Members of the BSF Executive and representatives from BaseballSoftballUK joined Softball League Heads and Committee members at the BSF’s remote 
annual League Heads Forum meeting on Sunday 20 February.
A total of 23 people attended the meeting, including seven members from the BSF Executive, three BSUK staff members and 13 league representatives.
Leagues that attended the meeting included London, Oxford, Cardiff, East Midlands, Liverpool, Manchester, Solent, Milton Keynes, the London Advertising League and the Great Britain Fastpitch League, while Bristol was unable to attend but sent information related to items on the agenda.
Topics covered during the meeting included a League Health Check after two years of Covid, the 2022 Softball Calendar, league and team registration for 2022, league management systems, slowpitch coaching plans for 2022 and an update on bat certification and umpire training from BASU.
In addition, BSUK representatives made a presentation on the Development Charter, updates from Farnham Park, comprehensive development plans for slowpitch and fastpitch that will be put together over the course of this year, and safeguarding.
League Health Check
All 10 leagues attending the meeting reported on how they had managed to come through two years of Covid disruption and regulations. The overall picture was very encouraging, with leagues showing a lot of resilience.
Most of these leagues found themselves with fewer teams in 2021 than they had had in 2019. But many carried out successful recruiting campaigns in 2021, adding either new teams or players that could help struggling teams to make up their numbers, and most leagues expect to be almost back to pre-pandemic numbers in 2022.
In addition, most leagues have come through the last two years in reasonable financial shape, with loss of income from team fees balanced by fewer outgoings, especially during 2020.
Leagues also came to terms fairly quickly with Return to Play regulations designed to minimise Covid transmission and managed these successfully. If a new variant of Covid was to emerge and regulations were re-introduced, most leagues felt they could cope with this.
However, one league noted, with regard to the 2021 season: “We were stringent about Covid rules, but found a lot of variations at tournaments, which made a bit of a mockery of what we were doing.”
A specific problem for the London Softball League in 2021 was finding and booking spaces where teams could play, with many Councils being risk-averse with regard to accepting bookings and Council officials hard to get hold of as they were either working from home or on furlough. This year, prices for field hire in London look likely to rise sharply, which could present additional problems.
The league that appeared to struggle most was the London Advertising Softball League, formerly the largest league in the country. Last year, the league had just a third its pre-pandemic numbers, with 20 teams rather than the usual 60, though the hope is to get back to around 40 teams in 2022. However, if Covid returns, the Ad League is likely to be hit hard again because advertising industry employees working from home rather coming into Central London is what cost the league so many teams last year.
Calendar issues
Most events on the 2022 Softball Calendar are now posted in the Events section on the BSF website and can also be found in the AGM Pack that can be downloaded from the website here.
BSF Administrator Bob Fromer told the meeting that the number of events looking for dates, and in many cases for playing space at Farnham Park, had increased significantly this year. The separation of NSL from Diamonds – necessary to create an NSL3 division – has meant that three weekends of softball have now become six. The GB Slowpitch Cup has increased from one weekend to two and the Great Britain Fastpitch League has gone from one-day events to full weekends, as has the single-sex slowpitch Chicks with Sticks and Let the Boys play tournament series. With regard to Farnham Park, more baseball requests are being accommodated than was the case in 2021.
All of this has meant increasing difficulty in fitting events into the calendar and minimising clashes between events on the same weekend that could affect each other.
There was a general acceptance of these difficulties at the meeting, but Harvey Pryor from the East Midlands Softball League pointed out that regional league tournaments – and particularly northern tournaments -- seem to be suffering most from clashes that could affect the number of teams they attract, and this is a problem because these tournaments raise important funds for their leagues.
This is something that the BSF will look at closely for 2023, and work on building the 2023 Calendar will begin early, in June or July this year, giving plenty of time for negotiation and changes that can mitigate problems.
2022 Registration
BSF Membership Officer Liz Graham told the meeting that once BSF team affiliation fees for 2022 are approved at the BSF AGM on 26 February, registration forms for 2022 will go out to leagues and teams.
There will be some new fields on this year’s form that leagues and teams will be asked to complete. Some of these will be concerned with safeguarding provisions and in particular to ensure that BSUK, which manages safeguarding on behalf of the BSF, has contact details for league and team Safeguarding Officers.
