Last updated: 10/11/08
Baseball becomes big hitter in university sport
The start of the university sporting calendar in October was a special and momentous occasion for one sport that is not a familiar sight on British campuses. October 18 and 19 saw the inaugural British University Baseball championships.
Held at Nottingham’s Grove Farm it was the first student-only tournament after several events being run on and off over the past ten years. The event was a significant mile-stone for the newly formed British University Baseball Association (BUBA).
Formed in 2007 as a collaboration between the three main university teams at that point: Nottingham, Southampton and UEA, BUBA has gone from strength to strength.
Adam Brown, director of development says that their goal is ‘to promote university baseball within the country and assist in the development of new teams whilst also running a successful student league and cup program each year.’
Along with the initial three university teams BUBA have added clubs at Durham, Oxford, Lincoln, Brighton and Leeds, and are said to have had interest at several more. In order to help the progression of university Baseball, BUBA are working in conjunction with the British Baseball Federation in running several “taster sessions” at universities around the country.
The running of three separate events helps to spread the word and give students the opportunity to get a ‘taste’ of the sport. A league and playoff system is run from February to June along with a weekend tournament in October, and a tournament called “The Drunken Cup” at Easter which features both BBF (amateur) clubs and universities.
Before the formation of BUBA a university tournament had been in place since 2005 with the Southampton Mustangs hosting the tournament for the first three years beginning in October 2005 when they defeated the UEA Blue Sox. They repeated their success in 2006 against newcomers the Nottingham Thieves, who then had their revenge in 2007, becoming the first team to take the trophy off the Mustangs. The Thieves then repeated their success in March 2008, again defeating the Mustangs in a tense final at UEA.
None of these tournaments were strictly student-only and so it was decided to form an organising body and begin a student-only tournament and league for the increasing number of university teams to participate in.
And so the first BUBA championships took place in October with five teams competing. The University of Durham Bishops and the University of Oxford Kings joined the older stalwarts the UEA Blue Sox, the University of Southampton Mustangs and the University of Nottingham Thieves.
The Thieves, hoping to make it three straight university competitions in a row, breezed through the first round of matches, qualifying for the semi-finals with two comfortable victories. There they were joined by the Kings, who were showing why, along with the Thieves, they were joint favourites by dismantling UEA in the opening game of the tournament, before star pitcher Thomas O’Ban threw a no-hitter against the University of Durham. A 5-5 tie in the final group game saw the Mustangs and the Blue Sox gain the point needed to pip Durham into the semi-finals.
The Thieves faced bitter rivals Southampton in the first semi-final, and found themselves staring down the barrel after digging themselves a 4-0 hole in the first inning, punctuated by a three run shot from Mustangs outfielder Lin. A superb relief performance from Nottingham head coach Tatsuya Yogo, quietened the Mustang bats however, giving the Thieves the chance to claw their way back into the game, leaving it delicately poised 6-6 with two innings to go. But the impasse didn’t last as long balls from Adam Brown and Craig Sinclair soon broke the deadlock, leaving Nottingham the eventual 12-6 winners.
The biggest shock at Grove Farm came with a remarkable result over in the second semi-final where a much improved performance from the UEA offense saw them gain revenge for their first round drubbing by the Kings. The Blue Sox tore into the Oxford pitching with 13 base-hits, seeing them hold off several Oxford comebacks to sneak through 14-11 with Zach Garlitos picking up the win for the Blue Sox.
It was fitting then that in the final it was two of the founding members, the Thieves and the Blue Sox, who were to battle it out for a place in history. It all looked over as the Thieves strolled out to a 7-1 advantage after only two innings, but, perhaps distracted by the idea of celebrations around the BBQ, complacency crept in, and Nottingham mistakes allowed UEA to come back strong to take a 9-8 lead going into the final inning. The thought of throwing it all away must have helped the Thieves clear their heads and they rallied with a five-run inning, and shut down the UEA offense to record a famous victory by 14 runs to nine. Oxford gained some consolation in the plate final by ousting the University of Durham 15-5, with home runs from Tom Williams, Dan Semelsberger, and a grandslam from Paul Boland leading the way.
The success of the championships and win for Nottingham was a fitting reward for Adam Brown the man who founded the University of Nottingham baseball club back in 2005; “I had played very little baseball before university - but after visiting the states, I had started to get into watching it on Channel 5, and, being a decent enough cricketer, I fancied giving it a go. Sadly when I got to Nottingham I found there was no club in place, but I was fortunate to randomly meet another guy who was interested in playing. For some obscure reason, we decided to start our own club, despite neither of us having any experience of coaching before. I can look back now, and see it was one of the best decisions of my life’ Brown added ‘Baseball is such an awesome sport, I would recommend anyone who has an interest in playing to start their own club. It is much easier than you would think”
John Irving, Director of Finance for BUBA is delighted with the progress the sport has made in Britain; ‘University baseball has made great strides forward this year, and the formation of an accountable governing body has a lot to do with that. Rather than each university club simply supporting decisions that favour themselves foremost, we attempt to come to an agreement that puts the interest of university baseball first. Although entirely voluntary, we are working hard trying to progress the league, and we have ambitious, but hopefully realistic plans for the future: we would like to add 4 university teams every six months for the next 2 years, at least.’ Irving believes that there is no reason why baseball at this level cannot push on to gain even more recognition and success; ‘We have an eight team league scheduled for spring 2009, and we wish to increase this number to 16 teams in 2010 and 24 teams in 2011. The British University American Football League has over 40 teams, and we see no reason why a well-organised baseball league should be any less successful’
by Tom Clarke
Got a story?
News breaking on your campus?
E - mail the national student news desk
news@thenationalstudent.co.uk
