by Holly Ireland
When the sun shines in Cardiff, it’s an event. When it shines for a second day in a row, it’s time for a tournament! “The most gorgeous weather Cardiff has ever seen over a two-day period” were the conditions in which the Diffodil organisers attempted to expand on the success of last year’s inaugural tournament, hosted by the Cardiff Red Sox at Pontcanna Fields.
The competition featured six teams in the C Division, and five teams in the D Division – none of whom remembered to bring Factor 50!
Cup winners
Team Phoenix battled it out with the Lucky Strikes for the C-grade Cup, with Team Phoenix emerging as champions. Government regimes come and go, but these two teams will long continue to battle for some Cup somewhere.
The Dragon Warriors, the Cardiff League’s tournament team, turned out in record numbers and produced a second team, the Ddraig Warriors. The Ddraig and the Dragon Warriors battled their way the final in the D-grade Cup, with the Dragon Warriors walking away with the trophy and smiles on their faces.
Other awards
The Force were awarded the C-grade Welsh Love Spoon, while the Valley Wet Socks, Cardiff’s newest league team, were given the same award for D-grade.
The entire tournament was treated to the fun and shenanigans of the Ice Cold Pitchers, who were awarded the Most Sportsmanlike Team award.
Joint Male MVP awards went to Stuart Kellock and David Grey in C-grade and to Pete Griffin and Gareth Sturge in D-grade, while Sophie Ollin took the Female MVP award in C-grade and Anna Whicher in D-grade.
Awards for Home Run Kings and Queens went to Stuart Kellock and jointly to Jo Newton, Kim Yeates and Sophie Ollin in C-grade and to Ed Peebles and Angharad Roche in D-grade.
Sunburn Awards
The very hotly-contested Most Sunburnt Award went to Chris Hoare, though this was protested by several others who think they didn’t get a look in.
To them, the organisers say: “Sun Block!”