SOFTBALLS could be winging through the Guernsey air at around the 80mph mark over the next few days. And, reputedly for the first time in local softball history, the accurate speeds of pitchers will be detected officially by a radar speed gun during the weekend’s Guernsey Softball Association Fastpitch Open.

‘Spectators and players should expect to be very impressed with the speeds and movement that the pitchers will be throwing,’ said tournament director Curt Taylor.

‘Speed-reading radar equipment will be installed behind the catcher and I’m expecting to see it flashing up numbers into the 80mph bracket,’ he added.

The crowd will be able to view the speeds on the Doppler device, similar to ones used by police to trap speeding motorists, from certain locations around the diamonds as it faces the pitcher.

‘Nobody has really been clocked over here before – it will be the first time anybody has officially been clocked,’ said Taylor.

One of Europe’s fastest pitchers, Jared Welsh, will be striking out batters on Beau Sejour’s top and bottom diamonds.

The 22-year-old Kiwi, who is currently plying his trade in the Danish league, recently appeared in the 2007 ISF World Cup in Prague as guest pitcher for Dutch-based club team Demo EHS.

‘He is not the fastest pitcher who has ever been here but the fastest pitcher any Guernsey player would have seen for a few years,’ said Taylor.

But he suggested a couple of unknown pitchers appearing could be even quicker.

Welsh is faster than Colts’ former pitching supreme Jason Smith and is probably more comparable to former Kiwi speed legend Barry Henderson of Centrals.

‘Barry was probably the quickest locally based but Jared would be a little bit quicker on his day,’ said Taylor.

There are no definitive official absolutes on the fastest ever softball pitch but at the 1980 ISF Worlds in 1980 Canada’s Gene McWillie was supposedly clocked at 87mph – the equivalent to facing a 115mph baseball pitcher.

When softball made its Olympic debut in Atlanta in 1996, the tournament’s fastest pitch was recorded at over 118 kilometres per hour.

Baseball legend Steve Dalkowski is rumoured to have launched a fastball at 110mph and the ‘King of Softball’, Eddie Feigner, who died last year aged 81, was once reputedly tracked at 104mph.

Taylor stressed though that some of these reported feats may not be accurate as they were recorded without proper radar equipment by the military with high speed cameras.

Although only four teams have entered the sport’s main annual tournament in the Guernsey calendar, with the standard of the visiting teams and guest players for the local teams, it is likely to be up with the highest standard of softball played in the island in recent years.

‘There will be less quantity of teams but higher quality of play and a lot of high-class national players,’ promised Taylor, a 36-year-old administrator for Doyle Motors.

‘With it being a double round-robin tournament, the teams have to play hard all weekend because the top two teams will get to the final. It’s going to be horns out from the off.’

The self-contained speed unit has been acquired from Terry Ferbrache at Fletcher Sports. Games will run from 9.30am to about 7pm both tomorrow and on Sunday. Monday sees a 9.30am start with the final scheduled to start at 4.30pm. Spectators are welcome and on-site refreshments and snacks will be available throughout.