The second annual Chichester Indoor Fastpitch Tournament was played with great success at The Westgate Centre in the city on Sunday 19 March.
Players were invited to enrol as individuals and were rostered into four even teams prior to the tournament.
Entries were filled capacity by tournament day, despite trial for GB Men’s Fastpitch Teams being held in Milton Keynes were held on the same day. As the Chichester Tournament is a co-ed event, this gave an opportunity for more female players to sign up and compete in the only event of its kind in the UK.
Preparation
After a short briefing the players were given the chance to get acquainted with their teammates and were given team shirts supplied by the hosts – warm thanks go out to BaseballSoftballUK for helping to cover the cost of providing them.
A warm-up and stretching session followed before a round-robin got under way.
Each team had a pitcher and at least one catcher. Hugh Scorgie took to the circle for the Yellow Team, Amy and David Morris for the White Team, GBFL stalwart Dan French for the Grey Team, and GB Under-13 player Megan Rollins threw for the Red Team.
Play
With a full 60-foot diamond, the teams were able to stretch their legs and flex their fielding skills as a fun and intense sequence of games filled the afternoon.
The smooth, flat floor meant that ground balls were easier to field, so smart hitting and fast running quickly became the order of the day. Batters started on a 1:1 count in 35-minute timed games: this made for fast-paced innings which encouraged baserunners to take chances more often than they normally might, while the fielding teams were kept extremely busy.
A home run was awarded for either reaching the back wall on the fly or hitting into the viewing area. This occurred many times throughout the day and cued pandemonium in the dugouts each time!
Once all the teams had played each other once, a series of playoffs and finals capped off a spectacular day. The White Team, which had struggled earlier, eventually came out on top in a one-run final against the Grey Team to bring things to a close.
The Plate final was won by the Yellow Team and the Red Team was Plate Runner-up.
Prizes
Prizes (chocolates) were handed out for all four teams to share and MVP prizes were awarded in both junior and adult categories.
Ollie Figg and Rebecca Longman won the Junior MVP awards, while the Adult MVPs were Hugh Scorgie and Kat Golik.
Huge thanks go to First Aider Sue Howley of Howley Training Services, to Mike Crispin and Larry Rushin for helping with plate umpiring, and to BaseballSoftballUK for vital funding that enabled the event to go ahead.