(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Locations announced for European Softball Tournaments
Nederlands
 ANTWERP (Belgium) -
On Thursday (November 15), the Executive Council of the European Softball Federation (ESF) announced the locations for several events for softball women and men to be held in 2019, which had been approved during a meeting in previous weekend.
The sites for three tournaments have yet to be decided.
The European Women's Premiere Cup-tournament (August 19-24) will be held in Bollate (Italy).
With that, Dutch champion FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem again will travel to Italy next year.
This year, the team finished in an unexpected and disappointing fourth place in that event, while Bussolengo from Italy won the Premiere Cup.
Later, Bussolengo won the Italian Softball Series 3-1 against Bollate to win the Championship-title.
Bussolengo was led this year by former Netherlands Softball Team Head Coach Craig Montvidas.
Bollate last hosted the highest European club-competition in 2006 when the event was called European Cup Tournament.
Since the first European Cup-tournament was organized in 1978, Italy hosted the event 18 times.
It will be the fifth time since 2011, that an Italian club hosts the event.
The site for the European Women's Cup Winners Cup-tournament (August 19-24) has not been decided yet.
There are two bids to organize the event, one from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic.
For the Netherlands, Roef! in Moergestel is the candidate, while Eagles Praha is the Czech candidate.
Dutch vice-champion Terrasvogels will participate in this tournament.
That will be the record-extending 37th time that Terrasvogels participates in an European Cup-tournament.
...The site of Roef! in Moergestel (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
This year, the Cup Winners Cup was organized successfully by Dutch club Euro Stars in Capelle a/d IJssel.
There, Bollate from Italy won the Cup by winning the Final against Sparks Haarlem.
For next year, Sparks Haarlem has not qualified for participation, after it was eliminated in the Play-Off for the Dutch championship.
It will mark the first time since 1999 that Sparks Haarlem is not participating in an European Cup-tournament.
With 19 consecutive participations, Sparks Haarlem shares the record in that category.
Overall, Sparks Haarlem participated in 23 Cup-tournaments.
The organization for the European Women's Cup (August 19-24) has been awarded to Dupnitsa (Bulgaria).
This tournament is a qualifier for the Premiere Cup.
The European Men's Super Cup-tournament (August 26-31) will be played in Nettuno (Italy).
Dutch champion Quick Amersfoort will be one of the participating teams.
This year, Quick Amersfoort won the ESF Cup when the tournament was held in Prague (Czech Republic).
There, Amager Vikings from Denmark won the Super Cup.
Last year, Quick hosted the event at its site in Amersfoort.
The last time that the Super Cup was held in Italy was in 2016 when Azzano was the host.
Back then, Quick also won the ESF Cup.
In the Super Cup-tournament, the field of participants is split after the preliminary round.
The best eight (or nine) teams continue to play for the Super Cup, the rest for the ESF Cup.
From July 29-August 3, Zagreb (Croatia) will be the site for the European Under-16 Women's Championship.
The dates and location for the European Under-18 Qualifier are not known yet.
Countries can still file bids to host the event.
For the European Coed Slowpitch Championship, a decision also still has to be made between two candidates, Berlin (Germany) and Budapest (Hungary).
When held in Berlin, the dates are July 29-August 3, when held in Budapest, the games will be played July 15-20.
This event also will be a qualifier for the first-ever World Cup Coed Slowpitch, which will be held in 2020.
Two other sites were already announced earlier.
From June 13-23, Prague (Czech Republic) will host the WBSC Men's World Championship.
This marks the first time that the global event will be held in Europe.
A week later, starting on June 30 and ending on July 6, the European Women's Championship will take place.
The games of this event will be played in Ostrava (Czech Republic) and neighbouring Rybnik (Poland).
(November 17)
|
