The British Baseball Federation has announced that the 2012 National Baseball Championships (NBC), which is the showpiece event in the British baseball calendar, will be staged at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead.
The event will feature the games which will decide the Champions in all four British Baseball senior leagues. In a change from previous seasons, the event will be held over three days during the August Bank Holiday weekend on 25, 26 and 27 August 2012 with 13 games to be played in the different leagues, or perhaps even 14 games, if a game 7 is required to decide the NBL Champion.
Grovehill Ballpark is the home of Herts Baseball Club. It is considered to be the premier baseball venue in the United Kingdom with two purpose-built baseball diamonds. This is the third consecutive year that the NBCs will be held in Herts. Similar to last year the GB National Teams programme will be running the event and funds raised will go towards funding the GB Programme.
Since last year’s NBC an additional £17,000 has been invested into upgrading Grovehill Ballpark thanks to a £10,000 grant from BSUK’s capital facility funding from Sport England and additional £7,000 raised by Herts Baseball Club through various fundraising projects. Both diamonds are now fully enclosed and feature four fully enclosed team dugouts, for the home and visiting teams on each of the two diamonds.
The Herts Falcons have already booked their place in the National Baseball League bracket of the NBC. The Herts Hawks will be hoping to join them in the AA League bracket. To do this they will need to overcome the Guildford Mavericks this Sunday.
A total of 18 teams will go into playoff battle along with the Hawks this Sunday, 19 August. The schedule is shown below. The 9 winners will secure a place in the NBCs.
(A) London Marauders @ Hove Tuesday, 12:00, Pavilion Field, Brighton
(A) Birmingham Maple Leafs @ Leicester Blue Sox, 12:00, Leicester
(AA) Herts Hawks @ Guildford Mavericks, 12:00, Broadwater School, Guildford
(AA) Sidewinders @ Poole Piranhas, 12:00, Poole
(AA) Milton Keynes Bucks @ Sheffield Bladerunners, 12:00, Sheffield
(AA) Harrogate Tigers @ Nottingham Rebels, 12:00, Nottingham
(AAA) Menwith Hill Patriots @ Liverpool Trojans 12:00, Liverpool
(AAA) Bristol Badgers @ Cambridge Royals, 12:00, Grovehill Ballpark, Herts
(NBL) Lakenheath Diamondbacks @ London Mets, 12:00, Finsbury Park