Players

DAN SPINKS

Dan has almost certainly been the best slowpitch pitcher of his generation.  His success is based variety of delivery, great control and his ability to analyse batters’ weaknesses, and he is undoubtedly the best fielding pitcher British softball has seen.  He is also a strong and consistent hitter with home run power to all fields. 

Dan has led the Pioneers (so far) to five National Championship titles and one European Slowpitch Super Cup gold medal and has helped the GB Co-ed Slowpitch Team win numerous European titles. 

In the 2019 European Co-ed Slowpitch Championship in Hungary, Dan gave a sustained exhibition of subtle and consistent slowpitch pitching, holding a number of strong offensive teams to a very limited number of runs and paving the way for the GB Team to regain the European Slowpitch title it had lost for the first and only time in 2017.
 

STEVE HAZARD

Steve is almost certainly the best male slowpitch player Britain has ever produced, a superbly athletic shortstop and a very high-average hitter with huge home run power. 

Steve has been a key player on a number of National Championship-winning teams and has helped the GB Co-ed Slowpitch Team win numerous European titles. 

More than any other player of his generation, he has been able to dominate games and tournaments with both his offense and his defense.  In the field, Steve’s anticipation, range, soft hands and powerful throwing arm have allowed him to make plays that no other British shortstops can, and at the plate, he seems to have the ability to hit line drives or towering home runs, as the situation demands, almost at will.
 

ROGER GROOMS

Roger has long been one of the most intelligent and effective slowpitch pitchers in the country as well as an athletic and innovative fielder at the pitching position and a high-average hitter through his excellent bat control and speed. 

He has led his club team, H2O, to a European Slowpitch Super Cup title and to numerous high finishes at National Championships, and for many years, together with Dan Spinks, provided the GB Co-ed Slowpitch Team with the best pitching in Europe, one of the keys to the team’s success.

Roger’s understanding of the game and his ability to analyse batters and game situations has set a standard for other slowpitch pitchers to follow.


AMY MOORE

Amy Moore was a committed and highly effective GB Women’s Team player from 2012 through the Olympic Qualifier in 2019 which the team only narrowly lost, extending her playing career well beyond university to contribute to the team’s success – and she has come out of retirement to re-join the team in 2022 as it sets out on the road to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

So far, Amy has played for the GB Women in four World Championships and four European Championships, sometimes playing through injury and pain to help the team, most notably at the European Championship in 2015.

Her primary position was catcher, and Amy had had an outstanding four years catching for the NCAA Division 1 team at the University of the Pacific, helping the team to a 32-1 regular season record in her final year.  But she was able to provide flexibility for GB by also playing at first baseball and in the outfield when required.

Amy was a fearless and effective catcher with a strong arm and excellent blocking skills, and was a student of the game, always looking for ways to give her team an edge.

She was also an elite hitter against top-class pitching.  In her eight years with the GB Women, Amy compiled an outstanding batting average of .354, with an on-based percentage of .408 and a slugging percentage of .455.  Some of her best hitting was done in clutch situations against very tough pitching.

As one of the very best players to have played for the GB Women since the team began achieving regular success in Europe from 1999 onwards, Amy thoroughly deserves to take her place in the BSF Hall of Fame.

 

Player and Coach

DAVID LEE

David Lee has been inducted into the BSF Hall of Fame as both a Player and a Coach.

In 1989, while playing rounders with friends on a Sunday afternoon on Bristol Downs, David was invited to join a new sport – softball – in a new league, the Bristol Softball Association, then in its first year.  He hasn’t missed a season since.

In 1999, David made his debut with the GB Co-ed Slowpitch Team, retiring in 2005.  But he came out of retirement in 2012 and was a GB player until 2016, when he was appointed as the team’s Assistant Coach by Head Coach Stephen Patterson.

When the GB Men’s Slowpitch Team was formed, David was a player/coach for the team when they won the gold medal at the first-ever European Men’s Slowpitch Championship in 2018 in Chocen, Czech Republic.

As a highly effective pitcher, a hitter with tremendous home run power, and a player with a fierce competitive spirit, David has also won five European Co-ed Slowpitch Championships and one ISF Co-ed Slowpitch World Cup with GB.

In addition, he has won eight National Championships -- five with Chromies and one each with the Stingrays, Dragons and Pioneers – and was voted the MVP at the BSF Nationals in 2012 while playing for Chromies.

David has also won 10 Bristol League Division 1 titles with the same team playing under different names, and even now, in his late 50s, is still pitching and hitting home runs as proficiently as ever.

David was Chair of the Bristol Softball Association from 2017 to 2019 but has spent much more time as the league’s Coaching Officer, holding that position from 2008 to 2020 and running weekly indoor and outdoor training sessions for the league since 2007.

He has been a BSF Coach-Tutor for Level 1 and 2 coaching courses since 2009 and has regularly run pitching and coaching courses across the country to help develop players at all levels. 

As the GB Slowpitch Assistant Coach, David has helped the team win two European Co-ed Slowpitch Championships as well as the Men’s European Slowpitch Championship he helped win as a player/coach.

