For further proof of softball’s popularity in South Africa, one need look no further than the national championships that concluded there this past weekend. The event itself took six days to play, in large part because of the number of teams that participated. There were four different divisions of play: Reserve Women, Reserve Men, Major Women, and Major Men. In all, 33 teams competed in this year’s tournament. Worth noting is that despite its national scope, the championship even hosted a women’s team and a men’s team from the neighboring country of Namibia.

The competitive level of play nationwide was seen in there being a different province’s team winning each division.

Played in East London, which hosted the International Softball Federation’s (ISF) X Men’s World Championship in 2000, the 2006 national championship crowned winners as follows: in the Major Men division, the team from the province of Kwazulu-Natal (5-0 winners over Guateng North), in the Major Women division, the Gauteng North team won 4-3 to dethrone the 13-time champion Western Province team, the 2006 Reserve Men division champion is Western Province, and Limpopo claimed the Reserve Women’s title.

Also making news at the event was Softball South Africa (SSA) naming the team that will compete later this year at the ISF XI Women’s World Championship. Scheduled for August 27-September 5 in Beijing, the tournament will include the national team from 16 different countries, including South Africa’s, which has three players returning from the roster that competed at the last event (2002 Women’s World Championship in Saskatchewan, Canada).

In Zimbabwe last December at the African qualifying event, South Africa (along with Botswana) gained a berth in this year’s marquee ISF event, which is also serving as softball’s Olympic Test Event and will qualify four teams for the 2008 Olympic Softball competition too. This will be South Africa’s third straight ISF Women’s World Championship appearance and fourth overall.