After the second weekend of play in the Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL) on the weekend of 28-29 May at Farnham Park, the Stags have maintained their position at the top of the Men’s Division while The Mix continue to lead the Women’s Division – both with no defeats, though the Stags do have a tie.

This was the second of five weekends of play scheduled in the GBFL this year, with five women’s teams competing on Saturdays only while six men’s teams compete on both Saturday and Sunday.

On this occasion, the schedule in the Men’s Division was disrupted by the fact that the GBFL was being played alongside the Sweden Series, in which the Swedish Senior Men’s Fastpitch Team, on their first visit to the UK, played three games against the GB Senior Men’s Team, one game against the GB Under-23 Men and one game against an invitational team of GBFL players.

These games obviously took both teams and individual players away from GBFL play at times, but 13 Men’s Division games still managed to be played over the two days, and the small number of games that were lost will be made up over the course of the season.
 

Men’s Division

The Stags, led by GB Men’s Team player Trent Nash, won the GBFL Men’s Division last year, will compete as GB’s representative in this year’s European Men’s Super Cup and, after two weeks of GBFL play, look like winning the division again.

The Stags didn’t dominate the opposition in what is a pretty competitive division: their four games over the weekend included a 5-4 win and a 3-3 tie against Heat, and five-run and six-run wins over the Eagles, essentially the GB Under-23 Men’s Team.  But the Stags now have a two-and-a-half game lead over the second-place Eagles and a three-game lead over the third-place Meteors, the only two other teams in the division with winning records.

It’s hard to see who will stop the Stags pulling away as the season advances.

Scores and standings

Games played in the GBFL Men’s Division on 28-29 May had the following results:

Strays 8, Hawks 5
Stags 8, Eagles 2
Meteors 10, Heat 1
Stags 5, Heat 4
Meteors 5, Strays 0
Strays 14, Hawks 1
Heat 14, Strays 10
Hawks 8, Strays 1
Stags 3, Heat 3
Eagles 3, Meteors 2
Heat 8, Hawks 1
Meteors 8, Strays 1
Stags 13, Eagles 8

Men’s Division standings at the end of Week 2 are:

TEAMS WON LOST DRAWN PCT RF RA
Stags 9 0 1 .950 77 28
Eagles 5 3 0 .625 45 46
Meteors 6 4 0 .600 61 44
Strays 4 8 0 .333 71 75
Heat 3 7 1 .318 63 77
Hawks 2 7 0 .222 32 79

 

Women’s Division

The Mix played three games in the GBFL Women’s Division on Saturday 28 May and won them by an aggregate score of 40-0 to run their record so far this season to 6-0.

Admittedly, The Mix did not meet the second-place Barbarians on 28 May, who are not very far behind them with a 4-1 record.  Games between these two teams as the season progresses will determine whether The Mix, with founders Sian Wigington and Chelsie Robison heading a host of talented players, will win their second straight divisional title.  But you wouldn’t bet against them.

The Barbarians, who played only two games on 28 May, cemented their position with a 7-3 victory over former division winners London Angels and a 13-1 win over the Cardiff Celts, a team of mostly young players learning to play the game.

The Celts put up a decent battle against another team of mostly young players, the Free Agents, before the Agents triumphed by 9-4.  But the Free Agents had less success against the London Angels and The Mix, losing by 16-4 and 15-0 respectively.



Scores and standings

Games played in the GBFL Women’s Division on 28 May had the following results:

The Mix 15, Cardiff Celts 0
Free Agents 9, Cardiff Celts 4
Barbarians 7, London Angels 3
The Mix 10, London Angels 0
The Mix 15, Free Agents 0
Barbarians 13, Cardiff Celts 1
London Angels 16, Free Agents 4

Women’s Division standings at the end of Week 2 are:

TEAMS WON LOST DRAWN PCT RF RA
The Mix 6 0 0 1.000 77 28
Barbarians 4 1 0 .800 34 23
London Angels 2 4 0 .333 45 36
Free Agents 2 4 0 .333 34 57
Cardiff Celts 0 5 0 .000 10 65

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