Southern Breakaway Years

1970-1974 / 1992-1994

The Southern region has broken away from British Baseball's Governing Body twice over the years: 1970-1974 and 1992-1994.

The first breakaway happened after the 1969 season when the Southern League broke away from the Northern-based National League to form the Baseball Association of Great Britain (BAGB).  Eventually they settled their differences and the BAGB rejoined the Governing Body in time for the 1975 season.

The second split happened following the 1991 season. Several teams from the South broke away from the British Baseball Federation to form a new league called National League Baseball (UK), although this was more commonly known as the Independent League. This split was different from the earlier one as not all the teams in the south were involved in the breakaway.

The two teams who lead the breakaway were defending national champions, Enfield, and London. Others who joined them in the new NLB were Cambridge, Reading, Croydon Bluejays and Essex Eagles. The only Northern club to join were Birmingham.

After the first season, 1992, Reading returned back to the BBF fold, but the NLB added both Waltham Forest and Bury to replace them.

Then, after the second season, both Birmingham and Cambridge went back to the BBF, with the NLB replacing them with Tonbridge and RAF Lakenheath.

1994 proved to be the final year for the NLB, as three of it's teams folded during the season. The remaining clubs then rejoined the BBF to end three years of breakaway independent baseball.