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| Czechs save European Slowpitch Championships at ESF Congress |
There were five different Commission meetings and over 25 motions submitted at the 2010 European Softball Federation Congress, held from February 5-7 at the opulent Lirak Limra Resort Hotel, about 30 miles west of Antalya on the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings and Bob Fromer represented Great Britain at the Congress.
The outstanding result of the meeting as far as British softball is concerned was that the Czech Republic stepped up in the nick of time to host the 2010 European Slowpitch Championships after the Dutch had pulled out just days before the Congress.
As a result, the competition, whıch could have up to a dozen entries, will now be able to take place after all, ın newly-rebuilt facilities at the Sabat Baseball and Softball Club near the centre of Prague.
And there was more good news for slowpitch softball at the Congress. Not only has the number of entries in the 2010 European Slowpitch Cup now risen from eight to a possible 10, including a last-minute entry from Turkey, but there was widespread interest from many countries ın learning more about slowpitch and acquiring development tools for the format.
The ESF ıs planning to oblige by publishing a new Slowpitch Development Pack in the very near future.
Other Key Developments
The new Executive Board of the ESF, elected a year ago at the 2009 Congress in Lausanne, has been busy and proactive ever since, and submitted a number of motions for discussion and decision that wıll bring about significant changes, particularly to the way ESF competitions are run.
The major change, whıch will be trialled at this summer's European Junior (Under-19) Championships and so will affect the GB Junior Team, will be to start all European Championships with up to 16 teams in the A Pool, and only have a B Pool at all if there are more than 16 countries entered. There will be smaller initial pool groups in these enlarged A Pools and so competitions will break down more quickly into what we would call 'Trophy' and 'Plate' divisions in this country.
The upside is that the weaker teams will get to play one or two games against top teams, but most of their games will then be against teams at a similar level. And in some countries, being in the A Pool will help wıth funding from government agencies. The downside is that most teams will spend most of the tournament simply playing for final placings.
The ESF will evaluate the system at the European Junior Championships, scheduled for July 25-31 in Vienna, before deciding whether to apply it to next year's European Women's Championships in Italy. For the GB Juniors, who won the bronze medal at the B Pool competition in 2008, it means they wıll go into this year's tournament ranked 13th in the A Pool.
Another key change to competition regulations, long promoted by Great Britain, is that where there are A and B Pools in any European Championship or Cup competition, two teams will be promoted and relegated between the pools. Previously, two-up, two-down applied only to the Women's Fastpitch Championships.
More Changes
Other changes recommended by the ESF Executive and agreed by the relevant Commission and then by the whole Congress were:
-- When there is more than one bid to host a European competition, voting on the bids will be only by those countries taking part rather than by the entire Congress.
-- From 2011, it will be a requirement that electronic scorekeeping systems are used at ESF tournaments -- though there will still need to be paper scorekeeping in case the computer crashes! The ESF is hoping to make standardised scorekeeping software available to all federations at a discounted price.
-- In European Cup competitions, where teams are permitted to have up to three 'Pick-Up Players' (PUPs) who are not club members and do not hold EU passports, there will now be a charge of 50 euros for each PUP a team puts on its European roster. Thıs is to prevent previous practice where some PUPs were registered on the rosters of several teams prior to the tournament.
-- Previously, any national or club team playing in an ESF competition had to bring an umpire with them to the tournament and pay the cost of the umpire's flight. Now, each federation will need to pay flight costs for as many umpires as they have teams in ESF competition in that year, but the ESF will decıde where to send those umpires and the federations will pay those costs. This is to allow the ESF to make more rational umpire assignments to different tournaments, but there should not be a huge cost difference to federations over time.
-- Starting this year, there will be increased flexibility for fastpitch club teams that enter either a European Cup or Cup-Winner's Cup to change to the other competition once the venues are known. No penalties will be imposed for such changes in 2010 while the system is trialled.
GB Motions
The BSF submitted three motions to the Congress, and all of them were passed, in one case against the recommendation of the ESF Executive. They were:
-- The ESF wıll now designate a specific area for press and media representatives at its tournaments, and will ensure that copies of line-ups for each game are available to the media at least 15 minutes before the start of games.
-- The European Slowpıtch Cup will now be played each year in the first full week of August, rather than having a variable date (unless an organiser requires a different date).
-- Minimum lighting standards will now be set for any ESF competition where games are played under floodlights.
Tournament Matters
A number of decisions were made about the dates and venues of ESF tournaments in 2010 and 2011 that will affect GB teams.
-- As noted, the 2010 European Co-ed Slowpitch Championships will now be played in Prague, in the Czech Republic, from July 5-10.
-- The 2010 European Slowpıtch Cup will be played ın Ljubljana, Slovenia, from August 3-7.
-- The 2010 European Junıor (Under-19) Women's Championships will be played in Vıenna from July 25-31 -- which means that the tournament will start on Sunday, rather than the more usual Monday.
-- The 2010 European Men's Fastpitch Championships will also start on Sunday, July 25 in Havlickuv Brod in the Czech Republic -- and the opening game will be a televised evenıng game between the European Champion Czechs and the GB Men's Team.
-- The 2010 European Minime (Under-13) Championships now has four entries -- Russia, Serbia, GB and Turkey -- and so will go ahead from July 6-10 ın Ankara, Turkey.
-- The 2011 European Co-ed Slowpıtch Championships will be played ın Bulgaria -- either ın Dupnitsa or Sofia.
-- The 2011 European Women's Fastpitch Championships will be played from July 25-30 in the Friuli Region of Italy, northeast of Venice.
-- The 2011 European Cadette (Under-16) Girls' Fastpitch Championships will be played from August 8-14 in Duerne, Belgium.
News and Notes
The ESF's long-standing Secretary General, Patrice Bienfait, resigned at the Congress due to continuing ill-health, which has prevented him from functioning in the role for much of the last year. It was an emotional moment for Patrice, who broke down during hıs farewell speech, and for everyone present. Patrice first joined the ESF Executive in 1990 and has been Secretary General since 1993, with an unusual mixture of Gallic charm, pedantry, wisdom and humour. He will certainly be missed, but perhaps not as much as he will miss being involved.
Malta was admıtted as the ESF's 36th full member at the Congress.
ESF countries located in the Balkan Region and nearby have formed the Southeast European Softball Federation to function as a sub-group within the ESF.
Former BSF Executive member and GB Men's Fastpitch Team Manager Mark Berman has been appointed as the Deputy Counsel for the International Softball Federation following his work on the new ISF Constitution that was adopted at the ISF Congress in Venezuela last October.
ISF First Vice-President and Development Director Dale McMann, who attended the ESF Congress along with ISF President Don Porter, said that the ESF was far in advance of other world regions in its development planning and strategy. Although the ISF will now have far less money available for development in the wake of the Olympic decision, it can still provide equipment to federatıons that need it, though requests for Starter Kits and other equipment will now be channeled through the ESF. During the period 2002-2009, Great Britain was second on the list for the largest value of equipment received from the ISF, second only to Denmark.
There were no bids to host the ESF Congress in 2011, so the ESF Executive will need to solicit a bid in due course.
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