How ‘rugby’ players flattened women umpires in Australia

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 44

How ‘rugby’ players flattened women umpires in Australia

When Jim Gibson was a softball administrator and coach in Canterbury, he was never short of a story (often of the shaggy dog variety) or a joke.

Now the national coaching director for the Australian Softball Federation, Mr Gibson had another story, apparently true, to tell when he was back in New Zealand recently. Mr Gibson, with his wife, Yvonne, was an observer of the Mazda women’s world championships in Mangere last month. While women’s softball has a long history in Australia, baseball has traditionally been more popular among the males, and the first men’s national softball championships were held as recently as February, 1984, just under a year after Mr Gibson took up his appointment. At those inaugural men’s nationals, held in Sydney, the base umpires were somewhat at a loss about the correct place to stand and, according to Mr Gibson, this had painful repercussions. The umpires stood right on the foul line and there were, Mr Gibson said, 46 instances of collisions between them and players. “Gujs would arrive so fast tlfey never had time

By

TIM DUNBAR

to see them,” Mr Gibson said. “Here were these players built like rugby forwards charging up the line and decking lady umpires.” Since then both the men’s nationals, the third of which has just been contested in Western Australia, and the umpires have been placed on a better footing. Mr Gibson’s initial three-year contract with the A.S.F. runs out in May, but it will then be renewed for another year.

He is keen to return to New Zealand eventually, but is enjoying the £Jial-

lenge of the Australian position. “It’s a great job,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of things in the three years, and changed the face of Australian softball.” Mr Gibsons said that men’s softball was now well and truly in place, and he was encouraged by the New South Wales primary schoolboys’ championships held before Christmas which attracted 83 teams. He said that a lot of men had stopped playing baseball and were now playing softball. “Baseball has the problem of slow play with up to four and a half hours a game.” Many of the top players are still New Zealanders, among them the former Bumside men, Alan Hall and Lindsay Anderson, who began a tour of New Zealand with the Western Australia state team at the week-end. Another former Canterbury player, Murray Reid, pitched for Victoria last year. Mr Gibson said that there was a marvellous opportunity for men’s club teams to come to Australia at present. ‘T’m real keen to get kids’ teams, everybody. We’ve been in a sort of nunnery for 20

years.” Australia could not handle teams of the calibre of Ramblers (Auckland) or Bumside (Canterbury), but any below that standard were welcome. Men’s softball in Perth and most of it in Victoria was played in winter which should make it a little bit easier for New Zealand teams to visit, he said.

Australia would probably send a national team to the men’s world series for the first time in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1988.

Mr Gibson said that most of. their projects were funded by the Hawke Government

“Our total grant this year was $147,000, more than rugby union and cricket. $60,000 of that goes in salaries, the rest is spent in umpiring and coaching programmes."

Based in Prahran, Melbourne, Mr Gibson’s main job is coaching coaches and what he describes as “talent identification.”

In about two years time he expects that the general level of softball in Australia would equate with the higher levels in New Zealand.

positive thing he has-enticed is the attitude of tSe young softballers

he has dealt with. "The kids I’m speaking to in Australia are more attentive and put a helluva lot more work into it at home.”

Several 12 to 14-year-olds were doing weights two nights a week. This built up strength and decreased risk of injury. While he was watching the women’s world series in Auckland, Mr Gibson was amazed by the per-:? formances of the Chinese infield, especially against; Australia when the batters did everything but get hits. i

“Our players were collecting what should have? been real good, clean hits. But the short-stop had arms like a giant squid and killed us stone dead.” He attended the world? series to see what “every-? body else” was doing and found the Chinese caught/ in between two philoso-. phies. “They’ve moved-’ from getting on base by, foot speed to belting the. ball like the U.S.A.”

During his stint across the Tasman, Mr Gibson has several times been asked why < New Zealand does so well in team; sports, while the Austra-? lians seemed to do better-: as individuals. His stand-? ard line is: "They eafc our (New Zea* land) tracehorses.” *