Sue Thomson from London Raidhers reports:

Raiders in Montreal The Chav Challenge Cup, a fixture that is fast becoming the highlight of the Women’s Slowpitch season, made a welcome return on the weekend of August 11-12 at Thames Valley's Richings Park ground. The tournament was renamed Let The Girls Play and five teams competed over two days.

The reigning champion Chavs were joined by Get Your Hits Out (GYHO), Raidhers, Red Devils and a Canadian team that had travelled all the way from Halifax, Nova Scotia.


The group games saw some great encounters and the leader board was constantly changing. The Halifax team took a couple of games to adapt to British rules that differed from their own, but once they settled down they moved steadily up the board.

The big head-to-head encounters were between Chavs and GYHO, the latter team fielding several Comp A stars including Clare Butler and Michelle Robertson. Chavs took both games during the group stages but both went down to the wire.

So placings after the group stages were:

  1. Chavs
  2. GYHO
  3. Halifax
  4. Red Devils
  5. Raidhers

Raidhers fifth-place was mainly due to fielding a weakened side on the Sunday!

So Halifax and the Red Devils met in the Plate Final. The teams were evenly matched but the Halifax women had had a long week enjoying our English pubs and this finally took its toll as Red Devils claimed the victory.

The Cup Final was always going to be close. Chavs took a solid lead but GYHO rallied in the sixth inning with an eight-run outburst that reduced the deficit to just three runs. In the end, however, Chavs’ batting was too consistent and they went on to retain the title they won last year.

So the trophies went to:

The tournament MVP award went to Clare Butler from Get Your Hits Out who played amazingly all weekend.

Thames Valley’s excellent grounds and the hospitality at Richings Park enabled us to show Women’s Slowpitch Softball in the best possible light.