Congratulations to Steven Murdooca and Ryan Bartolo, who will be joining the team going to Hong Kong. They'll replace Isaac Whatson and Dean Frew, who are both unable to compete. Thank you Isaac & Dean. We could not have got this far without you.

• A Day at the Australian Little League Championships
• Australian Little League Championships

For coverage of the State Championship Tournament, click here.

Despite some drizzle today, and some heavy rain yesterday {accompanied by a truly spectacular lightning display for a while}, all three games for each team were completed. The feedback so far has been enormously positive, with lots of excited kids frothing at the mouth to get on the diamond for the next game.

Logistically, we're also doing fine. Of the nine games played, we're averaging more than 3.6 innings per game, which is much better than the 3.0 expected. Five of the nine games have gone 4 innings, and the total pitch count per game is mostly within the predicted 75-95 band.

A couple of niggling issues with the rules were identified and corrected. Apart from that, everyone involved seems to be happy with the format. It's also been nice to see the camaraderie among the team staffs, and between the teams and the umpires.

Congratulations to Greg, Phil, the Umpires, the Managers, the Coaches, the EOs, the Scorers: all the parents and most all, the PLAYERS for making this programme as good as it can be. Let's hope the goodwill and positive vibes continue for the rest of the season.

We today decided to suspend games on Friday {January 18th} indefinitely, to give the pitchers a break. Play will resume on Saturday the 19th, with the double-headers as scheduled. See the Draw Page for full details.

Today saw the issue of final rulebooks, in both electronic and printed forms. There were a few minor changes and clarifications required after consultation with team officials, scorers and parents. The latest versions are in the Documentation Page.

On a sultry January day, Hills Little League arrived with a bang. We had a fairly high attendance from the players, two-man umpire crews at each game, and the diamonds were beautifully dressed by the Castle Hill ground staff. Results can be seen at our Results Page.

Sadly, we won't be able to issue complete uniforms to every team on Tuesday. There has been a holdup in shipping from the manufacturer. We'll issue caps to each team, but the playing shirts might take another week or so. Thanks for your patience, and sorry.

We today published team lists, announced team names, and have issued a provisional season draw. You can see the team lists by clicking here, or view and download the draw by clicking here.

Registrations for Little League were closed today. We now have 81 players.

We will continue to record applications for the next fortnight, but those players will be Reserves. They will be invited to play if somebody drops out.

The Little League Player Draft was held today at Kellyville. Six teams of 13 players and two of 14 were selected. We'll be in touch with families in the next few days.

The Little League Player Draft will take place at 11am on Saturday, December 29th. Players should be advised of their team and contact details for the team management early next week, by email.

Hawkesbury & Oakville complete the subsidy sweep! All Hills players in any of our member clubs will now be able to play Little League for free.

Rouse Hill, Schofields, Baulkham Hills and Carlingford have joined the other clubs in offering to subsidise the full $30 Little League fee for their members registered this season in weekend baseball.

Today we took our 75th registration. Six teams are now guaranteed. Rosters will be at least 12 players per team, and 12 games are also guaranteed this season.

We're pleased to announce the successful candidates for positions on the Little League team staff so far. Individual positions have not yet been decided, and won't be finalised until next week. Your successful candidates are:-

• Tony Richards (Castle Hill, BNSW Director)
• Mark Costello (Baulkham Hills, Miniball)
• Raff Patrone (Kellyville, past Hills rep staff)
• Peter Olson (Kellyville, Hills U/12 SJC)
• Greg Giffin (Kellyville, Hills U/14AC)
• Peter Whatson (Hawkesbury)
• Phil Hemmer (Baulkham Hills: Juniors & ML, Greenway, NSW)
• Scott Wakefield (Baulkham Hills)

We are very pleased to announce that Greg Robinson has agreed to accept the position of Hills Little League Commissioner for this season. Greg is currently the Secretary of Kings Langley, and has previously served Hills on the Behavioural Standards Commission and as part of our Representative Team staff. He is also a native of northern Kentucky (near Cincinnati) and brings first-hand experience of US Little League operations to the job.

Hills today announced that the post-Xmas Little League Minor League competition has been cancelled. Registrations so far make it clear that we will not have enough younger players to conduct a viable midweek competition. Players aged 10 have been given the opportunity to either withdraw or to play in the Majors.

For the purposes of compliance with our Charter, we will deem the eligible weekend competitions in season 2007/8 to be the "Minor League" component of our baseball programme.

Phil Griffiths, from Castle Hill, today agreed to accept the appointment of "Hills Little League Umpire Co-ordinator" for the 2007/8 season. Contact Phil by email here. We're very happy to have somebody of his experience and enthusiasm involved.

Castle Hill today became the third Hills club to fully subsidise the $30 fee for its members to play Little League after Christmas.

John Hook, President of Winston Hills Baseball Club, today announced that the club will pay the $30 Little League fee on behalf of all club members who register for Hills Little League this season.

Kings Langley today was the first Hills club to agree to pay the $30 LL fee for its members this season. All currently registered KL players who sign up for Hills Little League will play for free.