Few people have had the impact on British slowpitch softball that David Lee has achieved in both capacities – as an outstanding player and an outstanding coach.

 

Coaches

RACHAEL WATKEYS

Rachael Watkeys has been involved with the GB Women’s Fastpitch programme since 2009 – first as a player on the Senior Women’s Team, then as a Sports Therapist for GB Junior Teams and then, since 2013, as an extremely successful Head Coach for both the Junior and Senior squads.

Rachael took the GB Under-19 Women to their first-ever ISF World Championship in 2013 in Canada and again in 2017 in Florida, as well as to the European Junior Championship in 2014 in the Netherlands, where the team finished fourth and just missed out on a medal, its highest-ever finish in Europe to that point.

Stepping up to the Head Coach position with the GB Senior Women’s Team in 2016, Rachael has had nothing but success ever since, with bronze medals at European Championships in 2017 and 2019, a bronze at the first-ever European Super 6 tournament in 2018, very creditable 11th place finishes at Women’s World Championships in 2016 and 2018 and reaching the final of the Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier for Tokyo in 2019, bringing the team to within one game of Olympic qualification.

As a Head Coach, Rachael has always fostered a collegiate atmosphere among her staff and shown a deep concern for the welfare and wellbeing of her players. 

She has also worked hard, along with others, to gain the funding support for the Senior Women’s Team from UK Sport that was achieved in 2019 and then extended for the 2021-24 Olympic cycle.

One GB age group coach has said: “Rachael has had a huge influence on creating and developing the dreams and hopes of the GB Fastpitch Women’s programme and has truly moved the programme to a place where Olympic qualification is a tangible reality.  She represents the best of British fastpitch softball coaching and continues to inspire athletes and coaches to be the best they can and to aim for greatness.

“For the first time in a long time I am hearing young GB Fastpitch girls talking about 'when' they qualify for the Olympics.  Such a small difference from 'if', but the motivation and belief that has been created in even our youngest cohort of athletes is amazing and that is a legacy that in many ways is down to the work done by Rachael and the staff she works with.”


JIM AND KAREN MURRAY

In July 1992 Jim Murray went along to a training session with the recently-formed Dalriada Demons Baseball Club, and even though he couldn't hit, throw, or catch he was immediately hooked – so much so that six weeks after the birth of his and Karen's eldest child Lewis, he took Karen to their local park for a throw-around.

Karen then started going along to baseball training with Jim, and decided to start an all-female softball team that she and Jim would coach jointly.  The softball team played their first games in the Glasgow League in 1993 but by 1994 the team had become mixed-gender due to difficulties in recruiting enough female players.

At that time there were no opportunities to gain coaching credentials in softball, so in early 1995 Karen and Jim both qualified as baseball coaches.  Also in 1995, the Demons baseball team was disbanded and Jim joined the softball team to help Karen with its management.

By 1998 Karen and Jim had enough players to enter two teams into the Glasgow League.  Both teams won their respective divisions and then faced each other in the inter-division Cup Final!

By now, Lewis had started training with the Glasgow Little League, and so Karen and Jim helped with the coaching there too.  Karen was then appointed by Glasgow City Council to coach children in the east end of Glasgow, and that same year, 1998, Jim was selected a Scotland squad coach.

In early 2006 Karen and Lewis gained their softball coaching certificates, while Jim chose a different route and became a BASU-qualified umpire, having been umpiring games since the mid-1990s.

Karen is a primary school teacher, and has delivered softball coaching to pupils in every school she has worked in.  In the late 2000s Karen and Jim began a baseball club for young children in their local sports centre, though it had to be discontinued after six years due to their other commitments.

Three of Karen and Jim's children now play with the Dalraida Demons – Lewis at shortstop and in the outfield, while Patricia and Anthony are both outfielders. Their other son, James, is a scorer.  Altogether, they reckon they have coached around 250 adults in Scotland and far too many children to count!

Karen Murray has said, “From the beginning our coaching philosophy was to make softball accessible to anyone, and we both enjoy the challenges of recruiting players with no experience and training them to be able to play at a reasonable level.  The players we coach are recruited from all around the central belt of Scotland and from all walks of life.

“When we go to tournaments it is great to see many of the players there whom we have coached and who are now playing for and running their own teams.

"We have had many years of fun and met lots of fantastic people through coaching softball, and are very grateful at the recognition of our contribution to the softball world.”

 

Umpire

CHRIS MOON

Chris Moon was a qualified Rugby Union referee before becoming involved in softball umpiring, first at league level and then qualifying as a national-level official through the British Association of Softball Umpires (BASU) in 2005.

Since then, until he stepped back in 2021 due to ill-health, Chris has been highly active throughout British slowpitch softball, typically umpiring more than 100 games each season and acting as Crew Chief at Britain’s larger national events as well as at the Softball World Series Tournament held annually in the UK, where he met many co-ed slowpitch softball teams from continental Europe for the first time.

