The BSF Executive has announced details for National Championships and National Softball League play for 2017.
National Championships
The BSF will run three National Championships in 2017.
The BSF Single-Sex Slowpitch Nationals will take place on the weekend of 8-9 July at Birmingham City University’s Moor Lane Sports Ground in Perry Barr. Entry is open to any team that wants to play, and there will be Comp and Rec divisions, and possibly further subdivisions, depending on entries. To enter, teams should email BSF Tournaments Officer Liz Graham (liz@softball.org.uk), since places for this tournament tend to fill up early.
The BSF Co-ed Slowpitch League Nationals will be played on the weekend of 12-13 August at Farnham Park. There will probably be Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze divisions and entries will be by invitation to 2016 league division winners or runner-ups only. Player qualification criteria will be four days of play with your league team.
Entry forms for the League Nationals will be available at the end of April and will need to be returned by 30 June with payment. Any team withdrawing after this will not receive a refund, so teams should ensure well in advance that they have players committed to play.
The BSF Co-ed Slowpitch NSL Nationals will take place on the weekend of 2-3 September at Farnham Park. The top eight teams from the 2017 NSL 1 standings will contest the Premier Nationals, and top eight teams from the NSL 2 standings will contest the NSL 2 Nationals. The Premier Nationals winner will be eligible to compete in 2018 in the European Slowpitch Super Cup.
To qualify to play in these Nationals, players must have competed on four days with their NSL team, and two of those days must be in NSL league play (see below).
Any team that wants to compete in any of the Co-ed Nationals must send a representative to the 2017 BSF on Saturday 25 February near Watford (for details see http://www.britishsoftball.org/news/view/date-and-venue-announced-for-2017-bsf-agm).
Teams that want to enter either of the Co-ed National Championships should plan early in terms of getting their players committed to the relevant weekends, as the BSF intends to be much tighter in terms of giving dispensations for unqualified players in 2017.
National Softball League
Twelve teams in NSL 1 and twelve teams in NSL 2 will play a home-and-away league schedule over the course of the three Diamond Series weekends at Farnham Park: 13-14 May, 10-11 June and 29-30 July.
These three weekends are mandatory for all NSL teams.
There will be automatic promotion and relegation of either one or two teams between NSL 1 and NSL 2 at the end of the season, and there will also be relegation from the bottom of NSL 2 so that new teams can enter the NSL structure
The teams that will make up NSL 1 and NSL 2 in 2017 will be announced shortly.