The GB Women's Fastpitch Team will be going to the ISF Women's World Championships in Holland this summer after being given a wild card entry to the tournament by the International Softball Federation.
This will be the team's fourth straight World Championship, two by qualification (2010 and 2012) and two by wild card (2006 and 2014). Last summer, at the European Championships in Prague, a very talented GB Team just missed out on automatic qualification on the basis of runs conceded.
Head Coach Hayley Scott said: “I can think of no group of athletes that deserves to perform at the World Championships more than our GB Team – a team with heart, courage and a lot of guts, built on the platform set by the women who came before them when we first qualified for 2010. I am very excited and proud to be associated with this team of players and staff and the British Softball Federation. Now our preparations will need to step up a little bit more!”
Hayley expects to select the players who will compete at the World Championships around the end of March or beginning of April.
World Championship history
GB finished tenth at the 2006 World Championships in Beijing and eleventh at the World Championships in Venezuela in 2010 and Canada in 2012.
This year's World Championships, the first to be played in Europe, will be the last for which teams will need to qualify. Starting with the 2016 World Championships to be held in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, the tournament (long with all other ISF World Championships) will be open entry.
For this year, however, 16 teams from ISF regions around the world qualified for the event, which will be played in Haarlem from 15-24 August. One of the two African qualifiers – South Africa -- declined their invitation, and the places was offered to Great Britain.
Record numbers
With Great Britain joining the tournament, there will be a record number of five European teams in the World Championships: the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, the Czech Republic and GB. But this seems only fitting with the tournament coming to Europe for the first time since it started in 1965.
The full line-up will be:
Australia
Botswana
Canada
China
Chinese Taipei
Cuba
Czech Republic
Dominican Republic
Great Britain
Italy
Japan
New Zealand
Puerto Rico
Russia
The Netherlands
USA
These 16 teams will be placed in two initial round-robin groups of eight teams, with the top four in each group going forward to a double Page Playoff.
The GB Team will gather in the UK about a week before the World Championships begin, and will hold a training camp here before travelling to the Netherlands for additional training and warm-up games.
Ticket packages
The World Championship organisers are offering ticket and accommodation packages for team supporters and general fans, and information will be posted on the BSF website shortly.
Information is also available on the World Championship website: www.wcsoftball2014.com.
For anyone who is a fan of softball, this tournament offers the chance to see the very best players in the world in action, and to have the World Championships taking place so close to Britain may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Don't miss it!