Over the fourth weekend of Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL) play on 30-31 July at Farnham Park, the top teams in both the Women’s and Men’s 
Divisions cemented their positions -- and barring disaster on the final weekend in October, this is unlikely to change.
Both The Mix in the Women’s Division and the Stags in the Men’s Division went unbeaten over the weekend, as both teams warmed up for European Cup tournaments in August.
Further down the standings, though, things are more interesting.
In the Men’s Division, the standings suggest that you can throw a blanket over the second, third and fourth place teams. The Meteors lead the charge, but not by much, and the Eagles lead the Heat simply by having one less loss.
In the Women’s Division, a big push by the London Angels on the final weekend of the season would give them an outside chance of overtaking the Barbarians to finish in second place.
As winners of the 2021 GBFL Women’s and Men’s Divisions, The Mix and the Stags will be travelling to Avigliana in Italy and Prague in the Czech Republic to represent the GBFL and the country in the European Women’s Cup and European Men’s Super Cup respectively. We wish them well!
The rest of the GBFL teams and players have a few weeks off until the final weekend of league play on 1-2 October.
Women’s Division
Week 4 for the Women’s Division was slightly scrappy as most teams had to deal with summer holidays and the loss of star players to international duties.
Of course, this can make things a little more interesting: though both The Mix and the Barbarians still scratched out their wins, they lost a little of their dominance and the Angels, Free Agents and Cardiff benefitted from some more competitive games.
Scores
London Angels 12, Free Agents 3
London Angels 13, Cardiff Celts 0
The Mix 10, Barbarians 4
Free Agents 15, Cardiff Celts 1
Barbarians 10, Free Agents 7
The Mix 5, London Angels 3
Barbarians 20, Cardiff Celts 6
Standings after Week 4
| TEAM | WON | LOST | DRAWN | PCT | RF | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Mix | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 134 | 33 |
| Barbarians | 8 | 3 | 0 | .727 | 101 | 65 |
| London Angels | 6 | 6 | 0 | .500 | 115 | 74 |
| Free Agents | 3 | 8 | 0 | .273 | 79 | 111 |
| Cardiff Celts | 0 | 11 | 0 | .000 | 24 | 170 |
Men’s Division
In the Men’s Division, it is heartening to see the Hawks developing some young pitching talent, notably Bailey Brown, who applied himself enthusiastically over multiple innings.
Another standout was Alyson Spinas-Valainis’s tough pitching performance for the Heat against the Stags. The Stags still came out on top 4-0, but it was a game they had to work hard to win and they will have appreciated Alyson’s professionalism and repertoire of pitches.
Scores
Heat 12, Eagles 0
Stags 13, Hawks 3
Meteors 8, Hawks 3
Heat 12, Strays 0
Stags 11, Meteors 1
Stags 13, Eagles 0
Meteors 16, Hawks 6
Eagles 8, Strays 7
Meteors 7, Eagles 4
Heat 15, Hawks 1
Stags 4, Heat 0
Eagles 15, Strays 0
Meteors 8, Strays 4
Stags 17, Hawks 2
Heat 7, Strays 0
Eagles 5, Hawks 1
Standings after Week 4
| TEAMS | WON | LOST | DRAWN | PCT | RF | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stags | 18 | 1 | 1 | .925 | 187 | 60 |
| Meteors | 14 | 7 | 0 | .667 | 148 | 112 |
| Eagles | 11 | 8 | 1 | .575 | 134 | 126 |
| Heat | 11 | 9 | 1 | .548 | 153 | 94 |
| Strays | 4 | 17 | 0 | .190 | 96 | 174 |
| Hawks | 2 | 18 | 1 | .119 | 72 | 224 |