Weekly Round-Up

Plenty going on in the league last week...... updates to be found below.  Also its last call for subs if you’ve not yet paid, these are severely overdue please pay your captain this week (£50 Full, £25 Concessions).  

Phoenix 8 - 11 BA Jets (A Game Changer Automated Report!)
Ten hits weren't enough for Phoenix as they lost a shootout, 11-8 in seven innings. Neil Turner had a busy day at the plate, collecting two extra-base hits. He singled in the first inning, tripled in the fifth inning, and doubled in the seventh inning. Home runs for BA Jets came when Martin homered in the fourth inning and Craig homered in the fourth and sixth innings. Craig, Stephen, Martin and Debbie further helped BA as they combined for nine hits and nine RBIs. Chalfont Phoenix jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the top of the first. Neil got things going for Chalfont Phoenix with a single. A single by Liz then moved Neil from first to second. Chris singled, plating Neil. Chalfont Phoenix pushed more runs across when Warner scored on a sacrifice fly by Davey, Chris scored on an RBI single by Tash, and Woody scored on an RBI single by Phil Masters. BA Jets didn't relinquish the lead after scoring six runs in the fourth inning when it scored on two doubles and two two-run blasts. One run in the top of the fifth helped Chalfont Phoenix close its deficit to 6-5. A groundout by Chris gave Chalfont Phoenix life. But, Stewart got Woody to fly out to end the inning. BA Jets added five more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Craig kicked things off with a two-run home run, scoring Michaela. That was followed up by Martin's triple, plating Stephen and Trudie. After pushing across three runs in the top of the seventh, Chalfont Phoenix faced just a 11-8 deficit. A two-run double by Neil fuelled Chalfont Phoenix's comeback. Stewart got the last out, as Chalfont Phoenix's Sarah flew out. 

Chalfont Flames 12 – 10 Richings Park
The Flames won back to back games thanks in part to their 4th pitcher in 4 games: Lester Deeble. Again it was a tight game until the 4th inning when the Flames batted around and 9 runs crossed the plate - RP battled back with 4 runs but the Flames defence held their own and RP came up 2 runs short in a 12-10 defeat. James Rowe lost his 100% record as mom as this was awarded to Luis Hernandez who was tasked with playing SS as a leftie. Barbara Georgellis was the female mom. A special mention to Karen Jones who made a good catch and reached base despite playing through the pain barrier. The team enjoyed their first outing on the full diamond and look forward to going over the .500 record. 

Chalfont Firebirds 16 v 15 Bracknell Scorchers
An exciting full 7 inning game! To be honest we didn't start well. We couldn't get the bats going and a few errors in the field left us all but beat. At the end of the 4th inning we were losing 13-3! The team got together, we had a chat and decided we are better than this. We really had to get the bats going and start fielding as we can if we wanted to make any difference in this game.  In the 5th we conceded 1 scoring 6 which helped us all to regain composure.  In the 6th again conceding 1 but only scoring 2. Now this is where the magic begins, we start off very well by shutting them out!  Then we are at bat. We score 3 runs the 1st out we get another run but 2 down now and tied ball game. Roy is up and makes base, now it's Helen's turn and we just need a base hit or to find a hole in the outfield. Time is dragging and I've forgotten the count, I wait Helen hits! It's a great hit and Roy is home, ball game calls the blue and we are so happy jumping and cheering!  MVP: Dan Rose, DoM: Gwyn Jones (Special Fielding), All Star players: Kristen Rose and Chris Howse.

League standing can be found here: http://www.chalfontsoftballclub.co.uk/On_The_Pitch/League_Standings.html 

Best of luck for the week ahead!

Tournaments Update

What a month June has been, our club participated in 3 tournaments consecutively in various grades of play with some very good results. Check out my tournament summary report below, hopefully this will encourage some of you to join in the fun next time.

