The 2014 BSF AGM, held at the Hough End Centre in Manchester on Saturday 22 February, was long and at times intense, as a number of key issues were debated between the BSF Executive and members, including dates and plans for the 2014 Co-ed Slowpitch National Championships and recommendations for women who want to play while pregnant.
A jam-packed agenda predictably ran well over the allotted time, but many of the discussions and presentations were valuable and only a few people with trains to catch left early.
A total of 58 people attended the AGM, representing 34 teams and 17 of the BSF's 19 affiliated leagues.
Guests from BSUK included the Chair, John Walmsley, plus Joint CEO Jenny Fromer, Development Managers Liz Knight and Luis Arrevillagas and Communications Consultant Bob Fromer.
A highlight of the AGM was the showing of an inspirational nine-minute TEDx talk given last year at her school by GB Under-13 player Betsy Holden, who attended the AGM with her family and was the recipient of a new annual award, named in her honour, for the individual under 18 who provides the most inspiration for others in the sport in a given year.
Morning sessions
There were two morning workshop sessions before the lunch break, with the formal AGM scheduled for 2.00 Sport Engagement, was given by Mark Bradley, who runs The Fan Experience Company and has worked with a long list of high-profile sporting clients to improve the experience of the people who support them. The extrapolation to softball (and baseball) would be how to improve the participant experience.
Mark's thesis is that growth and retention in sport is not about what happens on the field as much as the total experience of being a participant or a fan. So a clear business model to achieve sustainable growth would focus on creating a culture and values that participants can share, and reinforcing this with constant dialogue – but also providing consistently good delivery at the point of participant contact.
The second workshop was a short session run by BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings to review the coaching clinics run for slowpitch leagues last summer by ASA coaches Steve Shortland and Cheryl Trapnell and to look at the community's preference for coach education and player clinics going forward.
While Steve and Cheryl's clinics were meant to be for “coaches” (whether qualified or not) with considerable softball experience, some leagues sent novice players to their clinics, which somewhat defeated the object. But feedback from the clinics was universally good, and members at the AGM were keen to have similar opportunities in future.
However, as Alan le Marquand from Maidenhead Softball Club pointed out, even more benefit could be gained if skilled clinicians like Steve and Cheryl could be available to leagues or clubs for longer than a single evening.
Mike Jennings told the meeting that the BSF intends to continue to subsidise the opportunity for aspirational B-grade and C-grade teams to receive coaching clinics and game management tuition from GB Slowpitch Team coaches and players, as happened for the first time in 2013, with seven or eight teams taking part.
Leagues will need to nominate teams and details of the process will be available shortly.
GB Slowpitch Team Assistant Coach Mike Ashley, who worked last season with new teams and players from the Sefton Softball League in the North West, suggested that novice players might benefit even more from such sessions. “They were like sponges,” Mike said, “soaking up everything we could teach them. And they have carried that learning process on.”
Mike Jennings also told the meeting that the BSF's “Bring a Bat, Give a Glove” initiative, which collected a good amount of used equipment for development work in 2012 but rather less in 2013, will be re-emphasised this year with more publicity. GB Slowpitch Team Head Coach Steve Patterson suggested that signage plus bins to collect used equipment at tournaments could be effective in keeping the campaign in front of players throughout the season. Mike emphasised that in collecting used equipment, the BSF will be able to repair damaged equipment such as gloves and will filter out any bats that could be regarded as dangerous.
Finally, members of the BSF's Nationals Working Group who were at the AGM met during the lunch break to continue discussions begun when the group held its first meeting in January. Conclusions reached by the group were presented during a discussion on National Championships that took place later in the afternoon.
AGM formalities
The AGM began just after 2.00 pm and began with the usual formalities. Apologies were noted, the Minutes of the 2013 AGM were approved, and there were no questions on either the Officers' Reports or National Team reports included in the AGM Pack.
BSF President Stella Ackrell, as she had done in her President's Report, congratulated all the national teams and clubs that had played in international competition since the last AGM, with particular mention of the GB Slowpitch Team that won the 2013 European Championships and finished second in the ISF Slowpitch World Cup, and London Angels Women's Fastpitch Team that won the European B Pool Cup in 2013, the first-ever win in Europe for a British women's club team.
Stella also thanked the wide and varied range of volunteers (including members of the BSF Executive) who make so many things in softball happen.
