Insurance Institute of Manchester Tournament keeps growing
Wed 25 Jul 2018
BaseballSoftballUK hosted the fifth annual Insurance Institute of Manchester Tournament on Friday 20 July at Parrs Wood School in Didsbury, this time for a best-ever total of 13 teams.
BSUK North West Development Manager Luis Arrevillagas said, “We are so happy to partner with IIM to host these fantastic workplace tournaments and we love to see it grow so naturally, gaining popularity each year. We started with a six-team tournament in 2013 and that’s now more than doubled in five years. We have a great return rate with nine of last year’s 10 teams re-entering this year plus four new teams.
“It’s always a really fun tournament to host,” Luis added, “and we look forward to teams multiplying again over the next five years.”
Format
Teams were split into four initial round-robin groups and, based on results, were then assigned to gold, silver and bronze placing groups.
Teams played a minimum of four game and a maximum of six. Each game was one inning long, with players batting for 10 minutes, then fielding for 10 minutes to complete an inning.
Despite the uncharacteristically good weather over the past couple of months, the rain suddenly returned to Manchester and teams got soaked as it poured down relentlessly for the last couple of games.
During the downpour, teams gathered underneath the gazebo for shelter and grazed on the food and drink provided by sponsors Kempster Bowers & Co. Money was also raised via a raffle, with funds going to Street Games.
Results
The final placings were:
1 -- Allianz (Gold winner)
2 -- RSA
3 -- Aon
4 – Kellands
5 -- Lockton (Silver winners)
6 -- Towergate
7 -- Zurich
8 -- HSB
9 -- Freedom (Bronze winners)
10 -- Chubb
11 -- Reich
12 -- QBE
13 -- Ripe (Wood Winners)
BaseballSoftballUK North West Coach Linni Mitchell said, “It’s lovely to see the same faces returning each year for these events. We have heard it’s something the companies really look forward to and it’s a great way to fuse team cohesion within the workplace and let off steam on the diamond.
“It’s great to see players who were novices in their first year come back to lead their teams as captains after being sucked in and falling in love with the sport.”
If you want to set up a tournament for your workplace in the North West, contact Luis Arrevillagas on: LA@bsuk.com.
