<\/p>\n
BY MARK HUNTER This week, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see the best of the west at the Western Canadian Masters Fastball Championships, which are to start Thursday. Eight 40-plus men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s teams and six 35-plus women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s teams will battle on two Charles Anderson Stadium diamonds starting tomorrow at 8 a.m.<\/p>\n Haldane is leading the Kamloops Sandman Inn Blazers into the tournament after spending July 17-26 at the world championship pitching and playing first base for Great Britain, which finished tied for seventh.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The intensity (between the two tournaments) will be a big difference,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Haldane, a 40-year-old Vernon resident whose father was born in England, thus making Richard eligible to play for Great Britain. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I pitched against New Zealand, who were three-time defending champions, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never played in anything like that.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was phenomenal and I loved every minute of it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n In his start against New Zealand, Haldane pitched two innings, giving up two earned runs in a 14-0 loss. New Zealand ended up losing 5-0 to Australia in the final.<\/p>\n The Blazers are to take on Northwest Territories on Thursday, 10 a.m., in what will be the first of the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s six round-robin games before the playoffs start Saturday.<\/p>\n Kamloops will have a team \u00e2\u20ac\u201d called the Dearborn Classics \u00e2\u20ac\u201din the women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s draw. It will take on one of two Saskatchewan teams on Thursday at 11:30 a.m., in the first of its five round-robin games.<\/p>\n Both finals are scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n Haldane is no stranger to the local fastball scene after pitching the last few seasons in the Kamloops Major Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fastball League. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hoping to see a lot of fan support at the weekend games.<\/p>\n Fan support wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much of a problem in Saskatoon, where as many as 8,000 spectators took in a few of the games.<\/p>\n While like numbers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realistic for Kamloops, the tournament does show an apparent resurgence in the local fastball scene.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Western Canadian championships are a big thing to land,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Haldane said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153(Organizer) Ken Ward has played a big part in landing that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s usually tough to get a Western Canadian or Canadian championship.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n The Blazers have loaded up for the tournament. Along with the local players, the Kamloops team will have Jerry Kennedy, Kevin Careless and Dean Longstaff on its roster.<\/p>\n All of these players, who live in the Lower Mainland, have impressive resumes in top men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leagues. Haldane knows the players from his travels in the sport, and thinks the team will be a contender this week.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be a lot of tough competition,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But if we hit the ball, anything can happen. As long as we can put some hits together . . . I think our pitching will be fine.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY MARK HUNTER DAILY NEWS SPORTS REPORTER [Kamloops] \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Richard Haldane saw the best of the world last month at the ISF World Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Softball Championship in Saskatoon. This week, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see the best of the west at the Western Canadian Masters Fastball Championships, which are to start Thursday. Eight 40-plus men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s teams and six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDAILY NEWS SPORTS REPORTER
\n<\/em>
\n[Kamloops] \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Richard Haldane<\/strong> saw the best of the world last month at the ISF World Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Softball Championship in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n