This past weekend saw the BSF's Co-Ed Slowpitch League All-Star National Championship held at Birmingham City University's beautiful sports grounds.

The Bristol Blue Sox participated in the Silver Division of the competition alongside teams representing East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Solent and Windsor Leagues.

Although the MetOffice's forecast looked a little bleak for the weekend, the sun came out mid-morning Saturday and the wonderfully hot and sunny weather bathed the tournament for the rest of its duration, giving the whole experience a sense of a being abroad.

Bristol's participation was uncertain until Thursday evening due to difficulties in guaranteeing a full squad, but in the end Robyn Belt, Mark Fenton and Stuart Kellock's efforts paid off and at 8:30am on Saturday the complete line up of the Bristol Blue Sox - under the leadership of Mark Fenton and including members from teams of all three divisions of the BSA - was present and, in high spirits and adorning Bristol Blue Sox tops (thanks to Stuart Kellock), started its warm-up for the first game. The line up was:

Female players: Amanda Summers (Imperial Sliders - Div 2), Amy Yehling (Forks - Div 1), Corina Whitear (Imperial Sliders - Div 2), Jo Newton (Flintstones - Div 2), Jo Stretton (Spartans - Div 3), Susy Jackson (Imperial Sliders - Div 2)

Male players: Adrian Dent (Guppy Spotters - Div 1), me, Hugo Azevedo (LSDs - Div 1), Kevin Clarke (Imperial Sliders - Div 2), Lee Akerman (Imperial Sliders - Div 2), Mark Fenton (Forks - Div 1), Robert Griffiths (Friendly Fire - Div 2), Stuart Kellock (Imperial Sliders - Div 2)

Most of the games were very close and were tightly fought until the last inning, with all teams being very evenly matched.

Despite not being as successful as everyone would have liked, the three wins in eight games record was attained with great effort and moments of great softball from all team members.

This showed that the Bristol league, even with a last-minute scratch team, has the skill and talent to stand up for itself in the national stage.

Unfortunately, the weekend was not without its down points and regretfully saw Amy Yehling and Lee Akerman having to return to Bristol on the afternoon of the first day due to knee and ankle injuries, respectively, but not before bravely finishing playing the match.

Hopefully, they will recover quickly and return to the greens in no time! A special mention goes to Corina Whitear for coming up Sunday on very short notice to help the team which had been reduced to four girls after the injuries.

In the end, the weekend was a fun and exciting one, with many learned lessons and valuable experiences that will benefit the standard of play in all three divisions of the Bristol Softball Association, but above all, it was one that the whole team thoroughly enjoyed and hope to repeat again next year with renewed enthusiam and improved skills to take another shot at winning the competition.