The Surfers Paradise Baseball Club is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

club based on the Gold Coast in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, that participates in the

Greater Brisbane League The Greater Brisbane League or formerly the Greater Brisbane Baseball Board league (GB3) is the largest baseball league in the Australian state of Queensland and covers all teams from Brisbane North, South, West, Metro as well as three Gold Co ...

, Gold Coast and Far North Coast competitions. The club was also host of the 2018 and 2022 Pan Pacific

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History

John Carpenter, Mitch Wikum and Steve Meeham founded Surfers Paradise Baseball Club in 1987. That year the club entered three teams in the

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

metropolitan competition, and in their first season won the A-Grade title. This was achieved through the assistance of ex-

Claxton Shield The Claxton Shield was the name of the premier baseball competition in Australia held between state-based teams, as well as the name of the trophy awarded to the champion team. From the summer of 1989–90 until 2001–02, and again since 2010� ...

players from other states including: Larry Montgomery (NSW), Gary Coward (SA), Lance Wegner (VIC), as well as other quality players from around the Gold Coast and Brisbane region. The idea for a junior competition on the Gold Coast, or at least

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a list of surface water sports, surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in Glossary of surfing, tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wind wave, wave of water, whic ...

, was initiated by Steve Meeham who advertised in the local paper for junior players. With mixed responses from players of all age groups, the competition attracted 60 kids between the ages of 10 and 14 years plus one father - Gary Edwards. With Gary's help, Steve split up the children into 5 equal sides, and rolled out a competition on Saturday mornings. The five junior sides - Giants, Dodgers, Dragons, Reds and Sharks – attracted great success in the '88 to '89 season, and by the '89 to '90 season the number of kids playing baseball at Surfers Paradise had doubled. By the start of the '90 to '91 season, there was an abundance of young players with not enough coaches to manage them so the competition was forced to expand and teams were created in the areas where the kids lived such as Runaway Bay, Nerang and Palm Beach. The first junior representative players to come from Surfers Paradise were Brandon Pollard, Trent Durrington, Shane Edwards and Adam Wardrop. All four boys were selected in the QLD U/16's squad in 1990 with each of them progressing to more senior representative teams over the years including National and Junior selection, as well as Australian Senior team selection for Trent and Brandon. Trent now runs a Training With the Pro's program out of the club every year in December. On 21 December 2008 the team played in the Commissioners Cup at the Beenleigh Hawks baseball club and lost to the shield's incumbent, the Redcliffe Padres 4–3.Padres Retain Commissioners Shield

Notable players

* Max Durrington (

Oakland A's Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

) * Trent Durrington (

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West Division. Since 1966, the team has pl ...

) * Wayne Ough (

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

) * Andrew Utting (

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

) * Matthew Gahan (

)

Managers

* Kevin Fenn (2019–present) * Matt Corbitt (2017–2019) * Jake McMaster (2016-2017) * Jon Deeble (2015-2016) * Peter Yates (2010-2015) * Adam Wardrop (2002-2010)

Presidents

* Tony McPhail (2020–present) * Justine White (2019–2020) * Tony McPhail (1996-2019) * TBC (1987-1999)

Life Members

* John Carpenter * Judy Carpenter * Ken Hussey * Cherie Bombell * Ron Bombell * Frits Weber * Garry Edwards * Gordon Wallace * Tony McPhail * Leigh McPhail * Col Carruthers * Lindsay "Butch" Graham * Bette Holland * Adam Wardrop * David Counter * Mikael Weber * Connie Stoyakovich * Matt Studeman

References

External links

*
Surfers Paradise end of year results - ''Courier Mail''
*O'Neill, R (27 November 2008.
Hawks lack edge
'' Albert & Logan News'' *Fielmich, L (3 November 2008.

''Gold Coast Bulletin'' {{Gold Coast Sports Teams 1986 establishments in Australia Baseball teams established in 1987 Australian baseball clubs Baseball teams in Australia Surfers Paradise, Queensland Sports clubs and teams on the Gold Coast, Queensland Greater Brisbane League