally became official in March). The warmer weather in the early part of the week disappeared on Wednesday, we had some brief but hard rain in the afternoon that brought cooler temperatures with it. By 5:00 the radar was encouraging, we proceeded with the evening's schedule. All four games on this night were crossovers: 551 West beat Brendee's, the Oil Riggers defeated Union Station, the UniLords took down the Misfits and the Steamers won over MSB. Ron and Jonny officiated, Don's daughter Bri ran the clock. There are four more games set for Thursday but I am absent, the Royals play game #3 of their playoff series at the Arena. Take care, thanks for reading.