Durham Palatinates have withdrawn from the League – resulting in an end of season bonus for two teams!

The vacancy in men’s Division 4 next September will now be filled by Caledonia Storm, the fourth-placed team in Championship 4, who were due to play in Division 5.

Cambridge, sixth in Division 5 in the first phase of this season, reclaim a place in that division instead of taking part in this weekend’s qualifying tournament at Haberdashers.
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The Haberdashers programme has been rescheduled as a six-team competition, see https://data.bwpl.org/web/fixtures/bwpl4dM1. The women’s qualification tournament also takes place this weekend, at Walsall.

City of Manchester today celebrated their third consecutive Super 5s double, their girls making sure of the women's title with a 9-2 victory over Otter at Coventry today (27 March). Trophies and medals were presented by BWPL President Trevor Pledger.

Altogether it's been a memorable season for the club. Manchester Hawks won men's Championship 2 to make it a treble success.
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Manchester never looked back against Otter after taking a 4-0 lead in the first period. Scorers were Brooke Tafazolli (2), Annie Clapperton (2), Izzy Howe, Emma Bartlett, Rosie Huck, Liv Henderson and Harriet Dickens.

Manchester's men lost their final game of the campaign as Cheltenham rounded off a terrific second half of the Super 5s programme with a 13-11 victory. This included six goals from the outstanding Joe Hubble. Cheltenham finished runners-up to Manchester.

Photo: Trevor Hyde.

Solihull claimed the fourth slot in the men's Champions Cup when they triumphed 11-9 in a winner-takes-all clash with City of Sheffield in the Super 5s at Coventry today.

No one enjoyed the Solihull celebrations more than evergreen Gary Tonks, still going strong at the age of 58 - a mere matter of 44 years since his National League debut for Aston! He scored two of his side's goals.

Sheffield had their chances but lost their way in the last period, which started with the score tied at 8-8. Solihull quickly went ahead with goals by Arthur Davies and Pawal Wielogorski, only for Connor Carpenter to reply from a man-up chance. Ryan Padbury added the final Solihull score one second from the end.

For Sheffield, who had battled so well in two meeting with champions City of Manchester, there was the disappointment of failing to qualify. Manchester, Lancaster, Cheltenham and Solihull will contest the first men's Champions Cup. 
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Liverpool Lizards rounded off their women's Super 5s season with a 10-4 defeat of Coventry.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Solihull's  Peter Farkas (blue cap) battles with Chris Armstrong, of Sheffield.

City of Manchester are on the verge of claiming another women's Super 5s title after hammering Coventry 15-4 in their latest match. Annie Clapperton led the way with a six-goal haul.

Bottom-of-the-table Sheffield Sharks started strongly against Liverpool Lizards, edging 5-4 ahead midway through the second period. But then Milly Wordley, who scored four, and Liverpool took charge, eventually winning 13-10. Larissa Partridge was outstanding for Sheffield, scoring six times. 

Later, Sheffield claimed their first point in their final Super 5s game - 10-10 against Otter. Sheffield took a narrow lead on no fewer than five occasions but eventually needed late goals by Bernice Cowton and Laura-Jean Skelton to force a draw.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Milly Wordley scores one of her goals for Liverpool against Sheffield.

Lancaster became the second team to qualify for the end-of-season Champions Cup when they defeated Solihull 14-11 in the men's Super 5s at Coventry today. Champions City of Manchester have already guaranteed progress to the new competition.

After a close start, Lancaster took charge towards the end of the second period, progressing from 4-4 to 7-4 with goals by Brett Takemoto, Tom Curwen and Georgios Anistasi. A couple of fine goals by Ryan Padbury kept Solihull in contention for a while but Lancaster finished comfortable winners, repeating their success against the Midlanders earlier in the campaign.

Manchester dropped a Super 5s point for the first time since the 2019/20 season when they were held to a 5-5 draw by City of Sheffield. At the half way stage, Manchester led 4-1 and seemed to be heading for yet another victory. But Sheffield, inspired by left-hander Chris Armstrong, enjoyed a brilliant third period, scoring four times without reply - including an Armstrong hat-trick - to grab a 5-4 lead. The only goal of the final period was a Dan Paddon equaliser, his fourth of the game. 

