by Bob Fromer
Mlade Buky, Czech Republic -- The sixth European Slowpitch Cup competition – but the first to be played as a “Super Cup”, with more than one entry allowed per country – will get under way (weather permitting) in the northern Czech towns of Mlade Buky and Trutnov on Tuesday 29 July.
Twelve teams are entered from seven different countries: three teams from the Czech Republic, including the host club Sparks Mlade Buky, plus two teams each from GB, Belgium and Germany and single teams from Austria, Ireland and Slovenia.
The GB entries are last year's Premier Nationals winners Chromies and last year's NSL Champions H2O. In theory, with this competition now held every other year, the last two Premier Nationals winners should represent Britain – except that Chromies won the Premier Nationals in both 2012 and 2013.
Chromies, of course, will be looking to gain revenge against the Slovenian team Lisicke, who beat them in the final to win the last European Slowpitch Cup, played in 2012 in Pardubice in the Czech Republic, as Ales Mravlje of Lisicke won his home run duel with the Chromies' Brett Gibbens.
UCE Travellers from Germany took the Bronze medal two years ago, and will be looking to improve on that showing if they can.
Travelling time
The tournament will mainly be played on two fields – at Sparks Mlade Buky and at the home field of Trutnov HSM, a few kilometres down the road. However, during the first two days of competition – and maybe later on if games are lost to rain – a number of fixtures will be played at another field on the other side of the provincial town of Trutnov, known as the Red Field, a further five or so kilometres away.
And that remark about rain wasn't just a throwaway line, since at least one weather website predicts thunderstorms and more general rain for the Trutnov area on just about every day this week.
As for the fields, two of them could be described as “different”.
The home field of Sparks Mlade Buky, which was used for the European Slowpitch Championships in 2002, is a perfectly ordinary softball field, part of a handsome sports complex that includes facilities for football, tennis and other sports.
However, the field at Trutnov HSM consists essentially of a skinned infield with a backstop in front of a clubhouse. When softball is played, a line of fencing that divides this infield from an adjacent football pitch is removed, and the foul lines are extended into the football field.
And then there's the Red Field, on the south-eastern edge of Trutnov. This field is essentially in the middle of the countryside beyond where a housing estate peters out, and there is no clubhouse (just a small building with a changing room and a room for storing refreshments), no seating and absolutely no parking. Generally used for baseball, the field has full fencing and a skinned infield on which grass and weeds are growing, a bit like the fields at Upper Heyford when that facility was winding down. Playing here is going to feel a bit like playing on Mars.
Format
With twelve teams, the format is for an initial round-robin with two groups of six teams, which will be played over Tuesday and Wednesday.
After that, the top three teams in each group will form another group of six for a Championship round-robin, with games against other teams in the initial round-robin counting as already played. The two bottom teams from this group will play for fifth place once the second round-robin is completed, and the top four teams will move on to a Page Playoff to be started on Friday afternoon and finished on Saturday, with the Grand Final scheduled for 5.30 on Saturday afternoon.
The same structure will be used as a Consolation round for the teams that finish in the bottom three in the initial round robin groups. The two bottom teams in the Consolation round-robin will play for eleventh place.
Two groups
The initial round-robin groups are:
GROUP A
Chromies (GB)
Kiely's Kegs (Ireland)
Linz (Austria)
Sparks Mlade Buky (Czech Republic)
Mortsel (Belgium)
Hangarounds (Germany)
GROUP B
Lisicke (Slovenia: defending champions)
UCE Travellers (Germany)
Afterburners (Belgium)
H2O (GB)
Rytiri Trutnov (Czech Republic)
Wayne's World (Czech Republic)
Reports
Reports on the progress of the tournament, and hopefully on all games played by the Chromies and H2O, will appear on this website over the next five days. However, with the GB teams often playing back to back on different fields during the first round (though thankfully not at the same time), reporting could be a bit of a scramble!