Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

Pitchers pack bags

Top-line softball pitchers could be in short supply in Canterbury next season. From last season's Canterbury men’s representative team both of the "home-grown” pitchers, Colin Sutherland and Peter Babbington, have left Christchurch. While Sutherland, a Papanui club stalwart, recently moved to Wellington on a transfer from his bank, Babbington, after a highly successful summer with Richmond, has returned to the West Coast. Another leading Canterbury pitcher, Jimmy Hall, who played short-stop for New Zealand when it won the men's world series in Midland, Michigan, a year ago, signed with the Wellington club, Poneke-Kilbir-nie, towards the end of last season. Better news for Canterbury softball is that the

young Canadian hurler, Mike Ash, will be returning to New Zealand for another southern summer with the Suburbs club. With Sutherland and

Babbington, Ash completed the representative team’s pitching staff last season. The Suburbs coach, Bryan Mountford, has been in touch with Ash this week and said that he already had his “bags packed" for New Zealand. Ash, who took a huge total of 291 strike-outs for suburbs last season, will probably arrive in the third week of September and will stay in Christchurch for the whole season, until the end of March. Meanwhile, the Richmond club is still hopeful that it will be able to entice Babbington back for the 1985-86 season. This year’s Rothmans national men’s tournament is in Christchurch, over the Christmas-New Year break, and the Canterbury team will be in urgent need of good pitchers.

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.
Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850725.2.191

Bibliographic details

Press, 25 July 1985, Page 48

Word Count
249

Pitchers pack bags Press, 25 July 1985, Page 48

Pitchers pack bags Press, 25 July 1985, Page 48