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Ten players from GB Fastpitch Softball programmes are heading to Holland to compete in the long-established annual Indoor Cup Tournament in Schiedam, near Rotterdam on the weekend of 16-17 January, against a range of junior and senior women’s teams from Europe and the USA.
The ten GB players will be joined by two young Dutch pitchers to help them get through a hectic two days in which they will play three group games in five hours on Saturday, followed by three or four second round and playoff games over Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
Accompanying the team will be GB Women’s Team Head Coach Rachael Watkeys, who will also be a player during the tournament, along with two of the three new GB U-19 Women’s Team coaches – Amanda Murphy and Sarah Pike – and GB Women’s Team Manager Simon Mortimer.
History
Teams representing GB Softball have played in the Schiedam Tournament on a number of occasions since a first visit back in 2002, but this will be the first time in several years that a British team has taken part.
The value of the tournament is to allow players to experience some high level competition in the depths of winter, when such opportunities are not usually available. The decision to play in Schiedam this year is part of GB Softball’s focus on developing young players with the potential to eventually play for the GB Senior Women’s Team and challenge for an Olympic place if the expected final decision is made later this year to restore softball and baseball to the Olympic programme for Tokyo 2020.
The team
Those travelling to Schiedam as players are:
Lauren Futcher
Steph Gillard
Emma Harris
Ella Henson
Amie Hutchison
Chelsie Robison
Laura Simpson
Amy Trask
Rachael Watkeys
Sian Wigington
They will be joined in Schiedam by two young pitchers from clubs in the Rotterdam area, Esmee Toet and Bobbi Scheurkogel.
Six of the players were part of the GB Select Team that won the London Cup International Women’s Tournament at Farnham Park last summer and four of them played on the GB Under-19 Women’s Team that competed in the WBSC Junior World Championships in Oklahoma City last August.
The tournament
Sixteen teams, including teams from Holland, France, the Czech Republic, Belgium and the United States, as well as Great Britain, will take part in the tournament, which will be played over three indoor halls at the Sporthal Margriet in Schiedam. The GB Select Team will start off in a four-team group that includes the leading Dutch team Terrasvogels plus Impact United and Euro Stars.
Although the tournament begins with games on Friday evening, the GB Team won’t arrive in Holland until Friday night and will play its first game at 9.00 am on Saturday morning against Terrasvogels.
The British team will then play Euro Stars at 11.00 am and Impact United at 1.00 pm.
Teams will then split into four more pools based on results from the first round-robin, and second-round games will begin on Saturday afternoon and continue through Sunday morning. A final between the top two teams from the second round will start just after 2.00 on Sunday afternoon, with an Awards Ceremony to follow.