Softball gets £3.5m home in park

For more than a decade it has been one of the city's best kept sporting secrets.

Softball, the baseball-style game hugely popular in the USA, first arrived in London in the Eighties with informal "pick-up" matches around Regent's Park. But now the 300 teams that play in a thriving league here have found a permanent home.

The new £3.5million pavilion, with 20 changing rooms, is being built in the heart of the park - alongside 19 fullsize softball pitches. Due for completion next spring, it will provide the sport with an Olympic venue should London win its bid for the 2012 Games.

An additional £2million is being spent on 90 acres of pitches - including 23 for football, rugby, cricket, hockey and baseball - forming London's largest grassed sports area.

Jenny Fromer, of the sport's ruling body, Baseball Softball UK, said: "A lot of work has gone into it and it is fantastic. We are 100 per cent behind the plans."

She added: "The Olympic bid would be phenomenal if it came to London and it would do wonders for our sport."

When softball first appeared in the park, passers-by would join in with impromptu games. By the mid-Nineties the sport had exploded with men and women taking part in mid-week leagues and weekend tournaments.

Softball, which attracts many young professionals, is one of the few sports where both sexes can compete on an equal basis, although only women would take part in the Olympics. Ms Fromer said: "It is very easy to play and you don't need to have special skills to start."

There are now around 500 softball teams in Britain but around 300 play in London, with the majority based at Regent's Park.

Park manager David Caselton said: "The softball pitches are the busiest in the park. It's not just league games but also families and businesses making a day of it, with picnics and so on. The game doesn't always have to be deadly competitive, so people can relax."

Funding for the pitches has come from Sport England, the Football Foundation, the London Marathon Charitable Trust, Sportsmatch and Nike.

But £1.2 million is still needed to complete the pavilion and The Royal Parks Foundation is looking for corporate or individuals donors.