Zambian Softball Champions and other Zambia Sports Travel Tips

Theme: Other

In the Copperbelt area of Zambia, softball was a big sport in the early 1970s. Teams competed from the various mining towns (Kitwe, Ndola, Chingola, Mufilira, Chililibomwe, Chibuluma and, of course, Luanshya with even a distant team from Lusaka taking a stab at it!). The sport was played over the Oct-Feb period with once per week matches being played by each team. I was a member of Luanshya's Roan Antelope Pirates made up of a strange mix of players from all over. We would practise twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and then have the big game on Sunday. It was quite an event, with the various families tagging along on the road trips and then afterward the Home team would put on a great braii (BBQ) with plenty of beer. We happened to have the best pitcher in the league (this was "fast-pitch" softball and Brent really knew how to wing them in with his underhand delivery)! I had never really played any serious ball until I came to Zambia but, when the locals heard that there was another Canadian in town, they figured that they were onto something. Whatever happened, we ended up winning the national championship two years running while I was there with the team (73-74 and 74-75) and, I believe, another one after I left for Canada. Photo of the happy 73-74 winning team with (front, left to right) Don Arsenault (Canada), Brent Parks (Canada), John Moseley (Canada), John Kanukula (Zambia), Ed Crookshank (USA) and (back) Jim Lonergan (USA), Terry Green (UK), Barry Lee (UK), Boniface Mbao (Zambia) and Glenn Brown (Canada). Sadly, big Boniface was killed in a car accident on Zambia's dangerous highways a few years after I left.

The second photo shows me swinging for a hit in a September, 1973 pre-season warm-up game in Luanshya. Final score: Luanshya Pirates 19 and Chibuluma Lions 18 !


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