Three Saturdays of Great Britain Fastpitch League play have gone, with one remaining, and the London Angels have already wrapped up the title in the Women’s Division, with an unassailable lead. But the Men’s Division title is still up for grabs.
Women’s Division
The Angels won three more games on Saturday 21 May at Farnham Park to run their season record to 9-0, on a day when there was only some late drizzle instead of forecast downpours and so all games on the schedule were played. The Heyford Diamonds, in second place, have four wins, four losses and a draw, and cannot catch the Angels when the last games are played on 4 June, even in the unlikely event that the Angels were to lose all their games on the day.
The Angels will win the Women’s GBFL this year because they have three decent pitchers, whereas the other women’s teams are struggling for pitching – especially in the absence of GB Under-19 pitcher Amie Hutchison, who has not been able to attend the last two GBFL sessions.
On the one hand, it’s good to see more young players such as Izzy Quy, Michelle Shaw and Chelsie Robison learning to pitch and trying their hand in the circle, and all of them have had some success at the GBFL. But the process of developing a generation of fastpitch pitchers and catchers in British softball is only just beginning.
In the battle between the Sox and Lions, the two teams made up mainly of Under-19 and Under-16 GB pool players, the Sox were victorious on 21 May, and have now won two out of three, which is why they are third in the table and the Lions are fourth.
Men’s Division
In the Men’s Division, made up of four London Meteors teams – Red, Green, Blue and Black – plus a team called Filinvest from North London, the highlight of the day was a first win of the season for the Filinvest team, who had a walk-off 7-6 win over Meteors Black that led to celebrations.
However, Meteors Blue won three more games – including a 4-2 win over Meteors Red that umpire Bridget Cameron called the best game she’s seen at the GBFL this year – and remain in first place, two games ahead of Meteors Green. This leaves the theoretical possibility that Blue can be overhauled during the final games to be played on 4 June.
All four of the Meteors teams contain players from the GB Men’s and GB Junior Men’s Teams, and by spreading them around the league, and making games as competitive as possible, the aim is to give these players more meaningful competition experience.
Final weekend
Although GBFL league play will finish on 4 June, the GBFL will hold an open weekend on 23-24 July at Farnham Park, with competition and clinics open to anyone interested, as a means of building up the league for next season. Anyone interested in attending should contact Lee Grafton. [lee@circle-associates.co.uk]
In 2017, the GBFL hopes to have six competition dates rather than the four that were scheduled this year.
Meanwhile, there are also plans to stage a series of fastpitch competition and clinic days at Farnham Park in the early autumn, part of a fastpitch development programme taking shape for London and the South East.
GBFL Results: 21 May
WOMEN'S LEAGUE
Angels 9, Sox 5
Diamonds 12, Lions 4
Sox 7, Diamonds 4
Angels 15, Lions 3
Angels 17, Diamonds 0
Sox 16, Lions 9
MEN'S LEAGUE
Blue 14, Filinvest 0
Green 16, Black 7
Filinvest 7, Black 6
Blue 4, Red 2
Green 9, Red 2
Blue 12, Green 1
Black 21, Filinvest 0
Red 16, Black 5
Standings after GBFL Day 3
WOMEN'S LEAGUE
Angels (9-0)
Diamonds (4-4-1)
Sox (2-7)
Lions (1-7-1)
MEN'S LEAGUE
Blue (8-1)
Green (6-3)
Black (4-5-1)
Red (3-5-1)
Filinvest Int’l (1-8)
Photos by Jan Grafton