Monday 22 June -- Players selected for the GB Men’s Fastpitch Team are now in Saskatoon in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan to play in the team’s fourth straight ISF Men’s Fastpitch World Championships.
And the organising committee for the tournament has announced that every game in the tournament -- 56 round-robin and 17 playoff games -- will be webstreamed -- so fans in the UK will be able to watch the GB Men's Team in action.
Coverage will be available globally on a subscription basis from www.worldsoftball.tv. The full schedule of GB's round-robin games is set out below.
The tournament will begin on Friday 26 June and run through Sunday 5 July, with 15 teams from around the world taking part, including four teams from Europe: the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands and Great Britain.
Because the GB Men’s Team came fourth in last year’s European Championships, with only the top three teams assured of qualification, the team had to apply to the International Softball Federation for a wild card to take part in the tournament. This was granted during the spring, and now 15 players have been selected for the GB squad, 10 of whom played for the team in 2014.
GB's opening game was meant to be on Friday 26 June against Indonesia, but the Indonesians have been a late withdrawal, so GB's campaign won't begin until a game on Saturday evening against the New Zealand Black Sox.
The team
The players selected for Great Britain for the 2015 Men’s World Championships are:
James Darby
Ben Easdown
Rich Haldane
David Hutton
Phil John
Michael Lee
Kyle Linton
Ryan Martin
Darrin Newson
Morgan Ottridge
Luke Peters
Kenny Pregnell
Kevin Stockford
Nopera Stockford
Pat Walsh
The staff will consist of:
Head Coach: Norman Ames
Assistant Coach: Erik Vrugt
Team Manager: Steve Fullan
Assistant Manager: Christine Jacka
Thirteen of the 15 players have played for the GB Men’s Team in the past, including the 10 who played last year, and only two players are entirely new to the GB Team.
One is Nopera Stockford, brother of long-time GB catcher Kevin Stockford, and the other is shortstop Phil John from Ontario, who will fill a hole at shortstop since Steve Hazard was not available for selection this year.
World Championship history
This year will mark the fourth straight time that the GB Men’s Team will have played in the World Championships, having qualified by achieving a third place finish in European Championships on the first three occasions.
In 2004, in Christchurch, New Zealand, the GB Men finished ninth, just one place outside the playoffs. In 2009, in Saskatoon, the team made the playoff round and ultimately finished eighth. And in March 2013, in Auckland, New Zealand, GB lost their first three group games, won the next three, and played the USA for the final playoff spot and lost, so again finished ninth.
This year, GB will be looking for a playoff spot once again. GB Team Manager Steve Fullan said, “Realistically, the goal is to get past the first round and qualify for the top-eight playoffs. With the new additions to the team this year we feel we are more experienced and stronger than ever. Most of the returning players believe we are capable of upsets and of progressing to the playoff round and beyond.”
Preparations
Team GB assembled on Thursday 18 June in Vancouver to play in the Bob Law Memorial Challenge Tournament against some of the best club teams from Western Canada. Though GB played and lost three games, it was a valuable way to get the cobwebs out and work on team cohesion.
The team then traveled to Saskatoon to play warm-up games against Holland on Monday 22 June, Delisle Diamonddogs on Tuesday and finally the Dominican Republic on Wednesday.
The schedule
The World Championship will begin with two round-robin pools of eight teams, and the top four teams from each pool will make the playoff round.
GB is in Pool A, along with the 2013 World Champions New Zealand and the 2014 European Champion Czech Republic, plus Argentina, Canada, Guatemala and the Philippines.
Pool B consists of Australia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, the United States, the Netherlands and Venezuela.
Because of Indonesia's withdrawal, GB will start with a game against New Zealand at 8.30 pm local time on Saturday 27 June.
On Sunday 28 June, it will be GB against the Czech Republic at 1.00 pm.
On Monday 29 June, GB will play Guatemala at 12.30 pm.
The opposition on Tuesday 30 June will be the Philippines at 12.30 pm.
On Wednesday 1 July, GB and Canada will square off at 3.00 pm.
And the final group game, on Thursday 2 July, will be a morning game against Argentina at 10.00 am.
The playoffs will run from Friday through Sunday, 3-5 July, and the Gold Medal game will be on Sunday at 2.30 pm.
GB prospects
Team Manager Steve Fullan gave an assessment of GB’s prospects in the tournament:
“Most of the teams in the pool are well known except for Guatemala. Host Canada, New Zealand and Argentina will fight it out for the top three places and the rest is a free-for-all between GB, the Philippines, the Czech Republic and Guatemala. We know the Czech Republic very well but feel that our team is much stronger than in the Euros, so we hope to come out on top against them.
“We’re going out to win all the games,” Steve said, “and hope we can upset a few of the favourites, like we did in 2009 when we beat Japan.
“This GB team is probably one of the most experienced ever assembled for the ISF World Championships,” Steve added. “James Darby, Rich Haldane and Kyle Linton make up a strong pitching rotation and they all have great experience at the top level of world softball.”
Head Coach Norman Ames said: “With players coming from several continents, our preparation has been mainly individual so far. We have been fortunate to have several players playing already in North American competitions, which gives them the opportunity to face world class pitching. Our goal for the World Championships is to make the top eight and prove to the softball community that our fourth place finish at the last Euros was something we can forget.”
GB catcher Kevin Stockford commented: “To achieve our goals we must pull together as a team over a very short period of time. This means making sure we all get sufficient amounts of at-bats off quality pitching and work on our combinations. We very rarely get the opportunity to play as a full team before we head into a tournament, so we build on getting better as the tournament continues.”
Kenny Pregnell said: “My first objective is to be the highest-placed European team once again. Second would be to get through the group stages, and third would be for a top-six finish.”