The end of another successful season of baseball and softball development in the East Midlands will come on Sunday 6 October with the annual "Battle of the Shires" tournament, a triple-bill of women's fastpitch, baseball and co-ed slowpitch games, to be hosted by the Leicester Blue Sox at Western Park.
At last year's inaugural Battle of the Shires event, Leicestershire took the title from Nottinghamshire -- and the event also provided the inspiration for the creation of an all-female East Midlands Fastpitch League (EMFL) in 2013.
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Spearheaded by Paul Cooper from the Nottingham Fastpitch Club, a former GB national team coach and Academy Softball Director, the idea of the EMFL began to develop during the off-season in close partnership with Giovanni Ciotti of Leicester Blue Sox Baseball Club.
Paul Cooper said: "There had been a building interest in fastpitch in our region, with some of our players involved with the Great Britain Fastpitch League. However, with the time and cost restrictions [of playing in the GBFL] due to the length of travel down to Richings Park near London, it became desirable to set up a league of our own here in the East Midlands that would centre on women's fastpitch".
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Two teams
Although there had originally been hopes of having a three-team competition, the league started in April with two teams: Nottingham Fastpitch and Leicester Blue Sox Ladies. The teams have played a series of fixtures throughout the season and although Nottingham has come on top in 2013, many of the games have been incredibly close and exciting.
The league has attracted many new female players to the sport who would not necessarily have considered the co-ed slowpitch version of the game.
Giovanni Ciotti said: "We started running introductory sessions in Leicester in March and interest has grown very quickly through word of mouth. Many of the women who have joined were looking to be part of an all-female team to enjoy an athletic as well as a social experience."
In Nottingham, recruitment has developed through an existing core of female slowpitch players from the long-standing East Midlands Slowpitch League, as well as those who had played fastpitch at school when they were younger.
Each programme has also helped develop female coaches and leaders. Beth Perkins has been leading the effort in Nottingham, looking after recruitment and training, while Hedda Meijer has been the main organiser and coach in Leicester over the summer months.
Some minor modifications to Leicester's existing baseball field at Western Park and Nottingham's slowpitch ground at Bestwood were needed to enable fastpitch to be played, but both diamonds are now more than adequate and this has mitigated the requirement for purpose-built facilities, which are of course in short supply in this country.
Pitching
Games were initially played with experienced 'neutral' male or female pitchers until each team could train their own female pitchers from within. This method worked very well and brought a genuine feel of the fastpitch game to new players right from the beginning, instead of starting with inexperienced pitchers who instead have been able to work on their accuracy and confidence this summer in a safe environment on the training ground
Pitchers and coaches were mentored during the summer by GB Women's Team Pitching Coach Megan Brown, who is also an Assistant Coach at the University of North Carolina Pembroke and by Katy Austin, one of the players from the school, thanks to funding from a Sport England Small Grant.
By taking this approach, the programme has been able to bring through selected players to pitch while maintaining the overall quality of play and, more importantly, to continue to develop existing and future pitchers thanks to input from their club coaches.
Progress
Paul Cooper said: “We had some wonderful games which were played with great spirit and sportsmanship this year. The players' understanding of the game improved as the season has progressed and a solid foundation has been created for an even bigger and better league next year, with the prospect of more baseball or softball clubs interested in setting up their own fastpitch teams."
"I would like to thank Liz Knight from BaseballSoftballUK for all her support on this initiative,” Paul added, “and of course Bob Fromer for writing the grant application and Stan Doney for his assistance with the grant award and overseeing the pitching development strategy that wouldn't have been possible without it.
“During the off-season we hope to run some East Midlands Fastpitch workshops that will focus on further skills development so we can hit the ground running in 2014. Roll on the next season!"