The Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL), with ten female, male and mixed teams playing in two divisions, will begin its season on Saturday 25 April at Farnham Park and will play on four more Saturdays in May plus a finals weekend in September.
The league will have two more teams than in 2014, and will include six teams representing or including players from GB youth fastpitch teams at Under-19 and Under-16 level.
After the opening round of games is played on Saturday 25 April on the two softball show diamonds at Farnham Park, the league will play on four of the five Saturdays in May – on May 2, 16, 23 and 30.
On 6-7 June, two teams from the GBFL – the London Angels and the GB Under-19 Women – will play in an international women’s fastpitch tournament being hosted by BSUK and the BSF at Farnham Park, where they will be joined by the Danish National Women’s Team and club teams from France and Germany.
After that, the international fastpitch competition season will start abroad along with important slowpitch tournaments at home, and many GBFL players will be involved in one or both of those.
But the GBFL will reconvene for a Finals Weekend at Farnham Park on 5-6 September.
New leadership
For the past several years, the GBFL, with an unusual mix of male, female and mixed teams playing in the same competition, but with a great atmosphere and often with exciting games, has been organised and run by BSF Fastpitch Programmes Officer Stan Doney.
This year, however, although Stan is continuing to carry out that role for the BSF, he is now based in Haarlem in the Netherlands, coaching one of the top Dutch club teams, and the GBFL is being run by a group including Michael Lee, Kenny Pregnell and Jan and Lee Grafton.
On each of the five GBFL Saturdays in April and May, play will begin at 9.40 am and run until 7.30 in the evening, and Division 1 and 2 will alternate from week to week with regard to who plays earlier in the day and who plays later.
As one of only two fastpitch leagues in the UK (the other is a Women’s Fastpitch League based in Nottingham and Leicester), the GBFL provides a chance for all those who want to play fastpitch to do so at appropriate level, including those who are new to the sport. But the league also provides competition opportunities for youth and adult GB fastpitch team players to hone their skills before European and World Championship and Cup competitions later in the summer or the year.
On Friday evening 24 April, before the opening GBFL games on Saturday, Dutch National Team Head Coach and former GB Women’s Team Head Coach Craig Montvidas will deliver a clinic on game management to a variety of national team and GBFL coaches, and then will work with the coaches during GBFL games on Saturday before running a drills-based clinic for male and female Under-19 players and coaches on Sunday.
The teams
GBFL games are always worth watching, and spectators will always be welcome on GBFL Saturdays at Farnham Park.
Here are the teams that will be playing for GBFL titles in 2015:
DIVISION 1
London Meteors/GB Under-19 Men 1 (Men’s Team)
London Angels (Women’s Team)
GB Under-19 Women (Women’s Team)
London Meteors/GB Under-19 Men 2 (Men’s Team)
Bristol (Mixed Team)
DIVISION 2
The North (Mixed Team from Nottingham & Leicester)
GB Under-19 Boys (Men’s Team)
Oxford (Mixed Team)
GB Junior Angels (Mixed GB Under-16 Team)
GB Junior Meteors (Mixed GB Under-16 Team)
For more information or to join a team in the GBFL, contact Michael Lee.
