The 2007 B & C Single-Sex Slowpitch Nationals, the largest ever held with 27 teams in total, was played on the weekend of July 28-29 at the University of Central England’s Moor Lane Sports Ground in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham.
With the weather relenting to give a largely sunny but chilly weekend, Manchester swept the honours in the men's section, with Manchester Matadors crowned as Men's C Champions and Manchester Hoggs blasting their way to the B Nationals title.
But in the women's section, southern teams took the honours. Blue Sox were the Women's C Champions, bringing a national title back to Bristol for the first time in several years; while Mad Cows from London captured the B Championship in a thrilling final.
None of the winners from the 2006 B & C Single-Sex Nationals were able to repeat as champions and only one – Women’s B team Edinburgh Thistles – even reached a Final.
The only tournament to have a formal Plate competition was the Men’s C Nationals, and the Plate Winner was Glasgow Legends, who defeated the East Midlands Wombats 11-6 in the Plate Final.
MVPs from the four Trophy Finals were:
Men’s C Nationals:
Adam Roberts (Nottingham Exiles)
Men’s B Nationals:
Pete Nightingale (Manchester Hoggs)
Women’s C Nationals:
Kirsty Leach (Bristol Blue Sox)
Women’s B Nationals:
Callie Batts (London Mad Cows)
Manchester Matadors had the look of winners from the start of the weekend to the finish. They went 7-0 in round-robin games and won most of them easily thanks to strong batting up and down the lineup and clever pitching by Carl McCarthy, who turned a strong wind on Sunday to his advantage.
Nottingham Exiles were almost as impressive, losing only to the Matadors during round-robin play. So it wasn’t surprising that these two reached the Final. Both teams breezed through their semi-finals, Exiles butchering Edinburgh Saltires 19-3 while Matadors were never really challenged in a 14-5 win over Edinburgh Ramparts.
A competitive Final was anticipated and the game lived up to that billing for the first two scoreless innings, as defences were on top and the teams managed only one hit between them. Exiles’ pitcher Adam Roberts, who won the MVP award for the Final with a combination of solid batting and good pitching, was matching Carl McCarthy by using the wind to move the ball into strike zone but keeping it out of the middle of the plate.
But with one out in the top of the third, the Matadors began to show the batting form that had carried them through the weekend. Daryl Goh and Simon Burnage singled sharply to left, the Exiles failed to get a fielder’s choice they might have had at second base and that opened the floodgates. After Lee Englestone singled, Gordon Milson tripled and the Exiles threw the ball around chasing baserunners, the Matadors had a 4-0 lead.
The Exiles got one back in the bottom of the third when Paul Webb reached on an error and scored on Andrew Tabner’s single to left, and they scored two more in the bottom of the fourth on singles by Adam Roberts and Mark Bowman and three Matador errors. At that stage, the Matadors were only leading 5-3 and the Exiles were, as they say, hanging around.
But despite the relative closeness of the score, it felt like a game in which the Matadors were always in control. In the top of the sixth, Carl McCarthy singled, the Exiles again just failed to get an out at second base on a fielder’s choice and Kris Hadwin’s line drive to right-field was misplayed into a three-base error. The eventual result was three runs and an 8-3 lead.
The Exiles still wouldn’t give up, and cut the lead to 8-5 in the bottom of the sixth on singles by Adam Roberts and Gareth Browning and two more Matador errors. In fact, the Matadors racked up eight errors in the game and will need to work on defense if they move up to B-grade next year.
Matadors added a final run in the top of the seventh on a double by Simon Burnage and a single by Lee Englestone to create the final margin of 9-5, as the Exiles went down tamely in the bottom of the seventh.
The Men’s C team that had been consistently the best throughout the weekend gained their just reward.
While the Manchester Hoggs always looked strong, with four GB Slowpitch players in their lineup, it was EM Pulse that set the early pace, going undefeated in the group with five wins and a tie and running up a 14-5 win over the Hoggs on Saturday morning.
The Yorkshire Puddings from Leeds went 0-6 and were generally out of their depth, but none of the other teams could be taken too lightly.
As group winners, EM Pulse went directly to the semi-finals while the other six teams squared away in quarterfinals, where Cockney Rebels edged out eminem8 7-5, the Hoggs trashed the Bruisers 22-0 and the Tartan Army made surprisingly heavy weather out of beating the Yorkshire Puddings 3-1.
All this set up two thrilling semi-finals that were unexpectedly close. In one, the Manchester Hoggs edged out the Tartan Army by 7-6. In the other, EM Pulse expected a relatively easy passage to the final against Cockney Rebels. But the Rebels scored two first-inning runs, EM Pulse scored one – and that was it. The game went the full seven innings, the defenses were brilliant, the pitchers were accurate and no more runs were scored. The Pulse were stunned – no title defence for them -- and the Cockney Rebels had made it to the Final.
