Slowpitch competition for men's, women's and co-ed teams and fastpitch competition for men's and women's teams will be featured alongside 27 other sports at EuroGames 2011, a major sporting and cultural festival aimed at LGBT participants but open to all that will take place in Rotterdam, Netherlands from July 20-24.
The softball competitions will run from Thursday, July 21 through Saturday, July 23, starting at 9.00 am, and will be played at the Euro Stars ground, a recently renovated softball venue located in Capelle a/d Ijssel, east of Rotterdam, easily reached by public transport.
Registration
Teams from all over Europe are expected to take part, but individual players without a team can register for a team assignment by contacting softbal@eurogames2011.eu.
Teams will be able to specify whether they want to play fastpitch, slowpitch or both when they register for EuroGames softball, and players can take part in both single-sex and co-ed competitions. Three games in each tournament are guaranteed -- but of course there will be a great deal more to the event than just the softball, with a major programme of cultural events planned as well.
More information can be found on the EuroGames website.
Tournament rules
Twelve teams per day can be hosted at the Euro Stars venue, and the organisers will announce when the different competition formats will take place nearer the time.
However, Saturday, July 23 is being reserved for the co-ed slowpitch competition, which will be limited to 12 teams on a first-come first-served basis. The co-ed tournament will be played as a 5:5 competition.
Tournament rules will follow ESF regulations, except that no new inning will be started after 75 minutes and teams will need to have a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 15 players.
The EuroGames organisation will supply game balls, umpires and scorekeepers.
Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded for all three competitions, as well as personal prizes for the Best Hitter and Most Valuable Player in all competitions.
The final deadline for entering a team or registering as an individual player is July 1, 2011, and 18 is the minimum age for participation.
Cost
There will be no cost for registering a team, but players on each team will need to pay an individual entry fee. If paid before April 30, this will be 100 euros for EGLSF members and 120 euros for others; if paid after May 1, the fee will be 130 euros for EGLSF members and 150 euros for others.
More information about registration can be found at: http://www.eurogames2011.eu/en/register-now.
All teams will be received with open arms -- they do not have to be LGBT orientated. The EuroGames is based on understanding and respect for all sexual preferences, opinions, religions, races, colours and creeds.
Accommodation and travel
The EuroGames has its own traveldesk for hotels, flights and hosted housing.
Special travel offers are mainly for flights combined with hotels, but the travel desk will gladly help will all arrangements if you contact: traveldesk@eurogames2011.eu.