Slowpitch softball leagues and teams around the UK have been getting ready for the start of the 2015 season with training sessions, charity tournaments and special events. Some leagues are celebrating significant milestones this year, and all are just about ready to play.
MANCHESTER SOFTBALL LEAGUE
The Manchester Softball League returns for its 23rd season in 2015 with a new League Head in David Dean, replacing the long-standing and hard-working Harry Somers. But David has been on the Executive, predominantly as Treasurer, for a number of years and Harry will remain on the Executive as Secretary, so the handover should be smooth.
Once again the league will have four divisions, with eight teams in Division 1, seven in Division 2, eight in Division 3 and nine teams in Division Four.
Division 1
The first division looks set to be a hard battle all season long. The early favourites should be last year’s top two, the Greensox and Lions, who had a final shootout last season with the Greensox coming out on top.
They will be pushed hard by the Mavericks and Dodgers, while the ever-impressive Thunder and Outlaws will continue to improve.
The Mayhem and Meerkats are certainly not there to make up the numbers and will be trying hard to ruffle a few feathers.
Division 2
Division 2 should be another close-run and tight division. The newly-relegated Bullfrogs will look to bounce back against the traditionally strong Mutineers, Outlaws 2 and Lightning.
However, a good run of results could easily see Camels, Speeders or Tigers make a move for promotion.
Division 3
Division 3 is probably the hardest in which to pick a favourite. Last season, the Sharks were near unstoppable in winning Division 4 and their form at the ever-popular Manchester Firstball Tournament suggested they could make it a second promotion in two years. But the Enforcers, Storm and Pirates won’t be making it easy for them.
Meanwhile, Camels 2, Mayhem 2 and Hurricanes are capable of beating any of their rivals on the right day, while the Bats will look to put last season’s disaster of a campaign behind them following relegation.
Division 4
Hot favourites in Division 4 are sure to be the newly-formed Mavericks 2. With an almost perfect mix of wily veterans and exuberant youth, they will be tough to stop. But the Moorkats and Phoenix will look to do just that and build on excellent 2014 seasons. The Wildcats and Hackers will also be teams looking to bounce back from relegation last year.
Some of the league’s newer teams -- The Colts 45s, Mayhem Freeze and the supremely well-organised Barflies -- will look continue to grow as well as develop their skills.
And it will a welcome return for the fifth team from Club Thunder, as the Drizzle are back!
Mid-season Cup
The major new development in the MSL’s mid-season Cup competitions will be an experimental project which will see the infield of a Division 1 team pair up with the outfield of a Division 2 team and vice-versa.
The idea behind this is to spice up the rosters a bit and hopefully allow players to learn and develop through playing with people who are new to them.
CENTRAL SCOTLAND SOFTBALL LEAGUE
Central Scotland Softball League’s 2015 season has finally arrived!
Eight teams will be entering the 2015 season: the AJs, Chargers, Coyotes, Fockers, Honey Badgers, Pimpin’, Rocks and Saltires, and all of them are hoping this season will be as exciting as the last.
New champions
The 2014 season marked the end of a nine-year reign for the Saltires, as Pimpin’ were crowned the CSSL champions for the first time in their history. It was a great end to the season, as Pimpin’ just edged past the relatively new Honey Badgers team by one game to grab the championship. Almost everyone had expected the Saltires to complete a remarkable 10th league championship in a row but these two teams surprised many by coming in ahead of them.
Will Pimpin’ defend their title to make it two in a row? Can Saltires forget their disappointment of last year and regain their dominance in the league? Will the Honey Badgers second place position last year spur them on to win the title? Or will it be another surprise contender who will be crowned champions? Only time will tell….
Opening week
The CSSL began play on Tuesday 28 and Thursday 30 April at Auldhouse Playing Fields in Thornliebank. In the lead-up to the opening week the CSSL held a very successful Open Day and we were very excited to see some new faces join the league. It will be great to see these new players settle into their respective teams and start to make an impact.
It’s not too late to join in on the fun – anyone interested in joining the CSSL should email: cssleague@hotmail.co.uk.
Tartan Tournament
On another note, the CSSL also organises the annual Glasgow Tartan Tournament, which will be held this year on the weekend of 23-24 May.
The past couple of years has seen the tournament grow, attracting not only local teams but Edinburgh and Irish teams as well. We’ve had some great feedback in previous years and we’re hoping to have another great tournament this year.
With on-site food and drink, a Home Run Derby and a party after the tournament, it should be an amazing Bank Holiday weekend.
LEEDS SOFTBALL LEAGUE
After our most successful and highly-attended indoor sessions to date over the cold winter, Leeds saw a glimmer of nice weather for pre-season outdoor training in March.
