17 BRISTOL SOMMERBALL 2021
July 2021 – Somerdale Pavilion, Keynsham – Raiders

It was time to captain a tournament. I had captained Raiders Orange for two years at this point, and I had reservations with Nic’s captaining style for the Diamond Tournaments in 2019, hence I really wanted to have a go at running the show myself. Andy was there to help me, having captained many tournaments and possessing years of experience as one of the captains for Blue and Gold.

In the age of Skype, Teams and Zoom, we organised a Skype call (whilst I really should have been working) to plan and discuss line ups, Excel spreadsheets at the ready, we studied the schedule and arranged the roster in different combinations for different games. Andy is always more strategic with how players are placed in the field and in the batting line up, whilst I’m more about everyone getting to play where they like. We had a good mix of experienced and newer players, so this worked well for planning. We were not short of pitchers either, Stephen and I were the two coming along to Bristol. A tournament with just two pitchers always works out very nicely, with my preferred tournament fielding balanced diet.

I have a bad habit of leaving transport and accommodation quite late, the organisation of a staycation was new to me. I would be sharing a hotel with Callum who was more on the ball with these kinds of things, but travel bookings were gathering dust on my to do list. With just a week in advanced, I went to book using The Train Line (I apologise to my trainspotting followers and colleagues for blaspheming).

£68 for a return ticket to Keynsham? Rats! (I could get a return to/from Paris at a lower price!) These tournament weekends are proving more expensive than I had anticipated. That along with £99 for the hotel, which Callum went through the trouble of finding and booking, these tournaments are not a cheap affair.

However, there was another option to Bristol for a far lower price. The coach to Bristol, and this was a return journey, was just £2.80. I pondered, just how does National Express stay in business with miniscule prices like these? Screw it, I’ll take the coach. I like looking out of the window on motorways, there’s plenty to keep me occupied – so just hope that there isn’t any traffic along the M4.

After a day of working from home, it was off to Victoria coach station, backpack and sports bag in tow. I did not possess a softball specific bag so I had to transport my two bats the way I was used to – sticking out of my sports bag which had to be slightly unzipped to fit them in. I make it to the coach station, and it was not long until I heard my name being called out. What’s going on?

It was none other than Liam himself, who surely had the same idea as me, also wanting to save £65. We had booked the exact same coach to Bristol. He helped to get my Miken Primo bat, and he was also very good company. Liam loved to talk, mostly about softball of course, so the coach trip would pass a lot quicker. His softball connections were immense, ranging not only in the UK, but throughout Europe and across the pond – that’s how I managed to get the Miken bat. No-one loved softball as much as Liam did. In 2021, he happened to play some baseball too as the baseball had more or less returned, so we compared our stats, of course. There was tons of chat and gossip to pass the time.

We made it into Bristol; Liam and I went our separate ways. I’m sure he had a pal to stay with in the area, that’s the advantage of having vast connections in the softball world. I headed to the hotel in Keynsham, walking through Bristol itself, a rather beautiful town (though first impressions leaving the coach station were not positive). Temple Meads is on the other side of town and I didn’t want to spend £15 on a cab, even after having saved £65 – so I enjoyed a brisk walk on a warm evening through the town. With two bags, of which one had two bats sticking out the end, I looked a suspicious character. I faced no trouble though and reached the attractive station, to take a small little diesel train one stop up the line.

I met up straight away with the Raiders, who had arrived considerably earlier, having taken their cars. A drink and dinner was very welcome, I was knackered. Callum and I checked into the hotel that he went through the trouble of booking. I opted to sleep on the small mini bed on the side and let him to the double bed for himself. We took advantage of the breakfast; the obvious choice is to go for the full English, which Callum opted for. I was more in the mood for poached eggs and toast, I didn’t want to feel to heavy for the tournament. This order is relatively tame compared to the seabass and milkshake I ordered for brunch, hungover, once (and that’s the story behind that shirt name).

I had a lot of things to lug along with me - the line-ups, scoresheets (of course impeccably presented, and the captain’s pack, along with all my softball equipment and a change of clothes. Captaining a tournament has a lot of differences compared to captaining a league team. This isn’t one game at a time, it’s several over a weekend – so I had to balance letting people play their positions whilst ensuring the most effective hitting line ups. I made sure to rotate the line ups so there was equal amounts of sitting and opportunities for all players. Andy was always there to help out, he also brought some MVP prizes awarded after each game – some cute party hats. He also took the responsibility of texting the scores into tournament control after a win.

Covid-19 didn’t help matters either – naturally we had a couple of understandable drop-outs, but one of the Bristolians, Omer, was more than happy to don the blue and yellow and help us out. A good player he was too.