Diamond II (Farnham Park) - June 8,9

Our Club participated in the B Comp category this time after a great 3rd place at C comp during Diamond I. This time at a higher level of play our team managed to play very well and finish runners up in the Plate final, really good result at this level of play for our club. We started off really well on Sat with a 4-1 record putting us in great contention for the Cup group placing. Obviously this is a tournament so after a great night party with most of the team - and about 200 other campers - Sunday morning was a slow start, we lost our first game. With an hour off the team bounced back and managed another win from an undefeated team Blitz, moral was high and gave us that extra energy to finish the day. We have another piece of silverware for the virtual cabinet, ChaaChinggg!

Team: Louie, Phil, Wes, Chris H., Chris S., Dan, Lester, Catherine R., Sara, Angie, Tash, Barbara, Sarah W.

BA (Heathrow) - June 15,16

This tournament was also entered as B comp being part of the club experienced player development but availability was very poor and meant that the team was short players during both days. The weather conditions were not favorable either so not such a good result for us as intended initially. Having to ask other teams for players is a challenge because players need those hour breaks in between so trying to convince someone to sacrifice their resting time - or drinking time - is hard work. Luckily we always managed to find some players and all games were played. The team started off with a great win of 3-2 over KK's who are a good B comp team however we then lost every game from here forward, we managed to get a draw on the Sun when Lester took over as captain for the day because I was not available, Thanks Lester!

Team: Louie (Sat), Phil, Lester, Chris S., Dan (Sat), Gwyn, Roy (Sun), Debbie, Donna, Catherine (Sat), Naomi (Sat)

Pioneers (Canterbury) - June 22,23

This is the highest rated tournament on the Co-ed Softball calendar and it was proven once again why this is a fact, what a weekend. I chose this tournament as our club TOUR because it has the best party atmosphere and venue to offer, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. As an incentive to players and to ensure the team was fully energized after every game, we had to do a team TOUR bomb which was either a Jaeger Bomb or Skittle Bomb, this was our secret weapon. (Jaeger bomb = Jaegermeister + Red Bull, Skittle Bomb = Cointreau Triple Sec + Red Bull) Our team played in the Rec Comp and we played every game with laughter, great banter, and even some crying (I think someone's beer got knocked over), it was a winning formula. We were undefeated up until the final where we lost to Leeds who had the same record as us, we managed to draw 19-19 during our group games where Wes and Woody ended the game with an amazing double play as they threatened to win in the last inning. There were so many highlights this weekend that I could write pages describing events, everyone played very well, you had to be there to get a sense of just how great a weekend it was for our club. There was an event called 'flip cup' where they gave us free beer - I know, who wants that right - and you probably guessed it, we got involved straight away and challenged Leeds to a drink off and won! Although we came runners up in the final and were not given any silverware to show, the memories will last forever and the words "Chalfont", "Team TOUR Bomb", "Dirty Leeds" will echo in many heads for years! Our Tash won MVP in the final so make sure you all congratulate her at some point, it was well deserved.

Team: Louie, Lester, Wes, James, Chris S., Sara, Sarah W., Tash, Donna, Liz Williams, Catherine R.

Sorry if this is a long read but I hope you enjoyed it and perhaps it will encourage more of you to play in tournaments. Next tournaments are WIT July 13,14 and Diamond III July 27, 28, I need some female players for Diamond III so please contact me if you are interested.

Regards,
Louie
CSC Tournaments Officer

Outstanding Membership and Match Fees

There are still a large number of members who are yet to pay their 2013 membership fees. These are now long overdue. You should expect frequent chases from your league and tournament captains for payment if you have yet to pay. Please also ensure that you keep up to date with league match fee payments - ideally you should never turn up to a league game without sufficient payment in your pocket.

June 24th Training Cancelled

It is with huge regret that we are going to have to cancel the training session that is planned for this coming Monday (24th June). This is a one off cancellation and training will resume on Monday July 1st.

