Softball

Softball entered Tasmania after the Second World War, and the first intrastate game, South v North-West, was played in 1949. Softball was popular in schools as a team sport for girls, and as a summer game for those who played hockey or netball in winter, and in 1966 a club-based statewide championship was introduced. Men started playing softball in the mid-1980s, and softball was given a lift in 1987 when an international-standard diamond was opened in Glenorchy. Over the years, Pauline Weeding, Elizabeth Clemes, Ilene Carr and Alison Denne have been selected for the national team.

Softball lost popularity in the late 1990s due to the cost of registration, and a modified form, Playball, was introduced to schools in the hope of building up numbers. In 2004, Tasmanian Simmone Morrow was a member of the Australian team which won a silver medal at the Olympic Games.

Further reading: D Young, Sporting Island, Hobart, 2005.

Alison Alexander and David Young