Top guns of the diamond are high scorers 

THE weekend’s inaugural Top Gun Tournament is just the start of things for the Tamworth Softball Association as it continues to try and recapture the interest in the sport there once was.

After a couple of years of running only a social senior competition, the association is planning a reinstate competitive Saturday softball.

They’re holding a couple of trial weekends for junior and senior players starting this weekend, and are inviting anyone interested along.

“We’ve got the Batter Up program for the littlies (5-10years),” Tamworth Softball Association president Richard Webb said.

“It’s a new program Australian Softball has developed. 

“It’s like the softball version of Milo cricket.”

“It’s about skill development in a fun environment.”

Then depending on age they will progress into either t-ball (10 and under) or mod-ball (11/12 years).

Both competitions will run on a Saturday morning from 9am.

Then from 3pm in the afternoon it’ll be the seniors’ turn.

“We’ve got two competitions in the afternoon,” Mr Webb said.

The Riverside Softball League will be for the more competitive players and the Riverside Softball Cup are for the more social players.

They’ve also switched from mid-week nights to Saturdays.

“The feedback from people was they’d rather commit to a day,” Mr Webb said.

At this stage they have at least six teams for the senior competition.

Four of those will play in the softball league – United, Diamonds, Strikers, which are a new team and Barnco Bandits.

“That’s a good start, considering where we were two years ago it’s a step forward,” Mr Webb said.

Registration for the juniors is $40 for the season, and they’ll be hard to miss out on the field.

“The uniforms are all lairy colours to attract the kids,” Mr Webb said.

He said the U15s tournament on the weekend was a success, and hopefully will grow from the six teams that participated in the first.

“Everyone had a good time.Most of the comments and feedback has been good.”