Opening Day for the second season of the East Midlands Fastpitch League was held at Bestwood Park in Nottingham on Saturday 19 April and was attended by the league's three teams, the Leicester Bluesox, the Scarlet Arrows from Nottingham and this year's new team, the Nottingham Pyros.
The schedule for the day was a simple round-robin, though the games were regarded as friendlies and will not count toward the league standings. The idea was to get everyone onto the field in preparation for the league season.
Hot dogs as well as other refreshments and snacks were available for spectators, with players from the local slowpitch league coming out to see what it was all about and to support the women who were playing.
Fun was had by all, and there was some good action on the field. All the pitchers did very well in their first games of the season and will continue to improve over the coming months.
The first league game will be Tuesday 29 April at Bestwood when the Scarlet Arrows take on the Nottingham Pyros. Each team will play the two other teams four times during the season for a total of eight games, mainly in May and June, with the final matches scheduled for 5 July.
In addition, the East Midlands League is planning to send a combined team to Farnham Park on each date when the Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL) plays, so the East Midlands players can get more experience, some of it at a higher level. An East Midlands team played in the first GBFL Day on Saturday 26 April.
League history
The East Midlands Fastpitch League started up in 2013, with two teams, one from Nottingham and one from Leicester, playing a series of games across the summer.
Players were a mixture of slowpitch players from the East Midlands Softball League and a number of women new to the sport, but only a very small number of players had previous fastpitch experience, mainly in the US, Canada and South Africa.
The Nottingham team recorded more wins, mainly due to having more experienced slowpitch players, but the Leicester team improved considerably as the season went on.
Former Academy Softball Director Paul Cooper, who is based in Nottingham, was the driving force behind the league, supported by BSF National Teams Officer Beth Perkins, Leicester Blue Sox player and coach Giovanni Ciotti and a number of keen players.
The third team that formed over the winter, the Nottingham Pyros, consists of girls from the Pyros' junior slowpitch team. The team has been led and coached by GB Under-19 Men's Fastpitch Team Manager Ian Tomlin, with the help of his son Matt, Josh Peat and Josh Saunders, all players in the GB Fastpitch programme. With a few more girls needed to make up a full team, the boys currently play in the outfield and provide the pitching.
Beth Perkins said: “I think we have the beginnings of a good league. Everyone loves the game and is keen to practice and get better and we have just started a schools programme which Paul Cooper and Giovanni Ciotti are running with the help of Tom Mapp from BSUK and some of our new recruits. With this going on and an exit route being established, in a couple of years we should have a good foundation for kids and adults who want to play fastpitch in the Midlands.”
Coaching
Fastpitch coaches are fairly thin on the ground in the UK, but the East Midlands League teams are reasonably well provided for.
Paul Cooper and Beth Perkins coach the Scarlet Arrows, Matt and Ian Tomlin plus Josh Peat coach the Nottingham Pyros and Hedda Meijer amd Damian Holland coach the Leicester Blue Sox.
Last summer, two American pitchers and pitching coaches, Katy Austin and GB Women's Team pitching coach Megan Brown, were in the country from May through mid-August, and spent a fair amount of time in the East Midlands, where they were invaluable in developing pitchers for the league – the key position in fastpitch softball.
This relationship has been maintained, and video of the East Midlands League's developing pitchers has been sent to Megan Brown for analysis and advice.
Beth Perkins said: “Our pitchers definitely learned a lot from them and we would welcome a similar programme in the future. There is definitely still a way to go, but from not having anyone who had ever pitched, we now have some very promising talent here.
“What the East Midlands is doing is a great step forward in terms of club fastpitch in the UK,” Beth continued. “Developing young players in schools and converting older experienced slowpitch players means there is depth to the teams and security for future of the sport. It just goes to show what a few passionate people can do with the sport they love.”