The point Sheffield gained could well prove vital in the battle for Champions Cup places.

After losing their first four Super 5s games, Cheltenham's revival continued with a third consecutive win - 13-7 against Lancaster. Adam Legge led the Cheltenham scoring with four.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Solihull's Jake Vincent (white cap) evades the challenge of Ryan Pinnington before shooting past Lancaster goalie Marc Robinson at Coventry today.

Penguin made sure of the men's Championship 1 title by defeating Caledonia 15-13 at Haberdashers today.

It left the Scots - who began the weekend with top spot a possibility - not even being certain of promotion to Division 1 at the start of next season.
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Penguin led all game until the end of the third period when a goal from Darren Campbell levelled at 10-10. Andrea Tulli quickly put Penguin back in charge with three goals in the final period, giving him six in the match.

Photos (Trevor Hyde) - Above: Penguin celebrate at Habs today. Below: Andrea Tulli (blue cap) leads another Penguin attack.

Rotherham Metro rounded off a triumphant weekend at Crawley by clinching the men's Championship 3 title today.

They knew that top spot would be theirs as long as they defeated the British Army in their final match - which they did, 15-11. The key result, however, was on day one when Rotherham ended Southampton's long winning sequence with victory by a single goal. 
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Rotherham led for much of the game against the Army, building a strong lead in a dominant third quarter. Their goals were scored by Ben Alderson (4), Neil Swainson (3), Craig Mellors (3), Michal Kucharski (2), Henry Jackson (2) and Sam Swainson.

Southampton defeated Durham Palatinates 14-13 to finish level on points with Rotherham - but placed second based on the Saturday result. Also promoted were Croydon, who beat Birmingham 16-7 in their last match. 

Southampton's long winning run ended in men's Championship 3 at Crawley today when they went down 9-8 to promotion rivals Rotherham Metro.

Key period of the game was the third period when Rotherham went from 6-6 to 9-7 thanks to a hat-trick by Neil Swainson (Photo: Trevor Hyde), who, along with another veteran, Paul Gregory, had an outstanding match. 
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The win lifted Rotherham level at the top with Southampton on ten points from six games, but Durham Palatinates' promotion hopes were dented by the British Army, who won 20-12. Tomorrow will be crunch day as far as the title and promotion are concerned.

Birmingham won for the first time - 15-6 against Newport, including three goals each for Alun Chesworth-Rickards, Ben Cartwright, Dan Mason and Cameron Dallow. 

Caledonia crashed to their first defeat of the men's Championship 1 campaign at Haberdashers today - 14-9 to Polytechnic.
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Poly's success, putting them firmly back in the promotion mix, was mainly due to a stunning third period, when they scored seven times - through Kimon Haracambolis (2), Chris Brown, Nick Hock, Pedro Finizola-Stellet, Liam Neill and Sergio Schiaffino - to transform a 3-4 deficit into a 10-7 lead.

Later, Penguin took over top spot thanks to a 16-11 win against Watford. James Salt led the scoring with six. Invicta remain in promotion contention after overcoming Exeter 16-14.

Sutton & Cheam beat Welsh Wanderers 10-3. Chris Evans, Alasdair Wakeling, Stephen Bayles and Ashley Castle all scored twice.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Kimon Haralambolis scores one of his goals for Poly against Caledonia.

Exeter took the third promotion place - and a move for the first time to Division 1 - after beating Rotherham Metro 13-8 in women’s Championship 1 at Liverpool today.

The Devon side actually finished fourth, level on points with third-placed Liverpool Liver Birds, but Liver Birds could not go up as Liverpool Lizards already play in the top division. Jess Street put Exeter in charge against Rotherham, scoring all her four goals in the opening period. 

​Photo: Championship 1 winners Hucknall celebrate their victory. Hucknall and runners-up Tyldesley progress to Division 1 next season.