MARCO SILVESTRI has represented Great Britain again and flown the Guernsey flag in an international softball tournament in the Netherlands. And another Sarnian, Giants pitcher and island fastpitch coach Curt Taylor, has been invited to train with the Great Britain squad and will be competing in a tournament in Zeist in the Netherlands in a fortnight.
‘I’m very proud to have been selected again and I wish I could have performed a little better,’ said Silvestri, 23, a fund administrator for Mourant.
‘I fielded well but struggled to bat - all in all it was a great experience. It was not so much how I played but what I learnt.
‘They just play the game very differently and have a much more technical approach. Because it’s played at such a high level more emphasis is put on each individual player.’
The centre fielder competed in the Barrel Challenge at De Bilt in Utrecht, playing against Tenerife, Belgium, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Great Britain finished third behind Denmark and the host country.
They beat the winners on the first day and Belgium and Tenerife on the second, but lost to the Netherlands and Spain.
As it was not a ranking tournament, the GB side included Kiwis, Aussies and a Samoan.
Silvestri was selected after training with the squad several times at Twickenham during the winter months.
He is looking to apply what he learnt locally when he plays for NRG Rangers in the fastpitch league and Doyle Motors at slowpitch this season.
‘I’m sure what I learnt will come in very handy,’ he said.
Guernsey’s softball season starts on Saturday week.
Silvestri believes that the Guernsey Softball Association continues to do a great job and is hoping to see more teams from outside the Channel Islands in this year’s big tournament.
‘Standards have got better and with teams at international level coming over, they raise the standard. The standard is high anyway in Guernsey,’ he said.
And he sees no reason why other players locally cannot go on to represent Great Britain in future and put Guernsey further on the softball world map.
‘I’m sure Curt will do great and attract even more attention,’ he said.
‘I can’t believe it has taken so long to get Curt over there and there are certainly better players than me over here.
‘We played against Great Britain a few years ago and I performed well on the day.’
Silvestri is planning to go travelling to the United States in September and wants to try his hand at baseball there.
Could he make the professional grade?
‘It’s just a dream - they are millionaires,’ he said.
Article posted on 18th April, 2007 - 12.00am
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