The beginning of the end of the season

Following last weekend’s mid-summer antics at the London Tournament, the BBF leagues get back underway with some crunch matches throughout the divisions.

While tradition dictates this article should start with the big ties in the NBL, it’s somewhat more interesting to look at what’s happening at the bottom, so let’s start with single-A.

One of the three unbeaten teams this season will remain loss-less, while the other will definitely lose that magical goose egg as the Southampton Mustangs II (10-0) travel up to East Anglia to take on the Cambridge Royals (8-0). The match was rained off earlier in the year, and since then both teams have won three or four more games, so tension will be massive all afternoon.

Elsewhere, one of the Old Timers and Braintree Rays (both 4-5) will move to .500 this season with a win in their clash.

Local rivals the Essex Redbacks II (2-8) and Brentwood Stags (6-8) face off in AA-South, a repeat of the opening day fixture which the Stags won with a walk-off passed ball. The Latin Boys (11-2) and Sidewinders (10-3) will lay the foundations for what is likely to be a playoff match-up come September, so the outcome could determine the Sidewinders’ final position – the Latin Boys are 5 games ahead of the field in Pool A already. The Sidewinders are half a game back of the Guildford Mavericks (10-2) and one and a half up on the Poole Piranhas (7-3) in Pool B, who are taking on bottom dwellers in the Kent Mariners (1-8) and Richmond Dragons (2-10) respectively.

In the Midlands, the Birmingham Maple Leafs (10-4) and Leicester Blue Sox (2-10) resume their perennial rivalry, albeit far less close this season as previous years, while the MK Bucks (13-1) and Nottingham Rebels (9-5) will keep things interesting at the top of the table.

Up North it’s the battle for second place, as the Sheffield Bladerunners (7-5) take on the Humber Pilots (7-7), while the Manchester Torrent (5-7) will likely move to .500 with a two-game sweep of the Oldham North Stars (0-10). The Bolton Robots of Doom are 11-1 this season with few signs of slowing down; though not scheduled to play they’re at a tournament in the Netherlands instead.

And second place is the battle to follow in AAA South as well; the Essex Redbacks (11-7) and London Metros (9-7) face off in Finsbury Park, with the Metros 3-1 against the Redbacks this year. If the Oxford Kings (9-9) want to catch up and make the playoffs to defend their AAA Championship crown from 2010, they’ll have to do what no team has done for over a year: sweep the Bristol Badgers (15-1), in Bristol.

The Liverpool Trojans (11-0) suffered their first defeat last weekend in the final of the London Tournament, but will fancy their chances of remaining unbeaten in the league when they welcome the Manchester A’s (5-6) to Bootle Stadium.

The UK’s top league has a couple of interesting games this weekend, with the table topping NBL match-up between the Richmond Flames (12-4) and Lakenheath Diamondbacks (11-2) likely to have playoff connotations. The Southampton Mustangs (11-5) could leapfrog the Flames in the event of a Diamondbacks’ double, travelling to a resurgent Bracknell Blazers (5-7). The bottom place in Pool A currently belongs to the Essex Arrows (3-11), but they host the Croydon Pirates (5-10) following the south Londoners’ tournament success.