News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

By LeRae Haynes

The annual Likely slo-pitch tournament this weekend began with the first two teams squaring off at 6:30 am on Saturday. There were 10 teams at the tournament in Likely---three from Prince George, three from Quesnel, three from Williams Lake and one mixed team.

The ‘Lakers’ from Williams Lake came in first, ‘Off Constantly’ from Prince George took second place, ‘Down and Dirty’ from Prince George came in third and the ‘Laminators’ from Quesnel took fourth place.  

Cyndi Hull, from the Prince George ‘Castaways’ has been coming to play ball at the Likely tournament for 12 years.

“We used to come May long weekend, too, but it got too hard to put a team together when the ball season is just getting started,” she said. “We have friends here, so we sometimes come in May for the parade.”

Cyndi plays second base or center field with her team, and said that the late afternoon game on Saturday against the ‘Donkey Spankers’ from Williams Lake, was their second game of the day.

“I love it here in Likely: it’s absolutely gorgeous. I like to take the kids out to Quesnel Forks and watch the salmon come up,” she continued. “Everybody knows each other and we’ve been coming here for so many years, we know most people here---it’s just beautiful here.”

Cindy Outhouse, who is from Likely and played first base for the Williams Lake team ‘Those Guys’, organized the tournament with her husband, Marty. She started playing on a women’s ball team when she was 11 years old, and played provincial fast ball as a teenager.

Cindy and Marty started running the tournament in the early 2000s, as a fundraiser for 139 Children’s Society. “We started doing this to pay them back for all the help our family got from them when our twins were babies,” she said. “Over the course of three tournaments we raised almost $10,000.”

They continued the tradition for fundraising for charity when they supported the Likely Chapel Youth with proceeds, and the tournament this year raised almost $2,500 for Likely Camp.

She said that the tournament has been going on for at least 20 years. “One reason that people like coming here to play is that you stay in the same park where you play,” Cindy said. “It feels like a big family for my husband and me—we’ve seen the same people for many years.

“This tournament was a blast: playing in the rain and nobody cared.”

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