We do not take the cancellation of sessions lightly but however most of our coaches are attending a "Coach the Coaches" session at Farnham Park on Monday evening. There are more details below, but when our coaches are presented with unique opportunities to better their coaching skills then we as a club have to see it is an investment in them and we hopefully all gain the benefit in the long run.

We therefore ask members for their understanding on this cancellation and urge you all to put July 1st in your diaries now so that we have a great turnout when training resumes in just over a weeks time.

The "Coach the Coaches" session has been organised by the BSF and ASA. Two high-level American slowpitch coaches with national and international experience are touring the UK from June 20 through July 3 to provide coach-training for team representatives from slowpitch leagues around the country. The emphasis of the sessions will be on teaching coaches how to run effective practice sessions, how to teach techniques and skills and how to check to ensure that learning has been received and understood.

You can read more in a BSF article - ASA slowpitch coaches plan UK tour

Junior Softball

As you may or not be aware Neil with the assistance of some of our other coaches has been running after school softball clubs at Dr Challoners in Amersham and Challoners High in Little Chalfont. The students are aged around 14, and the clubs have been very successful averaging in total across the two groups around 35 attendees every week. Last week they competed in a local School Games tournament against five other schools in our local area and successfully qualified to play in the County Sports Games softball tournament taking place next week in Stoke Mandeville.

The students are very enthusiastic and are showing great potential to become good players. Response has been good and many have already been asking how they continue to play once the after school sessons finish in the next couple of weeks.

With that in mind and to keep interest up, we are going to run 6 Friday night junior softball sessions through July and into August. The sessions will take place on the Challoners High school fields between 6.30pm and 8.00pm. The sessions will be aimed at the groups that we have been working with, along with students from some of the other schools that took part at School Games. The idea is to run the sessions for around 30 juniors this summer and then build on it next spring/summer. The ultimate aim of our junior softball programme will be to develop future members our our adult teams and hopefully produce a steady flow each year of new players in to the teams.

The sessions are likely to be half skills and drills and then half game. If you would like to help with the sessions then please let Neil know (development@chalfontsoftballclub.co.uk) - it would be great if you could just give up one early Friday evening and help out. The sessions will be planned and delivered by our qualified coaches but assisting volunteers/players would be much appreciated.

2013 Membership fees are overdue

2013 membership fees are well overdue and if you have not paid yours then please make sure that you pay them as soon as possible. To remind you:

• Full senior membership - £50
• Persons in full-time education or long-term unemployed - £25
• Junior membership (U18) - £25

Along with your membership fee - please ensure that you also complete the 2013 membership form. This needs to be done every season to ensure that we have your most up to date information.

Please can you hand your form and/or fee to either Chris Howse, your captain as somme as possible.

President's Day 2013 - Monday August 26th

A big thank you to all those that took the time to complete our member survey about President's Day. Results show that the majority agree with:

• It taking place on Monday August 26th
• At Farnham Park
• We mix up Chalfont players to form the teams

So with that in mind we have now booked with BSUK on of the diamonds for that Monday and we can now start planning the day. We are going to run a four team tournament made up largely of Chalfont players, however we will fill up any remaining places once we have everyones availability with our friends from around the league and softball community in general. Captains on the day will be:

• Louie Pereira - Defending captain
• Neil Turner - President
• TBC - If you want to do it, or have a suggestion then let Neil know
• TBC - If you want to do it, or have a suggestion then let Neil know

The day will probably run along the lines of a round robin tournament with each team playing each of the other three teams. This will give six games. There will then be some sort of play-off for the trophy. Neil is currently investigating food and drink options and more news will be posted about this in the coming weeks. To cover the cost of the pitch hire, there will be a small match fee for the day for all players.

All that remains at the moment is for members to:

• Put date, August 26th in your diary
• Either let Neil (development@chalfontsoftballclub.co.uk) know whether you will be playing or not or keep in eye out for the Teamer notification for the event in next couple of days.

If you would like to help to organise this event then please let Neil know.