See you upstairs at the Roundhill at 18:15 for a prompt start. Email us so we know you’re coming!

Indoor: Sunday 19^th February

We’ll be at the Stanley Deason Leisure Centre from 10:30-13:30. See you there!

BSUK Funding Confirmed for Waterhall Development

Good news folks! Thanks to the efforts of Jon from Hove Tuesday, the BSUK have granted the Brighton & Hove Softball League £5,000 for the development of a softball pitch at Waterhall. What’s the next step? The League now needs volunteers who are willing to donate their time to clear the site and make it useable for our outdoor season. More details will be sent to you after the AGM, but we hope that many of you will be able to help out.

Wednesday 22^nd February: The Basketmakers

We’ll be at this legendary North Laine ale house from 19:00.  Click here for a map link.

Free training courses

Want to learn emergency First Aid? Click here for more details: http://bit.ly/yBk9Qq. The Council is also offering safeguarding training and more. For more details click here: http://bit.ly/wVq81e. To book your place please contact us.

Just in case you didn’t get it the first time: the AGM is now on Wednesday 15th February

We’ve had to change the date to 15th February to allow more members to participate. To help the Roundhill Tavern with seating arrangements please could you RSVP by Friday 10th February. There’s a lot to get through so we’re starting early, allowing a break for food and hope to be done by 22:00.

Wednesday 8th February

This week’s pub will be the World’s End on London Road. If you like carbs and BBQs, you’re going to love this place. We’ll be there from 19:00.

Next indoor: Sunday 19th February 10:30-13:30

The next session is in two weeks’ time at the Stanley Deason Leisure Centre – see you there!

Scoring clinics

We are hoping to run these in March, just in time for the outdoor season. Watch this space…

Why?

Because we have some exciting news: We’ve been informed of a possible major funding opportunity to develop the former baseball pitches at Waterhall into softball pitches. Find out more, get involved and have your say on Wednesday night at the Prestonville Arms. Be there for 19:00 for food, or 20:00 for the meeting.

The Brighton & Hove Softball League Annual General Meeting took place last Friday, and here are the minutes:

BHSL_AGM_2011 minutes

Softball in Brighton & Hove is run by the players for the players, so let us know if you want to get involved!

‘Twas the final tournament of the season and two new captains stepped forward to chance their arms.

Excel spreadsheets, laminated position sheets and post-practise ginger cake. oh yes, this was a different approach alright.

9 games later, and the rest as they say is history. 7 wins, one well earned draw and one loss due to a lack of time was a fine effort for a team that danced as well as it played. But the important thing to note is how we turned that loss around in the final and won against the Bean Machine 7-4. The scenes of jubilation at the end will live long in the memory.

Some may disparage that “it was only D grade” but do we care? Do we hell. Did they see the other C grade teams masquerading as D grade? Did they hell. And do they get the glory of the holding the winner’s trophy or drinking the cans of Strongbow? No. This was a team effort by the Beachcombers and everyone involved will be proud of what they did ’til the day they hang up their glove.

We came, We saw, We smiled, We laughed, We Won. This is the Beachcomber Way.

However, there is no time to rest on our laurels as there is Indoor Softball to contend with. The first league date has come around faster than expected with the first of four dates in the October / November League coming on Saturday 8th October. As the timescale is so short, we have opened up the team to all of Brighton & Hove’s Softball Teams. With less than a week to put a team together, it’s important that you get your name to us as soon as possible. Please email brightonbeachcombers@gmail.com (put London Indoor in the Subject Line) if you are interested.

Here’s the answers to some questions we get asked a lot about Indoor Softball in general and the London League in particular.

Q: Where is it?

A: We play at Play On Sports in London’s fashionable Docklands. Location information is on the Play On Sport website under Location and Contact. It takes around an hour and 20 minutes to get there from Brighton.

Q: What is the venue like?

A: It is a converted warehouse. It has a unique charm about it… and very little heating. However, Indoor Softball makes even the coldest people work up a heat, so the answer is to wear plenty of layers that you can put on and off easily.

The games are played on courts usually used for netball and 5 a-side football and are carpeted (as opposed to the shiny floors of Stanley Deason Leisure Centre). Ordinary trainers are fine; do not bring your cleats; slide with caution.

There is netting around the courts and the ball remains in play if it rebounds off the netting. The Captains on the day will give you full details of the rules.

Q: Can I get a lift please?

A: Yes, if it can be arranged, though if you do drive there is free parking at the venue and do not be shy about asking for contributions from your passengers towards petrol. If you can drive, let us know as we’d like to take as few cars as possible, but at the same time, not ask people to go by train if we can help it.

Q: What do I need to bring?

A: Your glove if you have one. A bat if you have one, but you need to be comfortable with seeing it repeatedly dropped on a carpeted floor.

Also, bring your game face. Indoor Softball is fast paced and against the clock. It is a huge amount of fun, but you need to have your wits about you.

Q: What are the dates?

A: All dates are Saturdays, speak to Liam or email us for more details.

Q: How many games and when do they start and finish?

A: The schedule will vary each time, but expect first pitch to be around 9:00 or 10:00am, finishing no later than 5:00pm. There will be around 7 games played in that time, with each game being made up of 2 innings per team, lasting 5 minutes each. They aim to give us a game-on / game-off format wherever possible.

Q: Why haven’t you answered my extremely important question?

A: Because we don’t know what it is. Email us at the address above.

Becky Taylor captained the All-Stars, and had the following words to say afterwards:

We laughed and I almost cried.

It was definitely a weekend of thrills and spills, tense games and moments of pure victory.

