ISA New Zealand Classic Softball Tournament to go ahead if sun shines

Congratulations for Grant Dean (left) from teammates after Tamatea's only run against Saints in Senior A softball at Akina Park, Hastings, last Saturday. Saints won 8-1. Photo / Ian Cooper

A softball tournament held in Hawke's Bay every year for a quarter-century is set to go ahead this weekend despite fears that flooding of its diamonds in Hastings could cause its cancellation for the first time.

The ISA New Zealand Classic Softball Tournament, which started as the Lion Red North Island Classic in 1996, will be played at Akina Park and feature eight teams from Hawke's Bay, Wellington and Hutt Valley.

The Covid-19 crisis means there will be no teams from Auckland and Waikato, but it does come at a time of some rare depth in Hawke's Bay softball with five clubs now contesting the Bay's Senior A grade.

Four of them are in this weekend's tournament which organiser Craig Waterhouse says is as a result of the pandemic New Zealand's biggest pre-Christmas men's softball tournament this year.

Congratulations for Grant Dean (left) from teammates after Tamatea's only run against Saints in Senior A softball at Akina Park, Hastings, last Saturday. Saints won 8-1. Photo / Ian Cooper

He said he hadn't had to cancel a tournament in advance in 40 years of tournament
organisation, but it became a serious possibility as he looked at the flooded No 1 diamond on Thursday.

While some more rain was forecast, and he was worried particularly about the condition of the skin (limestone) diamonds, he made the decision on Thursday to go ahead, come hell or high water.

"The biggest issue is surface water on our two diamonds," he said.

Lined up for the tournament are titleholder Porirua, fellow Wellington clubs Poneke-Kilbirnie and Tawa, Hutt Valley Marist, and Hawke's Bay clubs Saints, Maraenui Pumas, Fastpitch and new operation METS.

The tournament will be played in two pools of four, with three games each on Saturday, from 9am. The final is expected to start on Sunday at 2pm.