The GB Men’s Fastpitch programme has achieved a notable milestone, with the biggest move up the table of any country in the latest World Baseball 
Softball Confederation (WBSC) men’s fastpitch world rankings.
In rankings published at the end of 2023, GB had climbed seven places from 32nd to 25th in Men’s Fastpitch, a jump of seven places, four more than any other country managed to achieve.
GB’s rise in the standings reflects a busy and productive summer in 2023, in which a growing GB Men’s Fastpitch programme sent three teams to European Championship competition for the first time ever: the Senior Men’s Team, the Under-18 Men, and, for the first time, an Under-16 Men’s Team.
In 2023, for the first time, the programme had teams at every level of men’s fastpitch competition that European softball offers.
Results
In terms of results, the GB Senior Men’s Team finished eighth out of 12 teams. Highlights of the tournament were an 8-1 win over Sweden, and a very creditable 8-0 loss to the all-conquering Czech Republic on the first day of competition.
Convincing 20-9 and 9-2 wins over Croatia helped the GB Under-18 Men reach the bronze medal game in their tournament and only a 4-1 loss to a powerful Denmark team in that game kept GB from achieving a medal.
The GB Under-16 Men were playing in their first-ever European competition, and for some of the newer players on the team, who were only recruited to the sport at the beginning of the year, the Europeans were a baptism of fire. But the team performed creditably despite not winning a game, finishing fourth and earning admiration from all of their rivals and from tournament officials for their sportsmanship and spirit.
Bearing fruit
GB’s climb in the Men’s Fastpitch World Rankings is a tribute to the progress that has been made since the decision was taken by the BSF, early in 2019, to build men’s fastpitch national team programmes almost entirely around home-based players. The previous policy, through European Championships in 2018, had been to rely largely on overseas-based players, at least as far as starters were concerned.
Since that time, many more young players have joined the programme, almost all of them play in the Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL), there is a greater retention of players in national teams, and our ability to compete in Europe is slowly growing.
The sharp rise in GB’s world ranking shows that the programme is bearing fruit.