Weekend washout scuppers baseball plans

Unsurprisingly at this time of extensive drought across the UK, British Baseball still managed to get called off en masse due to rain.

As so often is the case (in anecdotes at least, not statistically), all senior baseball fell foul of the inclement weather, with fears that there could be a second weekend of inactivity for some should the deluge have had long-lasting damage; some fields remained flooded or unplayable at least until Wednesday evening.

The limited sunshine over the weekend broke long enough to allow some youth action on Saturday, with Cartmel Valley, the Manchester Saints and Halton Polecats doing what they could to play out a three-way tussle in Cartmel Priory School.

Cartmel Valley beat the Saints behind some big innings, but the Polecats came out ahead of the hosts 12-7 to record the only official baseball of the weekend.

Planned opening day events for the junior teams at Forest Glade were abandoned in midweek, with former Eurovision singer Josh Dubovie among the star names set to attend. However, the Forest Glade Ponies and new Feltwell Redbacks were able to play a set at RAF Feltwell, but the new team from Norfolk didn’t have enough in their bag to outduel their experienced guests on a wet, windy and grey afternoon.

But that’s everything from the weekend, so unbeaten records and winless streaks remain in tact. It’s unclear yet as to how many of last weekend’s matches will be rescheduled for the proposed rain date this Sunday (6 May), but with only a handful of games set to take place and fields still flooded, it looks like yet another bank holiday weekend could be ruined by rain!

In the NBL, the Croydon Pirates will be hoping to get rid of their goose-egg when they travel to the once again in-form Southampton Mustangs, while the Harlow Nationals and London Mets have a chance to dance again following their opening day split. The GB Juniors are also scheduled to be in action at the Nationals-Mets matches.

AAA sees an almost full schedule, with the Essex Redbacks and Liverpool Trojans (both 4-0) taking on the Latin Boys (2-1) and the Cartmel Valley Lions (3-1) respectively. The Halton Jaguars (0-2) visit the Menwith Hill Patriots (2-2) while the Bolton Robots of Doom are also hoping for their first win at this level against the Manchester As (1-3). Elsewhere, the Bristol Badgers and London Metros will both be looking to kickstart their season against one another, the Metros currently winless and last season’s AAA South champion Badgers holding a 1-1 record.

In AA North, two weeks of wiped-out action means that the rain dates through the season will come in handy. The Harrogate Tigers travel to the Oldham North Stars, both keen to get their first wins of the season, while Manchester Torrent travel across the Pennines to take on the Sheffield Bladerunners, both teams having swept their opposition in their last and only action this season. Another ‘perfect’ record is on the line when the Hull Scorpions welcome the Newton Aycliffe Spartans, with the team from the north east hoping to make an impact.

Only the Poole Piranhas and Herts Hawks are set to square off elsewhere, as the Midlands teams are looking to use the rain date to schedule some Midlands Minor League action against other development sides, including the West Midlands Razorbacks.

Single-A sees scheduled match-ups between the Essex Archers (2-0) and Tonbridge Bobcats (0-1), as well as the Guildford Mavericks II (2-0) against the Richmond Dukes (0-2), but with so many free teams, diamonds and dates it would seem a wasted opportunity not to have rescheduled matches from last weekend where possible.

Junior baseball on Saturday should see, weather permitting, some interesting season and league debuts, with the Bracknell Wildfire taking on LondonSports.com at their Wormwood Scrubs base, while Horsham, Herts, Forest Glade and Feltwell all hit the diamonds in the south, with Manchester and Halton hitting the field again after being unable to complete the three-way action at Cartmel Priory School last weekend.

And that’s all the British baseball.