The 2015 season is now well under way for most slowpitch softball leagues around the country, and below are reports on what’s happened in some of these leagues in May. But the BSF’s newest league, on Merseyside, is only getting started in June.
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SEFTON SOFTBALL LEAGUE
Following the success of the first full season of the Sefton Softball League in 2014, the league will feature five teams this year, with play taking place on Monday evenings from 1 June at the Northern Cricket Club in Crosby, Liverpool.
Defending champions Southport Seagulls will be facing a stiff challenge following the loss of Leah Singleton and Craig Holmes, who have moved to Oxfordshire, and former GB Women’s Fastpitch Team outfielder Natalie Leyland, who has moved on to captain the newly- formed St Helen's Sabres.
The Sabres have been created following a successful recruitment campaign and will be joined by GB Slowpitch Development Squad member Andy Gross to add some experience to the raw potential of a new squad.
2014 runners-up Crosby Vikings will feature a selection of new faces to add to the core of players that performed so well in their rookie season.
The Formby Fins will be looking to build on their success in winning the Sefton Trophy back in September, and with a number of new players they are shaping up to be a threat to every team in the league.
The final team that will be looking to make a serious challenge this season will be the current Manchester Softball League Division 4 champions, the Sefton Sharks. The Sharks will bring their complete Manchester League team to compete in the Sefton League and will be looking to replicate the dominance they showed last season in Manchester.
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SOLENT SOFTBALL LEAGUE
The Solent Softball League is in full swing for 2015 and the new three-league system is working well.
League results
The Portsmouth Dodgers West team is currently leading the way in Division 1, the UPSU Shafters are on top in Division 2 and (as a university team) have nearly finished all their games, and the newest team in the league, the Portsmouth Dodgers East, is topping the table in Division 3.
The Dodgers East played their very first league game against one of last year’s new teams, the Zombies, and it was a tight encounter. Going into the Dodgers’ last at-bat, the Zombies held a one-run lead. But the first three Dodger batters reached base and eventually the winning run came around to score, earning the Dodgers East their first-ever win at their first attempt.
Tournaments
Meanwhile, Solent teams have taken part in tournaments around the country, with composite teams entering Diamond 1, the Brewers and Spitfires entering the Bristol DD Cup and the Portsmouth Dodgers (with the help of some friends) entering the Guernsey Slowpitch Open.
The Brewers finished in third place at Bristol, while the Spitfires, all of whom are new players from either last season or this, won a very respectable three games on the weekend.
The Dodgers narrowly lost out in the semi-final against a strong Tornados team in Guernsey, but won both the male (Mark Norman) and female (Nicky Puckett) MVP awards.
Anniversary
One of the ways we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary this year is by holding a series of tournaments for league teams to find out who will be the best across the three competitions. Our Summerball Tournament will be a little different, however, as we will be looking to invite some of our friends along to take part. So keep your eyes on your inboxes.
The Chichester Falcons continue their hard work developing a youth fastpitch team. They practice every Thursday at Oaklands Park in Chichester and welcome any boy or girl from the ages of 11 to 16.
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CENTRAL SCOTLAND SOFTBALL LEAGUE
We are five weeks into the CSSL season and things are heating up. We have been quite lucky with the weather, with only one night rained off so far.
The league is still wide open, with Saltires and Honey Badgers leading the way in the league table with four wins and no losses each. These two teams go head-to-head in Week 7, which will undoubtedly be an exciting game.
Last year’s CSSL champs, the Pimps, are close behind with three wins and two losses, and a much-improved AJs side is sitting with the same record. At the bottom of the table, Chargers and Coyotes are still hunting for their first win of the season.
Exciting games
It’s been a very exciting start to the campaign, with many close games. In Week 4, AJs slugged it out against the Chargers, coming out on top 21-20 -- although AJs wish they could have won in a different manner, as the game ended with an anticlimactic walk-off walk!
The second game night in Week 5 saw league history being made, with two important games ending with exactly the same score, at 19-18.
In one of these games, the AJs beat the Coyotes over seven innings, holding on to their narrow one-run lead. The Coyotes had a runner in scoring position with one out in the seventh inning, but the AJs’ defense brought the win home.
At the same time, over on Diamond 1, two of the league’s top teams went head to head and Saltires were the eventual 19-18 winners over nine exciting innings against Pimpin’. This was a slugfest with lots of big hits.
We are almost at the end of our first round-robin, after which we have a two-week break to catch up with rained-off games and have our annual single-sex games and Old Yins v Young Guns fun games.
Tartan Tournament
The annual CSSL Tartan Tournament was held on 23-24 May and a fantastic time was had by all. We were lucky with the weather, with the sun shining down all weekend. A fair bit of sunburn was on display on Sunday!
