Defence Force Men’s Softball
By FLTLT Brent Collier and F/S Chris Mitchell
Male softballers from the Defence Force gathered at Burnham Military Camp to prepare for the New Zealand National Interclub Tournament, held in Christchurch in March. The players, coaching staff, and management were selected during the fiercely contested Interservice Tournament held in Whenuapai in December 2009.
Nice bunt
Preparations for the tournament started with an intensive training camp, designed to ‘gel’ the team together before facing the best club teams in New Zealand. Although only three days of training were available to the side, a well-planned programme (consisting of gym sessions, diamond work, batting coaching, fielding drills, and team building activities) ensured maximum benefit was gained by all. The training camp was rounded-off with a game of ‘ambrose’ golf, proving to the team that they had been chosen for their softball skills and not their golfing ability!
The first game was a great, albeit slightly humbling, introduction to the level of play required to be competitive at the tournament. It was against one of top club sides in the country, Miramar. Right from the start, the Defence Force proved we were there to play and not be the tournament easy-beats. We showed some great defence to hold a strong Miramar batting line-up to just four runs up until the last innings, while managing to squeeze one run in ourselves. Miramar’s Black Sox pitcher did a great job to keep our batters tied up. A home run in the final innings with two runners on base gave Miramar a comfortable 7–1 win, but they knew they had been in a ball game.
Our next five games were all against tough opposition and we narrowly lost by a close margin, which resulted in us being placed in the third division. Our defence was generally of a high standard and our hitting was improving with each game. We knew we had the goods and that it was just a matter of putting everything that we’d learned during the week into practice. We managed to get into our winning stride beating Stoke (Nelson) 9–2 and Demons (Southland) 2–1 to win through to the third division play-offs.
Despite all sorts of talk from the coaches about how we’d done well to get to the semi and Cardinals (Hutt Valley) would be tough, the boys knew differently. We were on a high and put on an excellent hitting and fielding display against a competitive Cardinals side. We ran out winners 9–2 under the mercy rule to take us through to the final. If we had any doubts previously about whether or not we were good enough to compete at this tournament, then those doubts were well and truly erased by now. Beating Cardinals was a great result for Defence Force Softball.
Winding up
The final was against Albion from Christchurch. We knew we were in for a tough game having lost to them 6–5 in round-robin play—and were not disappointed. Albion went ahead scoring one run in the second inning and another in the fourth. Despite having numerous opportunities, it wasn’t until the sixth innings that we were able to score. Through some disciplined hitting and great base-running, we managed to tie the game up 2–2. No runs were scored in the seventh innings so the game went into a tiebreak. This is what you play the game for, the high pressure scenario of playing a tiebreak in a final. Despite some good bunting, we were unable to bring our runner in with him being called out sliding into home plate. Albion, on the other hand, took the game to us and a home-run to deep centre right won them the game. Despite the loss our boys were still pretty stoked. We’d won through to the final and it was a huge improvement on 2009.
We were graced with a great management team and thanks should go to F/S Mike Thomas, Major Clayton Willocks, Warrant Officer Rob Chee, W/O Officer Ian Ditfort and Mrs Rose Williams for bringing a great bunch of lads together and guiding us through a great week of softball. Also thanks to Chief of Defence Force, Air Vice-Marshal Graham Lintott and the Defence Force Sports committee for allowing us to participate in the tournament.
RNZAF Team Members
- F/S Mike Thomas (Coach) Base Ohakea
- W/O Delwyn Chee (Manager) Base Woodbourne
- W/O Ian Ditfort (Scorer) Base Woodbourne
- F/S Chris Mitchell (Captain) Base Auckland
- FLTLT Brent Collier Base Auckland
- CPL Chris Cubitt Base Auckland
- LAC Alanson Smith Base Ohakea
- LAC Jason Thomas Base Auckland