The Umpire Strikes Back.
Leeds First Ball Tournament May 3rd 2025.
For the second year, teams travelled from across Leeds, as well as friends joining us from Manchester, Bristol, London and the East Midlands, to play in our charity First ball tournament. Hosted at the Adel War Memorial Association sports grounds in north Leeds, the clubhouse did us proud, keeping players supplied with drinks, and tossing burgers like champions on the BBQ. We raised over £500 for Leeds Mind, with folks really liking the raffle, and teams buying our dark side and light side jokers. The jokers were be purchased from the umpires, and used to “force” the rules, bending them to your team’s favour. We saw great plays (even if some were overturned by some craft joker-work), and some of it in fancy dress too! We would especially like to thank the Softball Shop and anyone else that donated prizes to the raffle.
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Empire Trophy Winners: Cheeze.
Empire Trophy Runners-up: B-Sides.
Padawan Cup Winners: BAM.
Padawan Cup Runners-up: Bobcats.
Empire Trophy Semi-finalists: Dales.
Empire Trophy Semi-finalists: Badbatch.
Death Stars: Hippos.
The round robin saw lots of close games (and a few draws), with Cheeze (Leeds Cheekies + Manchester Freeze) topping group A and B-sides (Nottingham Uni’s team) topping Group B. The teams really engaged with the jokers, including a new this year “Umpire Strikes Back” card, where you sub in your games Blu for a free hit. All the games were played in good spirits, and all players, new and experienced alike, enjoyed a fun, friendly one day tournament.
The tournament MVPs were awarded for the favourite plays of the day to Sam from Cheeze and Gina from Bobcats.
After the round robin, the top teams played for the Empire Trophy (Softball Darth Vader) and the lower teams for the Padawan Cup (Softball Anakin Skywalker). The Bobcats represented Leeds in the Padawan Cup Final against BAM, representing the Bristol and Manchester leagues. In a final of two halves, and despite going behind, BAM brought it back to win 13- 12.
In the Empire trophy, the experience of Cheeze from Leeds and Manchester faced off against a talented and youthful B-sides from Nottingham. Cheeze were victorious 13-8, securing the top trophy for the second year in a row. Thanks go to the dedicated umpires on the day, who went above and beyond (far, far away), as well as to the tournament organisers. We hope to do this again next year, and would love to see you all there again. May the Fourth Third be with you?