The Saints Crusaders met at headquarters to board their bus to take them to the airport for Day 1 of the Crusade. They met bright and early with the Crusaders in high spirits to take on their quest.
Once on arrival at the airport they settled in waiting for the flight to take them to the “Land of the Cane Toad”, in particular the capital Brisbane.
We were sabotaged by the airline with one of our trusty Crusaders told that he would not be able to make the trip. After much to and fro our Crusader was able to board the plane and join the quest.
On arrival in Brisbane, the Crusaders ventured to their accommodations for the week and prepared to go into the lions’ den that is Pine Rivers.
Waiting for us at Pine were our magnificent Knights who we were there to cheer on in their first attempt at the BPL.
The quest for the BPL crown began after lunch represented by the mighty Sir Jamie, Sir Ben & Lady Dawn, squire Joseph and fearlessly led by King Jerry.
Game One – Saints v the hometown Moreton Bay Pirates.
Our first match in the BPL was up against the wizard that is Alex Marshall. Our Saints tried valiantly and were probably the better of the protagonists, but the Pirates had the wizard and he cast a spell and we were to lose in a tie-break.
Game Two – Saints v the Pioneers from Adelaide.
We settled in for game two, our first on livestream as the Sydney Saints. In this match we were the on the right side of the ledger, we ran into a white-hot Scott Thulborn, but we dug deep to steal the second set and then prevail in a tie-break.
Game Three – Saints v the team from the west in the Perth Suns.
Two games and two tie-breaks, no good for the nerves of the Crusaders. Our Knights in this match were up against an old foe that we knew well in Carl Healey. This was a high-quality affair but the Suns were able to sneak by with a two-set win with Carl drawing to the ditch to break the hearts of the Saints.
Game Four – Saints v the team from the mighty Murray in the Moama Steamers.
This match we were pitted against the legend that is Aron Sheriff. We started slowly and lost the first set convincingly but bounced back to win set two and send the match into another tie-break. Sir Ben just failed with his last delivery to get the shot and we were once again on the wrong side of the ledger.
Game Five was our first battle in the evening with the Gold Coast Hawks. We were pitted up against two old Saints in this battle in the legendary Kelsey Cottrell and Nathan Rice. Unfortunately, we saved our most disappointing effort of the day in this battle, and we were soundly defeated two sets to nil.
Day One of the Crusade ended with the Saints looking up at the rest of the combatants, so there is only one way to go. The Saints had a 1-4 record for the day. If we can flip this around tomorrow, we are back in the charge for the BPL crown. There are still 17 more battles to go before the finals.
Day Two is going to be a long day for our Saints and the Crusaders but we are ready for the challenge.