By Lee Grafton
The Zeister Slot tournament, the oldest International men's fastpitch softball competition in Europe, is always held on the Dutch Whitsunday weekend in Blikkenburgerlaan, Zeist, Holland, and this year was staged from 14-16 May. As usual, the London Meteors were in attendance.
The tournament has been going for 33 years and the Meteors have been entering a men’s team since at least the early 1990s. This Meteors team was made up of existing and future GB players, plus players from across the continent to round out the numbers.
This year, the Meteors played a number of close games, but in the end were unable to capitalise on winning positions and finished sixth out of seven teams, ahead of Germany, who were competing in their first men’s fastpitch tournament. Though the results were disappointing, the weekend gave the GB Men’s Team staff, and especially Head Coach Kevin Stockford, a good idea of what there is to work with and what needs to be done before the European Men’s Championships in July.
New-look team
This year’s Zeister Slot Tournament provided a chance for former GB Under-19 players, who will be travelling to their first European Men’s Championships in Italy later in the summer, to play at a level above the GBFL.
Trent Nash, Amit Aswani and Ieuan Gale joined former Under-19 coaches and current GB Men’s Team players Josh Peat and Gareth Jooste, along with GB players Michael Lee, Ryan Martin, Neil Davies and Wes Knapp. Guest players Casey Smeekes, Ramon Matusak, Henke Brask and Thomas Clausen rounded out the side, all ably led by Kevin Stockford as player-coach.
Results
In freezing conditions on Saturday, the Meteors opened with an 8-1 loss to the Dutch National Team and were then unlucky to lose 9-6 to the Hurricanes from Denmark in their second game. There were too many defensive errors and too many players left on base in both games, leaving the team with that ‘if only’ feeling.
Then, as if to prove the point, the Meteors came to life for the final game of the day against the German National Team, winning 20-10. Ryan Martin had a remarkable game, going 5-for-5 with three home runs and nine RBIs.
Sunday morning brought the longest game of softball most of the Meteors players had ever experienced! For nearly three hours the Meteors battled with the eventual winners of the tournament, Spain’s Caribenos, with neither side being able to establish a winning margin. The game was tied at 10-10 at the end of seven innings, and the teams played an extra inning but had to settle for an 11-11 draw.
This was followed by further losses to the impressive Czech Under-19 team and Chicaboos, and it meant that the Meteors came into the final day of play on Monday needing to beat the Caribenos to stay in the tournament.
As with previous day’s encounter, this was a game that the Meteors could and should have won if it were not for the fielding errors that allowed the Caribenos extra baserunners and extra runs. A solo home run by Kevin Stockford gave the Meteors some hope, but after six innings the Caribenos were 6-4 ahead and the Meteors were out.
On to the Europeans
The Zeisterslot Tournament has given the GB management team a good look at a number of the players who will travel to Montegranaro, Italy for the Europeans, which will run from 11-16 July.
With a week of Great Britain Fastpitch League play to go, and the chance to run several training sessions, the team will go to the largest-ever European Men’s Championships feeling that they have a good chance of winning a number of games – especially if the errors can be cut down.
The batting is certainly there; if the team can minimise opposition runs, there is a chance of reaching the Page Playoffs at the end of the tournament.
Photos by Jan Grafton