The 4th ISF Senior World Cup wrapped up yesterday in Manassas, Virginia (USA), with approximately 80 teams having participated in the three-day event.

After a tournament filled with lots of rain in 2004, this year’s edition saw lots of sunshine and lots of winners as players ages 50-and-older competed in men’s and women’s slow pitch play.  Last year had been the first for a women’s division, and the number of participants in that discipline grew this year to seven teams.

It took four venues – a total of 18 fields – to handle the approximately 225 games that were played, but in the end, there were nothing but rave reviews for an event that left organizers already wanting to get started on a 5th edition of the Senior World Cup.

“It was a great event this year,” said ISF Director of Senior Softball RB Thomas.  “Beautiful weather, excellent umpires, well organized, experienced staff, great fields – all resulting in a real quality tournament with some excited teams/players receiving some fantastic awards.”

Thomas said the hope is to schedule a 2006 edition the weekend after Father’s Day, which this year’s event ran into yesterday.

Nonetheless, softball was the talk of the town all weekend, with one local newspaper running a front page picture of a Japanese player swinging a bat, with other photos inside.  A weekly paper had a writer/photographer at the tournament, and at least two softball-specific publications are planning space for coverage of the event in their next issue.

The Senior World Cup certainly provides plenty to write about, as winners were crowned in 19 different divisions.  The full list can be found using the link below.  Of note were the Japanese (age 65+) team and the Canadian (50+) men’s team earning bronze medals, and the Canadian (60+) women receiving the silver.

The tournament staff conferred with team managers to choose All World Teams, which are also available on the website linked to below.

An opening ceremony had taken place early Friday, and that evening an ISF-sponsored reception took place for the players.  Not even a week later though, Thomas has already started campaigning for next year’s event, saying, “Potential international teams should understand that we break the competition down into skill level divisions in each age classification so all teams have a competitive experience.  The winners of the Major Division are truly the best teams in the world…We had…umpires from Canada and would welcome umpires next year from other countries as well.”

With the success of this year’s event, 2006 can only hold promise for more of the same.

(Note: To contact RB Thomas about entering your senior team in next year’s event, e-mail him at Issa94@aol.com.)

Event website
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