It took three weekends of play in the Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL) before the Stags, runaway leaders in the Men’s Division, dropped a game – a 
14-13 loss to second place Meteors on Sunday 12 June at Farnham Park. However, The Mix remain undefeated on top of the Women’s Division.
Men’s Division
Re-arrangement of the schedule in the GBFL Men’s Division because of teams and players involved in the Sweden Series [https://www.britishsoftball.org/news/article/gb-and-sweden-mens-fastpitch-teams-stage-successful-training-series] during Week 2 of GBFL play on 28-29 May means that some teams have now played more games than others.
But despite the Stags losing their final game of Week 3 to the Meteors by a single run, the general trend in the Men’s Division is clear, with the Stags now holding a four-game lead over the Meteors and a 4.5-game lead over the third-place Eagles.
Scores
Game scores in the Men’s Division on 11-12 June were:
Eagles 9, Hawks 2
Heat 8, Meteors 2
Stags 2, Strays 0
Meteors 15, Hawks 5
Heat 8, Eagles 3
Stags 17, Strays 2
Heat 14, Eagles 3
Meteors 10, Hawks 5
Eagles 16, Hawks 3
Stags 9, Meteors 4
Eagles 19, Strays 6
Heat 14, Hawks 2
Stags 11, Strays 6
Meteors 2, Heat 0
Hawks 7, Eagles 7
Meteors 14, Stags 13
Standings
Men’s Division standings after Week 3 are:
| Teams | Won | Lost | Drawn | Pct | RF | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stags | 13 | 1 | 1 | .900 | 129 | 54 |
| Meteors | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 108 | 84 |
| Eagles | 8 | 5 | 1 | .607 | 102 | 86 |
| Heat | 7 | 8 | 1 | .469 | 107 | 89 |
| Strays | 4 | 12 | 0 | .250 | 85 | 124 |
| Hawks | 2 | 12 | 1 | .167 | 56 | 150 |
Women’s Division
The continuing story in the GBFL Women’s Division is the dominance of The Mix, who won three more games on 11 June and now stand at 9-0, with 119 runs scored and just 26 conceded.
The Barbarians, in second place, seem to be able to beat everyone except The Mix, and so are only 2.5 games behind the division leaders. But to have any chance of catching them, the Barbarians would have to beat The Mix on both of the remaining GBFL weekends, and at the moment that doesn’t seem likely.
The outstanding game in the Women’s Division in Week 3 was a near-upset of the London Angels by the Free Agents, though the Angels just managed to eke out a 14-13 win.
Scores
Game scores in the Women’s Division on 11 June were:
Barbarians 15, Cardiff Celts 1
The Mix 11, Barbarians 1
London Angels 14, Free Agents 13
The Mix 20, Cardiff Celts 2
London Angels 22, Cardiff Celts 4
Barbarians 17, Free Agents 7
The Mix 13, London Angels 6
Standings
Women’s Division standings after Week 3 are:
| Teams | Won | Lost | Drawn | Pct | RF | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Mix | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 119 | 26 |
| Barbarians | 6 | 2 | 0 | .750 | 67 | 42 |
| London Angels | 4 | 5 | 0 | .444 | 87 | 66 |
| Free Agents | 2 | 6 | 0 | .250 | 54 | 88 |
| Cardiff Celts | 0 | 8 | 0 | .000 | 17 | 122 |
Looking ahead
The GBFL will now take a break until the last weekend of July and then another long break until the first weekend of October.
Between Weekends 4 and 5, The Mix will travel to Avigliana in Italy to represent Great Britain in the European Women’s Cup from 15-20 August, and the Stags will travel to Prague to play in the European Men’s Super Cup from 22-27 August.
The hope is that next year’s GBFL schedule can be more compact and concentrated in the main part of the season.