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January 10, 2025 • 6 mins

The New Zealand Softball Under 19 girls/boys tournaments are underway for 2025.

The boys tournament is being held at Colin Lawrie Park, Pukekohe and the girls section being held at Surrey Park, Invercargill.

Softball NZ's Community Lead Dave Elder joined Adam Cooper to preview the events.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldergrave from News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Right on half past six here on the All Sport
Breakfast or Softballs Under nineteen Championships are being held around
the country at the moment, heading into playoffs this sweekend now,
the Auckland region playing host of the boys and the
Deep South for the girls. So it's end the cargol
we go nice and early this morning Softball New Zealand's
community leaders Dave Elder Dave, morning to you. How's it

(00:32):
all going so far down there?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, I look pretty exciting down here, to be honest,
and the people down here are pretty excited. It's their
first national tournament in twenty years that they've held. Unfortunately,
teams from all around the country have made the journey down.
We've got nine teams playing from all around the country
in the under nineteen deals competition and South Ender's definitely
turned on the weather for us as well. We've got

(00:55):
the nice, cool mornings and the beautiful Sunday afternoons and
all of that's working perfectly great.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
And yeah, teams from which regions have had a good
week down there so far.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Dave. Yeah, so it's been a interesting tournament, to be
honest with you. And so we've got a situation where
two teams have really shown that they're definitely going to
be in the top four, and that's the teams from
Canterbury and hut Valley. But there are five teams vying
for the last two spots in the playoff. So here Saturday,

(01:27):
we've got some absolutely crucial games and it's going to
get right through the last round before we find out
who the last two playoff teams is. And that's just
terrific competition.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, wonderful. I guess you get a sense, Dave, of
some of the sort of standout players and ones to
look out for individually going forward. Has there been some
good standout performances individually through the course of the week
so far.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, there has. And Look, one of the great things
about an under nineteen tournament is that we've got it
right across the country. We've got players that play it
in the Zealand Under eight inside and Under edit and
under fifteen sides in the last year or two that
are at the Summit, all playing for different associations. So
you get this mix of some absolutely outstanding players such

(02:11):
as Mason creany Ewer Cow from Canterbury along with Cioradu
from Cannery who are really superstars over our game. And
then in hut Valley we've got the Angela Harrison's and
other players that are always predominantly there. But also we
then go to teams like counties in that that are

(02:32):
buying for a spot, who may not have nine amazing players,
but they have got people like Trinity Wawati Talker who
is one of the best citters in New Zealand, who
helps to strengthen their teams, along with Munawatu who have
picked up one of the rising stars of New Zealand
women softball, and Poppy Triddle and they're helping to steer

(02:55):
their teams towards those playoffs.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, wonderful. All right, So we'll have people listening in
Southolds tell them exactly where to head across the weekend
if they do want to check out some action across
the Diamonds. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
So look, if you just come down to Fountain's main
ballpark down here, fantastic facilities, incredibly well hosted and I
have to say the people of Invercargo have already been
turning out in the one hundreds for the games and
it's been wonderful. The crowd atmosphere is terrific, the weather
is great, the host teams are great, and the softball
is fantastic. And if you come down this Saturday afternoon

(03:30):
you'll actually see some fantastic play and tomorrow morning on
the Sunday morning, you'll see some of the best under
nineteen players in New Zealand playing in the finals as well.
I wouldn't miss it.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, great, all right, that's awesome, Dave. And far further
north from where you are, Franklin hosting the boys under
nineteen tournament, there are some of the teams to look
out for heading to the weekend there.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah. Right, So there's ten teams playing in the boys tolament,
which means that instead of a round robin tournament, they've
got two sections of five. The major associations are really
showing their way there, with hut Valley, Auckland and Canterbury
in one section. That'll be buying for a couple of
key spots, and Wellington and the host province Franklin, along
with North Harbor who are battling it out with the

(04:12):
other teams there as well. I have to say that
day one in that tournament and through in the other
playoff round have actually seen a couple of lopsided scores.
But I'd also say some big hitting by some of
the players around the country there have meant that it
looks like it's still anybody's tournament as well. So it's
incredibly good to see these competitive tournaments where we're getting

(04:36):
five or six teams that really have a genuine shot
at the title.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, awesome, all right, Well, it sounds like an action
packed weekend ahead. And just in a general sense, Dave,
how are player numbers sort of tracking for the sport
of softball, especially in that crucial age group of sort
of you know, people in their late teens heading into
early twenties.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah. Look, we're seeing a bit of a revival in
the game in a strange kind of way really, and
that is that people that have been out of the
game for a while their children are getting to the
stage of joining the game. So we've got adults that
are coming back to play evergreen softball, which is our
master's style of softball, and with them their families are following.
So you know, we've got regions like Marlborough now that

(05:17):
have twenty eight teams, where four or five years ago
there was there was one or two teams, if any
at all. We've got teams in the Far North with
forty sides, and we're starting to get that family atmosphere
back that always used to be the hardest softball in
New Zealand, where you know, the children follow the adults,
and now it's kind of vice versa where the adults

(05:38):
are back playing and they're watching their children, and all
of a sudden we're getting these superstars in these numbers
that it was only a couple of years ago that
we would have had five or six teams at Nationals.
And like I say, at this Nationals we've got nine
teams in the women's and the girls great and we've
got ten teams in the boys. So you're pretty exciting
for us, to be honest.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Great to hear, Dave, Will and a busy weekend for
the teams involved in both the boys and the girls events,
a great way to get things underway for the twenty
twenty five year. Joy your week to the Deep South Dave,
and look forward to seeing some of those results coming
over the next couple of days. Appreciate your time.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah, great stuff And if the listeners, if you've got
nothing to do in the Vocago, or you've got nothing
to do to Franklin, get on down to the ballpark.
I can guarantee you'll have a great day there.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk set be on Saturday mornings,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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