Financial report
Mike Jennings led a brief session on the BSF accounts for 2012-13 and the budget for 2013-14. The final accounts for 2012-13 have been signed off by the BSF's auditors, Barcant Beardon LLP, and are available for viewing on the BSF website. [http://www.britishsoftball.org/uploads/_documents/Files/BSF/AGM/2013/BSF%20Statutory%20Accounts%202013.pdf]
Mike reported that the BSF's aim each year is to retain reserves amounting to at least 75% of the team fees paid in an average year – not just for use in the case of an emergency but to help with cash flow, since many of the BSF's costs occur before the bulk of fees are received.
On this basis, and because revenue exceeded expectations in 2012-13 while expenditure was less than forecast, the BSF budget for 2013-14 anticipates revenue of £74,200 and expenditure of £81,500, which will still leave reserves of £35,000. This deficit budget for the current year has allowed the BSF to spend more in discretionary areas such as development and enhancement of national championships.
There was just one question from the floor, which was around how money spent last year on a joint BSUK-BSF employee was disclosed in the accounts. The budget for 2013-14 was passed unanimously.
Youth and Schools Strategy
BSF Youth & Schools Officer Claire Waldron has been asked by the BSF and by the GB Management Committee to develop a strategy for a BSF initiative to get more young people under the age of 14 – but especially girls – playing fastpitch softball.
The reason to focus on girls is that four of GB's seven national teams are female teams and one is co-ed – plus the fact that although the majority of softball in the UK is co-ed slowpitch, roughly 55% of players in teams affiliated to the BSF are male. The reason to focus on fastpitch for this age group is not only to widen the talent pool for national youth teams but also because young players trained in fastpitch can easily adapt to playing slowpitch, whereas the reverse tends to be less true. And fastpitch, as a more technical format of softball, requires that skills be acquired earlier if players are to fulfil their potential.
Claire presented a PowerPoint presentation to the AGM outlining the basic elements in her strategy.
The two main objectives of the strategy are: 1) to increase the number of girls aged 14 and under who are playing and continuing to play fastpitch softball; and 2) to increase the number of girls feeding into Academy Softball, thereby increasing the talent pool for GB fastpitch youth teams.
To achieve these aims, the Strategy proposes to introduce a new structured schools programme, targeted in some cases on girls-only schools in selected areas where there are exit routes to fastpitch activity, including the creation of schools competition structures. Work will also be carried out with selected baseball clubs who are interested in starting youth fastpitch sections for girls, as some are already doing. As the programme develops, the network of Regional Academy Softball sessions – currently taking place only in Nottingham and London – can hopefully be increased.
This strategy, which will require financial, coaching and other volunteer resources, will be developed and costed over the next couple of months and an action plan will be put in place.
In the discussion that followed Claire's presentation, it was emphasised that a primary route for bringing new slowpitch players into the sport (as opposed to creating new fastpitch players) is through Further and Higher Education, an area on which BSUK is increasingly concentrating its efforts. But for this to be successful, the engagement of local softball leagues with universities and colleges in their area, and with BSUK initiatives, is essential.
GB Slowpitch Team Head Coach Steve Patterson made the point that to recruit more players, especially to slowpitch, the sport needs a higher profile so that its sporting and social virtues can become better known. It is hoped that through the new position of Communications Officer on the BSF Executive, which will be filled by James Clarke from the Solent League, social media can be a low-cost means of driving this effort.
Future Leaders
Claire Waldron's presentation was followed by a session with two members of BSUK's Future Leaders Group, formerly known as the BSUK Youth Panel, delivered by Future Leaders Chair Georgiana Craciun and Billy Liu, a member of the group and the University Softball Officer at Manchester Metropolitan University's Crewe campus.
Georgiana told the meeting that the primary aims of the Future Leaders Group are to provide representation for all 16-25-year-olds playing softball and baseball, devise and support initiatives to recruit more young players and provide a forum for new ideas to improve the experience of playing the sports.
BSUK has had good success in setting up softball programmes in seven or eight universities and colleges around the country, Georgiana reported, and the role of University Softball Officers, many of whom are Future Leaders Group members, has been crucial. But the engagement of local clubs and leagues is also important to increase the flow of players from the FE and HE sectors into BSF league softball.