In retrospect, the Rebels might have wished they hadn’t. They took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on two infield hits and a Hogg error, but the Hoggs came out with all guns blazing in the bottom of the inning.
Simon “Student” Hepburn opened the game with a single, the Rebels botched a fielder’s choice and then Pete Nightingale lined a vicious triple to left-centre, Danny Gunn stroked a sacrifice fly, Steve Ashton doubled and Shane Stark hit a long home run to left. Ed Watkinson should have flied out to right-centre but the ball was dropped and then Mark Sanders and Scott Cassell doubled and Paul Fagen and Lawrence Matheson singled. By the time the carnage ended the Hoggs had eight runs and the game was effectively over.
Cockney Rebels were scoreless in the second, third and fourth, and by the time they scored their final two runs in the top of the fifth on two Hogg errors and singles by Dan Symons and Richard Brown, they were already down 16-1. The Hoggs posted three more runs in the second inning on singles by Paul Kidley, Pete Nightingale, Danny Gunn, Ed Watkinson and Mark Sanders and added five in the fourth on four singles, four errors by a demoralised Cockney Rebel defense and a triple by Ed Watkinson.
The final score was 16-3 and it really wasn’t even that close.
Six teams competed in the tournament – Bristol Blue Sox, London Raiders, Oxford Diamonds, Manchester More Minx, Edinburgh Nessies and the Edinburgh/Glasgow Gallus Besoms.
London Raiders (“Get Your Hits Out”) were undefeated during round-robin play to top the group table, while Bristol Blue Sox suffered only a 7-2 loss to Raiders. Edinburgh Nessies, a finalist last year, failed to win a game but did push the Raiders hard in an early round-robin encounter on Saturday, going down by only 10-9.
When it came to the double-elimination playoffs, the Oxford Diamonds, who finished third in the group standings, suddenly came to the fore with an unexpected 8-2 win over Raiders that sent the London team into the losers’ bracket. When Diamonds pulled the same number on the Blue Sox in a thrilling 7-6 win, it set up a Blue Sox v Raiders showdown at the end of the losers’ bracket to see who would get to the Final.
Blue Sox came out on top in a 6-5 thriller and carried that momentum right into the Final, where they scored early and often to overwhelm Oxford Diamonds by 25-14.
Edinburgh Thistles were the title-holders and favourites at the start of play – and true to form, they led the group at the end of day one with a 3-0-1 record. Close on their heels, though, were the Mad Cows with a 3-1 record, with the two teams yet to meet. This match-up took place at 9.00 am on Sunday, and while the Mad Cows were convincing 15-3 winners, the Thistles, knowing they would finish first or second, made some personnel changes for the game. So neither team felt the result was the end of the story.
It did mean, however, that the dark horses, Mad Cows, topped the group after the round-robin stage with a 4-1 record (their only defeat coming at the hands of Manchester Minx, who lost all their other pool games!). This gave both Mad Cows and Thistles a bye through the first round of the double-elimination playoffs.
Thistles had to await the outcome of the 3 v 6 game, No Balls v Manchester Minx, which the Minx surprisingly won. But that victory gave them the dubious privilege of being thumped 18-2 by the Thistles. When the Minx were immediately thumped again, 18-5, by No Balls, their tournament was over.
Meanwhile, the Mad Cows watched a very close 4 v 5 game between EM Pulse and Charmed Ones, with the Charmed Ones prevailing 8-7.
When Charmed Ones moved on the game against Mad Cows, the Cows got an early jump and led 4-1 after the first inning. But by the end of the third inning the Charmed Ones had evened the score at 4-4, which is where matters remained going into the fifth and final inning. In the top of the fifth, Mad Cows added two runs and knew they just needed to stay tight to win. But some hits, a key throwing error and then a long drive that split the outfielders brought in the winning runs for Charmed Ones. Suddenly the first-place Mad Cows were one defeat from exit.
That meant Mad Cows next faced EM Pulse, and the loser would be heading home. The Pulse took an early four-run lead but the Cows responded and the score was 6-6 going into the seventh inning with the tie-break rule in effect. Pulse batted in the top of the inning and posted two more runs. Mad Cows knew they had to do whatever it took to push runners round and fortunately for them, the first two batters reached on walks. Catcher Jenny Fromer then hit a ball to the right side of the infield that was bobbled by the Pulse second base player, allowing two runs to score to tie the game, still with no one out. The next Cows’ batter, Callie Batts, hit the ball into left field and brought Cat Wright home with the game-winning run.
The rest of Mad Cows’ route to the Final involved another comeback in an 11-10 victory over fellow London team No Balls, followed by a re-match against the Charmed Ones that ended 10-4 to the Cows. In each case, the Cows were inflicting a second double-elimination defeat on their opponents to knock them out of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Thistles were having aneasier route to the Final: their decisive win over Minx was followed by an equally convincing 15-4 victory over Charmed Ones and then the Thistles could sit back and wait to see who fought their way through the losers’ bracket to join them. As it turned out, it was the Mad Cows.
