We're starting with introduction of the national teams from the European countries that will represent our continent at the 14th Men's World Championship.  

British national team ended up in the 9th spot at the last World Championship (2013 in Auckland). The team’s head coach Norman Ames has answered a few quick questions about the upcoming tournament. He’s leading the national team of Great Britain together with his assistant coach Erik Vrugt. Norman has been a club coach in the Netherlands for many years and after managing the Dutch national team he also took his chance with team GB and placed third at the European Championship in 2007. The team also qualified for the World Championship for this year.

What does the preparation of team GB look like?

With players coming from several continents, our preparation has been mainly individual so far. We have been fortunate to have several players playing already in the North American competitions which gives them the opportunity to face world class pitching. The weekend prior to the Worlds, we are playing the Bob Law Memorial Challenge in Vancouver. After that we travel to Saskatoon to play games vs Netherlands, local teams and Dominican Republic.

What are your goals for the World Championship?

Goals for the World Championships are to make the top 8 and to prove the softball community our 4th place finish at the last Euros was something we would like to forget.

There is a lot of slowpitch played in GB, is the fastpitch World Championship understood as the softball top event of this season?

Yes the World Championships is considered to be the most important event for GB Fastpitch this year.

14th Men’s World Softball Championship will be held in Saksatoon, Canada from June 26th to July 5th.

Together with the British team, another three European countries will participate: Czech Republic, Denmark, Netherlands. Team GB will face the last World Champion – New Zealand in the round robin as well as the last European Champion – Czech Republic.

Here's team GB's roster: James Darby, Ben Easdown,  Rich Haldane, David Hutton, Phil John, Michael Lee, Kyle Linton, Ryan Martin, Darrin Newson, Morgan Ottridge, Luke Peters, Kenny Pregnell, Kevin Stockford, Nopera Stockford, Pat Walsh

We will keep you updated and informed about the event. For more information visit the ISF website

-HNov-