02 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP – AUTUMN CUP 2014
August 2014 – Farnham Park – Imperial College Falcons

‘The team look set to get the one win they needed to improve their dismal softball track record’ – Felix Newspaper, Issue 1585 (24th October 2014).

(Felix was the newspaper article for Imperial College).

Indeed, we didn’t win a single game at our last visit playing softball at Farnham Park in March of the same year.

Liz does such a great job in promoting baseball and softball in the UK, and we very much enjoyed the National University Softball Championships, hoping to return. I knew I wanted to go back.

These tournaments were co-ed tournaments, hence we needed to bring forth a team with equal gender balance. With no women/small ball hitters in the March tournament, this meant we were heavily penalised.

The straight men at Imperial long complain about the infamous ‘ratio’, whilst I prance along not giving a toss, naturally. Stop whinging, fellas. Up to this point, during my time, only one woman came to our training sessions. Elena joined along for a session having played before. She was a talented player, and clearly knew her stuff, however an accident during training led to her breaking her nose due to a rogue baseball. She never returned.

At the start of the 2014/15 academic year, the Falcons would see the joining of five women, ready to play some baseball. This would be just in time for the autumn edition of the National University Softball Championships. We had some unfinished business at Farnham Park, and this was getting a blasted win at that place.

I very much enjoyed the last tournament, as I got to play in the infield most of the time, even though it was partly due to unsavoury reasoning. I was still under the incorrect impression that infield was where all the important players were placed, a far cry to where I am now as a softball player. I was looking forward to returning to Farnham Park, though I had just been there two weeks earlier for the baseball championships. I surely didn’t do very well there as I didn’t get mentioned in the Felix article.

Chris was our trusty minibus driver, driving us across the country to many a game against other universities. He was a great driver, getting the team to places as far-flung as Norwich (to play UAE). Farnham Park is nowhere near as far, thank goodness, so we didn’t have to wake up as early. Chris surely wouldn’t be willing for more long drives. We were to meet up outside Beit Hall, with kit in tow. There was a feeling of excitement across the entire team. Usually, I would have an aura of dread before the journey to a game, however this was notably lacking; I couldn’t wait to get back playing softball, which seemed to be more enjoyable than baseball!

The weather was decent. Sadly, university softball seasons skip the best part of the year, with university students playing from October to March. October usually doesn’t get too cold, indeed; in most of the pictures I took on the day, barely a soul was wearing a jacket or jumper. As always, I wanted to show off my jersey. I always took my appearance on the softball and baseball field very seriously, and I continue to do so to this day. Incidentally, I also wanted to show off my new custom cleats too (though metal cleats in a softball tournament… naughty…)

The carefree feeling I am familiar with these days at tournaments was amazing. 

Our first game of the day was against Nottingham University, who have turned out to be very familiar faces at softball tournaments – and not just university tournies! They have always been a strong side, certainly since 2014. A disastrous second inning where we gave up 5 runs (yes… you got a mercy rule after you scored 5 runs) got us way behind Nottingham. It would turn out that I would help hit back with some good hitting to attempt and catch up with their score.

There seemed to be a lot of walks and strikeouts in the second game – against Loughborough’s B-Team, the Thunder (who I have not seen since) – where we managed to beat them 16-9. This was the first ever softball win for the Imperial Falcons so we were raring to get a second victory.

UEA have always had very strong sides, in both baseball and softball. I spent a weekend in Norwich playing against them – it wasn’t the most fun affair. The pitching, however, seemed to be a struggle for most teams. Perhaps softball pitching wasn’t as easy as it seemed (I did offer to try it out, mind you). There was a lot of walking – innings where four or more people were walked in a row – a fast track to a mercy rule inning. I do remember walking a lot in this tournament, I wasn’t the most confident batter at the time.

This time, the Falcons managed to snatch the win just in the nick of time, with a walk-off… walk from capitano. Two wins! The Imperial Falcons would make their first appearance at a softball semi-final, playing against Portsmouth. They were a strong side, especially with their defence, and our bats had cooled off. Portsmouth got the W scoring 9 against our paltry 2.

Loughborough’s A-Team were our next opponents, surely wanting revenge on the B-Team’s part. They sure achieved what they came to do. They shut us out 7-0. I’m not sure how it’s possible to score zero runs in a softball game, as it has not once happened since to any team I’ve played for.

It was however a great feeling to get those two wins.

This tournament was the most fun baseball/softball experience I had with the Imperial Falcons. During the bus ride back to South Kensington, with a stop off at Harlington, our usual home ground, we were all in good spirits. It would have been awesome to cap off a brilliant day at Goldmine, however we all settled for a more relaxed evening at Eastside bar, where I was sure to drink that disgusting toffee apple cider (I have no idea how I ever stomached that sickly beverage).

I know that there was a 2015 March edition of this tournament that took place, but I’m not quite sure whether we entered or not, or that I refused to play (at that point I had left the Falcons in relatively bad blood). I believe it was the former. Last softball tournament with the Falcons… but nowhere near my last softball tournament ever. Regardless, I would not take part in a tournament until 2017 and would not play softball at Farnham Park until 2018.