by Bob Fromer
Utrecht, Holland – They've come from the UK, from Europe and from various locations in North America, but all of the players and staff on the 2014 GB Women's Fastpitch Team are now in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, starting a week-long training camp before playing in the 14th ISF World Championships.
The World Championships will start on Friday 15 August, a bit more than an hour's drive up the road in Haarlem, and there is huge excitement in softball circles in Holland and in Europe, because this is the first time that the World Championships, which date back to 1965, will ever have been played on European soil.
Fifteen countries have qualified for the competition from six ISF World Regions, and one country – Great Britain – has been given a wild card entry. A place became available when South Africa dropped out, and the ISF recognised that the GB Women's Team had only missed out on qualification at last year's European Championships by the narrowest of margins: two runs conceded.
And with the tournament taking place in Europe, and Europe having the most votes on the International Olympic Committee that will decide in December whether baseball and softball will be reinstated for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the ISF was happy to replace South Africa with another European Team.
For the GB Women, this will be their fourth straight World Championship, and their third under Head Coach Hayley Scott. After this tournament, the Women's World Championships (as with all other ISF World Championships), will become an open-entry tournament, with the 2016 edition scheduled for Softball City in Surrey, British Columbia, home of the Canadian Open.
The GB Women's Team finished 11th in both of the last two World Championships, in Caracas, Venezuela and White Horse, Canada, after finishing 10th in 2006 in Bejing.
As always seems to be the case, the GB Team will compete in the tougher of the two eight-team groups that will play an initial round-robin over the first seven days of the the tournament. The top four teams from each group will make the Championship playoffs; for the rest, for the first time, there will be Consolation playoffs.
Reports and streaming
Full reports on all GB scrimmage games during the training camp and competition games during the World Championships will be posted on the British Softball Federation website: www.britishsoftball.org.
All games from the World Championships will be webstreamed on http://isf.sportzcast.net/, but there will be charges ranging from $9.95 for a single day up to $59.95 for the whole tournament.
The competitors
GB will be one of five teams from Europe competing in the World Championships, the most that Europe has ever had, along with the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic and Russia.
The full breakdown of teams by world region is:
North America
Canada
USA
Central & South America
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Europe
Czech Republic
Great Britain
Italy
Netherlands
Russia
Asia
China
Chinese
Japan
Oceania
Australia
New Zealand
Africa
Botswana
Schedule
GB's schedule of round-robin games will be:
Friday 15 August at 2.00 pm (Dutch time)
GB v Botswana
Saturday 16 August at 5.30 pm
GB v Dominican Republic
Sunday 17 August at 2.00 pm
GB v Australia
Monday 18 August at 3.00 pm
GB v USA
Tuesday 19 August at 11.30 am
GB v Italy
Wednesday 20 August at 8.00 pm
GB v Netherlands
Thursday 21 August at 4.30 om
GB v Chinese Taipei
Game times and opponents after that will depend on where the GB Team finishes in the round.
As at the recent European Junior Championships, also played in Holland, the GB Team should have a substantial cheering section of family, relatives and friends, not to mention five players from the High Performance Academy who will come for the last four days of the tournament as part of their learning experience.
Training
For now, though, the priority is for the players to train and play together over the next week so that the coaching staff – Hayley Scott, Megan Brown and Ross Smith – can assess what kind of shape the players returning from last year's European Championships are in and what the players coming to the team for the first time can contribute.
The two players new to the Women's Team this year are Chloe Wigington, who played for the GB U-19s in the recent European Championships, and Thali Moore, who played with the U-19s at the Junior World Championships in Canada last summer and has been a BSUK summer coach after playing her first year at James Madison University in Virginia.
Apart from Chloe Wigington, the other player who played with the GB Under-19s last month and now comes to the Women's Team is infielder/outfielder Keeli Waugh – but Keeli made her debut with the Women's Team last season.
The full GB squad is:
Sarah Craig (IF)
Susie Hall (C, OF)
Carling Hare I(P)
Karlene Headley-Cooper (OF)
Sarah Jones (2B)
Chiya Louie (IF)
Amy Moore (OF, C)
Tahli Moore IF, OF)
Steph Pearce (C, OF)
Nicole Ratel (C, 1B)
Laura Thompson (OF)
Keeli Waugh (OF, IF, P)
Kori Waugh (P, OF)
Chloe Wigington (OF)
Alicja Wolny (1B)
Scrimmage games
During the training camp, the emphasis will be on scrimmages and game play situations, and the GB Team will also play three friendly matches before moving to Haarlem on Thursday morning 14 August.
On 10 August, the team will play the Dutch league team Centrals, whose field GB is using for training. GB catcher Steph Pearce played with Centrals this season in the Dutch league, while two other GB players – Kori Waugh and Amy Moore – played with the Nuoro Softball Club in Sardinia, Italy.
On 11 August, a scrimmage game has been arranged with the Olympic and World Champions Japan. GB has had a short but eventful history of games against Japan, which may be a reason why Japan proposed the fixture.
On 2006, at the World Cup of Softball, GB led Japan until the final inning, but finally lost 7-6.
In 2010, at the World Championships in Venezuela, GB lost 7-0, but occasional pitcher Naomi Jones baffled the Olympic champions with her slow curve and drop, holding them scoreless for almost five innings.
And in the World Cup of Softball in 2011, GB again scored six runs against Japan, including home runs by Stacie Townsend and Leah English, but lost 13-6.
Finally, on 13 August, GB will play a final scrimmage game against the Czech Republic. The GB Women have not lost to the Czechs since 2007, but even though this is just a friendly match, and the two teams are in different World Championship groups, Czech Head Coach Andre Prins will want revenge for the 5-3 defeat GB inflicted on his team at the European Championships last summer.