by Saghi Zarbafi

15 National Softball League Teams and 16 others contested the Bristol Main Tournament at Clifton College Sports Ground on the weekend of July 4-5, with sunshine and wind on Saturday and sunshine plus showers on Sunday.

It was the second of three outings for the new National Softball League, which will conclude league play at the Windsor Tournament on July 18-19, with standings at the end of that event determining seedings for the Premier Nationals.

Below are the main results from the tournament, National Softball League standings after Bristol, and then a full report from BSF Tournaments Officer Lesley Morisetti.

Main Results

NATIONAL SOFTBALL LEAGUE

Winner: Pioneers

Runner-up: BT

Plate Winner: Marvels

Plate Runner-up: Mariners

MVPs: Dan Spinks and Liz Keaveney (Pioneers)

GOLD COMPETITION

Winner: Manchester Lions

Runner-up: Guppy Spotters

Plate Winner: London Oddsox

Plate Runner-up: Bristol Creamers

MVPs: Adam Roberts and Gill Kennaugh (Manchester Lions)

SILVER COMPETITION

Winner: Grandslammers

Runner-up: Oxford Spirits

Plate Winner: Buccs Whiz

Plate Runner-up: Nottingham Exiles

MVPs: Lee Haycroft (Oxford Spirits) and Hannah Denning (Grandslammers)

NSL Standings

Following play at the Pioneers and Bristol Tournaments, the National Softball League standings are as shown below. Where teams are level on points after the Windsor Tournament, positions will be determined by runs conceded in group play across all three tournaments.

TEAMS POINTS

H2O 28

Chromies 27

BT 26

Pioneers 26

Dragons 23

Slammers 22

Los Amos de la Noche 21

Windsor Knights 17

Niners 16

Marvels 15

Munster 15

Coyotes 11

Mariners 11

Nottingham Arrows 8

This sets up the prospect of a thrilling finish at the Windsor Tournament, where four teams will be battling out for the inaugural NSL trophy and top seeding at the Premier Nationals.

Visit www.nationalsoftballleague.co.uk for more announcements on prizes and league positions.

TOURNAMENT REPORT

by Lesley Morisetti

Bristol Softball Association hosted the Bristol Main Tournament on July 4-5 at Clifton College Sports Ground. The weather report was mixed, but Saturday defied the forecast and was a glorious bright start to a weekend full of great softball and fantastic hospitality. Sunday was a little mixed, but then it shadowed the results of the competitions.

Pioneers won through from fourth-place in the round-robin to take the NSL Trophy, and Grandslammers did the same to take the Silver Trophy. But the Manchester Lions roared their way through as the Number One seed to take the Gold Trophy.

There have been extensive ground works at Bristol’s Clifton College Sports Ground at Abbots Leigh, and the new four-pitch layout in front of Watson’s Pavilion was used for the second leg of National Softball League play.

The Gold and Silver competitions were played on four diamonds in front of the Saturday night American Independence Day Hoe-Down & Ceilidh venue. The caller had a lot of whooping and hollering going on as the softballers limbered up to a night of Stripping The Willow and shaking their Texan Twosomes.

The grounds next to the marquee are undergoing re-seeding at the moment but will be fully utilised for future events, providing Bristol with a fantastic venue.

Silver Trophy

The Silver competition hotted up along with the weather on Saturday, producing some close games and results in the initial round-robin, including Buccs Whiz (the eventual Plate winner) beating both of the top two seeds.

In the Silver Trophy, top-seeded Imperial Sliders met the fourth-seeded Grandslammers in one semi-final, coming into that tie behind a win 15-10 over Grandslammers on Saturday. However, this result was reversed with a Grandslammers victory on Sunday, with the Sliders slithering away empty-handed.

In the other half of the draw, the Oxford Spirits narrowly defeated the Beachcombers 12-10, a much closer affair than their round-robin victory by 20-3 on Saturday.

The Silver Trophy Final was a run-fest, with Grandslammers pulling away from the Oxford Spirits to win by 41-20.

Silver Plate

Nottingham Exiles had only just been squeezed into the Plate by the slimmest of margins, and proved their worth by easing out the Spartans in the first semi-final. The Sheriffs of Nottingham met Buccs Whiz in the second semi-final, arrows crossed that they would repeat their narrow two-run win over the Whiz on Saturday. However, the Whiz sparkled and made that a two-run margin the other way, winning 11-9 to deny the Sheriffs a match-up with their local rivals Exiles.

In the Silver Plate Final, Buccs Whiz were popping the corks after banning the Exiles to a 13-8 final departure.

Gold Trophy

In the Gold competition, Manchester teams Lions and Mavericks led the way after the initial round-robin on Saturday, but with Bristol’s Guppy Spotters and T’Bolts hard on their heels.

When the Gold Trophy competition began on Sunday, the top three teams had all taken games off each other – but only marginally. The Lions had lost 4-3 to the Mavericks, the Mavericks had lost 6-4 to the Guppy Spotters and the Guppies had lost 11-4 to the Lions. So where would the Gold title end up?

