The official opening and practice sessions for Academy Baseball and Softball this weekend at Farnham Park has had to be postponed because the pitches are waterlogged and more rain is forecast.
BSUK National Development Manager Will Lintern has sent the following message to Academy members:
It is with great regret that I must inform you there will be no official opening and practices for the Baseball and Softball Academies this weekend due to the facility at Farnham Park being unplayable. Following a field inspection today (Thursday), and after consultation with the grounds staff at Farnham Park, it was determined that the heavy rainfall over the past four days has resulted in a playing surface that is:
- Unplayable, and may impact both development and performance.
- At risk of being damaged, and could then require very costly repairs.
- Unsafe, and could increase the likelihood of injury.
It saddens us all at BaseballSoftballUK that we are now unable to host the grand opening of Academy Baseball and Softball at Farnham Park. Because we had received such overwhelming support and positive feedback regarding the facility, we felt that it was the right decision to host the opening practices there. Only last weekend the facility was in use, hosting the first-ever National University Softball Championships. Unfortunately, none of us could have anticipated the rainfall that we have had this week, and with the current forecast predicting heavy rain tomorrow, we think that the decision to cancel is the right one.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, and for any impact this may have on your plans for the weekend. We will now assess what is the most suitable way to make this up to Academy members. We will plan for the Academy to utilise Farnham Park in the future, but until then we look forward to seeing you at what will now be the first National Academy practices at Woughton-on-the-Green in Milton Keynes:
Academy Softball – Saturday November 9, 2013
Academy Baseball – Saturday November 16, 2013
We would like to make sure that everyone who has registered for the Academy this winter is personally notified of the changes to this weekend, so we would greatly appreciate it if you could respond to this email acknowledging its receipt. If we do not hear back from you, we will follow up with a phone call, so any help with this process will allow us to be as efficient as possible in our communications.
Yours sincerely,
Will Lintern
National Development Manager