Most BSF slowpitch leagues started their season in May – and some had a busy pre-season as well. Below are reports from the Solent, Leeds, Manchester and Greater London Softball Mixed Leagues on the beginning of their 2013 seasons.
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SOLENT SOFTBALL LEAGUE
by James Clarke
The outdoor season has now started in the Solent Softball League, but before that the league had a very busy April.
Tom Prince Charity Tournament
It started at the end of the Indoor season when the league held its annual Tom Prince Charity Tournament. With eight SSL teams entered, it was a great turnout, with ‘Pav’s Team’ emerging as winners on the day.
A great time was had by all, with £600 raised for the Tom Prince Trust, the league's in-house charity.
Chichester Charity Tournament
Shortly afterwards, the SSL team Chichester Falcons held its first annual Chichester Charity Softball Tournament on 14 April. The event featured four teams, all beginners, taking part in a one-day tournament, and it was great to see over 50 participants show up to learn the sport, have fun and make friends.
The day was a great success, with £500 raised in support of the charity Children on Edge, and a number of community members introduced to the sport of softball.
Umpire training
An Umpire Training Weekend took place on 20-21 April, delivered by BASU and organised by Solent Umpire-in-Chief Liam Riddy. The course was designed for SSL players who want to learn how to umpire, but also gave already-experienced umpires a chance to brush off the cobwebs before the season.
In conjunction with the umpire course, Andrew (Beefy) Burgess hosted a Spring Training Day with over 70 SSL players – both new recruits and seasoned veterans – taking part to get themselves ready for the outdoor season. The players got game-ready while the freshly-trained umpires were able to get some practical experience calling a game.
Solent Mariners
During April, the league's A-grade tournament team the Mariners started their training programme and entered a development team in the Windsor First Ball on 27 April.
The Mariners team took first place in Group 3 and the players are looking forward to competing this season under the watchful eyes of Head Coaches Bryan Barry and Troy Stanley.
SSL Firstball
Finally, there was the league's own SSL Firstball. Ten league teams slugged it out for bragging rights that will last the whole season. Everyone played good softball and new recruits fitted in well.
The Itchen Knicks stole the day with a first place finish. Matt Cordy (Knicks) earned the male MVP award and Paula Linford (OAPs) was the female MVP.
LEEDS SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION
by Matt Ng
League play in the Leeds Softball Association for 2013 got under way in May, with action in two divisions taking place over three nights’ play.
New home
In a bid to improve facilities and pitches for teams, the LSA chose Priesthorpe High School in Pudsey this season as their main home for fixtures, with Roundhay Park serving as the base for the league’s youth team, the Rockets.
Softballers immediately took to Priesthorpe, a specialist sports college, which boasts superb flat, well-drained pitches – a crucial factor after the soggy weather Leeds has endured over the last twelve months.
Division leaders
Three weeks in, the Cheeky Monkeys and Castaways sit on top of Division 1 with perfect records so far. 2012 Division 1 winners Cheeky Monkeys have been averaging over 30 runs a game, and will prove a hard team to beat. Their trip to the Nationals in August as 2012 league winners will likely see them in a title race here in Leeds.
Three teams share the honours in Division 2 after three weeks of games, with Detonators, Diamond Knights and Firecrackers winning all their initial games this season. Detonators’ Martin Shaw and Nicki de Bàth have earned MVP awards in all three games they have played this year – how long will their perfect seasons last?
Tournament success
Leeds has been well represented in tournament play so far this year, with a strong showing at the East Midlands and Manchester Firstballs, with Dynamite scooping the Plate in the East Midlands.
Meanwhile, Leeds Terriers won the C-Comp at Farnham Park convincingly at Diamond 1, and the Men’s Team took the runner-up trophy at the BSUK Spring Ball.
