The race for league and divisional titles in slowpitch softball is heating up as June comes to a close. Below are reports on how the season is going so far in a number of key leagues.
Windsor and Maidenhead District Mixed Softball League
by Andrew Scott
The Windsor and Maidenhead League has now passed the midway point and the question of who will win the title remains to be answered.
Division One
The race looks to be between between Windsor Knights and Chalfont Phoenix and it is the latter who have staked the biggest claim for the title with two wins over the former. The latest win coming in the most dramatic fashion. With the knights leading 7-0 going into the fifth inning, it looked all over for Phoenix, but with true grit they demonstrated their championship credentials with a nine run inning and eventually took the game 12-9 to maintain their 100% record.
Having lost their opening two games of the season, the BA Jets have now found the form that led them to the 2013 championship with four consecutive wins that will leave them full of confidence for the second half of the season. The RP Eagles are also on four wins after seven games so both teams will still consider themselves in the running for the 2014 title should the Knights and Phoenix slip up.
Phoenix are not the only Chalfont club with a 100% record as the Flames can also match them for consistency with a record they’re less likely to brag about. The Flames are now the only team in the league without a win having suffered six consecutive defeats.
Division Two
It had been looking like RG Blue Sox would complete the season with a 100% record but these plans were disrupted by a 16-11 loss to last year’s champions Chalfont Firebirds. Rattlesnakes were unable to take advantage of this as they suffered their own surprise defeat, a 20-17 loss at the hands of Maidenhead Rebels. With recent defeats for both Blue Sox and Rattlesnakes, RP Hawks and Maidenhead Rebels, who both on four wins, will be hoping to take advantage of any further losses by the league leaders in order to launch their own title challenge.
After a run of several close games, league newcomers Marlow Mariners finally got their first win of the season with a 14-6 win over Maidenhead Rebels.
There are plenty of top and bottom of the table battles going on at the moment and as we enter the second half of the season there is still plenty to be decided. What is known is that it’s going to be an exciting finale to both divisions.
Manchester Softball League
by Harry Somers
The Greensox are top of the standings in the Manchester Softball League with a 9-1 record just past the half-way stage in the season. They lead last year’s champion Lions by one game, having beaten them 10-9 at the beginning of the month. In the three-horse race for the remaining two slots which will guarantee a place in the top-four play-offs that will end the season, Thunder have wrested the advantage over Dodgers and Outlaws with 3 wins out of 4 games, while the other two have 1-2 records for the month. Mavericks could still sneak into the top four with one of their famous rallies, while Bullfrogs and newly promoted Mayhem, with just one win between them, look certain to drop into Division 2.
They will surely be replaced by the Meerkats, powering forward with a still perfect season after 9 games, with the Speeders just one game behind. The rest of the field is neatly spread out behind these two, starting with the Mutineers, 2 games back, down to the winless Bats.
Division 3 remains tight, and with only one promotion place available due to league restructuring, it looks like going to the wire. Pirates and Storm both have 7 wins, with Storm ½ game behind having played one more. Below them it is all very tight, with four teams each with 4 wins out of 9 or 10 games, and the bottom team on a 3-7 record.
Division 4 is a two-way fight between the new, but clearly experienced, Sefton Sharks whose weekly commute from Liverpool does not seem to affect their game, and the Hurricanes. Sharks got their revenge for an early-season defeat to the Hurricanes, their only loss so far, in an excitingly close timed game on one of our two nights of double headers, winning 16-15 in 4 innings. Both teams have 9-1 records, and are due to meet in what will surely be the title decider in a third rotation next month.