THE OFFICIAL HOME OF
THE GUILDFORD BASEBALL JUNIORS
Season End 2024
Saturday 28th September 2024 was our last Baseball session for this year - we would like to thank everyone who has supported us this year, all of the boys and girls, Mums and Dads and all our volunteer coaches who have made our 2024 Season so much fun and so successful.
The teams have enjoyed inter-club sessions at Kings as well as road trips playing against Croydon, Brighton, Chichester, Bournemouth and London as well as taking part in the National Youth Championship tournaments at Farnham Park.
We look forward to more fantastic Junior Baseball in 2025....
"Batter Up!" & "Play Ball"
Youth National Baseball Championships - Saturday 14th September
The Youth National Baseball Championships (YNBC’s) were held on Saturday 14th Sept (for U13 and U11), at the National Baseball Centre at Farnham Park Slough. For the first time since lockdown, Guildford Juniors sent some players to this tournament in a combined team with the Croydon Parrots. Benji H, Ariana L and Freddie S, took part in the older age group, whilst Sebastian B, Nico F, Sam W and Kit W were the clubs representatives in the U11 age group.
Games were played in a round robin format against combined teams from Cambridge/Essex and Brighton/Chichester. Despite a Grand Slam from Sebastian, the U11’s came up just short in both their games. The U13’s faired a bit better, taking the eventual winners, Cambridge/Essex into the last inning, tied at 1-1, after good pitching from Benji. But a 5 run inning followed the change in pitching, which proved just too much for our juniors to peg back. Game 2 against Brighton/Chichester was much closer, as behind Ariana’s pitching and Freddie’s hitting we took an early 3-1 lead. Pegged back in the penultimate inning, we couldn’t re-take the lead in the top of the inning, so had to rely on Ariana shutting the opposition down in the bottom half….which she duly did, to preserve a tie for the Guildford/Croydon team.
Most importantly, all those participating enjoyed not only the competition, but being able to play on the great facilities at Farnham Park, and great atmosphere generated by a dozen plus teams across all age groups, competing at the same time. Hopefully next year, our numbers will have grown further and we can look forward to entering a fully staffed Guildford team into each of the age groups.
Mention must also go to the U15 age group, which was represented by Sam D, and Casper M, the following weekend, at Hemel, again in a combined team with Croydon. Photos and reports to follow from that...
Family Softball BBQ Saturday 7th September
Thankyou to everyone who came and supported our Family Softball event on Saturday 7th September.
The weather forecast was showing cloud for the day and thats pretty much what we got with a few spits of rain but it wasn't enough to dampen the spirits of our Mums, Dads & Youngsters. We had enough people for four teams, The Devils, Mongrels, Chubby Hamsters & The Mongeese ......All four teams played 2 games of 2 innings each and the overall winners of the event were the Mongrels (see league table at the end). Congratulations Mongrels!!!
After the main games, we finished our session with an adults v youngsters session, where everyone got a turn at-bat but the adults came off the diamond with a walk off winning run -
A huge thankyou to the Cafe at Kings for setting up a BBQ for us, the food was superb !
We look forward to organising a few more of these family events next year because they are so much fun......
For more pics visit our Photostream page.......
P W D L RA RF RD PTS
MONGRELS 2 1 1 0 4 5 1 5
CHUBBY HAMSTERS 2 1 0 1 3 6 3 3
MONGEESE 2 0 2 0 12 12 0 2
DEVILS 2 0 1 1 14 10 -4 2
Guildford attend Croydon Mix & Match event on Saturday 17th August 2024
On Saturday 17th August, we travelled to Croydon to take part in their Mix & Match event at Roundshaw playing fields. The event followed on from a week long baseball camp that has been organised by the Croydon baseball club aimed at youth players and Saturday was a great way to round off their week with players coming from Croydon, Guildford, Brighton, Chichester, Bournemouth & London.
We played two diamonds for the age groups and the weather was absolutely perfect....