There will also be a requirement, requested by the providers of the BSF’s Civil and Public Liability insurance, that leagues and teams tick a box to attest that they do not have paid employees.
Finally, the registration form will contain an opportunity for independent teams to sign up directly to BSUK’s Development Charter (for more on the Development Charter, see below).
Spawtz League Management System
The Spawtz League Management System on the BSF website is currently used by only four leagues – London, East Midlands, Solent and Cardiff – and the BSF Executive has been wondering if there is still a need to maintain the system, which the BSF pays for at the rate of £10 per user team.
However, representatives from these four leagues told the meeting that they find the system very useful, and mostly easy to use to create fixtures and league tables, manage rosters etc, and they would be unhappy to see it disappear.
The reason that the majority of leagues don’t use the Spawtz system appears to be either that they are small enough to manage the same functions in-house, or they are using alternative systems.
Slowpitch coach development
BSF Coaching Officer Mike Lott told the meeting that he has recently set up a BSF Coaching Facebook Group and would like to invite all softball team captains to join it. The Group provides links to coaching resources and a forum for questions and answers on coaching issues.
Softball Europe also has a wide range of coaching resources and Mike is hoping to provide links to them on either the BSF and/or the BSUK website.
Mike is also working with BaseballSoftballUK to create plans for slowpitch coach development, but needs more information about what leagues want. He would like all leagues to provide him with contact details for the person on their League Committee concerned with coaching so he can convene a meeting to discuss coach and player development needs and how best to meet them.
In answer to a question, Mike said that organising coaching courses or player clinics locally would be possible, but it would probably be necessary to get at least 10 people to commit to the course or clinic.
Finally, Mike told the meeting that the Softball Academy is back after its Covid hiatus, and players between the ages of 10 and 25 are invited to join. More information on the Academy is available here.
BASU report
BASU Training Officer and BSF Technical Officer Pete Saunders told the meeting that to counteract rumours circulating in the softball community about what bats would be legal in 2022, an article clarifying the current situation with regard to bat certification had recently been posted on the BSF website.
While only bats with a WBSC certification are likely to be legal in international competitions in future – including the WBSC Slowpitch World Cup planned for 2023 – British Softball will accept a wider range of certification, including bats with ASA and ISF stamps, for the foreseeable future. ASA-certified bats are also likely to be accepted at this summer’s European Men’s and Co-ed Slowpitch Championships.
However, anyone buying a new bat, Pete warned, would be wise to buy one with WBSC certification.
The standard BASU Umpire Qualification Course is now online, and Pete said that five leagues currently have courses in progress, which are going well. Trainees watch a block of video modules in their own time, and this is followed by a tutorial where questions can be answered and issues discussed. The full course consists of four blocks of videos plus tutorials, with a field day at the end for assessment.
If any other leagues want to run a course this year they should start soon, Pete said, because it takes time to get through the four blocks of videos given that there are two weeks between each block.
BASU Assistant Umpire-in-Chief and BSF General Officer Lesley Morisetti said that the online course was currently being run for Scotland (plus a few others) and the participants had found it good and easy to do. “It’s valuable even for people who don’t necessarily want to be umpires,” Lesley said, “because they can learn a lot about softball rules.”
BaseballSoftballUK topics
BSUK’s section during the League Heads Forum meeting focused on four topics: BSUK’s Development Charter, updates from Farnham Park, the creation of Development Plans for slowpitch and fastpitch softball and safeguarding.
Development Charter
Leah Holmes, Deputy Head of Development, began BSUK’s section of the meeting with a presentation on BSUK’s Development Charter.
The Charter, which was first launched in August 2020, is a mechanism for any softball club or league to access development and safeguarding services from BSUK at no cost. Its main aim is to support any chartered team, club or league to become safer, stronger and more sustainable. More information is available here.
At this point, Leah reported, 140 baseball and softball clubs and leagues have chartered directly or through their Federation, and high satisfaction levels have been reported from those that have done so. But only 36 of those chartered organisations are from softball, so there is work to be done to increase engagement with the softball community.
In 2022-23, BSUK’s aim will be to improve awareness and take-up of the Development Charter in softball, provide more support and additional services to softball teams and leagues through Relationship Managers and make more online resources available.