Meanwhile, the regular Leeds tournament teams, Terriers, Lightning and Dynamite, have all been in action this pre-season. Lightning entered the one-day East Midlands Firstball Tournament, and for a Rec team held their own in the Comp division, earning themselves some closely-fought results and managing to pull off a draw against the tournament winners, despite some tough competition and the monsoon rain and hail.
Training continued during the Easter break, and Leeds took four teams to the Manchester Firstball Tournament – a great show of attendance from a league with only 12 teams. Another wet and cold weekend was in store for them but that didn’t dampen the teams’ spirits as they came home with three trophies: Gold competition winners as well as Silver and Bronze competition runners-up. It was great to see Leeds dominating so many finals.
Shake N’ Bake Open Day
On Saturday 18 April, the league held its second Shake N’ Bake event at Roundhay Park. A record-breaking 60 players attended, with a good mix of new and regular members.
All players were randomly drawn into four scratch teams that took part in a fun and informal round-robin competition, so that rookies mingled with more experienced players and the latter helped to coach them. It was a format that was highly praised during the first event last year, and this was no different, garnering excellent feedback from newbies and veterans alike.
On the following Tuesday, 21 April, the league held its first regular Tuesday evening training session, with a great turnout of 40 players. These training sessions are for everyone, running from 6.15 to around 7.45 or 8.00 pm at Roundhay Park (off West Avenue). The LSA will be providing coaches, and the sessions are a chance for new players to learn the game and old players to shake off any winter cobwebs in preparation for league games that start on Wednesday 6 May.
For more information please contact Steph or Matt on leedsoftball@gmail.com or visit www.leedsoftball.com.
SOLENT SOFTBALL LEAGUE
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The SSL heads into its 20th anniversary season full of bright ideas, new players, a new team and looking forward to plenty of softball.
It was back in 1995 when Chris Connor moved from London and missed softball so much that he started up the SSL. With help from a fair few others (many that are still around today), the league started with four teams. During the past 19 years we have seen teams come and go, but this year the league will have the largest number of teams in its history to start the season: 13 teams will be split into three leagues, with a promotion and relegation system.
20th Anniversary
One of the ways that we will celebrate our 20th anniversary season will be with a special three-tournament series. Each tournament will have its own winner, but teams will also score points for placings (much like the Diamond Series).
We will also hold a very swish end-of-season party at the Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower. Black ties and posh frocks will be the order of the night.
A new website has also been created for the league, providing info on all the teams, league schedules, standings, events and all the other stuff you would expect from a softball website. Why not pop over and give it a look on www.solentsoftball.com? And please give us some feedback and let us know what you think.
Tournaments
The Solent League will be represented at many tournaments this year, from the Diamond Series to Bristol, and we’ll be sending a team to Guernsey too.
We have already held two tournaments this year to raise money for charity. The third annual Chichester Falcons Charity tournament took place on 11 April, raising money for The Aldingbourne Trust, which supports people with learning disabilities to reach their potential across Sussex. Six teams took part on a beautiful sunny day, with music plus a raffle and a BBQ. The Vampire Batters won the final for the second year running, but the Trust were the winners with over £900 being raised on the day.
The annual Tom Prince Charity Indoor Tournament also celebrated an anniversary, as it held its 10th annual outing on 28 March. Ten teams set out to raise as much money as they could while playing a bit of softball. With a new venue and a team of rookies, a great day was had by all. A massive £1,128.50 was raised on the day, with a total so far raised by the league of £7,227 over the last 10 years.
So much has happened and so much has been planned before a league pitch has even crossed the plate! A great season is ahead of us and we are all yearning for those late summer evenings of softball.
SWINDON SOFTBALL LEAGUE
Following the 2014 summer season, the Swindon Softball League kept the things going with indoor games for an hour every Thursday evening. Several new players were recruited, and with only a couple of weeks break over the New Year, we were back into the swing of indoor softball in January.
In the New Year we ran more formalised two-hour training sessions which ended in a game. New players were training alongside veterans and a pretty decent baseball player who helped demonstrate how hard a softball can be hit!
The coaching in Swindon has come on over recent times, and a coach new to the area has brought plenty of new drills and enthusiasm from his background as a GB player and former Head Coach.
15th Anniversary
Training has moved outdoors since April, with weekly sessions on Thursday evenings in Chiseldon near Junction 15 on the M4. Meanwhile, the League Committee has been working hard (or hardly working?) to prepare for the 2015 season, which will be our 15th anniversary year!
The league has grown this year to be five teams strong, with all teams having a range of experienced players and complete beginners, although the training sessions are quickly bringing on everyone’s the skills and game knowledge.
