The BSF has issued an explanation about how Co-ed and Single-Sex Slowpitch National Championships will be organised in 2014, and the routes to Nationals qualification.
National Championship decision
The BSF's original intention for 2014 was to run a National Championship including all grades of co-ed slowpitch play together at the same venue on the same weekend. But issues were raised at the AGM about the date of the combined tournament being too early in August and too near to the European Slowpitch Super Cup, in which two of our top A-grade teams (Chromies and H2O) will be playing.
As a result, the BSF has decided that in 2014, once again, the Premier Nationals for A-grade (NSL) teams will be played on a different date from the other competition grades.
Co-ed (League) Nationals
The Co-ed Slowpitch Nationals, for B-grade (Platinum/Gold) and C-grade (Silver/Bronze) teams, will be played on the weekend of 9-10 August on multiple pitches at Farnham Park.
Thirty-two places will be available in total (16 in B-grade and 16 in C-grade), including four places in each grade for independent tournament teams. The remaining teams will qualify through league placings, apart from the four winners from last year, who will be invited to take up an automatic place. After the conclusion of round-robin play, the B-grade tournament will split into separate Platinum and Gold competitions and the C-grade tournament into Silver and Bronze competitions. The winner of the 2013 Silver competition will be required to play as a B-grade team.
The Co-ed Nationals are open to teams from all affiliated slowpitch leagues, and league teams will qualify for the different competition levels through having won their league or league division in 2013. If the winners do not take up their place, there is no automatic offer to the next team down.
League teams will have until 15 June to enter the appropriate Co-ed Nationals competition, after which they will lose their automatic entry. This deadline is to ensure that the BSF receives entries in a timely manner so that schedules can be properly planned.
Leagues that fail to enter teams will in future lose their automatic right to places at the Co-ed Nationals.
Independent tournament teams at B-grade and C-grade level may qualify for the Co-ed Nationals provided they indicate to the BSF by 1 June that they wish to try to do so.
In order to qualify, tournament teams must play a minimum of four out of the following seven tournaments: the three Diamond Series, British Airways, Bristol, Windsor and Manchester.
Points will be awarded for finishing places at each event in which the team competes, with the best four results making up the team's points total. The top four B-grade and the top four C-grade teams according to their points totals will qualify for their respective Nationals.
However, for this qualification route to be activated, a minimum of six tournament teams must register an intention to try to qualify.
Player qualification will require each player to play in four competition days for his or her team across the designated events, and he or she must play exclusively for that team for a qualification day to be counted.
Rosters from all teams applying for Nationals places or attempting to qualify for Nationals must be submitted to the BSF after each qualifying tournament event.
Premier Nationals
The Premier Nationals for A-grade (NSL) teams will be played on the weekend of 30-31 August on the two dedicated softball diamonds at Farnham Park (the third diamond is being used for National Baseball Championships).
The tournament will be contested by the teams that finish in the top eight places in this year's 12-team National Softball League.
National Softball League competition will take place in 2014 at the three Diamond Series Tournaments and the British Airways Tournament, based, as last year, on a league system. The first two matches between each set of NSL teams from the round-robin phases of these tournaments will be counted as "league games", with post-round-robin games used only if the relevant fixtures have not been played within the round-robins.
Results and tables will be on www.bsf-nationals.org and on the BSF website.
The twelve NSL teams that will compete for Premier Nationals places are:
Chromies (2013 National Champions)
H2O (2013 NSL winners)
Thunder (Manchester league team, and a new team in the NSL in 2014)
Pioneers
Blue Steel
Dragons
Warriors
Mariners
Legends
Knights (Windsor league team)
Slammers
Maniacs
Single-Sex Slowpitch Nationals
This tournament, for men's and women's slowpitch teams, will be held on the weekend of 12-13 July at Birmingham City University's Moor Lane Sports Ground in Sutton Coldfield.
There are no qualification requirements, and each tournament will be split into Comp and Rec divisions if there are sufficient entries.
BSF Tournaments Officer Liz Graham has reported more enquiries this year from Northern teams as the tournament moves back to Birmingham after a year at Farnham Park, and overall entries are expected to be up for this summer's event.