The Final was the Mad Cows’ sixth game of the day, and their fifth without a break so they were certainly tired. But the Thistles may have suffered from too much time off on Sunday and from playing fewer and easier games.
In the event, quite a crowd had gathered along the grassy knoll beside Pitch 1 to watch the two teams go at it in the Final.
Thistles batted first and their first two hitters lined out to shortstop Casey Faulknall. The third batter, Ruth Macintosh, hit a hard line drive that was neatly snagged by right-fielder Erin Garofano.
Mad Cows fared no better in their half of the first and left Sandra Forbes, who had singled for the only hit of the inning, stranded.
In the second inning Helen Craig led off with a single for Thistles, and with one out, sharp singles from Fiona Hunter and Nikki Thomson brought in two runs.
Thanks to consistent pitching and fine defensive play from both teams, including a fantastic diving catch from Cows’ second base player Callie Batts, the score still stood at 2-0 to Thistles going into the top of the sixth – and Thistles’ Nats Moir scored to add one more run to their lead.
But in the bottom of the sixth Mad Cows had the top of their order up and they finally found their bats. Leadoff hitter Callie Batts singled to left field, quickly followed by a looping single to the same spot by Casey Faulknall. Then came Lisa Festa’s single up the middle to score Callie. Switch-hitter Sandra Forbes was up next and drove the ball hard to left field for a double. But the ball was misplayed in the outfield and Sandra followed Casey and Lisa home, giving the Mad Cows the lead for the first time.
Tension mounted when Lorna McDowall led off the seventh for Thistles and drew a walk. But Lesley Morisetti flew out to Tanya Moran in left-centre and Courtney Buchanan hit a fly ball to left fielder Lou Axon. The Cows were just one out away. But Cows’ pitcher Vicki Read, in her tenth game of the weekend, walked Megan Lowe to bring the Thistles’ dangerous leadoff batter Shawna Hendry to the plate. Shawna took two balls and fouled off a strike before hitting the ball into the air for the very reliable Lou Axon to catch cleanly in left field to end the game.
Mad Cows had not only won their very first tournament ever, but were B Nationals Champions!
Format Preferences. BSF Tournaments Officers Liz Graham and Lesley Morisetti have been experimenting with formats at National Championships to give teams a maximum number of games but making sure all of them are meaningful. Placing games at Nationals have been eliminated over the past year as part of this effort, and now it looks like the preferred format for many teams and players may be round-robin followed by double elimination leading to a Final. This was the format used in the women’s competitions at the B & C Single-Sex Nationals, and according to Liz, “The men are asking for this for next year.” This year, the men’s competitions had round-robins followed by quarterfinals, semi-finals and Final for the B Nationals and semi-finals and Trophy and Plate Finals for the C Nationals.
Flexible Facility. Groundskeepers at the University of Central England’s Moor Lane Sports Ground were helpful and flexible during the days leading up to the tournament, postponing a final decision as to whether the ground would be playable to the last possible moment. The heavy rains that afflicted the West Midlands over the past two weeks and caused all the flooding in Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire had left the ground saturated. Fortunately, the weather improved on Friday and the groundskeepers gave the all-clear. Although some of the eight fields were a little soft, all were playable – and though there was more rain on Saturday night, the daylight hours on Saturday and Sunday featured sunny intervals and a drying wind.
The Future is … Birmingham. The Moor Lane ground, discovered late in 2006, has now hosted two tournaments this year – the League All-Star Nationals and the B & C Single-Sex Nationals, but Liz Graham and Lesley Morisetti see the number of tournaments there increasing in future. The university seems happy to have Softball and it might be possible to squeeze in as many as 12 pitches on the ground, which is flat and reasonably well-maintained.
What is a B Team? Sour grapes or a justified complaint…? Some Men’s B teams at the Single-Sex Nationals noted that the title-winning Manchester Hoggs had several GB Slowpitch Team players in their lineup and wondered aloud – including one official complaint – whether this wasn’t really an A team in disguise. On the other hand, all the Hoggs’ players were currently (or in one case formerly) from Manchester, and the Manchester League itself doesn’t have any A-grade teams, though the Mavericks are borderline. And when there was still a Men’s A Nationals and pretty much this same Hoggs team played in it, they got thumped. Many teams of both genders throughout the B & C Single-Sex Nationals have A-grade players on their rosters (the MVP of the Women’s C Final was Bristol Blue Sox and GB player Kirsty Leach), so the real question is: how many A-grade players does it take to change a light bulb or make a B team into an A team? This is something the BSF may need to look at.
Can’t Get Enough. Even after the last game finished at the B & C Single-Sex Nationals, the trophies were presented and the teams and organisers were packing up their cars and leaving the ground, there were still some diehards playing a Softball game on Pitch 8 in the late afternoon sunshine. Some people just can’t get enough!
Bob Fromer