Rain stops play, but hardy souls make it work for them

With still a month before international cricket returns to the UK, and over two before Wimbledon fortnight, British baseball had to admit defeat in more than one location last weekend as it couldn’t prove resilient enough to play through the downpours.

Which raises the perennial question: how long until we build a dome?

There was able to be a significant amount of action, so here’s a round-up of the main activity from across the country.

In the NBL, only one competitive match was played out when the Southampton Mustangs edged a tight affair against the Lakenheath Diamondbacks. The win, pitched by Gary Davison, went someway to serving as retribution for the NBC semi-final defeat last September, and elevated the Mustangs to a 3-2 record, while Lakenheath fell to 1-2.

Both teams then played against the GB Juniors in good preparations for the national team’s competitions later this year, although the NBL sides unsurprisingly proved too much.

The London Mets games against the Bracknell Blazers were washed out.

AAA North saw the Liverpool Trojans remain unbeaten for over a year, with the usual one-two of Rob Vondy and Martin Godsall pitching two tight wins against the Menwith Hill Patriots, who are looking to be competitive this season. The Manchester As split their first games of the season following last week’s forfeit, taking one from the Cartmel Valley Lions, but the action in the division was soured by a rain-based postponement between the Bolton Robots of Doom and Halton Jaguars.

That said, due to the weather there were no games whatsoever in AA North, meaning the first rain date of the year (3 June) will be full of baseball instead of taking advantage of the Queen’s Jubilee bank holiday.

AA Midlands was the only division not affected by the weather, with the Leicester Blue Sox building on their great start to the season by demolishing the Stourbridge Titans 26-9 to go to a 2-0 record, while the Milton Keynes Bucks started their campaign with a close 8-5 win over the Birmingham Maple Leafs. The Titans and Leafs are both 0-2 after a fortnight’s action.

AA South saw Pool A again win most of the fixtures, with the Croydon Pirates III, Southampton Mustangs II and Poole Piranhas each picking up mercy-rule victories for the second consecutive week. The Daws Hill Spitfires got their campaign on the board with their first ever win, along with the Latin Tigers reaching that landmark, while Thames Valley Bisons joined three other teams in Pool A with 2-0 records. The London Mammoths were en route to upsetting form with a 6-2 lead against the Guildford Mavericks before rain halted their stampede.

Steve Cull (Croydon) and Dave Wrigley (Southampton) have picked up both wins for their teams, leading the pitching categories in the early stages.

Four teams in Pool B are on 0-2 records, including the Sidewinders who will surely bounce back in the intra-Pool double-headers, the first of which are scheduled for this week.

In A South, the Essex Archers easily came through in their first game at the level for three years, beating the new Richmond Dukes 33-3 in seven innings to move to 2-0 (if they don’t make the playoffs, I’ll give up writing about the sport here in Britain), while the Guildford Mavericks II won 22-19 in an incredibly tight slug-fest against the Herts Eagles. The Essex Redbacks III had to forfeit for the second consecutive week, moving them to 0-2 with the loss of a win if it ever comes, effectively ruling them out of post-season action even at this early stage.

In AAA South, though, the Redbacks continued to show their style. They picked up two very important divisional wins against the London Metros (5-3 and 10-8) behind Richard Chesterton and a returning Vince Warner. The Richmond Knights upset last year’s formbook with a win over the Oxford Kings (Knights now 2-1, their first winning record since 2010)as Ben Johnston’s big home run gave them an edge, but the Bristol Badgers and Windsor & Bracknell Bears was postponed because of GB call-ups, not the rain. Cambridge Royals and the Latin Boys split their games, giving the Royals (1-3) their first win and the Boys (2-1) their first loss at this level.

Plenty could change over the next few weeks, especially if teams are able to play through this weekend’s scheduled rain to ensure fixtures are completed. However, it might not be a great spectacle of baseball for onlookers or players themselves, as the Redbacks have already said following their cancellation of the junior section’s home opener on Saturday – an event that was due to have both the local Councillor, Kevin Blake, and former Eurovision star Josh Dubovie take part in the festivities.