EUROPEAN SLOWPITCH CHAMPIONSHIPS TO RECEIVE NATIONAL BBC COVERAGE

An exciting opportunity to give national television coverage to the eagerly-awaited European Slowpitch Championships has been achieved by tournament organiser Roger Grooms.

Mike Bushell, a BBC sports presenter on the Weekend Breakfast show, will be coming down to Southampton on Monday, July 7 to train with the Great Britain Slowpitch Team and challenge himself at slowpitch softball.

In preparation for this, the main European Championship diamond will be set up at the University of Southampton and Mike will see if he can hit the ball “out of the park”. A number of school children will also be there from Thornhill Primary School, where BSUK has been conducting coaching sessions over the past four weeks, and after Mike Bushell has challenged himself against the Great Britain Team, he will take part in a mini-coaching session with the children.

The feature will be broadcast on BBC Television on the morning of Saturday, July 12 and will highlight the European Championship Finals Day, the efforts being made before and during the European Championships with school coaching in the area and the BackSoftball campaign to get fastpitch softball reinstated to the 2016 Olympics.

Opportunities to see softball on mainstream television are few and far between and these different activities, centred around the European Slowpitch Championships, provide the perfect platform for the sport to be featured on a BBC flagship programme.

The European Slowpitch Championships will begin on Wednesday, July 9 and will culminate in a Finals Day on Saturday, July 12. The BBC broadcast going out on the morning of July 12 will be a great opportunity to inform people about the event and hopefully attract even more spectators to come down and enjoy the day.