In case you forgot, the scores shook down like this:

Sat Game 1: 5-6 Ninos

Sat Game 2:7-6 Knicks

Sat Game 3: 12-3 Comets

Sat Game 4: 15-1 KillaWhales

Sat Game 5: 5-5 Clapham Thunder

Sun Game 1:14-7 Manchester Thunder

Sun Game 2:15-5 OAPs

Sun Game 3: 4-3 Let the Girls Play

Sun Game 4: 10- a homerun after a tie (12?)  Ninos

6 wins, 1 draw and two losses.

A few thank yous:

Ben, for helping me make difficult captaining decisions and hitting a few home runs (I’ll even count the one they bought back!)- and for sorting our spot out as soon as registration was open!

Emma, for being a great cheerleader and sorting our classy kit out- and hitting that great shot last at bat and under pressure

Liz, for coming on Sunday and kicking arse at home- definitely play of the weekend

Linda and Kelly- for doing a great job in the infield and making some amazing plays

Jon, for making first look easy and not taking a piss on home plate-there’s always next year!

Martin, for hitting those line drives down first base

Jordan, for making those left field catches

Wendy, for those pops over the infields’ head

Sarah D, for those catches in RF and your help and support in the last game

Sarah T, for throwing yourself into what ever we asked you to do- notably last minute substitutions!

Simon, for smashing the ball down third base

George, for some great work at 2 last game Saturday

Adam, for scoring and having an extra hard head for hands up time

Liam, for getting that home run we really needed and getting on bag that last at bat

Phil, for daring the blue to call those pitches illegal and making some great plays

Scott, for the dark ones that came back out of the bag

I was extra proud of the fact that we didn’t really know each other as a team and pulled together and kept our cool against teams that had practiced together for years- even when they scored some against us.  I really hope that this team is here to stay in some capacity- with a bit of development we could pose a real threat to all those established competitive teams out there.

Keep those tee shirts, I’d like to see them out again next year- suggestions welcome!

All the best

Becky

Meanwhile, the Brighton Beachcombers team were busy winning their division.

This week’s Wednesday pub will be the Thomas Kemp pub in Kemptown. See you there from 19:00. Check the calendar for next week’s pub.

Lastball success!

The Beachcombers brought home the bling this weekend from winning the D-grade competition at Lastball 2011. Thanks to expert captaining from Amy and Nic, our kick-ass team breezed to victory. Well done guys!

The Brighton & Hove Softball League All-Star team, made up of Beachcombers, Hove Tuesdays and BLAGSS were also present at this tournament. Ably commanded by Becky, the BHSL All-Star team narrowly lost in the B-grade finals. All in all, Brighton & Hove softball rocked this weekend.

Right then, there’s a few of us going to a wonderful thing called the Apple Festival next month and we were thinking there’s lots of people out there that would like it too, so instead of going alone, how about we all go together?

It’s basically a festival about apples which means cider. There’s bands and sheep racing and cider, and food, and cider and country-bumpkin type stuff and a bit more cider. It’s really good fun. I might be wrong but I remember there being a bit of a funfair too. If you want to get an idea of what goes on then have a look-see here.

So the important bits:

The Venue

Middle Farm on the A27 near Firle.

The Date

Sunday October 16^th.

But how will we get there you ask? Well we’ve got a cunning plan… If enough of you say you’re interested then we’ll look into hiring a minibus. So what say you? Are you interested? We’re just looking for a show of hands at the moment.

Your Reply

Well to start with it’s going to be a yes obviously, but we would appreciate it if you could let Tor or Nic know via email by Wednesday 28^th September. Yes that is a bit random, but a day is a day is a day right?

Let’s face it, we already know that you all like cider, and music, and having a good time so this is clearly more up your street than some badly parked cars and an overturned recycling box (which; by the way; collection for was yesterday…..you missed it again).

Tor and Nic

Brighton Team For London Indoor?

Quite a few Brighton players have been playing for odd teams in the London Indoor Softball League in the last couple of winters, and there’s been much talk about entering a Brighton-branded team this winter.

For that, we need a captain willing to organise it. We’re after volunteers, so give it a think and let us know if you’re interested!

The last practice of the outdoor season will take place this week on Preston Park from 6pm. It will be softball with a difference, so don’t worry about bringing your gloves, bats and balls. After the practice we will head to the Open House for food and drinks.

Thank you coaches, kit organisers, kit transporters, kit storers, social organisers and the BHSL!

Just to say a huge thank you to all our coaches who have continually provided the club with great coaching this season. A big thank you to all of you who have helped ensure that the right kit has been in the right place at the right time. To our Social Organisers: thank you for ensuring that there has been a table with the Beachcomber name on it each week at the Open House. Finally, to the BHSL: thank you for organising the league games and extra events – it’s been a fab softball season and we look forward to next year.

Lastball 24th and 25th September

Good luck to all Beachcomber and BHSL players going to the Solent Lastball tournament next weekend – bring some silverware back to Brighton.

Heads up for indoor

In case you are wondering what happens now, we will be organising indoor softball in Brighton on a fortnightly basis at the Stanley Deason Leisure Centre in East Brighton. In addition, there are various London tournaments that Beachcomber players will enter. Register your interest now by emailing us – dates and times will be announced shortly.

Autumn and Winter Wednesday nights

If you really are lost for something to do on a Wednesday night our Social Organisers will be creating a city-wide Wednesday night winter pub crawl and activities. Dates and locations will be posted on the calendar shortly.

End of season bash

To celebrate the end of this year’s outdoor season we will hold a Beachcomber soirée during the Autumn (date and venue TBA). In keeping with the tradition of previous years, we will be handing out various awards and prizes on the night. Please email us to nominate the most deserving players for the following categories by October 2nd:

• Most injured player of the year
• New player of the year
• MVP (Most valuable Player) of the year