It wasn't exactly rain falling at Richings Park in Iver on Sunday morning, June 3, though the air was so full of mist that the distinction was somewhat academic. But a distinguished international umpiring crew said “Play Ball!”, and so it was that the 2012 London Cup International Women's Fastpitch Tournament squished to a conclusion, with only the Final curtailed when the rain finally began to fall in earnest.
The undefeated Danish National Team deservedly won the title, taking a truncated three-inning final from the London Angels by a score of 2-0.
The Swiss club team Barracudas finished third, the GB Under-19 Women came fourth, the French club team Thiais was fifth and a US military base team from Rota in Southern Spain failed to win a game but had a good time nonetheless.
Considering the weather, the tournament went about as well as it could have done, and the London Cup looks like becoming a fixture once again on the European fastpitch calendar.
Happy Saturday
Though most people will remember the tournament surviving the weather on Sunday, in fact Saturday was mostly dry and even occasionally sunny, and that was when most of the games in a full round-robin schedule were played.
Denmark, with two strong pitchers, soon began to dominate proceedings by holding down their opponents' scoring. Though the Danes had only one mercy-rule win, none of their games were nail-biters, and they rolled to victories over Rota (10-0), London Angels (8-2), the GB Under-19s (8-3) and Thiais (11-5) on Saturday and completed the sweep with a 9-1 win over the Swiss Barracudas on Sunday morning.
But that was the only game the Barracudas lost, as they proved the surprise team in the competition and finished the round-robin in second place. But they were pushed hard in one game by the French team, Thiais, in a quality encounter that the Swiss won 4-2.
London Angels, with a strong batting line-up but not much pitching beyond their main starter Kylie Marshall, started Saturday with an 18-0 romp over the GB Under-19s in difficult wet conditions and also enjoyed a 14-0 win over Rota. But both Denmark and the Barracudas inflicted defeats, and with four of the six teams going to the Page Playoff, the Angels finished comfortably in third place.
With both of the GB Under-19 Team's main pitchers based in North America, the team recruited a young Dutch pitcher named Lisanne Korringa to fly over to pitch on Saturday, while GB Women's Team pitching coach Megan Brown, currently playing in Holland, was able to fly in to pitch on Sunday.
But the only game the Under-19s could win on Saturday, an 8-6 victory over Rota, came thanks to a strong pitching performance from GB Under-16 pitcher Amie Hutchison. Amie also did well at bat, and was supported by some clutch hitting from Susie Hall and ex-Under-19 player Steph Pearce.
That left the Sunday morning game between the GB Under-19s and the French team Thiais, who had also won only once on Saturday, as a decider to see who would make the playoffs.
Megan Brown kept the French offense at bay, though they did manage some good at-bats against her, and Susie Hall drove in what proved to be the winning run as the Under-19s took the fourth playoff spot with a 4-2 win.
Round-robin standings
Denmark (5-0)
Barracudas (4-1)
London Angels (3-2)
GB Under-19s (2-3)
Thiais (1-4)
Rota (0-5)
Playoffs
Games got tighter as the tournament moved into the Page Playoff.
In the 1 v 2 game, a pitcher's duel between Denmark and the Barracudas resulted in a last-inning 3-2 win for Denmark to send them to the Final.
In the 3 v 4 game, the GB Under-19s took an early 2-0 lead over the London Angels and with Megan Brown looking strong on the mound, an upset was on the cards. But the Angels finally strung some hits together in the fourth inning and took a 5-2 lead that turned out to be the final score.
That set up a game between the Angels and the Barracudas to decide who would meet Denmark in the Final. But the Barracudas, after so many more games in a two-day stretch than they're used to, finally ran out of steam and the Angels, more accustomed to this kind of schedule in the Great Britain Fastpitch League, pulled away to win easily.
Meanwhile, in the game to decide fifth place, the French team Thiais enjoyed an 18-3 rout of the US military team from Rota in Spain, who finished the competition without a win.
The Final
By the time the Final began, the mist and drizzle had begun to turn into the steady rain that plagued London and the Thames Boat Pageant throughout the afternoon, but the umpires decided to start the game and see if things got any worse.
The Angels squandered a chance to take the lead in the top of the first inning when Jackie Novack led off with a walk, went to second and then third on a passed ball and tried to score as Denmark were kicking the ball around. But the Danes recovered to throw her out at the plate.
Denmark then came in and immediately took a 2-0 lead. Yvonne Burgess and Line Dolerup opened with singles against Kylie Marshall, and both later scored on a sacrifice fly and then a groundout to second base.
The Angels managed a single by Moe Flett in the second inning and another by Rachael Watkeys in the third against Danish pitcher Michelle Bauer, who was to win the tournament's Best Pitcher award, but neither came close to scoring.
Meanwhile, the Angels survived strong Danish scoring threats in the bottom of the second and third innings thanks to an inning-ending double play on each occasion.
But as the bottom of the third inning finished and the rain intensified, the umpires called the game, and the Danish National Team, who finished second in last year's tournament to the Richings Park Penguins, were 2-0 winners and 2012 London Cup Champions.
Good will
The fact that an international women's fastpitch tournament is able to be hosted in the UK (the London Cup ran from 2002-2006 with support from the then-funded GB Women's Team and was revived in 2011 with support from the BSF) is down to the good will and support of a lot of people.
The BSF provided financial help again this year, and that was a determining factor in allowing the tournament to be held. The governing body recognises the value of being able to provide international competition for our national teams on British soil – in this case, the GB Under-19 Women who are playing in a European Championship and World Championship Qualifier in July.
Three international umpires paid their own way to the UK and waived their fee to call at the tournament: ISF umpire Paul Mastalerz from Canada and ESF umpires Rita Cueppens from Belgium and Pavel Kasperczik from the Czech Republic. They received invaluable help from BASU Umpire-in-Chief Jes Sandhu, who also donated his time, and base umpiring was well done on a volunteer basis by David Hurley, Chris Yoxall, Liam Riddy, Wesley Knapp and Ronnie van Loo. Spencer Suckling took on the role of Crew Chief, and though he was ill on the weekend and unable to attend, organised umpire schedules from distance.
BSUK is currently running a volunteering programme for softball and baseball called Pitch In, and the programme produced a superb volunteer named Amoryn von Verson, who was invaluable on both days in holding aspects of the tournament together.
Julie Spittle from the Richings Park Softball Club worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that Richings Park Sports Club provided the facilities and catering the tournament needed.
Players from the GB Under-19 Men's Team – who were able to play three friendly games against tournament teams on Saturday afternoon – also provided help with tournament tasks.
Lynda Medwell drove the hired minibus that collected teams from airports and (in the case of the French) St Pancras Station and ferried them from hotel to the field and back again. Other drivers were Bob Fromer, Hayley Scott and Barry Doney.
Vic Moran provided First Aid and new GB Women's Team physiotherapist Cian O'Doherty took the opportunity to learn more about the sport by tending to the GB Under-19s – and a few others – over the weekend.
BSUK chipped in with a lot of staff time from Bob Fromer, who organised the tournament, and Stan Doney, who ran it on the ground.
Final Standings
1 – Denmark
2 – London Angels
3 – Barracudas (Switzerland)
4 – GB Under-19s
5 – Thiais (France)
6 – Rota (Spain
Individual Awards
Best Batter
Jacquelyn Novack (London Angels)
Best Pitcher
Michelle Bauer (Denmark)
Tournament MVP
Danielle Lopez (Barracudas)