The BSF's Co-ed National Championships for league teams was held at Farnham Park on the weekend of August 10-11, and the Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze titles were spread across four different leagues from the south of England.
Winners
Mescalitos from the Greater London Softball Mixed League took the Platinum title, defeating previous winners Manchester Greensox 18-8 in the final.
Chalfont Phoenix from the Windsor and Maidenhead League won the Gold title, defeating previous winners SPAM 21-11 in the final.
The Red Sox from the Cardiff Softball League took the Silver title, hanging on to beat the Maidenhead Royals 17-16 in the final.
And the Sluggers from the Solent Softball League won the Bronze title, defeating the Sheriffs from Nottingham 14-7 in the final.
How it worked
Twenty-four teams had originally entered the Co-ed Nationals, but one team had to be withdrawn due to a lack of qualified players.
So the tournament began on Saturday 10 August with 12 teams competing in Comp and 11 in Rec. Two round-robin groups of six teams were set up in Comp and one group of six teams and another of five teams in Rec.
After round-robin play was completed on Saturday, the top three teams from each Comp group went forward to the Platinum competition and the bottom three teams from each Comp group went to Gold.
From the Saturday Rec groups, the top three teams went forward to Silver and the remaining five teams competed on Sunday for the Bronze title.
Teams in these four groups – Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze – then played another round-robin on Sunday, but where teams had played each other on Saturday, those results were carried through and counted on Sunday.
In the Platinum and Gold competitions, the top four teams from the Sunday round-robin went through to semi-finals and a final.
In the Silver and Bronze competitions, there was a more complicated structure involving elimination games that eventually produced the two finalists.
Sunday Round-Robins
Interestingly, only one of the teams that finished on top in the Sunday round-robin groups went on to win the title in their competition. That was Chalfont Phoenix, who went undefeated in the Gold round-robin with a 5-0 record while all of the other five teams in Gold – Oxford Angels, SPAM, London Guerrillas, the Oddsox and the OAPs – had records of 2-3.
The Nottingham Brewers topped the Sunday round-robin in the Platinum competition, though tied with the eventual champion Mescalitos on 4-1.
The Maidenhead Royals led the Sunday round-robin in the Silver competition with a 4-0-1 record to 3-1-1 for the eventual champion Red Sox.
And the Sheriffs from Nottingham led the Sunday round-robin in the Bronze competition with a 4-0 record compared to to 2-2 for the eventual champion Solent Sluggers.
Closest final
The only one of the four finals that was close was the Silver final between the Cardiff Red Sox and the Maidenhead Royals, in which Maidenhead went into their final at-bat seven runs down but almost pulled off the win.
A flavour of the end of the game, which ended 17-16 in favour of the Cardiff team, was sent in by Red Sox captain Holly Ireland:
“Bottom of the seventh. A lead of seven runs had diminished in the confusion of nervous throwing, but we had somehow found two outs.
“A shout from the dugout: 'Holls! That's the tying runner on first!' I point to the runner and shout to my fielders, 'That guy does not get home!'
“The tall batter steps in the box and slowly waggles his bat, preparing for a game-winning home run. The field is quiet as the next pitch is thrown.
“The batter connects and sends the ball soaring. Barry, in centre left, shouts 'BAAAAALLL!!!' and we all watch as he runs for the ball that finally lands comfortably in his glove.
“We all scream and toss our gloves in the air! The first softball team from Cardiff to compete at National Championships has just won the final!”
MVP awards
MVP awards for the Co-ed Nationals were as follows:
Bronze
Karen Brazier (Sluggers)
James Porter (Sluggers)
Silver
Steph Gillard (Red Sox)
Gary Green (Maidenhead Royals)
Gold
Gemma Keenan (SPAM)
Chris Yoxall (Chalfont Phoenix)
Platinum
Tori Hewlett (Mescalitos)
Ben March (Manchester Greensox)