The Adult program was initially set up in 1997 by John Boyd, when a group of Windsor Shooters players, became too old to play competitively in the junior leagues. It was a daunting task for many of the juniors to spring from playing players of their own age, to coming up against fully fledged adults in the senior division.
The team was however helped by a dynamic mix of willing young players, and adult players in the Windsor and Maidenhead area who until now had no team in their local area to join. The Windsor Bears squad grew into a strong core of players, joined together by experience from abroad and home grown talent from the UK.
Windsor were promoted into a strong National League set up in 1999, and were making waves as one of the up and coming teams in the country. In their first year they narrowly missed out to the Brighton Buccaneers in the National Championship Final. The same story continued in 2000 as another close final loss to the Bucanners again denied Windsor to their first trophy.
2001 saw a change in the Windsor set up with a second Windsor team, the Royals accommodating some of the talent continuing to come through the Windsor Farm System, and the surplus of players generated by the first team’s success. The second team managed by Guy Douglas were inaugurated into the lowest level of British Baseball the, then 2nd Division, Baseball’s 4th tier. The Royals gained promotion in their first season, whilst the Bears had an off year losing out to Preston at the first stage of the playoffs.
2002 saw the Royals compete at a level more complimenting their strengths and gave the junior members of the team something to prove, as promotion to the first team was a chance every player dreamed of making. As the Bears took a strong squad to the Final Four competition it was the London Warriors who stopped Windsor from taking their Maiden National Crown. Beyond doubt, 2003 was the crowning year for a baseball program in the Windsor and Maidenhead area, as the National Championship finally came home to the Royal Borough. Windsor’s first team’s national championship success heralded a change in club fortune in tense tight battles, as their dream of capturing a first national title had finally arrived.
The 2004 season saw the Bears lose out to the Croydon Pirates in the National Final, but saw a change in club format. At the end of the 2004 season, the then first team, Bears, disbanded, as John Boyd and some of his players realigned their priorities and joined the squad of the then second team.
From 2005 the second team took on the moniker of the first team and the Bears under the Management of Guy Douglas, took the 1st Division by storm. Winning the Southern League title and progressing to beat the Sheffield Bladerunners and Marston Green Maple Leafs to win their first piece of silverware, and were duly promoted to the Premier Division. 2006 saw the Premier Division take a new direction through the introduction of a Wood Bat League, which saw the scoring of games dramatically reduced, but the competition increase immensely. 2006 also saw Guy Douglas’ tenure at the helm of coaching Windsor for 6 years come to an end.
In 2007 former Southampton Mustangs coach, Jeremy Neads, will be taking over the coaching responsibilities at Windsor, in what will hopefully prove to be another successful chapter in the future of Windsor and Maidenhead Baseball.
