Andre van Overbeek from Holland, who has been a consistent supporter of slowpitch during his time as European Softball Federation President, was re-elected for another four-year term at the ESF Congress held from February 14-16 in Bled, Slovenia. In another boost for slowpitch, John Austin from Ireland was elected as one of six Vice Presidents on the ESF Executive.
John's election means there will be a slowpitch voice on the Executive for the first time since Britain's Mike Jennings held the post of ESF President.
New faces
Along with Andre van Overbeek's re-election as President, Eddy van Straelen from Belgium was re-elected as ESF Treasurer. But Francesca Fabretto from Italy, who has held the post of Secretary-General with distinction for the past five years, withdrew her nomination and Ami Baran from Israel was elected in her stead.
Other new faces among the elected Vice Presidents along with John Austin are Gilbert Tobback from Belgium (a long-time ESF Technical Commissioner), Dejan Jesic from Serbia and Mette Niessen-Jakobsen from Denmark, while re-elected Vice Presidents include First Vice President Gabriel Waage from the Czech Republic and Youri Alkalay from Bulgaria.
British representatives at the Congress were BSF President Stella Ackrell and Treasurer Mike Jennings.
Successful motion
Great Britain only submitted one motion to the Congress this year, but it was successful and could potentially save GB and other countries a lot of money.
Over the past couple of years, the ESF has taken to charging member countries who do not supply enough umpires to fulfil their commitments (one umpire for every team from that country that competes in European Championships or Cups) a total of 750 euros per umpire place – 375 euros representing the loss of an umpire deposit and another 375 euros as a fine.
Since the charge was originally meant to provide enough money for an umpire from another country to travel as a fill-in, 375 euros was generally regarded as reasonable but the BSF Executive felt that 750 euros was excessive. This year, a large majority of ESF countries agreed with us, and failure to meet an umpire commitment will now cost 375 euros per place.
This is particularly important for Britain because we send a lot of teams to ESF fastpitch Championships and Cups, but currently have only one active ESF-qualified fastpitch umpire. Although we have been able to meet our commitments in recent years by sending multiple umpires to ESF slowpitch competitions, this may not always be possible, and there is an urgent need for us to train and qualify more fastpitch umpires.
In the meantime, however, the financial penalties that may be levied against us will now be less than before.
And our actual cash commitment to the ESF will also be less because of a motion submitted by Bulgaria and approved by the Congress, to the effect that the 375 euro umpire guarantees that each country needs to provide – one for every team in ESF competition in a given year – can now be provided through a Letter of Intent rather than cash. This will be seen as particularly important by cash-strapped ESF Federations, many of them from Eastern and Southern Europe.
Slowpitch development issues
Slowpitch was a main focus at the ESF Development Commission meeting held during the Congress.
Anton Kops from Holland, a long-time supporter of slowpitch who helped organise the GB Slowpitch Tour to the Netherlands last year, reported that the tour had borne fruit, and a six-team slowpitch league would begin play this season. Some umpiring help has been requested from BASU to train officials for the league.
Mike Jennings reported to the Commission about the success of an initiative started by the Birmingham Tourcats to foster recreational slowpitch play among clubs in various European countries. There is now likely to be an international steering group set up to take this programme forward.
European Slowpitch Cup
A proposal from the ESF Executive to hold European Slowpitch Cup competitions every two years instead of every year, alternating with European Slowpitch Championships, was adopted by the Congress and will take effect from 2014 onwards.
This year, both a European Slowpitch Championship and Cup are scheduled, but there is as yet no host for the Cup (which had seven entries at the time of the Congress), and unless a host comes forward in the next couple of weeks, the competition will be cancelled.
The Chromies, last year's Premier Nationals winner, had entered as Britain's representative.
The concept of alternating the two European slowpitch competitions came originally from the BSF, and was designed to maximise the number of teams entering each competition. Many countries struggle to find funding to send slowpitch teams to Europe, and this becomes particularly difficult when there are two ESF slowpitch competitions in the same year.
Slowpitch coaching tour
Following discussions at the Congress between Mike Jennings and officials from the American Amateur Softball Association (ASA), it now looks likely (though not yet certain) that high-level coaches from the United States will come to Britain at some point this year to do a slowpitch coaching tour, working with coaches from interested leagues and members of the GB Slowpitch Team coaching staff.
More details on this initiative, which derives from twinning arrangements between European countries and ASA state associations, should be available shortly.
ESF competition formats
At the Congress, ESF Tournaments Commissioner and First Vice President Gabriel Waage announced that a motion submitted by Great Britain and passed at last year's ESF Congress will be implemented for the first time in 2013.
The motion proposed that ESF competition formats be changed with respect to those teams in large competitions that did not qualify for the playoff round. Instead of simply playing a number of additional games to determine placings, GB proposed that a “Plate Tournament” structure be put in place for those teams, leading to playoffs and a “winner”.
However, it remains to be seen whether the formats put in place by the ESF will genuinely produce this outcome.
Substitution in club competitions
Following discussion at the Congress, the new ESF Executive, meeting on the day after the Congress ended, passed a new regulation about “substitutions in ESF club (Cup) competitions.
If a team withdraws from a Cup competition, that used to mean simply the loss of a team – and in cases where only a few teams were entered in the first place, the tournament itself could be threatened.
But now, if a team withdraws, the ESF will allow another club team from the same country to take its place.
Pools for European Championships
As is now the custom at the ESF Congress, draws were held to determine pools for the larger ESF competitions taking place this year – in this case, the European Women's Championship (currently with 22 entries) and the European Cadette (Under-16) Girls' Championship (with 12 entries).
GB teams will be playing in both competitions.
The draws are conducted along the same lines as the football World Cup. Teams are seeded in tiers depending on where they finished in the last Championship, but the draw assigns teams in each tier to particular pools.
In 2011, this system resulted in the GB Women (then ranked second in Europe) being drawn in the toughest of the four pools for the European Women's Championship, and with GB currently ranked third in Europe, the same thing has happened again.
GB will head Pool C at this year's competition, but will have both Russia and Germany in its group, along with Israel, Denmark and Greece. None of the other top seeds – the Netherlands, Italy and the Czech Republic – have any teams remotely as dangerous as Russia and Germany in the second and third slots in their group.
For the GB Under-16 Girls' Team, which will go into the European Cadette Championships seeded fifth, the situation is a little more balanced. The GB Team will play in Pool C, headed by the defending champion Netherlands, but the third team in the group is the 11th seed Romania. Two teams from each round-robin group will qualify for the playoff rounds.