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By Bob Fromer
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Ostrava, Czech Republic: 7 July – Most of the players and staff on the GB Under-16 Girls’ Fastpitch Team arrived in the Czech Republic late on Friday night, started to get to know each other Saturday morning, and then trained and played a scrimmage game with the tournament favourites Holland in the afternoon.
It was a bit of a baptism of fire for a GB Team that does not have a single player, and only one staff member, who was present when the team last played in the European Cadette Championship two years ago in Sardinia and finished fourth, just missing out on a bronze medal.
Then, there were only six teams in the competition, but this time there are 12, which presents both challenges and opportunities for a new team and staff that only have three days to bond, work on systems, decide on positions and figure out how to maximise the team’s potential before the tournament starts with two key games on Monday.
Positives​
GB didn’t win the scrimmage against the Dutch and the coaches weren’t concerned about the outcome, but a lot of positives came out of a game that was scoreless for the first two innings and only 1-0 to the Netherlands after three.
Later in the game, both teams requested extra batters and outs to get their players more at-bats and more runs were scored by the Dutch as the structure of the game was stretched.
GB put a run on the board as well, in the top of the sixth inning, on a walk to Hannah Edwards, a Dutch error, a perfect sacrifice bunt by Eliza Esiri and a sharp single by Ivy Clark that was too hot for the Dutch first base player to handle.
Other promising signs included two scoreless innings pitched by Hannah Edwards, with the Dutch managing only one bloop base hit; several good plays at shortstop by Diana Nisbett, including starting a double play; good catches in the outfield by Esme Potter and Rose Taylor Bhanji; two baserunners put out at the plate by catcher Caitlyn Frank; and a fine throw from third by Michelle Shaw that beat a Dutch baserunner by a whisker.
The final score, fairly meaningless in terms of the way the game was played, was 11-1.
Good effort
Head Coach Johanna Malisani said, “We as the staff were very pleased with today’s effort, first at training and then during the game. The team did a great job implementing the systems we want to run and controlled the controllables: communication, effort and being good teammates.
“Today was about getting our athletes together for the first time as an entire unit,” Johanna added, “and getting in quality reps and touches in a competitive environment, which the Dutch provided. We look forward to continuing to learn and get 1% better each day.”
Looking forward
Tomorrow (Saturday), GB will play a second scrimmage game in the morning against France and will then have further training sessions on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
France is one of the two teams GB will face in their first round-robin group on Monday (the other team in the group is Serbia), and French coaches were in the stands today watching the game against Holland.
The first round-robin will finish on Tuesday morning, and it will be straight on, hopefully, to the first Championship playoff round-robin on Tuesday afternoon, which the GB team will almost certainly be part of if they can win one of their two group games.
Should GB beat both France and Serbia, they won’t have a game at all on Tuesday but will have to play all three of their second round games on Wednesday.
The remainder of the playoff schedule will be similarly packed, ending up with the final Page Playoff among the top four teams on Friday afternoon and Saturday.
Players and staff
The GB players here in Ostrava are:
Rose Taylor Bhanji
Ivy Clark
Elise Coulthard
Hannah Edwards
Eliza Esiri
Caitlyn Frank
Kira Kenny
Jasmine Lee Tin
Glenys McGuire
Diana Nisbett
Esme Potter
Emily Rosindell
Michelle Shaw
Jessica Woodhams
The staff consists of Head Coach Jo Malisani and long-time GB Under-16 Assistant Coach and BSF Hall of Famer Joss Thompson, plus two more Assistant coaches who are former and current GB Women’s Team players: Hall of Famer Laura Thompson and Sian Wigington.
Having GB players work as coaches for younger age group teams is a big step forward for the GB programme, and has resulted in a staff with exceptional experience.
The Team Manager is Leah Holmes and the physio is Edwin Lam, who was the physio for last year’s European Champion GB Under-19 Women’s Team.