The best Auckland club championship Fastpitch softball season for more than 50 years goes to the play-off stage tonight at Rosedale Park when the top six sides face off.
Mt Albert Ramblers, bristling with batters, won the minor championship when close rival and neighbour Auckland United lost againsttwo lesser sides, cancelling out two United wins over the national champion. Both sides drew the byes for the first games tonight.
With six of the eleven clubs fighting it out, the race is the most closely fought in championship history - only one game separates Ramblers, United and Marist, with the tied-team formula having to be used twice.
This leaves Marist to play sixth-rated Eden Roskill at 6.30pm, with fourth-placed Northcote against fifth- placed Waitakere Bears.
The winner of the first game will play United at 8.30pm and the second game winner faces Ramblers at the same time.
The second series of games will be sudden death, meaning the whole season could come down to key plays or injuries, as happened in women's play last season when top-ranked Marist and Northcote each lost in sudden death after swamping their rivals all season.
United pitcher Thomas Enoka, an under-19 international last season, has been a season-long star, rivalling Ramblers' Thomas Cameron, who is still searching for his New Zealand form. Ramblers has ace batters in internationals Donny Hale, the player-coach, and Nathan Nukunuku, a youthful veteran of two world championship winning sides.
United had a triumph in the Brother Patrick series after a 43-year gap and coach Joe Forsyth has used his considerable experience to mould his side into an attacking force, with top batters Rod Caddy, Kurt Allan and Ben Enoka the stand-outs.
Those who have played regularly overseas, in North America and Japan, rate the Auckland series as the best local competition in the world, filled with competitive teams containing 15 current international players from the Black Sox and Samoa, plus some from Great Britain and Denmark.
As the world championship defence looms this winter, the competition for places is heating up. New Zealand has held the title since 1996.
