Year in Review: 2025
9 January 2026

Another year has come and gone, and with it, another year of British baseball and softball all across Great Britain! 2025 saw BaseballSoftballUK working across the breadth and width of our sports, from National Teams to indoor softball and from Farnham Park across Great Britain. Here are just a few of our highlights from an action-packed year:
Skip to: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
January saw the return of the free Safe of Base safeguarding course, taught by BSUK’s Mark Caress and Chris Knoblock. With five sessions run over the first four months of the year, 45 players, coaches and volunteers were put through their paces to receive this vital training – which expands for 2026!
February saw the WBSC Europe Congress in Croatia, attended by the BBF, BSF and BSUK together, and the British Softball Federation’s Annual General Meeting, where BSUK presented a recap of Great Britain Women’s Softball’s recent successes. Both events saw BSUK working hand-in-hand with partners and stakeholders to advance the agenda of British baseball and softball. Following significant collaboration between all three organisations, the British Baseball Federation rejoining BSUK’s membership, a significant milestone in aligning all three organisations, and beginning to explore a future, unified, single organisational approach to British baseball and softball. The month was capped off with the appointment of Matt Bazeley OBE as the new Chair of BaseballSoftballUK, taking up a three-year term.
March saw an addition to BSUK’s staff in the form of a face familiar to Great Britain’s national teams as Alan Dean joined the company as Performance Programme Manager. A vital role within the performance department, Alan gave the programme a major boost ahead of a busy year – but more on that later!
In April, BSUK led baseball and softball activities at the Youth Sports Trust Leadership Camp as part of the MLB London Series Legacy Programme. The camp, for young adults aged 14-17, teaches them essential life and leadership skills through sport and physical activity, with Team Leaders assisting in the delivery of MLB First Pitch programmes throughout the year.
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May saw the return of the BUCS National Championships to the National Baseball & Softball Complex at Farnham Park. Scheduled in May for the first time, the National Baseball Championships were played in glorious sunshine, with the Durham Wolves taking home the title for the second consecutive year. At the BUCS National Softball Championships, Nottingham proved to be too much for the second year in a row as the Arrows won their second consecutive championship. BSUK was thrilled to have the support of the University College of Football Business support coverage of both events, with a Live Blog and lots of additional content added to BSUK’s annual Championship Broadcasts on BSUK-TV.
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An exciting May gave way to June and a major milestone in British baseball and softball: the launch of the Coaching Playbook, an all-new, British designed coach education programme. The culmination of two years of work between BSUK, the BBF and BSF, the Coaching Playbook set a new standard for coaching in British baseball and softball. With the launch of the Playbook came the first CORE Coaching Course, run in June and July, and the launch of the Coach Membership – a searchable database of registered and certified coaches in the UK. Over at Farnham Park, the annual Coronation Cup saw a celebration of softball once again, with a few teams breaking out the fancy dress. BSUK rounded out the month by supporting the MLB First Pitch Festival hosted by Herts Baseball.
Moving into July, the Jubilee Cup – the second in the BSUK Regal Series – ran once again, with the introduction of the Royal Court Games, a set of fun new challenges for participating teams at the end of Saturday’s play. Abroad, members of the BSUK performance team, along with Senior Head Coach Tara Henry (stepping in for Tara Tembey, on maternity leave) were off to Spain and the U18 Women’s European Softball Championships, held in Pamplona and Zaragoza at the end of July.

August saw history for Great Britain Baseball with the programme’s first-ever gold medal coming at the U23 European Baseball Championship in Czechia. With Great Britain mounting a stunning come-from-behind victory in the final against the hosts, Czechia, and requalifying for the U23 World Cup at the same time, it was a very proud moment for British Baseball. Closer to home, BSUK partnered with the London Mets to welcome Florida State Softball – and GB Softball’s Jazzy Francik – to Finsbury Park for a fantastic clinic with participants from across Great Britain. Meanwhile at Farnham Park, the British Softball Federation once again held the NSL Nationals at Farnham Park, with the Legends winning the NSL title for the very first time.
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As autumn crept closer, things got much busier in September, where, for the first time in recent memory, the European Softball Championships and the European Baseball Championships were held in the same month. The European Softball Championship came first in Prague, with the Great Britain Women winning their third consecutive European medal, a bronze, and punching their ticket to the Women’s Softball World Cup next year. The performance staff were next off to Rotterdam for the European Baseball Championships, with British Baseball Hall of Famer Bradley Marcelino making his debut as manager. Back in Britain, the annual Chris Moon Memorial Softball World Series was held at Farnham Park, with the UCE Travellers (representing Germany) winning the title. Farnham Park also played host to multiple BBF National Championships, with BSUK arranging for TalkSport to simulcast the NBL Championship online for the first time. The month ended with Greenwich Baseball hosting a MLB First Pitch Festival in East London, supported by BSUK.

October saw the return of the London Indoor Softball League to West London, again providing indoor playing opportunities for London’s large softball contingent, and November saw BSUK’s staff travel to Leicester to attend the BBF AGM, presenting on safeguarding, the National Teams, and more at British Baseball’s largest gathering of the year. BSUK also ran a special Pitching Clinic with Birmingham’s Bob Rowe as part of the Coaching Playbook, with great attendance in Coventry. November ended on a high with the announcement that Katy Gould, Female Health lead for Great Britain Softball, and the BSUK Medical & Science Commission were shortlisted for a prestigious UK Sport PLx Award for their work on the Female Athlete Programme, a cutting-edge research and monitoring programme initiated by BSUK’s Performance Staff for the benefit of the Great Britain Women’s programme.
December had BSUK’s staff attend the PLx Conference in Leeds for two fantastic days of learning, networking and celebrating the best of high-performance sport. As the year wound down, one final announcement – the launch of the Emerging Players Programme in January – capped off another exciting year of baseball and softball in Great Britain.
2026 is set to be even more exciting, with three BSUK-managed teams participating in World Cups – the World Baseball Classic in March for GB Baseball, the Women’s Softball World Cup Group Stage in Lima, Peru for GB Women’s Softball, and the U23 World Cup for Baseball in Nicaragua – along with a partnership developing with new owners the Wycombe Wanderers at Farnham Park and an exciting new community-led Club & League support programme coming in May!





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