Softball City, Surrey, British Columbia: June 28, 2012 -- Thirteen Great Britain Women's Team players -- two more are still to come -- flew into Vancouver on Wednesday, June 27, along with six staff members, for the start of a tour 
that will take in the Canadian Fastpitch Open (Elite Division) from June 30-July 8 and then the World Championships, nearly a thousand miles due north in Whitehorse, from July 13-22.
During the day on Thursday, the team had its first two practice sessions since the majority of these players were last together, back in August 2011 when they finished third in the European Championships and qualified for the World Championships for the second straight time.
And on Thursday evening -- since there isn't a lot of time until the real competition starts at the Canadian Open -- GB took on the Peruvian National Team in a scrimmage game in damp, drizzly conditions and posted a routine 8-0 mercy rule win in five innings, in a way that suggested that a lot of the pieces that have made this GB team so successful over the past few years are still in place.
Pitching and offense
For a start, there was pitcher Stacie Townsend, 
currently spending a lot more time studying law than playing softball. But after giving up a single to Peru's opening hitter, Andrea Buenano, Stacie shut down the next 12 hitters she faced, striking out 10 of them, as the Peruvians simply couldn't cope with her movement and change of speeds.
Meanwhile, GB scored in four out of five innings against Peruvian pitcher Jaymi Bautista. There was certainly some timely GB hitting, including a two-RBI single by Ali Parkerson in the third inning and a two-run line drive home run to left field by Stacie Townsend in the fourth that just cleared the fence.
But Jaymi Bautista contributed to her own downfall by walking five, hitting a batter and throwing two first-inning wild pitches, both of which allowed GB runners to score.
Stacie Townsend and third base player Kristi Yoshizawa had two hits each, with Ali Parkerson and Sarah Jones collecting the other GB hits.
Carling Hare came in to pitch the fifth inning for Britain, and though two Peruvians reached base on errors as the rain got heavier, Naomi Jones 
made a fine running catch in right field to quell the threat and Carling struck out Lorena Rivas to end the game.
Onward and upward
On Friday (weather permitting -- and the forecast isn't great), GB will told two more training blocks, then play another scrimmage game in the evening against what should be a stronger opponent, a long-established US travel ball team called the California A's.
Then, on Saturday, in their first game in the Canadian Open Elite Division, GB will again face Peru, and should be able to open the tournament with a win, before facing tougher opposition in the form of teams from the USA, Canada, Indonesia, China and the Mexican National Team, a team GB will also play at the World Championships in Whitehorse.
So a good start for a GB team with twelve players returning from last year, two more GB Juniors players joining the squad (Amy Wells and Sara Robb), and a new recruit in catcher Any Moore from the NCAA Division 1 University of the Pacific.
Reports on all GB games during the tour will appear on the BSF website Home Page, and reports on previous games can be found by clicking on "News".
All games from the World Championships in Whitehorse will be webstreamed. For more information, click here.