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.

A successful indoor season!

We are pleased to announce that our team came second in the WMDMSL indoor league, after 10 weeks of competition. Well done team!

The squad: Don, Sara, Lester, Wes, Darren, Debbie, Roy, Charlotte, Denise, Dan R, Michael, Helen, Rowena, Liz, Emma and Ian

To finish off, Chalfont entered into the all day indoor tournament on Saturday 23rd March, and finished in third place.

Now we look forward to the start of the outdoor season, as soon as the snow on the ground has melted away!

Emma
CSC Secretary

Club Training

Indoor Training
Our coaches are running our last indoor training session on Sunday 24th March, 11am - 12.30pm at the Falcon Sports Centre, Stoke Poges, SL1 3LW so please dust off your glove, and come along!

Outdoor Training
The first outdoor training session will be on Sunday 7th April, and we will continue to train on Sunday's until the clocks go back and the evenings stay lighter for longer. Then training nights will move to every Monday evening throughout the season. More information to follow!

Emma
CSC Secretary

Tournament forms available

It's time to start planning your summer! Do you want to play tournaments for Chalfont Softball Club this season?

Tournament forms have been distributed, so please fill them in and return them to our tournaments officer Louie Pereira by emailing them to tournaments@chalfontsoftballclub.co.uk

Currently on the list are:

Windsor Firstball, Farnham Park - 27th April
Diamond 1, Farnham Park - 11th & 12th May
Diamond 2, Farham Park - 8th & 9th June
BA, near Heathrow - 15th & 16th June
Pioneers, Canterbury - 22nd & 23rd June
Bristol Main, Bristol - 6th & 7th July
Windsor, tbc - 13th & 14th July
Diamond 3, Farnham Park - 27th & 28th July
BSF Nationals, Farnham Park - 10th & 11th August
Bristol Rec, Bristol - 17th & 18th August

Please note that we will only enter a team(s) into the tournaments we have enough interest for.

Thank you!

Emma
CSC Secretary

Club move to Farnham Park confirmed

At the end of last season, our governing body BaseballSoftballUK began work on building new premier softball facilities right on our doorstep in Farnham Park, Slough.

Being in the local league, all WMDMSL teams have been given the opportunity to play on these brand new diamonds this season, and Chalfont Softball Club will be doing just that. Phoenix, Flames and Firebirds will be playing their home games on some of the best fields in the country in 2013!

Very exciting times for our club.

Emma
CSC Secretary