Croydon visit Guildford for a mix n match
On Saturday 20th July, we were delighted to host our friends from Croydon, who joined us at Kings College for a mix n match session.
The youngsters were split up into their age groups and the younger ones played on our smaller diamond whilst the older ones used the reduced adult diamond - numbers were pretty even so were were able to pretty much play Croydon v Guildford games....
All of the key fielding positions were covered by the juniors and the outfield was patrolled by the adults. Everyone had a great time with the games eventually ending at 12.30....thankyou for joining us Croydon...we will see you all very soon.......
Guildford travel to Brighton for a mix n match event
On Saturday 13th July, the squad were invited down to Brighton to take part in a mix n match event that included Brighton, Bournemouth, Croydon and Chichester Junior Baseball clubs. The setting in Brighton was lovely, the diamonds set within a natural bowl of hills affording us some lovely sunny weather and a lot of fun. The juniors split into two groups and the younger members played on the upper diamond whilst the older group on the lower. The teams consisted of a mix of players from all clubs.
The younger players game was coach pitch only but the older group managed their own pitching and catching....there was even a triple play on the small diamond!
Our seventh inning stretch consisted of a visit to the BBQ kindly laid on by Robin and the Brighton team and that rounded off the afternoon nicely.
After a brief rest, play continued for two more innings and the day was complete.
A huge thankyou to Robin at Brighton and also all the coaches from the other clubs who made the event run so smoothly.....
Club Birthdays
Saturday 4th May 2024........Happy Birthday to Henry & Braeden who came to practice today and had to wear the Birthday hat!
Open day starts our 2024 Season!
On Saturday 13th April, we opened our baseball season for 2024 with an Open Day at Kings College - it was also an opportunity to officially "open" our new batting cages which were only finished the day before! The new cages now give our young players the opportunity to practice their pitching and hitting in a contained environment, making it safer for everyone when it gets busy at the field.
It was lovely to see some existing club members joining our session, together with some new youngsters who will hopefully continue their baseball journey with us this season.
Many thanks go out to our coaches, Mike Burdett, Henry Collins, John Sparks, Reuben Sandy, Edward Williams and Sven Turner for helping the event go so smoothly.....and our lovely new administrator helping with attendance & registrations - Katie Burdett!
Our last session for 2023 - thankyou to everyone who has supported us this year....a great game of softball today with youngsters, Mums & Dads taking part....some fantastic hits (which are still in the outer atmosphere) , much fun and laughter shared by all...thankyou guys...and thanks Edward for the photograph......
SEASON END APPROACHES...
We are rapidly approaching the end of our playing season at GBSC Juniors and as it is that time, we are having an audit on all our existing club kit....time to take stock and see what needs cleaning/replacing...if you have any old kit you'd like to donate to the club, please contact Mike or Richard...Depending upon demand, we may well run some skills clinics into the Autumn, weather-dependent...so keep checking back for news....Our last scheduled session will be on Saturday 30th September
CLUB NEWS
12/8/23 - Great practice session at Kings today with 19 players arriving for drills and a game. The kids started off on the tee and then moved on to Coach pitch by Coach Henry Collins (a former GB pitcher and a Mavericks Junior player) with speeds steadily increasing but they managed to get quite a few solid hits with runs scored. Game ended at 18 runs to 15. Pic shows Braeden with his hit ball stuck in our fence! Thank you to everyone who helped stow our gear away at the end as the rain arrived! Also, many thanks to Callum for my kind gift of an Umpire Counter - he said I had no more excuses for getting the count wrong! Richard
12/8/23 - Comet Sports are relocating. Their current shop in Croydon is selling off various baseball kit & equipment so, if you are looking to buy, now would be a good time to visit. See their range at www.cometsports.co.uk
12/8/23 - The new cafe is now open at Kings College (first day of business in fact!). The ladies have a selection of cakes, biscuits and pastries with hot drinks and also cold ones, together with crisps etc. Cash & cards are taken so why not pay them a visit next time you come down to visit us, they have inside seating too.....