The first weekend of play in the 2015 National Softball League for A-grade co-ed slowpitch teams took place over the weekend of 9-10 May at the first Diamond Series tournament at Farnham Park, and the early front-runner is the 2014 national champion Chromies.
In round-robin games from Diamond 1 that count in the NSL standings, Chromies, who also won the tournament by defeating Pioneers 11-10 in the Cup final, wound up with a 7-1 record, enough to put them a game ahead of Pioneers and H2O, who both finished on 6-2, in the first NSL standings.
Amy Rice from the Pioneers and Michael Sullivan from the Chromies took the MVP awards in the Cup final. Blue Steel defeated Legends in the Plate Final and the Terriers defeated the Maniacs in the Spoon Final.
The Chromies’ offense was largely responsible for their success at Diamond 1, as they were the only team to score over 100 runs in round-robin play, and scored 30 more runs than their nearest challenger. The only game that Chromies lost in ranking games was an 11-10 defeat at the hands of the Windsor Knights. The Knights have been near the bottom of the NSL table over the past few years, but their 4-3-1 record over the weekend suggests that this year may be different.
Battle for places
This year’s National Softball League has been enlarged to 14 teams, but it will still be only the top eight teams in the final standings that will qualify for the Premier Nationals on 22-23 August at Farnham Park. So competition this year, especially around the middle of the table, will be stronger than ever as teams battle to finish in one of those top eight places.
New teams in the NSL this year include the Bees from Bristol, the Terriers from Leeds, the Greensox from Manchester and London New Zealand (LNZ).
Currently occupying places four through eight in the standings are Slammers (5-3), Windsor Knights (4-3-1), Blue Steel (4-4), Thunder (3-4) and LNZ (3-4).
But this is early days, as there will be more NSL competition over the summer at the two remaining Diamond Series Tournaments, the British Airways Tournament and BSUK’s new MLB Tournament.
All of the teams currently occupying the bottom six places in the table enjoyed at least two wins over the weekend in ranking games and all of them are sitting within touching distance of at least half the teams in the top eight places.
NSL Table
The league standings after the first of five weekends of NSL play is:
| TEAMS | W | L | T | GB | RF | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chromies | 7 | 1 | 0 | --- | 119 | 48 |
| Pioneers | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 89 | 41 |
| H2O | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 83 | 48 |
| Slammers | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 87 | 67 |
| Windsor Knights | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2.5 | 73 | 89 |
| Blue Steel | 4 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 61 | 61 |
| Thunder | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3.5 | 54 | 78 |
| LNZ | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3.5 | 57 | 85 |
| Legends | 3 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 64 | 85 |
| Bristol Bees | 3 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 57 | 83 |
| Maniacs | 3 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 71 | 55 |
| Terriers | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4.5 | 66 | 67 |
| Warriors | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4.5 | 55 | 88 |
| Greensox | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4.5 | 73 | 114 |