Blue Steel won six games and lost only once during round-robin stage at the first Diamond Series tournament on the weekend of 11-12 May at Farnham Park to take an early lead in the 2013 National Softball League standings.
This year, only eight of the 12 NSL teams will qualify for the Premier Nationals at the end of the season, so results from every tournament are important. NSL teams can use their results from the three Diamond tournaments, plus the British Airways, Pioneers and Bristol Main tournaments to count towards Premier Nationals qualification.
Not many surprises
The outstanding form of Blue Steel in taking an early lead in the standings was a mild surprise, but results last year had indicated a team on the up. Otherwise, there were only a few shocks over the weekend.
Last year's National Champion Chromies inflicted the day's only defeat on Blue Steel, but are having to share fourth place with the Dragons after a surprise 12-10 defeat by Maniacs and a tough 14-13 loss to H2O.
As might have been expected, Pioneers and H2O share second place, with both losing only to Blue Steel. Dragons, who didn't play in the NSL last year, are looking strong on re-entry, with only two losses, including a surprise defeat to Mariners.
The Warriors, a team built on the ashes of Baker Tomkins, who disbanded in 2012 after 20 successful seasons, failed to win a game but drew with fellow strugglers Knights.
Legends, surprise finalists in last year's Premier Nationals, had a reasonable start with a 3-3 record on the day, but their wins all came against teams lower down the standings.
A look at the standings, below, suggests how the battle for the final Premier Nationals places might shape up at the season goes along.
NSL Standings
Blue Steel (6-1-0)
Pioneers (5-1-0)
H2O (5-1-0)
Chromies (4-2-0)
Dragons (4-2-0)
Legends (3-3-0)
Slammers (2-4-1)
Maniacs (2-4-1)
Mariners (2-5)
Knights (0-5-1)
Warriors (0-5-1)
Misfits (0-0-0)
Full standings, including runs for and against, can be seen on the BSF Nationals website.
Diamond 1 Results
The results of NSL games played at Diamond 1 that will count towards NSL standings were as follows:
Slammers 11, Mariners 10
H2O 14, Chromies 13
Blue Steel 28, Maniacs 8
Pioneers 17, Knights 3
Dragons 10, Legends 8
H2O 14, Slammers 7
Blue Steel 22, Mariners 4
Maniacs 12, Chromies 10
Knights 10, Warriors 10
Pioneers 26, Dragons 6
Slammers 16, Maniacs 16
H2O 8, Mariners 7
Chromies 9, Blue Steel 5
Pioneers 5, Legends 3
Dragons 18, Warriors 8
Mariners 15, Maniacs 11
Blue Steel 12, H2O 8
Chromies 7, Slammers 2
Legends 12, Warriors 8
Dragons 5, Knights 4
H2O 13, Maniacs 3
Chromies 10, Mariners 2
Blue Steel 24, Slammers 5
Legends 16, Knights 1
Pioneers 22, Warriors 10
Mariners 9, Dragons 6
Blue Steel 11, Pioneers 7
Pioneers 13, Maniacs 10
Dragons 12, Slammers 9
Slammers 5, Legends 2
Blue Steel 25, Knights 2
H2O 9, Warriors 6
Legends 7, Mariners 6
Maniacs 11, Knights 7
Chromies 20, Warriors 9
Back-up results
Results from games played during the playoff rounds at NSL tournaments will only be used if the corresponding game doesn't happen during round-robin play at one of the NSL events during the season. The aim is to make sure that the final NSL standings are based on each team having played all other teams the same number of times.
The back-up results from Diamond 1 were:
Blue Steel 15, Pioneers 11
Slammers 16, Dragons 5
Legends 13, Chromies 9
Mariners 16, Knights 7
Maniacs 16, Warriors 7
Blue Steel 22, H2O 18
Legends 11, Slammers 10
Mariners 24, Maniacs 13