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Four National Softball League tournaments have now been played in 2015, with only Diamond 3 still to come, and the Pioneers currently hold a two-game lead at the top of the table over the defending national champion Chromies.

Final placings at the top of the NSL matter, not just for seeding in the Premier Nationals, but because the NSL champion will be the second team to qualify for the 2016 European Slowpitch Cup if the national champion and the NSL champion are different teams.
 

Scramble in the middle

But the real action at Diamond 3, scheduled for the weekend of 8-9 August at Farnham Park, will be in the middle of the table, where only two games separate the sixth from the tenth place team and only the top eight teams will qualify for the Premier Nationals to be played two weeks later.

Currently, only the top five teams in the table – Pioneers, Chromies, Slammers, H2O and Blue Steel – look certain to qualify for the Premier Nationals.  The other three places could be filled by any combination of Windsor Knights, Bristol Bees, Maniacs, LNZ or Thunder – and even Legends, Greensox and Terriers still have a mathematical chance.

However, the three teams currently sitting in those final three Nationals places are Windsor Knights, Bristol Bees and Maniacs, and they will take some dislodging.
 

Still in play

Only five NSL fixtures were played in the A-grade competition at the MLB Tournament on 18-19 July, and BSF Tournaments Officer Liz Graham has let teams know that 35 NSL fixtures remain to be completed.

Some of these fixtures can be covered by using “bank games”, which are playoff games from NSL events involving the two teams concerned (NSL results normally come from round-robin games only).  There are currently eight such results “in the bank”. 

But after Diamond 3, any unplayed fixtures will be shown either as:

  • A 0 - 0 draw if both teams have played the same number of NSL events.
  • A 7 - 0 win if one of the teams has played more NSL events.

And this may well have a bearing on the final standings, which are shown below.
 

Standings

Here are the 2015 NSL standings with one tournament left to play:

TEAMSWONLOSTDRAWNGBRFRA
Pioneers1951---275145
Chromies15512233150
Slammers15612.5221168
H2O14904.5218165
Blue Steel12724.5183135
Windsor Knights111117230260
Bristol Bees111117187220
Maniacs7908161135
LNZ6818114153
Thunder91309184209
Legends91409.5194210
Greensox410210129201
Terriers614311174219
Warriors218115115248

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