The British Softball Federation’s Co-ed Slowpitch National Championships, which this year will combine all five grades of play in one tournament event at Farnham Park, will take place this coming weekend, 22-23 August.
While the event may not be as large as the BSF had anticipated, 26 teams will be competing across the three premier fields at Farnham Park and four grass pitches.
A-Grade Nationals
Eight teams, all of whom qualified through National Softball League play this season, will contest the A-grade Premier Nationals. The winner will be crowned as the National Champion for 2015 and will be offered a place in next year’s European Slowpitch Super Cup.
These teams are:
Chromies (defending National Champions)
Slammers
Pioneers
H2O
Blue Steel
Bristol Bees
Windsor Knights
Thunder.
More details on how these teams qualified can be found here.
Comp Nationals
Seven teams will play at Competitive level, which will break down into Platinum and Gold competitions on Sunday. These teams are:
Cheeky Monkeys (Leeds)
Greensox (Manchester)
Nino Pravados (London)
Angels (Oxford)
Raiders Gold (London)
Sheriffs (East Midlands)
SPAM (London)
Rec Nationals
A total of 12 teams will play at Recreational level for the Silver and Bronze trophies, starting out in two groups of six teams each. They are:
GROUP A
Blue Sox (Windsor)
Coyotes (Leeds)
Fuzzy Ducks (London)
Meercats (Manchester)
Misfits (East Midlands)
ADSL Rookies (London)
GROUP B
Tigers (East Midlands) (Defending Champions)
Base Invaders (London)
Falcons (Solent)
Sharks (Manchester)
Red Sox (Cardiff)
United Nations (East Midlands)
Finals
The tournament will come down to five finals, to be played at different times on Sunday.
The Platinum and Gold finals will take place (assuming no weather interruptions) at 3.30 pm.
The Premier Nationals, Silver and Bronze finals will start at 4.15 pm.
All Premier Nationals games will be played on two of the dedicated softball fields at Farnham Park, but all the other competitions will get some games on the third dedicated field, as well as the four grass pitches.
Numbers
The BSF was ideally looking at a 40-team Co-ed Nationals event, with eight teams competing in each of the five levels of play, so a total of 26 teams is only about two-thirds of that number.
According to BSF Tournaments Officer Liz Graham, around 20 teams that had qualified for places in the Comp or Rec Nationals by virtue of league position or tournament results have declined to take up their place this year.
One reason is the BSF’s decision to combine all grades of play on the same weekend, including the Premier Nationals, which means that players who play on NSL teams are not available this year to play for their league team or another independent team. According to Liz Graham, this factor has prevented at least four teams from taking up a place, and may have particularly depressed the number of B-grade (Comp) teams.
Another factor may be that Farnham Park, despite the facilities it offers, is a long way to travel for some teams, especially those in Scotland.
Finally, it may be that the Co-ed Nationals still lack the prestige to be seen as the pinnacle event they should be. Liz Graham said, “There are too many events on all over the country and they don't have the tight regulations Nationals have. Compared to even five years ago, the number of tournaments has probably gone up four-fold at least. Where does it stop?”
As it took three years of discussion and debate to arrive at the point where all the different National Championships are being played together on the same weekend, the BSF will treat this year’s tournament as an experiment and will assess the views of players and teams after the event.
Amenities
One way to make the Co-ed Nationals a more compelling event may be to make it one of the best tournaments of the year in terms of amenities, and this is what the BSF plans to do over time.
Playing the tournament at Farnham Park does provide the best fields in the country, and the BSF plans to have expanded catering options at this year’s tournament, as well as an ample supply of portaloos!
Further upgrades will made to the event in 2016.