History made at Army softball championships

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 7, Issue 365, 4 December 1990, Page 16

History made at Army softball championships

The Army Inter-regional Softball Championships were held recently for both men and women. This annual event sees teams from the South Island, Palmerston North and Wellington, Upper North Island and the Army Training Group Waiouru competing.

The tournament was held in Waiouru from 14 - 18 November 1990 and saw the first official use of Waiouru's new all weather fully fenced diamond. In the women's competition first round honours went to Central with ATG Waiouru taking out the mens first round competition. The second round saw even more fierce competition in the two life elimination system.

Against all odds ATG men won their way to the final after losing their first game to northern. On finals day they had to win four games in a row. This had never been achieved before in the history of the competition. After defeating Southern and Northern in the morning ATG men had to beat Central twice. They did this easily in the first game aided by two out-of-the-park home runs

by Tom Hutchinson and one by Dave Mclntosh. The second final was much closer, ATG just edging out Central by one run. This was despite a home run by Central's Tony Namara. Meanwhile on the Number Two diamond ATG ladies did it the hard way as well, losing their first final but cleaning up the second final to create a unique double. This was the first time in 15 years that ATG men have won the regional tournament and who knows when the last time this region won both the mens and womens competition.

The evening function saw the announcement of the Army teams to contest the Inter-Ser-vices tournament at Wigram in December. Selected for Army Women from ATG were Tania White and Febe Fabricius with Vila Milo. Diedre Hoffman and Kathy Walker non travelling reserves. ATG men selected for the Army team were Grant Hohua, George Emile and Chris Waterhouse, with Tom Hutchinson making non travelling reserve. Tom also picked up Most Out Standing player of the

Tournament. Tania White was top pitcher in the womens competition. The ATG Ladies also picked up the Most Sporting Team trophy. ATG and Waiouru umpire Paul Jennings were selected to represent Army at the Inter-Services tournament also. So all in all a successful tournament for Waiouru. The Inter-Regional tournament will be held in Waiouru again for the next two years with Army hosting the InterServices here in 1992, so there will be plenty of exciting softball in the future for Waiouru.