Women’s softball association to use nine weeks to assess, pick train-on squad

THE Port Moresby Women’s Softball Association is targeting nine weeks of competition before assembling a select side to represent the association in the national championships in April.
Association president Ian Soweni said the initiative to restart the competition was to revive interest after the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted the sport last year. “We need that commitment because we only have nine weeks of competition so by next weekend, we should name a possible squad listing for the Port Moresby team,” he said.
“The players named in the Port Moresby team would also need to have regular matches.
“So when the competition finishes in Easter, we should be ready for the national championships and our team will be defending the women’s title for the ninth time.
“The interest is there, the two big club in United Sisters and Gazelle were supposed to have a match but due to the rain, we had a washout.
“So despite the weather, we have a good number of women ready to play. We only had two forfeits because of the rain but otherwise, all the other clubs have turned up so that’s encouraging.
“We have modified rules so if you look at the way the game is being played, we have shorter boundaries which increase the speed of the game and revive the interest of big hitters.
“After the first week, all we can ask for now is the commitment of all the teams to come and play.
“It’s just a return-to-softball competition and if we leave it till late, we won’t be able to get the regular season going.”
Soweni said once regular matches start, officials would start gathering names for the train-on squad.