A successful trip to the Windsor Firstball Tournament for a group of SSL players on 25 April resulted in a few close losses early on before the team really clicked on the field and at bat, progressing through to win the Spoon Final at C-grade -- a great achievement and one the team will want to improve on very soon.
Join us!
There is still time to join one of the teams in the Swindon Softball League. Training will continue on Thursday evenings until 14 May, with the league starting on 21 May. Teams are currently looking to add a few more players to their squads to help develop new blood and to make sure they can field a full team each week.
Join the Swindon Softball League Facebook group to keep in touch with what's going on.
Swindon Open
The latest instalment of our Swindon Open will be held on Sunday 24 May. It will be a lot less formal than a Firstball Tournament, with a great social atmosphere and a chance for Swindon League players and guests from the wider softball community to gather and have a few fun games of ball.
We invite players to register rather than teams, and then mix into teams on the day. It should be a good day to meet new players, try out a new field position and have a drink in the sunshine!
CARDIFF SOFTBALL LEAGUE
Similar to other major city leagues that utilise municipal sports pitches, Cardiff Softball has an 18-week window from when the football goalposts come down to when they go back up for the winter season.
However, this physical constraint can be traded off against the benefit of playing sport in a beautiful urban green river corridor in the heart of the city.
For 2015, a record five softball pitches will be marked out on Pontcanna Fields, as the league will consist of a single championship division of 10 teams.
Domination
The past decade has been dominated by the Cardiff Red Sox, but last year they were chased home by the Hurricanes, Hammers and Tiger Bay Rays. With several teams losing senior players to Bristol Division 1, the new season promises to be too close to call.
The pre-season AGM has decided to utilise the new BSF-stamped ball and adopt the use of a 12” softball for male batters and an 11" ball for women.
Funding
The league has successfully accessed Sport Wales grant funding to pilot softball sessions at local after-school activity clubs, and has also decided to remove the rule restricting play to over-18s from its Constitution.
Finally, any tournament team that wishes to find out why Cardiff recently came out top for best quality of life in a major UK city should enter the Diffodil Tournament, which will be held over the weekend of 6-7 June. Go to: www.diffodilsoftball.com.
PUBLISHERS SOFTBALL LEAGUE
This is the start of a great year for the PSL, which celebrates its 30th birthday in 2015 -- a fantastic achievement for a league that is entirely self-funded and run and organised by volunteers.
The number of teams tends to fluctuate depending on what seismic upheavals are happening in the publishing industry, and it’s notable that some of the largest publishers with the most staff to recruit from haven’t managed to put out a team at all for some years, despite having had very good teams until quite recently -- and no, Random Penguin and HarperCollins, I’m not going to name any names….
Special events
The league will be organising some special events to mark our 30th anniversary, ending with a party/awards ceremony at our customary end-of-season tournament in September, and some special commemorative treats that are being organised by League President Ross Whamond for our end-of-season party in October.
These treats are rumoured to be enamel or cloth badges, bottle opener key rings and other exotic PSL-branded items as yet to be decided!
Then and now
Some of the old-timers in the PSL have gloves that are older than many of the players in their teams, and they can remember playing softball in Regents Park on unmarked pitches with jumpers or bags with shoes in for bases. That was before the league was formed and they all had to get proper kit, play with rules and so forth.
Nowadays, the League has 10 highly competitive teams in two divisions, and when the season gets going in May, games will be played on Tuesday and Thursday evenings on Primrose Hill.
Defending the top spot in Division 1 are the Buttheads, chased by the G&T Giants, the Piranhas, Ticklers, SS Sharks and GDS Griffins.
In Division 2, the Bedford Square Bashers will be fending off the Sage Superheroes, Springer Sluggers and the Silver Bullets.
Rule changes
Of interest this year are some rule changes. The infield fly rule has never been used in the PSL, but to align our rules more closely with other leagues we are now incorporating this into our games. This could lead initially to some interesting situations as teams, and particularly the newer teams, get to grips with it!
Teams are also obliged to provide umpires for other games on nights when their own team is not playing, and to help with this we’re offering umpire training, which is being organised and run by Gabor Erdos. The clinic will be held at 12:00 on Saturday 9 May on one of the pitches on Primrose Hill, and all PSL league players are invited to attend.
Practice
Anecdotal evidence suggests that teams are already warming up with practice sessions, both on the pitch, at the batting cages, and also in pubs all over London afterwards. Let it never be said that Publishers League players aren’t prepared for all challenges, on and off the field.
New players are always welcome, and can contact us at via our Publishing Softball League Facebook page.