Becoming the first Kiwi winner of the New Zealand Open in nine years?
Pfft. That barely qualifies as a drought.
Cardinals went a lot better at the weekend by becoming the first Dunedin softball club to win the annual intercity tournament with Invercargill clubs in a whopping 23 years.
Further, it was Cardinals’ first time as intercity champions themselves since 1991-92.
"It was good to finally win it," Cardinals club captain Mitchell Finnie said yesterday.
"I’ve played in a fair few of them and either been bridesmaid or not even made the final, so it was nice to get one.
"It’s been a long time between drinks for our club."
Finnie might have cracked a joke about not even really knowing what the intercity trophy looked like but it was the truth.
"Honestly, I had no idea what the thing even looked like.
"We were talking about it on the way down — is it a shield, is it a trophy, or what?
"It turns out it’s actually quite a large trophy, and it’s pretty cool to have it, and know we will be defending it in Dunedin next summer."
Invercargill’s Demons club have dominated the intercity tournament over the past couple of decades, star pitcher Daniel Perry ruling from the mound.
Perry was busy leading Southland to victory in the New Zealand Evergreens tournament in the Hutt Valley at the weekend.
Cardinals notched round-robin wins over Demons (4-1) and fellow Invercargill clubs Panthers (2-1) and Tigers (13-0), and beat Dunedin rivals Dodgers 11-2.
They the beat Panthers 5-1 in the final.
Finnie, a veteran at 29 who played his first intercity tournament aged 15, pitched the final for Cardinals.
Rising Cardinals star Cheydon McLeod had an excellent weekend with the bat and also had handy stints with the glove both in the outfield and behind the base.
Star catcher Cam Watts, formerly a long-serving Dodgers man and a Black Sox representative at the World Cup last year, belted a home run in the final.
Dodgers were the last Dunedin club to win the intercity tournament in 2002-03.
