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Isn't it funny how some memories from childhood stay with you.

Take the playing field at my primary school, a place of exploration and fun.

I vividly remember discovering a huge horned stag beetle, playing games of tag, sucking nectar from white, dead nettle flowers and breathing in the heady aroma of honeysuckle.

Our school field was also the scene of various sports day events such as sack races and three-legged mayhem, and the place where my class played rounders – the only sport both boys and girls at our school played together – every summer.

Four bases, a wooden bat and a ball are the basic equipment for the game, which is actually very similar to baseball and softball. The main differences are the size of the bat and the playing area, and also some of the rules. Oh yes, and in rounders we didn't use a special glove to catch the ball, just our bare hands – which was okay as it really was a soft ball.

When we played rounders, the people batting stood in a line ready to go – which is where Pete ran into problems one day while playing at his school. Someone threw the bat as they took off running and the next thing Pete remembers is waking up in hospital with some rather nasty facial injuries. Needless to say it put him off the sport for quite a while.

Since baseball is not really played in the UK, most of what we know about the sport has been gleaned from movies such as Brewster's Millions, A League of Their Own, Mr. 3000 and Fever Pitch – the 2005 American remake with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, not the UK original with Sean Bean which was all about soccer.

I must admit, when we met Atlanta Braves player Chipper Jones at a charity dinner and auction in Florida earlier this year, I hadn't actually heard of him before. We were impressed by his willingness to support a charity in his home region – and also by his height, which no doubt helps greatly catching high balls.

As for softball, we knew even less about that than baseball. But when we heard about the new co-ed softball league starting up locally this summer, we were keen to give it a try, especially when we realized it was slow pitch.

So many people at the Legion darts night were interested that before long we had a team.

Needless to say, we're learning how to play as we go along. Thankfully, everyone else seems to know what they're doing, and once we all grasped the league rules everything started to make sense.

We're finding it a great way to get out and have some fun, as well as using muscles that have apparently lain dormant for quite some time. Thank goodness for yoga stretches and a good massage therapist is all I can say about that!

With nine teams being formed from the ground up in a matter of weeks, it's clear there is some interest and enthusiasm for the sport in this area.

We're looking forward to an active summer – and hopefully this will be the start of something that becomes a summer feature for years to come.