Rain rain, go away, come again after September

The start of the second half of the British baseball season didn’t really go to plan. Although there were some strong performances throughout the leagues, the weather wiped out most of the schedule and postponements and rearrangements, added to the umpire strike earlier in the season, could mean that some leagues won’t actually complete their full schedule if the rain persists.

In what was anticipated by many to be the most exciting fixture of the weekend, the two unbeaten teams in single-A met in Cambridge as the host Royals took on the Southampton Mustangs II. The Royals (9-0) wiped the floor with a 21-9 victory over the Mustangs II (10-1), a margin that few would have predicted going into the weekend.

Elsewhere in the division it was the Old Timers who moved to .500 in their battle for second place with the Braintree Rays, nabbing a 15-4 win in the rain, and the London Marauders (6-4) moved into a commanding second place in Pool B with a 31-21 slugfest victory against the Herts Raptors (0-7).

Three rain delays interrupted the Redbacks II-Brentwood Stags AA South match, but Sean Briscomb threw a no-hitter for the first six innings and completed the four-hit shut-out in seven innings for the Redbacks II’s third win this season.

With playoff connotations, the Latin Boys (13-2) swept the Sidewinders (10-5) comprehensively, 14-5 both times, as they stretched their advantage on the rest of Pool A, while the Guildford Mavericks (13-3) picked up two forfeit wins on the Kent Mariners to move further ahead in Pool B. And the Thames Valley Bisons (9-5) leapfrogged the Sidewinders to compound the misery for the Enfield-based team with a win against the Croydon Pirates III (4-8), with the second match rained off. The Essex Archers (9-8) moved into second place in Pool A with a close sweep of the Herts Hawks (4-11).

The Milton Keynes Bucks (14-1) were able to pick up one win over the Nottingham Rebels (9-6) in the Midlands, while the Sheffield Bladerunners (11-5) persevered to pick up two mercy-rule wins over the Humber Pilots (7-9) and shore up second place in AA North in the only action outside of the south.

In AAA there was only one game played of fourteen scheduled across the country, with the Essex Redbacks (12-7) beating the London Metros (9-8) 8-5 before rain wiped out the second fixture. Vince Warner showed his mastery of pitching with his league-leading sixth win in a miserable afternoon for baseball. The Richmond Knights picked up two forfeit wins on the Windsor & Bracknell Bears, which leaves both of them 12 games behind the Bristol Badgers and essentially out of playoff contention.

And the NBL was heavily affected too. The Croydon Pirates’ good form after last weekend’s success at the London Tournament ended at the hands of the Essex Arrows, but although the Arrows won Game 1, with the second match abandoned the Pirates still stay above them in the Pool A table.

Barely any other action was possible and the league is running out of rain dates, meaning there is the prospect of Saturday baseball and four competitive games over the coming weekends in order to complete the schedule.

All this begs the question: When will someone build a dome?! Will we ever be able to play indoor baseball in the UK? Given the sport gets no funding in its current state, and with it not being an Olympic sport baseball is a long way from winning the battle against the elements.