Baseball comes to Exeter with the arrival of the Spitfires

Exeter has a surprisingly strong link with the sport of Baseball due to a former resident named Henry Chadwick, and now the city has its own team.

The Exeter Spitfires will begin play this season when they join the established South West Baseball League to take on the Torbay Barons, Bristol Bats and reigning champions the Plymouth Mariners.

The Spitfires will play each of their opponents four times, twice each home and away, with a game being played every two weeks on a Sunday.

The season itself will run from 14 April, when the Spitfires start their season at the Plymouth Mariners, through to 15 September. Home games for the Spitfires, the first one scheduled being 12 May against the Bristol Bats, will be played at St Luke's Science and Sports College on Harts Lane.

A new field for the team is under construction there and will be named Chadwick Field in honour of the aforementioned Henry Chadwick.

Chadwick was born in Exeter in 1824 before his family moved to the USA. Once there he became interested in baseball and eventually became a pioneer in generating many of the statistics still used in the game and helped to turn it into the major sport in the USA that it is now.

Henry Chadwick is even enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Exeter Spitfires are made up of some experienced players, but also a number of men and women trying the sport for the first time and are always looking for new players.

Outdoor practices begin at King George V Playing Fields on 1 April at 5pm. If you are interested in trying out Baseball, or would like any further information on the team, please contact them at exeterspitfires@hotmail.co.uk or visit the website www.exeterspitfires.co.uk