The keynote, according to Billy Liu, is “expansion through recruitment”. “We need to promote the game everywhere,” Billy said, “so that more and more people know about it.” In the university sector, the National University Softball Championships that BSUK plans to run this spring should help the game spread to more institutions, with the eventual aim of getting softball recognised as an official university sport.
The discussion that followed this presentation was mainly about solving the problem of steering university and college students into organised softball when they leave school in May or June, either for the summer or permanently. BSUK has set up a database to track students who are playing university softball and make them aware of opportunities that exist wherever they might end up.
Youth awards
The final part of the agenda section devoted to youth and schools was the presentation of two new awards for youth softball created by the BSF this year. These presentations were preceded by a showing of the TEDx talk given to an audience of over 200 people at her school last year by GB Under-13 player Betsy Holden called “Searching for My Sport”, an account of how, as someone always interested in new things, Betsy came to find out about, try and then fall in love with softball. The talk is a remarkable achievement for a 12-year-old (as Betsy was then), and she and her parents were present at the AGM as guests of the BSF.
Betsy's talk can be seen on YouTube by clicking here.
The two new youth awards were presented to Betsy Holden and to the Monmouth Rockets Softball team from Monmouth School in Wales, and details of the awards can be found later in this report.
The awards to the Monmouth Rockets was accepted by Gareth Dunn, the teacher who founded the softball programme at Monmouth School, and he announced that the school has just received at £1500 grant from Sport Wales to purchase a pitching machine. Although the school team plays slowpitch, seven of their players are currently in GB youth fastpitch team pools, and the pitching machine will be invaluable for them in terms of fastpitch training. As a condition of the grant, Gareth and his players will be required to get the game started in at least one other nearby school.
Gareth had an interesting suggestion for getting the game going in more schools around the UK. What if, he said, each division in every BSF league were to adopt a local school and work with the school to establish a softball programme? Out of all the players that would typically play in a league division, Gareth said, surely enough volunteers could be found to run such a programme. Meanwhile, BSUK could help in setting up a competition structure for the schools involved.
Online Incident Report Forms
BSF Administrator Vicky Hall told the meeting about a new Online Incident Report Form that the BSF has developed with help from BSUK, so that any incidents, accidents or injuries that occur during softball activities can be easily reported.
The form is available on the BSF website by clicking here.
“At this point,” Vicky told the meeting, “we have no idea how many accidents and injuries occur in softball, and we need to know so that we can see trends and take action if necessary to make the game safer.
“The new form is easy to fill out,” Vicky added, “and we hope that all clubs and teams will use it for all incidents and actions that happen in connection with softball activities on and off the field. We need support from teams and leagues for this to work.”
For those rare incidents that actually lead to an insurance claim, the Incident Report will be the first part of the process, though an insurance claim form would need to be completed as well.
Completed Incident Reports will automatically go back to the person who submitted them as well as to the BSF and to the relevant League Committee. The BSF would like to have a contact person in each league who will support the completion of Incident Reports from league activity, while the majority of reports from tournaments will be submitted by the First Aider on site.
Guidance for pregnant players
Following requests from two leagues last year for guidance from the BSF on women playing while pregnant, BSF Administrator Vicky Hall, who is a Health and Safety professional in her working life, has undertaken a significant piece of research that looks at medical opinion on the risks to mother and baby and at the advice and practice of other softball governing bodies and other sports.
The report on Vicky's research was available in the form of a three-page paper to those who attended the AGM.
The BSF has not attempted to frame specific guidelines on this issue because every woman and every pregnancy is different. Instead, the main guidance that the BSF would like to offer is that every woman who wants to play while pregnant should consult her GP or relevant medical professional and follow the advice given as to whether they should play at all and if so, for how long into the pregnancy.
Vicky Hall's research makes clear that, generally speaking, risks of a traumatic injury to the mother and/or the baby from softball are theoretical and very low, especially during the first trimester. But there are changes to pregnant women's bodies which can increase the risk of injury, and risks increase later in the pregnancy as the position of the foetus changes.
Some sports advise against any participation while pregnant, while others adopt the “consult your medical professional approach”, which is the advice offered by the American Amateur Softball Association (ASA) and Softball Australia – and by the BSF's insurers, Perkins Slade, who would not automatically restrict sporting participation on grounds of pregnancy.
The discussion that followed was long and at times emotional, and tended to centre more on the issue of how players on the opposing team might feel about playing against a pregnant woman, and especially if they were involved in a play which resulted in significant harm.
