Get your cooler, find your lawn chair and organise a lift because we are deep into the Blitz season. There is no better way to adjust your swing, or practise playing another position than at an all day blitz. As an American, a Softball blitz is Irish for tournament and we have quite a few coming up in June, July and August so get your diary out and try and make as many as you can.
- 7th June, The Rock-N-Jock Softball Tournament @ Black Rock Rugby Club – The first time this charity blitz has been organised in support of premature babies. There isn’t a better cause (except maybe breast cancer – see next blitz) and the Renegades own Bill Bradley has been working hard with Softball Leinster, Softball Ireland and Nova Radio DJ Pat Courteney to organise a full day of softball, music and family friendly activities. Renegades will have at least one team entered into this blitz. Entry is €100 per team plus a raffle prize and a cake for their pastry tent. It’ll be interesting to see how this Blitz runs.
- 14th June, The Suspects Blitz @ St. Mary’s RFC – If there is one must-attend blitz of the softball season, this is it. Wearing pink in support of the breast cancer is a must as is organising a lift as the Suspects will ply you with jelly shots, lots and lots of jelly shots. Bring ’em on. With the cost of entry at €240 per team, players are not only fed lunch, a BBQ afterwards and tons of jelly shots, we usually ask our players to contribute €20 each. There are usually more than enough players for the cost of entry we usually contribute any excess to the charity raffle afterwards.
- 28th June, GO BIG and GO HOME Single sex softball tournament @ ALSAA – This one has just popped up on our radar with Softball Ireland notifying teams this week. I hope more info comes out about this blitz, but what we know so far is that it is on in ALSAA, it’s single sex tournament and with so many new female players in our club hopefully we can enter a male and female team. It’d be great if the female players played fast pitch. Who’s up to pitch for that?
- 5th July, Renegades Softball Blitz and 4th of July BBQ @ Clontarf RFC – This is our very own blitz and one that has improved each year. Last year’s was a great success and we seem to have got the format right. We staked out our weekend back in November and it suits the 4th of July theme. An open blitz entered by individual players, not teams. We will organise games between groups of people on the day. Some of the pickup games might be “The Ryder cup match” with Europeans vs. Americans. A boy-centric team (7-3) vs. Girl-centirc team (3-7). Venezuelans and other South American countries take on Ireland. Americans vs. Canadians. etc. Pre-booking your spot will gain you some advantage and allow us to properly plan for the BBQ and lunch.
Other possible blitzes that are on the horizon but the dates have not been announced just yet are:
- Castleknock Blitz mid-July
- Kegs Blitz 12th, 13th or 20th of July will be a round robin blitz with a comp section being hosted by league leaders the Kegs and Rec competition being hosted by the Chuggers. More details to follow.
- 2Pak Blitz was supposed to be end of May, but may be rescheduled for later this summer. This is usually a Prem level invite.
- BASIC in Belfast Early August
- Thunderbolts Blitz in Late August/Early September. Last year this was a 2nd division invite to complement the 2Pak Blitz
- The Brian Walsh Cup Finals in mid-September. This Revitalized SI tournament that will see regional matches being played throughout Ireland during bank holiday weeks, with the final weekend of matches to determine the Brian Walsh Cup Plate and Bowl winners.
16th & 17th August, IOST @ UL – There is no bigger tournament in Ireland than the Irish Open Softball Tournament and this year promises to be no exception. Two full days of softball back again at the University of Limerick. We’ve been in fancy dress on the Saturday – last year was doctors and nurses, the year before was a Hawaiian theme – who knows what we’ll be dressing up as this year. Places fill up quickly so definitely mark it out in your calendar and get ready for a fun-filled weekend.
If you’d like to take on the responsibility of captaining one of these blitzes then please contact softball@renegades.ie and Gill Sinnamon our events coordinator will work with you to ensure that we have a full team out on the day. We don’t want to have too many or not enough players so there might be a standby list until we know if we can fill out a 2nd team. Looking forward to seeing you out there.
