A cloudy day turned to sunshine as eight teams from Leeds, Manchester, Bristol and the East Midlands joined us at the Adel War Memorial Association sports grounds in north Leeds. Our one-day recreational charity tournament raised over £500 for Leeds Mind via a popular raffle and our dark side and light side jokers. These could be purchased from the umpires and used to “force” the rules to bend them to your team’s favour. We saw great plays (even if some were overturned by a judiciously played joker), and some of it in fancy dress too! We would especially like to thank the Softball Shop and anyone else who donated prizes to the raffle.
An initial 3 game round robin saw lots of close games (and a few draws), with Cheeze (Leeds Cheekies + Manchester Freeze) topping group A and B-sides (Nottingham Uni’s team) topping Group B. Jokers were joked, plays of were replayed, leading to a few messed up score sheets and adding some spice to the games. Captains had to pick their moment, and keep their fingers crossed that their opposition weren’t able to overturn their card. All played in good spirits, and all players, from rookie to not-so-rookie, enjoyed a fun, friendly one-day tournament. Our tournament MVPs for the favourite plays of the day were awarded to Sam from Cheeze and Gina from Bobcats.
After the round robin, the top teams played for the Empire Trophy (Softball Darth Vader) and the lower teams for the Padawan Cup (Softball Anakin Skywalker). The Bobcats represented Leeds in the Padawan Cup Final against BAM, representing the Bristol and Manchester leagues. In a final of two halves, and despite going behind, BAM brought it back to win 13-12. In the Empire trophy, the experience of Cheeze from Leeds and Manchester faced off against a talented and youthful B-sides from Nottingham. Cheeze were victorious 13-8, securing the top trophy for the second year in a row.
Thanks go to the dedicated umpires on the day, who went above and beyond (far, far away), as well as to the tournament organisers. We hope to do this again next year and would love to see you all there again. May the Fourth Third be with you!