Everyone knows that in co-ed slowpitch softball, the team with the stronger women players usually wins.
But now a team of women, including players from the GB Slowpitch squad, will be trying to prove that they can outplay the men when they take on a strong men's team in a special exhibition game at the 2011 Softball World Series, run by BSUK and supported by the BSF, and scheduled for the weekend of September 10-11 at the BA Concorde Club near Heathrow Airport.
The Women v Men game will be showcased on Pitch 1 at 5.45 pm on Saturday, September 10, and the event is being staged to raise money for the GB Slowpitch Team programme. The game was conceived and organised by GB Slowpitch Development Development Squad player Areej Elmaazi from Manchester.
Money will be raised through the sale of special Softball Bingo Cards during the weekend, and all proceeds will go to help the European Champion GB Slowpitch Team, who hope to travel to the United States in 2012 for further challenges.
Strong line-ups
The Women v Men game at the World Series will feature strong players on both sides:
Women
Belinda Alker
Laura Brockman
Vicky Chapman
Areej Elmaazi
Moe Flett
Fiona Hunter
Liz Knight
Chiya Louie
Ruth Macintosh
Michaela (Misha) Sulcova
Marketa Sulcova
Milada Zolobova
Men
Mike Cameron
Derek Carpenter
Brad Gilmore
Steve Hazard?
Michael (Goose) Povelones
Kenny Pregnell
Steve Rice?
Neil Sylvester
Neil Wardrope
Ed Watkinson
This will be a game well worth watching -- as of course will many of the games at the World Series itself -- and spectators are more than welcome.
The BA Concorde Club (Crane Lodge Road, Cranford, Middx TW5 9PQ) is just a couple of minutes' drive off the A312 between the M4 and A4 in West London.
International flavour
The World Series itself -- the 13th since the tournament began -- will feature 18 "national teams", with six of them coming from abroad.
Three teams from Ireland -- the Irish National Team, Munster and the Craicers -- will make up the international contingent along with The Cage from Belgium, a US military team called Bebe's Kidz from Germany and, for the first time, a team from Switzerland that formed following a slowpitch clinic delivered there by British coaches in March this year.
Home-based teams, many of them made up of ex-pats living in the UK, will include England, Scotland, USA, Canada, Africa, South America, Japan/Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Studentenland (a university all-star team), the GB Development Squad, GB Masters and MIA-POW, a US military team from Lakenheath that won the tournament in 2010.