For reasons beyond our control, this report on the East Midlands Softball League’s Firstball Tournament, played on Sunday 3 April, hasn’t reached us until now – but it’s still well worth reading.
By Harvey Pryor
The first co-ed slowpitch tournament of the year got under way in blustery conditions at Loughborough in the East Midlands on Sunday 3 April, with 16 teams competing and hoping not to have a re-run of the 2015 event, which was almost washed out. As it transpired, the rain held off and the afternoon even brought some warmth and sunshine for the players to enjoy.
Of the 16 entries, eight were from the local East Midlands League, with the other 50% coming from across the country, with Manchester, Leeds/Yorkshire, Milton Keynes and Birmingham represented. However, with only five of these teams declaring themselves as ‘Comp’ level, the organisers faced a difficult decision on the tournament format, and decided to promote the three Rec entries they believed to be the strongest, based on previous results in EMSL tournaments.
This led to two divisions of four teams competing in both Comp and Rec, with initial round-robins followed by semi-finals and then a Cup and Plate final at each level.
Comp
There were some close games in the Comp round-robins, but also quite a few one-sided affairs, and these, unsurprisingly, mainly involved those teams that had been ‘promoted’ from the Rec level. This is something the tournament committee is keen to look at again for next year. While there is always something to learn from playing better opponents, we all know it’s not much fun to know that you’re stepping out on the diamond with the feeling of “here we go again” as the opposition racks up a cricket score against you.
However, the same could also be said of the Rec level, with some blow-out scores being recorded there too, so maybe a three-tier competition would be more in keeping with the different levels of play in the tournament.
Anyway, as a chance to blow the cobwebs off (for players and umpires alike!), the EMSL Firstball certainly served its purpose – and I’m sure everyone appreciated being back outside and ‘playing ball’.
In Group A, Team Haribo set the pace with impressive victories against all three of their opponents, and in Group B the Sheriffs of Nottingham recorded similarly strong results to finish top of their group.
They were joined in the Cup semi-finals by the Brewers – who met their local rivals in the Sheriffs -- and Manchester Dodgers, who had a ‘War of the Roses’ clash with Team Haribo.
In Group B, Leeds Lightning took third place courtesy of a one-run win over the Pyros, which set the Lightning against the Leicester Royals in their Plate semi-final. Pyros, who had lost two of their three games by two runs or less, met MK Diamonds in the other plate semi.
Despite going 0-3 in group games, it was the Pyros who won through to the Plate Final with victory against Milton Keynes, to set up a re-match against Leeds Lightning, who overcame the Royals 13-11 after being 9-1 down.
Meanwhile, over in the Cup competition, a relatively low-scoring semi-final between the Brewers and Sheriffs saw the latter go through to the final with a 5-3 win. Waiting for them was Team Haribo, who overcame the Dodgers.
Rec
It was good to have some relatively new teams/players in the Rec competition, with York University entering in just their second year as a team along with a Yorkshire Dales team that had some newcomers to softball along with some who were familiar to the softball family, and a Leicester Dragons side coming together for the first time (at least at the Firstball) with some old faces co-ordinating the young guns in their side.
In the round-robin, the Misfits started by winning a close game against York Uni, 4-3, before quickly cruising through the gears in their other two games to top Group C with a 3-0 record. Following them into the other Rec Cup semi-final from Group C was York Uni, who tied with the Cougars in both their game (6-6) and also in their overall record in the round-robin. With both teams on 1-1-1, the decider went down to runs conceded in the group.
This meant that Cougars and Dragons went through to the Rec Plate competition from Group C.
Rec Group D produced a three-way tie for first place, with the Tigers, Bobcats and Redbacks all posting 2-1 records, with all of them beating the Dales and winning and losing a game to the other two teams. As a result, head-to-head couldn’t determine a winner, and instead runs conceded between these teams determined that Bobcats took first place by a single run from Tigers, consigning the Redbacks to play in the Plate with the Yorkshire Dales.
In the first Rec Cup semi-final, the Bobcats edged out York Uni by 4-3, and it was equally close in the other semi-final with Misfits leading 7-6 in the fifth inning when ‘Ball Game!’ was called. However, the Tigers were the home side and were still batting. So the inning was incomplete and everyone’s attention turned to the scorebooks, where a countback all the way back to the second inning meant that the Tigers took the tie 5-3 and progressed to the final.
In the Rec Plate semi-finals, the Cougars out-muscled the Yorkshire Dales and the Redbacks’ bats were on fire against the Dragons, beating them 19-2.
.jpg)
The Finals
In the Rec Plate Final the Redbacks continued their hot batting to beat the Yorkshire Dales 13-3, and in the Rec Cup Final the Bobcats, who were beaten in the round-robin by the Tigers, got their revenge, the Birmingham side winning the battle of the big cats by 11-4.
In the Comp Plate Final the Pyros met the Lightning for the second time, and just as the Bobcats did against the Tigers at Rec level, the Pyros took revenge for their slim defeat in the round-robin by beating the Leeds side in another tight game, 11-9.
In the Comp Cup Final, another local side, the Sheriffs, got their season off to the best possible start with a 14-11 win over Team Haribo. The losers won a bucket of their own brand of sweets to soften the blow, with the Sheriffs carrying off the trophy and beers.
MVPs for the tournament were:
Comp Cup: Fran Meakin and Luke Tilley (Sheriffs)
Comp Plate: Joanne Greenwood and Josh Saunders (Pyros)
Rec Cup: Charlotte Brown and Trent Nash (Bobcats)
Rec Plate: Lynn Cooke and Simon Ronksley (Redbacks)
Thanks
No tournament or game can be played without the men and women in blue behind the plate, so a big thank you to the umpires. Colin Paine and Ian Tomlin were our ‘regulars’ for the day, while a number of EMSL umpires officiated other games in free slots between playing, including some who had recently qualified at the locally-held BASU course.
BASU Training Officer Chris Moon was also in attendance, putting six EMSL umpires through their paces in BASU assessment games and passing on his wealth of experience from behind the plate.
There was also a special umpiring award made to Hayley Slatford from the Leicester Royals, who recently sat the two-day BASU course. Hayley came top of the class, earning her a special ‘flip coin’ from BASU trainer Mike Jennings.
Finally a special thanks to Ian and Matt Tomlin and Charlie Hallam, who were the main organisers on the day, although they were ably assisted by many of their teammates. And also not forgetting Phil Kielthy who, although he was away on his honeymoon on the day, had done all of the hard work in advance to ensure the tournament ran smoothly, including booking the venue, producing the schedule and organising all of the trophies and prizes.
We’re now looking forward to the next EMSL event, which is the annual Labor Day Tournament at Leicester on the weekend of 23-24 July, run by Kayleigh Green. If you haven’t got your entry in you should do so quickly, as places are running out.
Contact Kayleigh on labordaysoftball@gmail.com for more details.