Ethan Hull, Oliver Brown (both aged 11) and Lucas Harrison (aged 15), from Lytham St Anne’s Softball Club have been selected for the Great Britain U16s Softball Team.

They are heading off to the Czech Republic in July to represent Great Britain in the European Championships!

They will also be playing in the Great Britain Fastpitch League throughout the summer down at the National Baseball & Softball Centre at Farnham Park and there is also an opportunity for Oliver & Ethan to play in an U13’s tournament in Croatia in August.

Lytham St Anne’s Softball Club (LSASC) is a community-based sports club. Initially started pre-Covid with a successful run for 8 months before like many other clubs, groups & organisations the club were forced to pause their timetable.

They are now back up & running and deliver 4 weekly sessions with a 5th in the pipeline. The sessions are community based, run after school & in the evenings and are open to all, no experience or equipment is required – so you are invited to just go along and give it a try. They start with children aged 5 years and their oldest member will turn 53 later this year. Boys, girls, men, women, all are welcome & treated equally with a balance between learning new skills & playing games week by week, all year round. They play outdoors in the Spring/Summer and then move indoors for the rest of the year.

Softball is a great team sport, “it’s a little like rounders & a lot like Baseball” that can be adapted to fit most venues/facilities for many different groups of people.

The club has seen a strong increase in their Fastpitch sessions, which are more strategic with drills & tactics developed each week and, from this group, the club have several talented players with aspirations of playing for one of the GB programmes.

The British Softball Federation govern the various GB squads who travel overseas to compete in club, European & World Championships. In 2023 GB U16s boys & U18’s men’s squads will travel to the Czech Republic for European Championships and GB U13s girls will travel to Italy for a long standing International club event.

LSASC are really excited that 3 of their junior boys have recently been selected for the GBU16s squad, two are aged 11 and one is 15.

The club is self-funded in the most part as they rely on approximately 80% of their running costs from player subs & the remainder from The British Softball Federation & BaseballSoftballUK subsidies or one off voluntary donations.

In an ideal world they would have a “pot of money” set aside to enable any of our players showing interest to attend at least one Regional or National training session or match fixture so they could experience a different level of Coaching & play on a competition standard high grade pitch alongside others in their age group.

Unfortunately, they’re not there yet and so families will need to cover the costs.

As part of the preparation for the Euro’s, players will be required to attend additional local training & national league fixtures which will be held at Farnham Park, in Slough, Berkshire (the home of Softball in the UK ) on several weekends.

LSASC are therefore looking for opportunities to form partnerships within the local community that can help us enable all of their players to reach their full potential both locally and through GB selection.

In this particular case, financial support would be fantastic but we are also keen to discuss options for things like apparel, sports specific equipment, car hire & accommodation for training events but also, the wider picture, in support for the club as a whole or any of the individual teams who may best meet your criteria.

As a club, LSASC can offer in return:

• exposure on their FB page, promotional posters & signage
• corporate events for clients, suppliers or staff (for 10 – 50 people)
• family & friends’ events (for 10 – 50 people)

Coach, Natalie Hull (ex GB player & junior coach) would be more than happy answer any questions and provide further information. She can be contacted at nats_softball@btinternet.com or on 07518395640

There is also a gofund me page open for anyone wishing to offer their kind support: https://gofund.me/89a9fcb2