Liverbirds Hold Their Own at Edinburgh Festiball

The Liverbirds sent a strong team up to the Edinburgh tournament, made up exclusively of players from the league, with all 3 teams represented, writes captain and League Head David Martin Bayes.

Photo credit: David Grice

Liverbirds got off to a strong start with convincing wins against local side McArdle Marvels and a narrower but deserved win against the fancied Diamond Dogs. As the day progressed it became clear that of the two groups in Rec, the other group was proving a lot stronger and the Liverbirds faced two of their strongest teams, the Rebel Runners, featuring many familiar faces from the Manchester and Leeds leagues, and the NSL3 team, the Breaking Bats. Unfortunately, both teams proved too overpowering for the Liverpool team with both games lost convincingly.

After overnight rest and recuperation, the Liverbirds faced 3 final group games against teams in their group. Hard work was made of our narrow 1 run win against the Unicorns and we were never really in the defeat against the Trash Pandas. There were a couple of possible connotations heading into their final game, a place in the top bracket semi-final likely to be a tough game against the Group A winners, or a semi-final in the intermediate category against the third or fourth-placed team from the other group. In 4th place, and in the intermediate category going into the final game, the Liverbirds faced the experienced local team, the Bolts, adversaries from the Bee Ball tournament, which the Bolts had won. In a tight game, the Merseysiders held their nerve to win 11-8 creating a 3-way tie for 2 to 4 places with each of those teams cancelling each other out with one win and one loss each. With runs conceded the next decider, the Liverbirds finished 3rd and had a semi-final against the Smashing Spuds. Unfortunately it was the 'Birds that got smashed 20-5 ending our participation for another year.

Photo credit: David Grice

"Thanks to all the players and the wider Liverbirds "family", we appreciate all the support and we are building a stronger presence of Merseyside-based players across the wider Softball community."

It was a very successful tournament for the Liverbirds, ending with a record of 4 wins and 4 losses, including against the eventual Rec Gold champs, the Diamond Dogs. We showed great character winning our close games, only losing in mismatched games against stronger, arguably higher level teams. Thanks to all the players and the wider Liverbirds "family", we appreciate all the support and we are building a stronger presence of Merseyside-based players across the wider Softball community.

The weekend's results

Saturday:

Liverbirds 10 - 5 McArdle Marvels

Liverbirds 9 - 7 Diamond Dogs

Liverbirds 4 - 12 Rebel Runners

Liverbirds 7 - 16 Breaking Bats

Sunday:

Liverbirds 7 - 6 Unicorns

Liverbirds 10 - 16 Trash Pandas

Liverbirds 11 - 8 Bolts

Rec Silver Semi-final:

Liverbirds 5 - 20 Smashing Spuds