A scorching weekend with temperatures in the 28-30 Celsius range saw teams from Bristol, London, Manchester, Swindon and Leeds at the West Park RUFC grounds in Bramhope, Leeds. This venue was last used by the Leeds league approximately 15 years ago - and it was a delight to be back. Teams commented on the good quality of the pitches, especially the use of astro turf in the batter boxes preserving them over the hot weekend.
Some side event olympics were run on the main field near pitches 1,2 and 3, featuring a pitching competition into a washing machine drum (Mike from BAM aced this), fastest base running (Rohan from BAM was lightning!) and fastest throws between bases from home and back again (Bobcats won this event).
Bronze and Silver divisions (8 and 7 teams respectively) played in an initial round robin to place teams into upper and lower brackets, with Bronze playing an elimination bracket and placing games, and Silver playing a second round robin in upper (4 teams) and lower (3 teams) brackets.
Burderop Bombers dominated Silver, winning all their games and taking home the upper Silver trophy, truly an unstoppable team all weekend. Similarly Manchester Stingers commanded Bronze, winning all their games and taking home the upper Bronze trophy. In lower Silver, Bobcats and Thunder II enjoyed close games all weekend finishing with a tense final with Bobcats claiming victory, and even seeing the tournament controller step in to pitch the last few innings! In Lower Bronze Nottingham Tigers and Badgers fought out a tough final seeing Tigers as the eventual winners.
Thanks go to the tournament organisers for an enjoyable and well-run weekend, as well to the umpires for their fair appraisal of the games. Post-tournament group chats were filled with lots of positive comments from players and umpires alike. The Leeds tournament organisers are already planning next year’s fun - see you there!