Pegging out an impossible hand

Posted by Bill

What do Cribbage and winter Ultimate have in common? Until yesterday I thought it was the number 19. In Cribbage for those of you familiar with the game with pegs, cribs, and holed boards, the score “19” is impossible to get. You can score between 0-29 except for 19. In winter Ultimate when folks have just received power and gas bills in the hundreds and caused many of them to consider billing their in-laws for energy usage over the holidays, 19 is a number of players you don’t ever anticipate seeing out on the pitch.

At 0830 yesterday morning I already had 9-10 positive RSVPs to the game request though and I knew the afternoon would hold promise. At 1115 I went down to the locker room to change out knowing we had 12-14 players on the way. The opening pull had 7’s on either side, one cameraman, another stretching to come in, and more on their way. There were 19 of us at one point in the game. That makes for some crowded passing lanes.

Surprisingly though there were some decent drives on both sides and some effective cross-field passes. The cynic would say it was the unseasonably warm weather that spurred people out. And it may have been but we’ll take it. A couple guys were coming back from injury rehab and it was good to see Matt and Erick back out there. By the way, anybody else notice we had 3 Matts on the field yesterday? Somebody needs to start thinking of some nicknames soon. Throw in the 2 Dans (G & P) and 2 Ericks (N & S – they spell it differently but that doesn’t help) and even Frank could remember all the names on the field by just guessing 1 of 3.

The rest of the cast, if I can remember everybody was Sean, Steave, Bob, Todd, Kelly, Kevin, Jordan, Ron, Paul, Mike, and yours truly.

Today looks promising as well. Just got the 11th reply with 2 more probable and 1 up in the air. Brian, you gotta come out of the air once in a while!

Great turnout everyone. Check out Facebook for the pics and I’ll try and get them up here later on.