In the first semi-final, the top-seeded Lions overcame the T’Bolts, but Bristol triumphed in the other semi, with the Guppy Spotters outlasting the Mavericks.

Manchester Lions then held their cool to overwhelm the Guppy Spotters 17-7 to win the Gold Trophy.

Gold Plate

In the Gold Plate competition, Bristol’s LSDs had taken games off the second and third seeds from the initial round-robin. Could they step up their game and beat their Bristol rivals the Creamers? No – out they went in a close 18-16 encounter in one semi-final, while London Oddsox got past Sheffield Sting 13-7 in the other semi.

When it came to the Gold Plate Final, the Creamers failed to rise to the top, leaving the London Oddsox with the silverware after a 13-12 thriller.

National Softball League: Second Leg

Group A in the National Softball League competition consisted of only seven teams, with “No Team” giving some teams the opportunity for a late morning start or an early-to-bed finish. There were some very evenly contested matches, none more so than the 10-10 draw between Dragons and Windsor Knights, obviously not following the historical path of St George.

H20 came through at the top of the group, with only one bubble-bursting loss to the Niners by a score of 8-4. The other three quarter-finalists – Slammers, Dragons and Niners – were well clear of the rest of the pack.

Group B had the full complement of eight teams. The split into Trophy and Plate after the round-robin games did have one surprise, with the losing finalists from Pioneers Tournament, Los Amos de La Noche,, failing to make the top half of the draw (though only just).

NSL Trophy

The format for the playoff round was quarter-finals, semi-finals and final: a sudden-death situation for everyone.

Quarter-Finals: H20 had battled through from fourth in their round-robin group to win the first leg of the NSL at the Pioneers Tournament. Could the Pioneers, who were fourth in their round-robin group at Bristol, repeat the feat? They got off to a good start by defeating H2O to take a semi-final place.

In the other quarter-finals, BT defeated the Niners, Munster went down to the Dragons and Slammers were sent home by the Chromies.

Semi-Finals: Pioneers kept their momentum going with a 13-2 victory over the Chromies, while BT secured their Final place by ousting the Dragons.

NSL Plate

The format here was the same as in the Trophy competition.

Windsor Knights, who had come fifth in Group A, lost momentum and were mortally wounded by the Nottingham Arrows, who had only managed eighth in Group B. But euphoria was to be short-lived for the Arrows as the Marvels magicianed their way past them and on to the Plate final.

On the other side of the draw, the One-Hit Wonders (aka Zambezi Warriors) were lost at sea to the Mariners, who then went on to summarily dispatch Los Amos de la Noche.

So the NSL Plate Final was Marvels v Mariners, with Marvels emerging victorious by 11-7.

NSL Trophy Final

The NSL Trophy finalists – Pioneers and BT – were decided in between the downpours on Sunday afternoon. In their round-robin meeting, BT had been in the driving seat 11-7, but we all know that finals are places where anything can happen.

So the stage was set, the camera was positioned – the final was to be filmed for posterity – the light was still good, and the game commentators, Steve and Roger, were perched on the podium.

Befitting the occasion, the final was umpired with a three-man system, with Jes Sandhu at the plate and Tony Soteriou and Andy Shepherd on the bases. And before play commenced, the teams lined up on the first and third baselines with the umpires in the middle.

“Wow – it’s just like the Europeans,” was heard from the crowd.

Pioneers were the home team and got off to the fast start. After holding BT scoreless in the top of the first inning, singles by Liz Keaveney and Dan Spinks put two Pioneers on base, and, with two outs, Paul Gough’s ground rule double – one hop over the fence – brought them both home.

The teams traded runs in the second inning. Singles by Steph Jardine, Gordy Morris and Simon Farbrace did the job for BT, but Pioneers got the run back on a monster solo home run to right-centre field by Ben March.

A shoestring catch by the Pioneers’ Steve Rice kept BT off the board in the top of the third, and then the decisive runs were scored by Pioneers in the bottom of the inning. Intent was served when Liz Keaveney led off with a triple and Dan Spinks followed by taking the first pitch he saw over the fence in right-centre field.

Hannah King followed with another triple and Paul Gough drove her home with a long drive to the fence that would have been an inside-the-park home run if he hadn’t been called out for missing third base. But singles by Ben March and Kelly Page and a double by Steve Rice brought home yet another run and put Pioneers in front by 7-1.

And that was essentially that. Steve Quickfall’s solo home run in the top of the fourth made it 7-2, and it was still 7-2 at the end. So Pioneers were the winners of the NSL’s second leg and will be in with a chance to win the overall NSL title at Windsor.

The Aftermath

The Awards Ceremony followed shortly after, with trophies and hats for the winners as well as coolers for the MVPs.

The crowd was happy, drinking beer and performing Mexican waves, emulating the epic tennis final that was taking place on Centre Court at Wimbledon at the very same time.

The Bristol Softball Association and Tournament Organiser Saghi Zarbafi deserve a round of applause for a great event.