There was also a suggestion that players involved in a game where a pregnant woman was playing might need legal protection in the event that something went wrong, and that perhaps women who want to play while pregnant should sign a disclaimer.
What seemed to be missing from the discussion in general was the concept of “a woman's right to choose”.
Some people felt that the BSF ought to take a definite position on the issue and put forward mandatory policies one way or the other (either an outright ban or conditions under which pregnant women can take part). Their call was for a position or proposal that the AGM could vote on.
However, BSF President Stella Ackrell argued that the BSF had done its job by presenting the community with well-documented research and asking people to consider it. Individual leagues are free to make their own policies on the issue, and there are some leagues that do ban pregnant women from playing.
In the end, Stella asked the people present to take the issue back to their leagues for consideration, and said that if any leagues wanted to submit a formal proposal for the community to vote on, they could do so and the BSF would make this happen.
BSF and BSUK
AGMs and similar meetings will always include discussions in which both the BSF and BSUK are frequently mentioned, but it seems clear that not everyone in the softball community is aware of what each organisation does and how they relate to each other.
BSUK Chair John Walmsley put forward a brief overview of the formal and legal relationships between BSUK, the BSF and the BBF, but there wasn't time to expand on this further, and the BSF will work with BSUK to put together an information sheet on this topic to be posted on the BSF website.
Co-ed Slowpitch National Championships
The BSF Nationals Working Group, made up of representatives from all grades of softball play and with a variety of softball experience, first met on 11 January 2014, and those members who were at the AGM reconvened for a lunchtime session.
BSF President Stella Ackrell chairs the Working Group, and she reported back to the AGM on conclusions reached so far. The aim of the Working Group is primarily to make the Co-ed Slowpitch National Championships better for all the teams that take part and to make it a pinnacle event in the British softball season, with the best teams at each level of softball playing for a meaningful title in the best possible conditions.
The premise that the Nationals Working Group started with was the decision made by members at the 2013 AGM – that the 2014 Co-ed Slowpitch Nationals would include all grades of play, including the Premier Nationals for A-grade/NSL teams, on the same weekend at the same location, and that it would be played on 9-10 August 2014 at Farnham Park.
Stella outlined what the Nationals Working Group feels the BSF needs to provide at National Championships:
- Improvements in facilities for food and drink, toilets, showers, camping and other amenities.
- Outfield fencing, backstops and full line-marking on all fields.
- Rotation of pitches at Farnham Park so that all grades of play get to compete on the dedicated diamonds.
- A two-umpire system and impartial scorers for all finals.
- Scoreboards on every pitch.
- A more structured and appropriate Closing Ceremony.
- Photographic and video coverage for social media.
With the Co-ed Slowpitch Nationals, the plan in 2014 is to have eight teams in each of what will become five grades of play after the first day. Apart from the Premier Nationals, where qualification is through the National Softball League season, most of the teams taking part will be division winners from slowpitch leagues, but there will also be a points-based route to Nationals qualification through tournaments. Details remain to be confirmed.
With regard to A-grade teams and NSL play for 2014, Stella agreed that there are too few A-grade tournaments, especially with the Pioneers Tournament not certain to take place this year, and that many of the A-grade tournaments are too closely bunched together. The Manchester Softball League has offered in the past, and offered again at the AGM, to host an NSL tournament in Manchester on a date that could help to alleviate the problem of bunched tournaments, but many NSL teams still seem reluctant to make the journey north.
Another idea was for the BSF to stage some additional NSL tournaments in May, though that would have severe consequences for the Great Britain Fastpitch League.
While the 2014 calendar is largely set, the BSF intends to address these problems next year by putting all dates on the calendar out to tender by tournaments, with minimum standards required for BSF sanction and with the BSF controlling how tournaments are spread across the season.
After Stella's report, the ensuing discussion was long, intense and focused mainly on the needs of A-grade teams.
For 2013 National Champion Chromies and 2013 NSL winners H2O, who have qualified to play in the new European Slowpitch Super Cup, there is a problem with the fact that Diamond 3, the European Cup and the Nationals fall in consecutive weeks, which they feel will put too much of a physical strain on players.
For this and other reasons, a number of A-grade teams would like the Co-ed Slowpitch Nationals to happen at the end of August or in early September rather than the first half of August; or, if that's not possible, for the BSF to re-visit the decisions made last year and hold the Premier Nationals as a separate tournament.