“We know it’s not one size fits all,” Leah said, “and that different leagues have different development needs.” Her aim is to organise 1:1 meetings with League Heads, or perhaps meetings with small groups of similar-sized leagues, to make sure that what is provided through the Development Charter is helpful.
Farnham Park
BSUK Head of Fundraising & Partnerships Joelle Watkins told the meeting that the number of grass pitches available at Farnham Park in 2022 and 2023 will be affected by a two-year grass field renovation programme being carried out by the landlord, Buckinghamshire Council.
To mitigate this problem, BSUK is creating a fifth fully-skinned softball infield (ground for this was broken on 8 February) and has negotiated the use of an additional grass field at Dair House School, across the road from Farnham Park. The new fifth softball field, which will be near the existing Pitch 3, will have a backstop, dugouts and sideline fencing, but not a permanent outfield fence.
In addition, plans are afoot to fully skin the softball infield on Pitch 2 (one of the two combined baseball/softball pitches) before the start of the season.
A new and more seamless online booking system for pitches at Farnham Park will be live soon, Joelle said. With 442 bookings that had to be dealt with last year, a better system for administering them had to be found!
Last year, the BSUK Slowpitch Cup was introduced: a blend of slowpitch and fastpitch played under Australian “fully-loaded” rules. It proved popular and this year will be expanded to two weekends, with a Rec version on 30 April-1 May and a Comp version on 7-8 May. Places will be limited, Joelle said, because of the field renovations mentioned above, and registration will open during the week beginning 21 February.
Another event Joelle was keen to mention was the softball tournament at the UK Corporate Games, which is returning after a two-year break due to Covid and will be held this year on 3-4 September at Royal Holloway University in Egham, Surrey, one-time site of the Softball World Series. “It’s a great way to introduce softball to your company or business,” Joelle said.
With regard to Covid, softball played outdoors is now completely unrestricted, but Joelle suggested that it would be good to keep basic hygiene measures in place and to remain sensible about transmission risks. Any questions about this should be sent to Joelle. While nothing is mandatory any more, we want to retain best practice in softball.
In answer to a question, Joelle said that there were no current plans to upgrade toilet and changing facilities at Farnham Park. BSUK had asked the Council to upgrade the facilities in the cricket clubhouse, but the Council had refused (letters of concern sent to the Council would be appreciated).
Finally, Joelle reassured the meeting that prices for pitch hire at Farnham Park have not been raised this year.
Development plans
BaseballSoftballUK is leading on the creation of comprehensive long-term Development Plans for all three formats of our sports: baseball, fastpitch softball and slowpitch softball.
Work started last year on the baseball Development Plan, and the Plans for fastpitch and slowpitch are expected to be completed this year following widespread consultation with the BSF Executive plus leagues, teams and players. The plans are intended to capture an agreed set of priorities for developing each of the formats in the UK, encompassing entry level play through to elite competition, from a child’s first experience to seasoned contributors within our sport.
The Plans are expected to cover the following major themes: Coaching and Workforce, Youth Programmes, Clubs and Leagues, Schools and Universities, Women and Girls, Officiating, Competitions and Volunteering.
“If invited to the consultations,” Joelle told those at the meeting, “we really hope you will be part of the conversation.”
Safeguarding
Erica Barrett, Head of Operations at BaseballSoftballUK, has been working with Stella Ackrell, BSF’s Safeguarding Officer, and Mark Caress, who leads on safeguarding at BSUK, to ensure that BSUK is aware of all Safeguarding Officers working at league and team level within softball so that communication can be enhanced.
She reminded the meeting that Mark Caress can do DBS checks for leagues and teams when needed and that BSUK can run Time to Listen safeguarding courses free of charge.
For all matters to do with safeguarding, the contact email is welfare@bsuk.com.
Insurance question
The final question dealt with at the meeting was whether teams formed to play in single-sex slowpitch tournaments need to pay an affiliation fee to secure insurance coverage.
The answer is that if all team members are from affiliated co-ed teams, they don’t; but if any team members are not on affiliated co-ed teams, they do, at the rate of £10 per day.
Meeting close
An efficient and productive meeting was brought to a close 15 minutes before the scheduled end time by BSF President Ieuan Gale, who looked forward to “seeing” many of the same people at the remote BSF AGM on 26 February.