Newly-formed Newark Nationals Baseball Club play first-ever friendly and hope to join a league for 2025 season

The sport of baseball is back in Newark as interest in a new club gathers pace.

Kieran Campbell had the idea of founding a team after moving to the area in September last year.

He looked into the history of baseball in the town, making contact with Chris Mortimore, who was involved in the old Newark Yankees and Newark Giants sides of days gone by.

Campbell, whose former clubs include Wragby, Hull Scorpions and Leicester Blue Sox, went on to establish the Newark Nationals.

They’ve set up base at the Magnus Academy and on Sunday played their first two friendlies against Durham Spartans.

Mortimore has joined as head coach, assisted by Luke Martin, with Russ Bates on board as club chairman.

Campbell, who’s taken on a general manager role, funded the Nationals out of his own pocket initially, although a Sport England grant is on the way while the council have provided money for equipment.

“I moved to Newark last September and got in touch with Chris about a potential team, or just the history of the Newark teams,” said 27-year-old Campbell.

“There wasn’t an official plan to start a team, then he sent me loads of pictures from back in the day, which was really nice of him, and it got going from there.

“We had our first training session on June 4, we had a decent amount of people down and it’s carried on growing from there.

“I was funding it myself for a bit to get it going but we’re getting this Sport England grant, which is great, and the council helped us out with getting our first lot of decent equipment, which was really good of them.

“We’ve missed one week since June and the community feel has grown as numbers have grown. We’ve got a big roster now.

“We’ve managed to build a full diamond and outfield fence at the Magnus Academy and make a whole baseball field.

“It’s happened very quickly but if it wasn’t for the help of the head coach, the assistant coach and the chairman, I don’t think it would have got where it is because I was on my own originally.”

The Durham games ended in narrow defeats while the Nationals will shortly begin indoor training in preparation for league baseball in 2025.

“We lost both games by two runs, so they were very close,” said Campbell.

“We only had about three people who had ever played baseball before, so we did well for such an inexperienced team.

“We start winter training in November and we’re working out which league to join.

“The British Baseball League Lower and the West Midlands Baseball League are the two we’re looking at but there’s also a potential development league being made.”

To make contact with the club, search Newark Nationals Baseball Club on Facebook.