Sadly, there is an almost intractable problem with holding the full Co-ed Nationals at the end of August or in September, which is that the majority of venues large enough to hold the event, including Farnham Park with regard to grass pitches, revert to football play at that time.
And lurking behind the idea of once again separating the Premier Nationals from the other grades of play is the possibility of players being able to play in more than one National Championship, which has been a source of controversy over a number of years.
The BSF, having listened to the arguments put forward, will shortly announce a final decision on the Co-ed Slowpitch Nationals for 2014.
Beyond that, it will consider the feasibility of a compromise solution suggested during the AGM, which is that the Premier Nationals are played separately and later in years when there is a European Super Cup but that the Co-ed Slowpitch Nationals will include all grades of play in one event in the years in between.
BSF Team Fees
It was announced at the AGM that team fees for 2014 will remain at the level agreed at the 2013 AGM – namely, £10 higher for most categories than fees paid before the deadline in 2013.
The full list of team fees for 2014 is on the BSF website here. [http://www.britishsoftball.org/about/team-affiliation-fees]
Fees paid by leagues on behalf of their teams, by independent teams or by other categories of members (with the exception of pay-for-play fees at Single-Sex Tournaments) will be due, as usual, by 31 May 2014, with surcharges of £5 per week applying thereafter.
The BSF also intends to collect more data from registered teams this year, both to give them a better knowledge of the membership and build a marketing profile for sponsorship, but also to provide robust statistics for Sport England and others to demonstrate our inclusivity as a sport.
However, while the deadline for payment remains the same as in past years, the deadline for leagues to register their teams through the BSF website (and for independent teams and other members to register) has been brought forward this year to 30 April.
A new registration system, and instructions for using it, should be installed on the BSF website shortly.
The BSF has recognised that when affiliation fees go up, teams need time to adjust, and has promised that if any fee increases will be brought in for the 2015 season, these will be notified in good time.
The one question raised from the floor over fees was the perennial question of whether teams that are formed by players on different league team players to play in only one or two tournaments need to register as a separate team and pay the full tournament team fee. The answer at this point appears to be “yes”.
BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings also announced a small change to BSF insurance cover. Cover is provided at this point for teams as opposed to individuals, and because the standard ESF and ISF line-up cards for slowpitch provide for 18 players and offer gender balance, the BSF will now assume that a team consists of 18 players (rather than, as previously, 15 players). The effect of this on the optional Personal Accident and Injury insurance that leagues can purchase for all their teams if they wish to do so is that the cost, at £1 per player, will rise from £15 to £18 per team.
Requirements for under-18 players
Any adult slowpitch or fastpitch teams that include under-18 players on their roster need to comply with the BSF Regulations for Under-18 players, passed as mandatory at the 2013 AGM. The regulations can be found on the BSF website here.
One of the main implications of the Regulations (which are based on the ISF rulebook, which is already mandatory for BSF play) is that any slowpitch team with under-18 players has to have helmets available for the use of those players when batting, baserunning, coaching or umpiring and a catcher's mask in case an under-18 player is asked to play that position. The BSF is currently working with The Baseball & Softball Shop to source this equipment at a package cost, and the more equipment is bought, the greater the amount the BSF will receive to put back into the sport.
Elections
There were no contested positions in the election to the BSF Executive, and everyone running was duly elected.
The changes from the 2013 Executive are:
- Darren Prouty has been elected to replace BSF Administrator Vicky Hall, who has stepped down after four years in the position.
- The position of Marketing and Communications Officer, previously held by Mark Wigington, has been split into two positions. Mark remains as the Marketing Officer and James Clarke has been elected as the new Communications Officer.
The Executive for 2014 will be:
President: Stella Ackrell
Administrator: Darren Prouty
Treasurer: Mike Jennings
National Teams Officer: Beth Perkins
Tournaments Officer/Logistics: Fiona Thorley
Tournaments Officer/Statistics and Administration: Liz Graham
Youth & Schools Officer: Claire Waldron
Marketing Officer: Mark Wigington
Communications Officer: James Clarke
Welfare Officer: Jess Casey
London Liaison Officer: Alan MacFarlane.
Technical Officer/BASU Representative: Chris Moon
General Officer: Mark Munnery
All of the Officers listed above except the Communications Officer, Welfare Officer and London Liaison Officer are also Directors of BSF Limited.
