CHALLENGE AND CONTINUITY: SINCE 2020

The start of the 20s presented not just the Campbelltown Ghosts Baseball Club with unprecedented challenges - indeed, the entire sport in the region was placed at risk thanks to events which couldn't be foreseen as the 2019-20 Summer came to a close.

With massive bushfires raging around Sydney and NSW, play across the season had been regularly interrupted by both extreme heat and persistent smoke haze. It was a worldwide crisis, however, which brought the series to an early end.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe brought with it lockdowns and an inability to participate in regular community activities, including sport. Its impact from March 2020 meant the Summer finals were never played and the Winter 2020 season never began.

The passing of the first waves of the pandemic later in the year allowed players back onto the diamonds for Summer 2020-21, albeit with an adjusted approach due to the reality of living with COVID.

In between, the 'top' diamonds at Woodlands gained a new Scorer's 'shed' and some seating as the Club's continued focus on improving the complex kicked up a gear.

While the Winter 2021 season got off to a start, it wasn't long before COVID returned and plunged the country into a much longer lockdowns. This left the season incomplete and Club members wondering whether they'd see play the following Summer.

Season 2021-22 eventually did get underway, albeit three months after it normally would have. More work was completed at Woodlands in the run up with the main diamond Scorer's 'shed' and dugouts connected to electricity, providing them with lighting for the first time.

The next obstacle for the Club and sport began toward the end of 2021 and ran through the first half of 2022 - record breaking rains. The unprecedented deluge reduced most Macarthur Baseball League (MBL) grounds to being unplayable, some for many months.

Somehow the Summer 2021-22 season was completed in early April with the Club collecting premierships in the top two divisions. As thoughts turned to Winter 2022, however, it was clear a 'normal' season wasn't going to be possible.

The eventual cancellation of the series allowed the Club to focus on other things, with grant applications a top priority. By the end of 2022 grant funding provided new seating along the main diamond, the first new 'Zooka' machine bought in many years, and a new grounds mower.

While welcome additions, they were no substitute for being on the diamonds. With Winter games not progressing, the Club used the opportunity to run its own training series called 'B-MOD' due to its modified rules. This proved a very popular substitute for players and officials taking part.

With weather and COVID no longer considerations by the time Summer 2022-23 got underway, the Club celebrated its history with the launch of Grist Mills: The Story of Campbelltown Baseball 1956-74 by Jeff Hunter , a project supported by the Campbelltown & Airds Historical Society.

The final weeks of the year also saw the planting of 18 shade trees around the Woodlands complex as part of the Federal Government's Planting Trees for the Queen's Jubilee, celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's 70th year of reign.

These trees were dedicated at the beginning of 2023 and were joined later in the year by four flagpoles through further Federal Government funding, Woodlands becoming the only ground able to fly the National and other official symbols of Australia and Club.

The upgrade of the canteen by Campbelltown City Council between the Summer 2022-23 and Winter 2023 seasons continued the Club on its path to recovery, a path still being travelled by the Club and sport today given the difficulties inflicted by the previous years.