Chris has been a Committee Member, Tutor/Mentor and Training Officer for BASU, and was the appointed Technical Officer on the British Softball Federation Executive Board from 2011 to 2021.

Chris qualified as an ESF Umpire in 2010 and officiated at ESF Co-ed Slowpitch Cups and Championships, as well as at established events such as the Windmill Cup in The Netherlands, until he became the lead Umpire-in-Chief for slowpitch in Europe.  In that role, he continued with the task of introducing new umpires – including some conversions from fastpitch! – to the slowpitch discipline within the ESF.

In 2013 Chris qualified as an ISF Slowpitch Umpire and from 2014 through 2016 called at ISF Co-ed Slowpitch World Cups held in Plant City, Florida.  He also developed close links with North American colleagues, friendships that led to him attending Softball Canada’s ‘Blues’ Convention to practice new training skills and welcoming Canadian slowpitch umpires to Europe each year to take part in the annual ESF Exchange Programme.

Ever since those first contacts at the Softball World Series, Chris had become known and respected by all the European slowpitch teams he has met and served.  He called his last ESF game during the European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup in 2016 in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, and retired, as umpires do, by ceremonially placing his cap on second base before leaving the field.  

All the teams present came to the field and provided a spontaneous salute by forming an arch of bats held aloft for his walk from second base back to home plate for the last time.

 

Development Achievement

JULIE SPITTLE

Julie started playing softball with Thames Valley Softball Club around the year 2000, having previously played minor league baseball when around eight years old at her local US air base.

She thoroughly enjoyed playing, and the longer she played the more involved she became, gaining her Assistant Coach qualification in 2010 and her Level 2 qualification in 2012.  Since then, she has put her qualifications to use in a wide variety of situations

Julie’s Brownie unit plays softball in the summer term and has done for a number of years.  She has taught softball to Year 2 classes in her local primary school during PE lessons, followed by a mini-tournament, and has also introduced softball in other schools where either her friends teach or their children attend.

Working through BSUK, Julie has helped introduce softball to young people at the DSC Games, the Farnham Park School Softball Series and the Berkshire and Bucks School Games.  Her own club began running youth sessions in 2016 throughout the off-season with children and young people from five to 14 years of age, and since 2018 Julie has been coaching at BSUK-run youth sessions at Farnham Park.

In 2014 Julie was invited to become the Team Operations Manager for the GB Cubs, the GB Under-13 Girls’ Fastpitch Team.  Having been involved with fastpitch softball since 2010, Julie decided this would be an exciting new opportunity, so she took on the role, organising training sessions, the team’s annual trip to the European Massimo Romeo Youth Tourney in Italy and, in March 2019, to a weekend tournament in the Netherlands. 

Under the guidance of Julie and Head Coach Jodie Rushin, the GB Cubs have been more and more successful, winning a silver medal at the Massimo Romeo tournament in 2019.

Julie said, “I enjoy the role and the challenges it brings, plus all the new faces I meet and the players that we help to get started.”

 

Administration and Organisation Achievement

JENNY FROMER

Jenny was born in the UK to American parents and grew up here before leaving to attend college in the United States.

She returned to the UK in 1990 and soon got involved in the growing softball scene in London, initially by joining what was then a London Ad League team called SPAM.  By 1991 Jenny was running the team organisationally (and is still doing so more 30 years later!), taking SPAM from the Ad League to the London Softball League (then the GLSML) and eventually to the National Softball League, as well as to a number of tournament and League Nationals titles.

Around 1992 Jenny joined the London Softball Federation (which was effectively the national governing body at the time) as a General Officer, and was responsible for organising the short-lived LSF Cup, an attempt to bring the excitement of the FA Cup to softball.

In 1998 Jenny ran as LSF President and managed the organisation until it ultimately was no longer needed (around 2010).  As LSF President, Jenny organised all Regents Park bookings for London leagues, organised Regional Championships (as a route to Nationals), ran other London tournaments, established a corporate softball hire programme for equipment and coaching and set up the LSF website.

Around 2005 Jenny became GLSML’s Tournaments Officer for two years, finding and using new venues for the league such as Hackney Marshes.  She re-joined the GLSML Committee in 2014 and was involved in a major and successful restructuring of the league in 2015.

Meanwhile, from 2000-2017, Jenny worked for BSUK (having previously worked for Major League Baseball) and became Joint CEO (with John Boyd) from 2004 onwards.  During that time she ran many softball events, organised a combined baseball and softball National Championships in Croydon and supported leagues across the country.

Jenny was briefly involved with the GB Women’s Team programme, supporting a training trip to Florida and taking a youth team to compete in France, and in 2015 she organised and ran the BSUK Tournament that was awarded BSF Tournament of the Year.

Between 2010 and 2016, Jenny was also the main organiser for indoor softball in London.

After leaving BSUK in 2017, Jenny was elected BSF President and served two successful terms until stepping down after the 2021 BSF AGM.

Jenny’s contribution to softball as an organiser and administrator has been widespread, long-lasting and of great significance in the growth of the sport.