More than 1,000 players took to ball fields around Whitehorse for the annual Dustball tournament this past weekend.

Athletes from Alaska, the N.W.T. and the Yukon participated in this year's event, which featured the largest number of teams ever at 80, competing in ten different divisions.

'It went really, really well,' said George Arcand, executive director of Softball Yukon. 'Considering we had the most teams ever, it was very smooth.'

Arcand said there was just one major injury over the weekend, when one of the players broke her eye socket. But overall, he hasn't heard any major complaints from competitors or spectators, he said.

Arcand attributed the rise in teams there were 69 last year to both more out-of-town competitors and an increased interest in Softball locally. He said Sitka, Alaska sent so many squads this year that Air North sent a 737 charter to the small town just for Dustball.

In Whitehorse, there were also more teams in the coed slo-pitch league this summer, so it makes sense there were also more in Dustball, he said. Although, the increase was seen the most in the men's divisions which had 34 teams this year rather than in coed.

That increase could be due to a change in the rules for the men's A division. In the past, men's A was a separate group from B, C and D, and those competing in A could not cross over to play coed as well. But this year, all the men's team were put in the same pool and then placed in divisions based on their performance during the round-robin.

'There were eight teams in men's A during the elimination round,' said Arcand. 'It seemed to go reasonably well.'

The new rules also meant those in men's A could play coed as well, which a number of them chose to do. That meant some of the competitors ended up playing more than 15 games by the time they made it to the finals on Sunday.

After playing in the men's A final for Yukon Radiator and the coed B final for Len's Painting, both on Sunday, Jody Phoenix and most of his teammates who did the same was exhausted.

'We've got bruised ankles and knees and arms,' said Phoenix. 'We had 13 guys and that just wasn't enough for this calibre of tournament.'

Still, Phoenix and his teams managed to put on a good show for the spectators in Sunday's finals, even though they lost to Imperial Saloon from Juneau in the men's A final and Casa Loma in the coed B final.

'These guys played five games all weekend,' said Phoenix of his Alaskan men's counterparts. 'And to be quite honest with you, they're a hands down better squad than us. I'm really proud of our guys, though, with the effort they gave.'

It came down to extra innings against Casa Loma, with Len's losing by just one in the ninth. But they'll take second place, said Phoenix, considering they lost in the quarter-final and then had to play four games just to get back to the final.

'(The entire tournament) was wonderful. Softball Yukon once again put on a good show. Give kudos to them.'

With the number of teams this year, there was certainly extra work for Arcand and his crew. First of all, the scheduling was a bit more tricky, and there were a number of late registrations.

'We also had to open another ball park that hadn't previously been used for quite some time,' explained Arcand. 'Robert Service number one hadn't been used in a number of years, so it needed some work.'

Even with the addition of a new park to use, there were still just six time slots left over during the entire tournament after 230 games played, which means there's really no room for more than 80 teams in the coming years.

Here are the results from the 2005 Dustball tournament:

Men's A

1st Imperial Saloon, Juneau

2nd Yukon Radiator, Whitehorse

3rd Slam-a-Rye, Whitehorse

Men's B

1st Pioneer Bar, Haines

2nd Crusaders, Juneau

3rd Klukwan, Haines

Men's C

1st Gas N Go, Juneau

2nd Creephawks, Whitehorse

3rd Mayo, Mayo

Women's B

1st Tim's Cascade Fish & Chips

2nd The Crew, Whitehorse

3rd The Cellar, Sitka

Women's C

1st Diehards, Sitka

2nd Parts Plus, Juneau

3rd TLC Massage Therapy, Juneau

Women's D

1st Bamboo Babes, Haines

2nd Fogcutter, Haines

3rd Pepsi, Whitehorse

Coed B

1st Casa Loma, Whitehorse

2nd Len's Painting, Whitehorse

3rd Nipples & Nuts, Skagway

Coed C

1st Aklak Air, Inuvik

2nd Vigilantes, Skagway

3rd Thibodeau Valley Liquor, Juneau

Coed D

1st Kal Tire, Whitehorse

2nd Valley Paint, Juneau

3rd Tlingit Electric, Whitehorse