By Steve Fullan
Wednesday 24 July -- The GB Men’s Fastpitch Team has been carrying on with a full slate of warm-up games this week in Saskatoon, Canada, in preparation for the 14th WBSC Men’s World Championships that will start on Friday.
Last week, GB Men’s Team players got straight off planes and plunged into the Bob Law Memorial Tournament in Vancouver, not surprisingly losing three straight games. But this week has been better.
Draws and wins
On Monday 22 June, the GB Men played a couple of draws (1-1 and 3-3) with the Dutch National Team. The games were limited to five innings and the Dutch were giving all their pitchers only two or three inning each, so the changes were difficult to adjust to. The Dutch also had a guest pitcher in Bryan Newton from the Canadian National Team.
On Tuesday, the GB Men travelled to Delisle and played a doubleheader with the Diamond Dogs. GB came out on top 5-1 in the first game and then drew 5-5 in the second. All in all, it was a good outing for the team, with everyone getting equal playing time ahead of the Worlds.
Tonight GB will play a doubleheader against the Dominican Republic, which should be a good test, and then the team will be off until Saturday.
World Championship schedule
The opening game for the GB Men was meant to be on Friday 26 June against Indonesia, but as the Indonesians have been a late withdrawal from the World Championships, GB won't open their campaign until Saturday evening, when they play the reigning champion New Zealand Black Sox at 8.30 pm local time (3.30 am British time on Sunday morning).
After that, GB’s remaining pool games will be:
- Sunday 28 June: GB v Czech Republic at 1.00 pm.
- Monday 29 June: GB v Guatemala at 12.30 pm.
- Tuesday 30 June: GB v Philippines at 12.30 pm.
- Wednesday 1 July: GB v Canada at 3.00 pm.
- Thursday 2 July: GB v 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 5 July at 2.30 pm.
Every game from the tournament will be webstreamed on subscription via www.worldsoftball.tv, and the time difference between Saskatoon and Britain is seven hours.
