Richmond Flames, Oxford Kings, Richmond Knights and MK Bucks are celebrating this evening after they were crowned champions of their respective leagues at the National Baseball Championships (NBC), held at Grovehill Ballpark, Hemel Hempstead.
Richmond Flames were the beaten National Baseball League finalists in the previous two seasons and going through those two disappointments will make today’s triumph all the sweeter for Grant Delzoppo’s team. Richmond went unbeaten in the double-elimination tournament, defeating Bracknell Blazers 6-3 in their opening game and then gaining an 8-2 victory over London Mets before sealing the title with a 10-1 win over the defending champion Blazers in the final.
It’s the second time that Richmond have won the top-tier competition, their previous success coming in 2006.
The Southern champion Oxford Kings beat the Northern champion Liverpool Trojans 13-3 in six innings to lift the AAA NBC trophy. The Trojans had beaten the Kings 3-2 to qualify for the final, but the Kings recovered with an 8-5 win over Herts Eagles and then gained their revenge on Liverpool to secure their first ever championship after falling just short in 2008.
Richmond Knights completed an incredible season by stunning the Leicester Blue Sox to win the AA NBC in extra innings. The Knights entered the final riding a nineteen game winning streak, yet the Blue Sox looked odds on to bring that to a crushing end when they scored ten runs in the top of the second inning of the AA final. However, the Knights scored eight runs in the final two innings to send the contest into extras and then bounced back from conceding two runs in the top of the tenth by scoring three of their own in the bottom of the frame to take the win by a score of 20-19 and to complete a memorable day for the Richmond baseball club.
MK Bucks made sure the Midlands league didn’t come home from the NBC empty-handed as they defeated Guildford Mavericks 10-3 to win the A Final. The game was much closer than the final scoreline suggests as it was tied at 3-3 heading into the ninth inning before the Bucks exploded for seven runs to leave the Mavericks reeling.
Details from all of the games are available at the following GameChanger pages: NBL, AAA, AA and A (note that there appears to be an error in the AA linescore as it shows the Knights won 21-19). The BBF website will no doubt be providing further news and reaction in due course. I’ll be reflecting on the NBC and the 2010 season in general in Thursday’s British Baseball Beat.
Congratulations to all the teams that worked so hard over the season to make it to the NBC.
2 comments
Super effort from everyone involved – congratulations to the winners, and especially the Richmond club. Commiserations to Guildford, but they gave as good a showing as anyone from the Southern half of the draw.
The youth playoffs start next week, and I fancy the Essex RedBacks Pony team may go some distance if their games against us were anything to go by.
See you all next season.
Michael Jones
Club Secretary
Chelmsford Clippers Baseball Club
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