The Trojans kept things local at their annual awards party this year, choosing to visit local craft brewery, Top Rope Brewing on Brasenose Industrial Estate, for the occasion. The award-winning brewers - founded on a love for craft beer and professional wrestling - also roped in local artisan pizza creators, Pizza Cake. It is safe to say that the refreshments were enjoyed by all, and we would like to extend our sincere thanks to both parties for helping to make this event so special.

There was plenty to celebrate this year - the first team won the British Baseball League AAA title for the third time (2018, 2019 and 2022 - there were no champions crowned in 2020 or 2021), the third team won their first division title, the fours completed their first ever season, and Trojans Softball won their first piece of silverware when they claimed the Liverpool Shield. The club would also like to acknowledge the success of the second team in 2021, when they won the BBL AA Title.

Those in attendance were treated into a short insight into the Trojans past as well, as Norman Wells Jr. and Brian Bretherton joined presenter Ian Blease on the stage. In a short exchange, we heard how Brian was scouted by Wells Jr. himself after spotting him throwing stones at nuisance birds while at work in the late 1960s and how Brian’s own home run in the famous 1976 final had been lost in the annals of time thanks his great friend Norman’s famous walk-off shot. Wells Jr. also paid tribute to the current Trojans administration for the progress made in recent years.

With the interview over, it was time to move on with the awards. With the club now boasting four adult baseball teams and a softball team (and with Blind Baseball and a youth programme in the works) there were to be 51 awards given out on the night. So, in a change to previous years, rather than announcing team-by-team the winners in each category were all invited to the stage together to collect their awards from our guests of honour (Bretheron and Wells Jr). There was intentionally no order to the way the names were read out as an indication that no team (or variant of the sport) is any more important than any other.

Grabbing the headlines on the night were a few of the multi-award winners - Brothers John and Sam Birchall took home three trophies each dominating the first team’s accolades; Scott Gray picked up the Batting title and Players’ Player Award for his Twojans, before being further honoured with the General Manager’s Award for contributions off-the-field later in the evening. Dave Martin Baez and Ethan Donnachie also picked up several trophies for their efforts across both baseball and softball; Jordan Griffiths, Callum Abel and Ben McGinnes picked up two awards each for the Threes, while Jack Jones and Terry Brennand led the way for the fourth team. Perhaps a new name to remember for the future might be Gina Amos who picked up two awards for Trojans Softball (Small Ball Batting Title and Manager’s Player of the Year).