CALEB NICKERSON

MANSFIELD ET PONTEFRACT

July 10-12, 2020

The Mansfield Ball Park was packed with action over the weekend, but players and observers had to keep their distance. The weekend-long charity tournament brought out . . .

about a dozen teams and was organized by Terry Charette as a fundraiser for his mother in law, Denise Duval, who was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in November.

“We wanted to do a fundraiser to help her for all her treatments, all the help she can get,” Charette said in an interview on Sunday afternoon as the tournament’s finals were kicking off. “She found out about six months ago. She took all her chemo … that’s all done. Now she’s just waiting for the operation.”

The games were spread out over the weekend and Charette said they had a big list of restrictions to enforce due to COVID-19. There was no canteen or bar for the duration of the event and both players and spectators were told to keep their distance and disinfect their hands and equipment. He added that both he and Duval have been involved with the local ball scene for years and it felt good to get back out on the diamond.

“We’ve been playing here for the past ten years, and I did a lot of tournaments,” he said. “Ball is big in Pontiac and we just got the ok to open. It was everything for the COVID, big list, big rules … it was hard to do a tournament with all the rules, but now that the weekend’s almost done, it was really, really good.”

Charette had a couple of helpers throughout the weekend but said he handled a lot of the responsibility himself, working from early in the morning to late in the evening. A dozen teams participated in the event, divided into two divisions.

Both the final matches on Sunday afternoon were close games, but in the end, the Jägerbombers came out victorious over the Krushers in the B division while Mixed Nuts prevailed in the A division over the Knights. Both winning teams donated their prize money back to Duval, and Charette was able to present her with a grand total of $3,235.