There it was, that familiar sight which energises me instantly – Bristolian style. All pitches freshly set up, ready for the weekend. When you enter Farnham Park and see everything ready, all true softballers get excited – and it was the same right here. It had been ages since the last tournament, and it was about damn time. Fields of dreams.

I went over to sign the Raiders up and collect our separate balls. In 2021, things were a different as covid was more prevalent. With all due respect to the effort made by everyone to make softball covid safe, I’m not at all convinced the swapping and keeping of balls was of any help, more akin to the arrows in supermarkets. I received a drawstring of four balls, two of each variety, and made sure not to lose a single one. As captain it did mean I got to take all the balls home for myself after, proving to be useful for batting practice with Ian!

Stephen and I, the pitchers of the day, were a little rusty after not pitching regularly for a long while, myself even more so as John Naylor was on Raiders Red in 2021 (when you have John Naylor on your team, bloody use his pitching to your advantage). This would be a good opportunity to get me back into the swing of things.

This was a Bristol tournament, and we were the only London team there. We had the ‘Grandslammers’ in our group (who didn’t hit a single grand-slam), and a team called the Bristol Creamers, which might make you chortle if you have a dirty, immature mind. The team is actually named after a famous alcoholic beverage, Bristol Cream, which I’ve never tasted. I had my first meeting with the notorious Bristol Bam, now very prominent in the softball scene. They have some of the most wonderful jerseys, I almost want to play with them for a future tournament. I’d have to decide my shirt name – all of their shirt names are three words beginning with the letters B, A, M (e.g. Bad Ass Muthaf***a).

We ended the first day with just one win out of five, but it was undeniable fun. Generally us Raiders are mostly there for the enjoyment rather than trying to win trophies, and frankly we were just glad to be playing tournaments again after nearly two years off. At Rec tournaments, though I bring it to you every game, the relaxed mood and the good company are more important to me.

Placing in fifth place in our group, we were due to play against the Bracknell Scorchers. One of the Windsor and Maidenhead League teams, there must be something in the water there as they love their softball and appear at almost every tournament. At the pub, they were trying to get us to do shots with them, a ploy to get us wasted so they could beat us?

We managed to secure one more win on the Sunday. Other than a basecoaching scuffle between two of my teammates, everything went swimmingly and everyone had a good time. The massage gun that Derek brought was very much appreciated too.

Though I didn’t hit any stonking home runs, I remember hitting consistently well. There were definitely far fewer power bunts and weak hits to the shortstop or pitcher than in 2019 (Don’t remind me of those 2019 Diamond tournaments…) The batting practice Ian and I during the lockdowns truly improved my batting, with my main goal moving up the Raiders hierarchy, it all paid off as I made it to Raiders Red in 2021, thus ending the age of my constant whinging about wanting to move up the ranks.

The tournament finished relatively early for us, so we all went home as soon as we lost our last game – sadly missing out on a final. I had pre-booked my coach for the Sunday evening, so I had some time to kill in Bristol town centre. I would have enjoyed the city more had I not had two bags choc full of softball equipment (including a new Demarini bag to replace my green sports bag with the bats poking out). Having two bats behind you in your bag makes you look particularly imposing, though I always get nervous of the possibility of a miscreant snatching them behind your back (this hasn’t happened yet, I always look behind me and check my shadow). Having all this luggage meant that an idea to ride Bristol’s bus network was abandoned. My mind was on an American BBQ joint for an early dinner, but even this early, tables were all fully booked, disappointingly. I settled for a quaint little curry house (with beautiful modern decorations) instead, looking far emptier, and had time for one quick ice cream before heading to the coach station.

I arrive at the coach station, looking considerably less busy than Victoria coach station two days earlier. 10 minutes later, a familiar face returns. Liam had booked the same return coach as I did – another pure coincidence. His team made it into a final, unlike the Raiders, though he was playing in the COMP division. (I actually watched a bit of that team’s game, one player was bizarrely wearing jeans, which can’t have been comfortable). We managed to bag seats upstairs near the front, though I worried that we may be kicked out as the seats did not correspond to our cheap tickets. We began our journey talking about our tournament experiences, but the ride along the M32 and M4 is a long one. We were both relatively tired as the sun was setting, Liam passed most of the time playing on his Nintendo Switch, and I put my headphones on and did a spot of St. Jacques ‘bus planning’ on my phone. Other than a small diversion away from the M4 near Slough, closed for roadworks, it was a smooth journey back. Slough was oh so close to Farnham Park, which I had only visited once since 2019 for one of the ‘Turn Up And Play Sessions’, but it wouldn’t be too long till I would make it there.

Travelling further afield than the aforementioned Farnham Park to play softball? Captaining a team after being driven to do so after the 2019 Diamond series? That’s two items on my softball bucket list crossed of, and I’ll happily do it again.