The Lost Souls, a team made up of NSL/GB players mixed in with players from the Edinburgh league team Souls, held off a late rally by the 2012 Platinum Champions Manchester Greensox to take the top prize – the Pentlands Cup – at the 2012 Edinburgh Festiball, played at Pfeffermill Field in Edinburgh on August 25-26.
Thirty-two teams competed over four levels of play, with eight teams in each level. Several new teams took part, including a newly-formed Kamikazes B team (the KKs) and the Monmouth Rockets, a group of schoolchildren and their teachers who first started playing earlier this year, and who came all the way from Wales.
After a full round-robin at each level, all teams reached a semi-final in either the Cup or Plate competition at their level, so all 32 teams had the opportunity to win a prize.
As for the weather, it could easily have been worse. Saturday began with a bit of drizzle followed by afternoon sunshine until the last round of games, which had to endure some heavy rain. Sunday started dry and overcast, but by mid-morning the sun came out and stayed for the rest of the day. No wind at all meant very pleasant softball conditions.
Results
Results for the four competition levels were:
PENTLANDS COMPETITION
Cup Winner: Lost Souls (UK)
Cup Runner-up: Greensox (Manchester)
Plate Winner: Slammers (UK)
Plate Runner-up: Rally Caps (Edinburgh)
MVPs: Danny Gunn and Liz Knight (Greensox)
BRAIDS COMPETITION
Cup Winner: Dodgers (Edinburgh)
Cup Runner-up: Guerillas (London)
Plate Winner: Chargers (London)
Plate Runner-up: Outlaws (Manchester)
MVPs: Lucy Binding and Albert Rodriguez (Dodgers)
Dodgers Captain Gilberto Martinez was overjoyed at the win: "After eight years of trying we finally win the Festiball!"
BLACKFORD COMPETITION
Cup Winner: Multiple Monkeys (Bristol)
Cup Runner-up: Spitting Camels (Manchester)
Plate Winner: Mutant Ears (Manchester)
Plate Runner-up: DohNuts (Edinburgh)
MVPs: Alex Shelton and Sarah Bennett (Spitting Camels)
CALTON COMPETITION
Cup Winner: Sporting Hangovers (Edinburgh)
Cup Runner-up: Vandals Edinburgh)
Plate Winner: Vultures (Edinburgh)
Plate Runner-up: Redbacks (Nottingham)
MVPs: Geraldine Cavanagh and Richard Smith (Sporting Hangovers)
Grand Final
The Final of the Pentlands Competition between the Manchester Greensox and the Lost Souls was played in front of a large crowd and in glorious sunshine.
The Souls took an early lead and were 12-4 up after the top of the sixth inning, but the Greensox battled back. Two home runs in the bottom of the sixth cut the lead to 12-7, and a bases-loaded triple by Danny Gunn in the bottom of the seventh helped cut the lead to just a single run at 12-11. But the rally and the game ended with a fly ball out.
The Greensox also just missed a triple play in the fourth inning when Danny Gunn fielded a hard-hit ground ball at shortstop, tagged the runner who had been on second, stepped on second base to force the runner coming from first and then fired to first base – but Liz Knight couldn't hold the throw.