A charity Kickball Tournament to raise money for GB National Softball Teams will be hosted on Sunday 29 September by the Solent Softball League, and teams from all around the country are invited to enter.
Kickball is a combination of softball and soccer, where a soccer-type ball is kicked instead of hit with a bat, but otherwise, it's almost like softball as we know it.
This event will provide a great day of fun, laughter, games, and a bit of nostalgia for players who grew up in America!
Details
When:
29 September 2013
Where:
University of Chichester Playing Grounds, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 6PE.
Time:
10:00 am – 5:00 pm (TBC)
Cost:
£80 per team
What to expect:
Guaranteed fun! Details have still to be finalised, but expect to have music, food, drinks and a raffle. More info will be released in the coming weeks.
We are looking for teams of at least 10 players each to enter the tournament. The cost is only £80 per team, with all proceeds going to the Great Britain National Softball Teams.
There will also be a raffle where you can win a Worth Toxic bat that was kindly donated by our sponsors, The Baseball and Softball Shop (http://www.baseballandsoftball.co.uk), plus many more prizes.
Why?
There is a serious purpose behind this fun event – the need to provide more sources of income for our slowpitch and fastpitch national teams so that players and families don't have to pay for everything themselves.
Softball is a minority sport in the UK with little public profile or media exposure. Softball national teams receive no public funding whatever and because of the lack of media exposure, significant sponsorship is almost impossible to obtain. But despite all that, GB Softball has punched well above its weight in international competition.
The GB Slowpitch Team has won nine straight European Championships. The GB Men’s Fastpitch Team is ranked #9 in the world and the GB Women’s Fastpitch Team is #11. The GB Under-19 Women’s Team played at World Championship level for the first time this summer, and finished as the top European team at the competition and the ninth-best team in the world. The GB Under-16 Girls have moved up to #6 in Europe and our Under-19 Men and Under-13 Girls’ Fastpitch Teams are developing.
But all these programmes are threatened by the increasing costs of training and competing for Great Britain in European or World Championships overseas, which fall almost entirely on players and their families. Some players are now having to refuse selection because they can’t afford to play, and our teams are being weakened as a result. Without some way to lessen the financial burden on players and families, GB Softball Teams will struggle to maintain their impressive achievements, or even to survive.
More information
More information about the Kickball Tournament will be released in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, you can ‘like’ us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/CharityKickballTournament. For a video about kickball and a link for registration, please visit: http://solentsoftball.org/news-kickball.html.
For any tournament enquiries, please contact James Clarke at james@solentsoftball.org or 07917-623222.
