The Swindon Bombers travelled up to Edinburgh for the Festiball tournament over the bank holiday weekend. The team enjoyed themselves in quite a hot Scotland and brought home the trophy in the form of Hamish the doorstop!

Bombers travelled the length of the UK to compete at Festiball, with train cancellations and standing in train corridors not getting in the way of the tournament fun to be had.

The first day went well, with home runs starting off our scoreline and good fielding teamwork, the Bombers were on form. The day was hot, but the Bombers kept their cool and got 2 wins, 1 loss and a very close draw, placing 4th in the group half way through the tournament. The team prepared for the next day by relaxing in hot tubs and enjoying the Scottish summer evening.

The Bombers went into Sunday with a can do attitude and had some close games. Winning the semi-final Bombers reached the final against the Badgers and had to fight for the win, going into the second inning 12-2 down, they had some batting to do! A smart switch in the fielding positions started to hold the Badgers runs back, a bit of high tempo music and encouragement on the sidelines, the team stepped up the bats and got the runs going. The final inning saw Bombers chasing 3 runs for the win, with Nigel the winning run on second base, Dan hit a strong ball into left field bringing Nigel home securing the win. The team were ecstatic to bring home the trophy which just topped off the already great weekend.

Special mentions to plays of the tournament go to Alex with a storming backwards catch while running way into the outfield, Anwen and Barney’s epic home runs to get us started on Saturday and Nigel’s magic catch when he and Alex were on course to collide, only just avoiding disaster, and no one knowing who caught the out – the only thing we did know is the ball didn’t hit the ground!

The four umpires on our team also helped out the tournament umpiring eight games between our own which was much appreciated by the tournament organisers.

After all the softball fun the team headed into Edinburgh the next morning for a Champions breakfast before taking the train home. Trophy ‘Hamish the Coo’ also squeezed in some sight seeing, and ensured we had a good journey, with the whole team arriving safely back in Swindon in the evening. Thanks Captain Alex for planning and herding us well over the whole weekend.