However, the Executive will be adopting new corporate documentation this year, and plans to reduce the number of Directors to a core group, and to introduce term limits for members of the BSF Executive. In future, positions will be recruited on the basis of the skills required to carry them out, though all Officers will continue to be elected. These proposals will be brought to an EGM or to next year's AGM for ratification.
2013 Awards
Towards the end of the AGM, the BSF gave out annual awards for 2013. Four of them were traditional awards and two were new awards created by the BSF for the first time this year. BSF awards are given out on the basis of nominations from the softball community, so while there were potentially seven traditional awards to be made, nominations were only received for four of them.
The 2013 BSF Awards were:
President's Club Award: This went to Maidenhead Softball Club for its range of youth and adult development activities in 2013.
Adult Coach of the Year: This award went to GB Slowpitch Team Head Coach Steve Patterson,who led the team to a ninth straight European Championship in July 2013 and to a silver medal at the ISF Slowpitch World Cup in January 2014, while getting the best from all his players and building an outstanding ethos within the squad.
Youth Coach of the Year: The award went to GB Under-19 Women's Team Head Coach Rachael Watkeys, who, in her first year in charge, instilled a much more positive and professional outlook in the programme and led the team to a very creditable ninth place in its first-ever appearance in the Junior World Championships.
Tournament of the Year: This award went to the ever-growing and ever-improving East Midlands Labor Day Tournament.
The two new awards introduced by the BSF this year were:
Youth Team of the Year: The award went to the Monmouth Rockets from Monmouth School in Wales, who have developed a strong and imaginative softball programme over the past few years under the leadership of physics teacher Gareth Dunn, who was present to receive the award. The team, made up of students from Years 10-12, have competed with success in a number of national tournaments and in the Bristol Softball League, and currently have seven players in GB Youth Fastpitch Team pools.
The Betsy Holden Award: This award will be given each year to an under-18 individual from the softball community who has done the most to inspire others in the sport. The first award went, fittingly enough, to GB Under-13 Team player Betsy Holden herself, for her inspirational TEDx talk on how she discovered softball.
The AGM also recognised two awards made recently to young members of the softball community by the BSUK Future Leaders Group (formerly the BSUK Youth Panel):
Volunteer Softball Coach of the Year: The Future Leaders have given this award to GB Under-19 player and GB Under-13 Assistant Coach Jodie Rushin for outstanding work with and dedication to the GB Under-13 programme.
Softball Young Volunteer of the Year: This award went to Billy Liu, the University Softball Officer at the Crewe Campus of Manchester Metropolitan University. Billy, who was one of two Future Leaders who spoke at the AGM about what the group is doing, has single-handedly brought a successful softball programme into being at his university.
Hall of Fame
Six new members – three players, a coach and two administrators – were inducted into the BSF Hall of Fame at the AGM, bringing the total membership of the Hall after four sets of inductions to 41.
The new player-members are former GB Women's Team pitcher Stacie Townsend and former GB Slowpitch Team players Martin Cartledge and David Baird. The coach honoured at this year's ceremony was former GB Men's Team and GB Women's Team Head Coach Russ Snow. The two administrators honoured span the full history of British Softball, from Stuart Houghton, first President of the BSF's predecessor organisation the National Softball Federation to Lesley Morisetti, who has been a key figure on the BSF, BASU and Edinburgh Softball League Committees for many years and still serves in some of those roles today.
Full background information on the new inductees can be seen here on the BSF website.
BSF commercial activities
BSF Marketing Officer Mark Wigington reported to the AGM that the BSF has set up a partnership with a uniform and clothing supplier called Aswani, based in Wales, to offer a range of BSF, GB and tournament clothing, hats, wristbands, mementoes etc in an attempt to pull all merchandising efforts together through one distributor.
GB players now order all their uniforms and other GB clothing from an online distribution site set up by Aswani, and other members of the softball community will be able to order from the site as well. When softball clothing produced by Aswani was introduced via a stall set up at last September's Softball World Series, over £2500 in sales was recorded over the weekend.
Revenue obtained by the BSF through the site will go back into the sport.
More details will be published on the BSF website shortly.
In conclusion
The AGM ended, in fitting fashion, with a heartfelt thanks from GB Slowpitch Team Head Coach Steve Patterson to the entire softball community for the support the team received during the recent ISF Slowpitch World Cup in Florida, where GB finished with a silver medal.