Leeds First Ball Tournament, 4 May 2024
Date and time: 4 May 2024, 9:00am to 6:00pm
Type: Tournament, League co-ed slowpitch tournament, Open co-ed slowpitch tournament
Venue: Adel War Memorial Association, Leeds LS16 8DE
what3words: slips.porch.every
Start to prepare now for the Umpires Strike Back: Leeds First Ball Tournament in 2024! May the 4th be with you! Join us on this sci-fi themed sporting adventure for a day of fierce competition and intergalactic fun. This was a one-day recreational tournament (C & D grades) at Adel War Memorial Association in Leeds. For enquiries, please contact Leeds Softball.
Leeds Inaugural First Ball, The Umpire Strikes Back
Teams from Leeds, York, Manchester and the East Midlands joined us at our home grounds at the AWMA for a one day recreational charity tournament, raising money for Leeds Mind and the Leeds Softball Association. The raffle, the dark side and light side jokers, and a fancy dress party in the evening all proved popular, raising a considerable amount for Leeds Mind. We would especially like to thank the Softball Shop, BSUK and anyone else that donated prizes to the raffle, with a special shout out to our President’s mum Eileen Handby, who crocheted over a dozen adorable Star Wars characters that were immensely popular.
After the initial round robin, Freeze (Manchester) topped Group A and The York Wall (an alumnus team from the University of York) Group B. The jokers were used to make and overturn some cool plays. As captains could only play one per inning, they had to pick their moment, and hope their opposition were not able to overturn a joker with one of their own. Our tournament MVPs were Josie Banks (Hippos), Theo Holland (The York Wall), and Laurie Salfred-Ingham (Freeze).
In the knockouts, the top four teams played for the Empire Trophy (a Star Destroyer) and the lower four teams for the Rebellion Cup (a Millenium Falcon). The Hippos (+ a cast of Coyotes – Hippotes? Coyoppos?) represented Leeds in the Rebellion Cup Final against the B-sides from the East Midlands league. Hippos were victorious 11-6, securing their first ever tournament final win, congratulations Hippos! Freeze (Manchester) faced the Yorkshire Dales (Leeds) for the Empire Trophy. Freeze went ahead in the first inning, and stayed ahead throughout the final game. Freeze won 12-5, finishing the day 5-0, and securing the Star Destroyer Trophy as champions of our First Firstball in Leeds.
We hope to do this again next year, and would love to see you all there again. May the Fourth be with you!
Captains update
We are excitedly preparing the captains pack and schedule for the Leeds firstball “Umpire strikes back” tournament. If you can please promote the party in the evening to your squad, space themed fancy dress is encouraged. It is pay what you feel, so please sign up to come along, and change the price on the ticket to whatever you would like to put in as a donation.
There will also be a raffle, and joker cards. One is attached as a sneak peek, there are 4 light side and 4 dark side cards that can be purchased on the day to raise money for Leeds Mind and Leeds Softball Association. It will be about £5 per card (sum up card payments available from tournament control), randomly chosen and submitted to the umpire once played.
We will also be setting up a captains Whatsapp for reporting scores and communicating on the day, so if the mobile number or captains name you provided on the sign up form is different to the one you will be using on the day, please send on the day captain details to Rob or me on reply so we can get that organised for you.
As soon as we have assigned the umpires, and completed the captains pack, we will send the information out to you.
Fancy dress and fun