This year, the competition consisted of five Glasgow teams, (AJs, Highland Chargers, Honey Badgers, Legends of Filth and Saltires – aka Hairy Coos), two Edinburgh teams (Souls and Vandals) and one Irish team (Sons of Pitches). After a round-robin, the competition split and the top half fought for the Clyde Cup while the bottom half played for the Kelvin Plate.
Last year’s Clyde Cup winners, the Saltires, proved to be the team to beat once again. They went into the semi-finals unbeaten as the top-seeded team, going into the split for the Clyde Cup with the Souls, Legends of Filth and Honey Badgers.
The Sons of Pitches led the bottom group for the Kelvin Plate, along with the Vandals, Highland Chargers and AJs.
On the Saturday night, each team entered a male and female player to take part in the annual Home Run Derby. This year we had new winners, with Gareth Anderson (Vandals) taking the Home Run King title and Grace from Sons of Pitches taking the Home Run Queen title!
In the Clyde Cup semi-finals, the Souls used some big hitting to defeat Legends of Filth and take their spot in the final. Meanwhile, the top-seeded Saltires took on the Honey Badgers. Almost everyone expected a Saltires v Souls final, but the Honey Badgers had other ideas, finding their stride and causing a massive upset to book their place in the Clyde Cup final against the Souls.
However, the Souls continued their solid hitting and defense to take a well-deserved win over the Honey Badgers and capture the Clyde Cup. The MVPs were Noreen Hussey and Paul Johnston, both from Souls.
In the Kelvin Plate semi-finals, the Sons of Pitches continued their high level of play to defeat AJs and make it into the final against the Vandals, who defeated the Highland Chargers.
The Vandals fought hard in the final, but in the end, the Sons of Pitches showed their experience to take the Kelvin Plate back with them to Ireland. The MVPs were Kate McGarry and Colin, both from the Sons of Pitches.
MANCHESTER SOFTBALL LEAGUE
The annual Alex Hall Memorial Tournament took place in Manchester on Saturday 30 May. For a lot of people, this is their favourite tournament of the year. Set up in Alex’s memory, the format involves splitting players into colour-coded teams of hopefully equal abilities. The teams then play each other, with the top two teams playing a final. At lunchtime there is a picnic with a variety of food and drink matching the teams’ colour and the umpires judge which team’s food is the best. This year’s best picnic award went to the Yellow Submarines.
It is truly a fantastic day, full of fancy dress, good and bad softball and the fun of playing with players you don’t normally play with. The idea is to raise as much money for Christie’s Hospital as we can, and in over 10 years of running the tournament, we have raised well over £25,000. In what was a tense final, this year’s winners were the Reds, who narrowly edged out the Pink team.
League results
In the league itself, the Greensox (Division 1), Camels 2 (Division 3) and Mavericks 2 and Hackers (both Division 4) are riding high with 100% winning records. At the other end of the scale, Mayhem Freeze are our only team yet to put one in the win column.
The Greensox have a healthy two-game cushion over their Division 1 rivals, with the Lions leading the chase.
In the highly-competitive Division 2, the Bullfrogs, Speeders and Mutineers are starting to pull away from the rest, and the Frogs lead the way courtesy of having played an extra game.
In Division 3, The Camels 2 will have a top-of-the-table shootout match at the beginning of June with the Storm, with the winner being able to claim top spot after the first rotation of fixtures.
In Division 4, The Mavs 2 v Hackers match in the middle of the month will be a must-see game, especially if the two of them are still undefeated.
Also coming up in June is the first two rounds of our Cup competition. In an attempt to spice it up a bit more this year, the outfield and pitchers of Division 1 teams have been paired up with the infield of a Division 2 team and vice versa. Partnerships were drawn at random and, as with the Alex Hall Tournament, it’s a fun opportunity for players to play with different people for a change.
For more information or to see the full league tables, please go to: www.manchester-softball.co.uk.
BRISTOL SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION
Five weeks of the season has been completed and the weather still feels more like April than June, with windy conditions on some of the exposed pitches making things interesting for pitchers.
Meanwhile, all three divisions of the Bristol League are being hotly contested, with no decisive leaders emerging.
In the First Division, Flyers remain the only unbeaten team, and after a shaky start tin their first game of the season have easily won the rest of their games. Determined not to relinquish their title as defending champions, the Jets have been conclusive winners in all their games apart from a loss to Flyers. Crushers are still within touching distance of the two pacemakers and still have to play both the leading teams before the first round of games are completed.
The two teams that were relegated from the First Division last year, LSDs and Scorgs, are leading the promotion charge in the Second Division this season and are currently tied at the top of the table, with both teams having dropped one game so far. These two teams are still to meet in the first round of games. Three other teams, Friendly Fire, Greasy Mitts and Monmouth Rockets, are all on the same number of points in third spot, so everything is tight at the top of the division.
Breaking Bat, a team that was only formed in 2014, are unbeaten in the Third Division and lead the more established and experienced Chipmonks in second place. Still well within touching distance are Base Invaders and Ice Cold Pitchers.