The 2013 National Softball League (NSL) will kick off at the first Diamond Series tournament on May 11-12 at Farnham Park, with 12 teams signed up to play, one more than in 2012. Eight of those teams will qualify for the Premier Nationals at the end of the season.
Teams
The 12 teams that are currently finalising their rosters and registration for the NSL are:
Blue Steel
Chromies
Dragons
H2O
Knights
Legends
Maniacs
Mariners
Misfits
Pioneers
Slammers
Warriors
Tournaments
Six tournaments will be used this season to gather results and points towards league standings and Premier Nationals qualification:
Diamond 1
Diamond 2
British Airways
Pioneers Tournament
Bristol Main Tournament
Diamond 3
To be in the running for a Premier Nationals place, teams must play in a minimum of two NSL events, and individual players must play on at least four days for the team in NSL competition.
NSL standings will be based on results from round-robin play in the six nominated tournaments.
Schedule
To make qualification for the Premier Nationals as much of a level playing field as possible, organisers of the tournaments where NSL play will take place will work with BSF Tournaments Officer Liz Graham to place teams in groups such that, over the course of the season, each NSL team will have played all other teams that same number of times.
Liz has notified NSL teams of the procedures that will come into place to determine final standings should a full balanced schedule not be achieved.
NSL fixtures and results will be posted on www.bsf-nationals.org and a league table will be generated so teams can see how they are doing as the season goes along.
New teams
The BSF has decided to cap the National Softball League at 12 teams at the present time, so if either one or two new teams wish to join the league, now or after the season has started, a playoff process will be activated whereby the new applicants and the bottom-ranked NSL teams will compete for places at the next available NSL competition.
As demand to play in the NSL grows, the BSF eventually hopes to generate an NSL 2, with promotion and relegation between the two divisions.