The holiday season came to a close today without any upsets, but with some nail-biting along the way.

In the Majors, the Aces edged out the Brewers 5:4, with the winning run scored in the bottom of the sixth inning with one out.  In the "bronze medal" playoff, the Twins scored all their runs in the last inning for a 7:4 win over the Diamondbacks.

The Secretary/Treasurer of Hills Juniors, John Yard, said "The Brewers had a number of chances, but the Aces defense was sound". Also in attendance were the selectors for the 2010/11 Hills Junior SJC {rep} teams, and they were impressed with the performance of the children involved.

In the Minors, although the Bandits went down to the 3rd placed Sidewinders today , they did enough in the past games to hang on to the top spot by half a game. The Miracle were gallant runners-up.

Peter Schmidt, President of Hills, had this to say ...

We're now in our third season of Little League, and I'm pleased and proud to report that it just gets better each year. This time, we had more than 100 players involved in eight teams - a fabulous achievement.

However, it could not happen without the support of the Hills clubs and the volunteers involved. On behalf of the kids, please let me thank:-

• The ground staff at Castle Glen and Kellyville. Without your efforts, the event would have been impossible.
• The umpires:- all of you worked all the games without payment, and there wasn't a single game that went ahead without an accredited "blue" in charge. Thank you all.
• Other team officials:- managers, coaches, scorers and EOs. You've all done a terrific job this season. Pat thyself on the back!
• To all Hills clubs:- you underwrote the cost of LL again this year. That, quite simply, is visionary. One day, perhaps quite soon, we will all reap the rewards from taking baseball out into the general community. This programme is a vital first step in that process.

The Major League competition started tonight, with another good turnout. All games went ahead with a full complement of players, coaches and umpires.

Results are now available from the "Results & Standings" menu at left.

Another minor change to the RuleSheet. Sorry - it's just housekeeping. See the Documentation Library at left for the latest version.

The change, for clarity, is to note that pitchers undergoing mandatory rest periods are not allowed to catch either. The formal [Hills and BNSW] rules state that a pitcher on rest cannot take "a battery position", which includes the catcher.

The Minor League started tonight, under grey skies but the rain held off. The turnout was good, with almost everyone who registered showing up.

Revised Draws posted. The final draws were issued this evening, with Kellyville being named as the venue for the the fixtures noted as "TBA" on the preliminary draw. Click on "The Draw" link at left.

Rules updated. The rules were updated tonight. See the Documentation Library at left for the latest version. The change was a small one:- simply to enforce the Infield Fly rule in Little League this year. We decided to do that, even in the Minors, because the kids will need to know this rule soon (U/12 Douglass League and all U/14 conferences), and the idea of this competition is to give everyone a taste of "real" baseball.

The NSW State Tournament will be held at Shellharbour from Thursday, April 8th to Sunday, April 11th inclusive.

Two teams from Hills will attend.

The provisional draws were issued today, available from the Draws page, in the "Regular Season" menu at left.

Teams were provisionally named and posted to this website. Managers for the four Major League teams were also named, with positions for the coaches and Exec Officers held over until the Minor League is sorted out.

After receiving over 80 registrations, the books were closed. Since then, a few players on the waitlist have been given places due to the withdrawal of families who had conflicting vacation plans

The Hills Holiday Season Little League programme is launched. All age-eligible Hills players with email addresses on MyClub are sent invitations.

This year, players from Cumberland (Eagles) are also invited.