The weather was hot and so was the action during an exciting weekend of play for teams in National Softball Leagues 2 and 3 at Farnham Park on 9-10 July, with promotion and relegation, Nationals qualification and Nationals titles all up for grabs.
Over the course of the weekend, NSL2 teams completed their 2022 league schedule and determined which two teams will be promoted to NSL1 next year, which two teams will be relegated to NSL3 and which eight teams will go forward to the NSL2 National Championship on 3-4 September.
NSL3 teams completed league play in June and already knew that Blitz Havoc and the Milton Keynes Diamonds will be promoted to NSL2 next year. This weekend was the NSL3 National Championship and, perhaps not surprisingly, the same two teams fought it out for the title.
Final league games for NSL1, which will determine relegation and qualifications for the NSL1 National Championship in September, have been put back to the weekend of 23-24 July to avoid clashing with the European Co-ed Slowpitch Championship.
NSL2
The Spittin’ Camels went into the final weekend of NSL2 league play undefeated and on top of the table with a 14-0 record, and they started confidently on Saturday morning with two more wins. But then, unexpectedly, the Camels lost their next three games and finished in fourth place on the weekend with a record of 4-4.
In fact, five teams finished the weekend with records of 4-4 and had to be separated by runs conceded, as the table below shows.
But this was still good enough to keep the Camels at the top of the final league table below and ensure promotion to NSL1 for next season, along with Tempest.
The teams relegated from NSL2 are former B-grade National Champions SPAM and the Bees. The two teams played each other in the last game of the league schedule on Sunday, and if SPAM had won, they would have remained in NSL2, with Ninos Privados going down. But SPAM could only manage an 8-8 draw and that sealed their fate.
There should also be a special mention for The Mob, who went 7-1 on the weekend, beating the Spittin’ Camels and losing only to Tempest in league play and wound up just one game behind Tempest for the second promotion place. This is a team that came up from NSL3 in 2018 and barely retained their NSL2 place in 2019, but then finished sixth in the league in 2021 and have now finished third. The Mob are clearly a team on the up and they have had a great season.
The table above also shows the eight teams that have qualified for the NSL2 Nationals in September, with the Fuzzy Ducks, Ninos Privados, SPAM and the Bees missing out.
In the playoffs at the end of the day on Sunday – these games don’t count in the league standings – Tempest beat The Mob 23-3 in the NSL2 Cup Final, LNZ beat the Warriors 25-5 in the Trophy Final and the Terriers edged out Ninos Privados 15-14 in the Plate Final.
NSL3
The eight NSL3 teams had their first season of league competition this year on weekends in May and June, and this weekend was their National Championship tournament.
The two teams that had finished top of the league standings did the same this weekend, with Blitz Havoc and the Milton Keynes Diamonds losing only one game each and drawing 8-8 when they played each other, so Blitz Havoc were declared top seed for the playoffs on the basis of fewer runs conceded over the tournament.
This meant that Havoc was matched against fourth-place Storm in one semi-final and just squeaked through to an 18-17 win. But Milton Keynes wasn’t so lucky in the other semi-final, going down 10-8 to the Meerkats.
Havoc then dismantled the Meerkats in the final by 21-8 to confirm the NSL3 National Championship title.
In the fifth-place placing game, the Sharks beat Bracknell by 11-9, and Shafting beat Maidenhead 13-19 in the seventh-place game.
Popularity
NSL3 expanding this year from a single National Championship weekend to add two weekends of league play has been popular with the teams.
Here are some of the comments received by BSF Competitions Director Liz Graham:
“Thanks Liz and the BSUK crew fun a fun season!” – Blitz Havoc
“Thanks Liz and all our fellow teams. It’s been a really great league to be part of!” – MK Diamonds
“A big thanks from the Bracknell gang. Thoroughly enjoyed this year's NSL3 campaign. Well played all, there's been some cracking games.” – Bracknell NSL
“Thanks Liz, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed it” – Meerkats
The plan for next year is for NSL3 to grow to 12 teams, matching NSL1 and NSL2.