The last weekend of play for teams in National Softball League 1, postponed to avoid clashing with the European Co-ed Slowpitch Championship, took place on the 
weekend of 23-24 July at Farnham Park, and H2O emerged as the 2022 league winner.
This was the first NSL1 title for H2O since they won the league four straight times from 2010-2013, and it means they will be top seeds at the NSL1 Nationals in September, a competition that, for all their success, they have never won.
In the end, H2O finished a game-and-a-half above second-place Legends in the standings, but Legends arguably let the league title slip from their grasp by suffering four of their five losses over the season on this final weekend.
The two best teams on the weekend were Knights and Chromies, each with 6-1 records. The two teams met in the last slot for league play on Sunday, and Knights came away with a 15-14 win – the same result and score that happened when the two teams met earlier in the season.
In the playoffs that took place at the end of the day on Sunday – games that don’t count in the league standings – Pioneers beat H2O 32-14 in the Cup Final, KKs took the Trophy Final on a forfeit and Blue Steel beat the Greensox 12-8 in the Plate Final.
Qualification and relegation
The final NSL1 weekend settled two important questions: which eight teams have qualified for the NSL1 Nationals and which two teams have been relegated to NSL2 for the 2023 season?
The eight teams to qualify for the Nationals, in the order in which they finished in the league standings, are H2O, Legends, Knights, Chromies, Travelling Dodgers, Pioneers, Tigers and KKs.
The Greensox and Blue Steel, who finished ninth and tenth in the standings, will miss out on the Nationals but retain their NSL1 places, while the Blitz Bombers (by just a single-game margin) and the Mavericks are headed for NSL2 next year.
Their places will be taken by the Spittin’ Camels and Tempest, promoted from NSL2, which finished its league season earlier in July.
European qualification
Finally, results from the weekend allowed the British Softball Federation to announce the order in which teams will qualify for the two places that will be available to Great Britain in the 2023 European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup, in accordance with Softball Europe criteria.
The first two places will go to the winner of the 2022 NSL1 Nationals and to the Travelling Dodgers as the 2021 NSL1 Nationals winner.
Should the Travelling Dodgers win the Nationals again this year, and/or if the Dodgers and this year’s winner are unable to take up their places, the teams next in line are:
- The 2022 NSL1 Nationals runner-up.
- The 2021 NSL1 Nationals runner-up (the KKs).
- The 2022 NSL1 league winner (H2O).
- The 2021 NSL1 league winner (Pioneers).
- The 2022 NSL1 league runner-up (Legends).
- The 2021 NSL1 league runner-up (Chromies).
Next year’s National Softball League competition will be very similar to this year’s except that NSL3 will expand from eight to 12 teams. Two-up, two-down relegation between the divisions will be maintained.