Leeds Tournament
Our own Leeds Tournament is coming up at the end of June, and we are very excited about a new venue, Grange Park in Wetherby, which has excellent facilities. Twenty teams will compete for honours, and we will also welcome ASA slowpitch coaches Steve Shortland and Cheryl Trapnell for the weekend, who will be in Yorkshire as part of their UK tour.
We look forward to offering a fantastic Yorkshire welcome to teams from across the country.
If you’re interested in playing, or want to get in touch with the Leeds Softball Association, please email: leedssoftball@gmail.com
Our website is: leedssoftball.weebly.com and we are also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/2391962284.
MANCHESTER SOFTBALL LEAGUE
by Harry Somers
As May turns into June, the first half of Manchester’s softball season reached a climax with promotion and relegation issues decided as the nine-team Divisions 1 and 2 split into three leagues of six.
Divisions 1 and 2
The surprise package of the year so far has been the Outlaws, who until recently were joint top of Division 1, as they and the hardy perennial Mavericks both had perfect records.
Highlight of the Outlaws’ season so far would be the 2-0 win (yes, two-zero) over the champion Greensox, the lowest recorded aggregate score in MSL history and a first-ever shutout for the Sox. Outlaws now sit in second place, having narrowly lost to the Mavericks in eight innings to a walk-off two-out three-RBI homer.
Relegation to the Playoff Division was confirmed for the Camels and Mutineers, who will face each other, both with 0-6 records, and for Lightning, who were still very much in the hunt for the final Division 1 place until they lost, having led all game, to a two-out walk-off home run by the Dodgers’ Tyler Lappage.
They will be joined in the Playoff Division by the Bullfrogs, who have won all their Division 2 games so far, and any two from three as the newly promoted Mayhem and Tigers battle with last year’s climbers, the Meerkats. It’s great to see the newer clubs prospering and moving up the league.
Divisions 3 and 4
Division 3 is fairly close, as Enforcers and Hurricanes share top spot with 5-2 records, both having lost to the enigmatic Drizzle, who have beaten the top two (the Enforcers twice) but lost to everyone else.
And in Division 4 Camels II look comfortably the strongest team in a league made up mainly of rookie teams and club second teams.
Alex Hall Tournament
A further highlight of May was the annual Alex Hall Memorial Tournament, which has been described as “part fancy-dress party, part summer picnic and a just-competitive-enough softball tournament”.
Teams are put together for the day by mixing and matching players from all divisions in ad hoc sides with colourful names such as Tangerine Tigers (this year’s winners), Pink Panthers, Green Goblins and so on.
By convention, the team picnics (which are hotly competitive) feature only food of the appropriate colour. And games are enlivened by the possibility of playing (once per game) a joker, to reverse a decision and replay the last at-bat.
The weather gods smiled on Manchester this year and £2,300 was raised for the local cancer hospital.
GREATER LONDON SOFTBALL MIXED LEAGUE
by Matt Waller
The GLSML season kicked off at the start of May. We’ve got six divisions, 50 teams and about 1000 registered players. It’s been a hectic April and May, worrying about registration, fixtures, New Players' Day and the GLSML Firstball, the first tournament of the year.
Now the season’s finally started, we can worry about rain-offs and pitch bookings.
Help for umpires
Although with the help of BASU we run at least three umpire training courses before the season starts, it can still be quite intimidating for newbies officiating their first games. As a result, and to improve standards, this season we’re piloting UMP, our Umpire Mentoring Programme. It’s available to all Division 6 teams and all teams umpiring for the first time (teams don’t have to umpire in their first season).
For two games, the league will send along an experienced umpire to observe and give advice (but not to do any actual umpiring). If UMP is successful, we may expand it to run for longer and cover the three lowest divisions.
Pick 6
At the start of each season, the GLSML has its annual Pick 6 competition. Any player in the league can enter, and the task is to guess the winners of all six divisions.
The person with the most correct guesses wins £40 for themselves and 12 softballs for their team. More details can be found at: http://www.glsml.co.uk/news/pick-6-and-the-wisdom-of-crowds.