posted Apr 24th, 2006 - Round 4 of the Southwest Skydiving League April meet has been uploaded while the scores of the Texas Skydiving League's season opener have been posted this morning. The NSL News will follow up with more information from Texas as soon as possible and is waiting for the scores from the Carolina Skydiving League's first 2006 meet last weekend.

The NSL News story of round three mentioned that Elsinore Gravity and Thunder finally broke their tied scores in the fast sequence of round three, even though both teams had completed the same number of scoring formations within working time. Faster sequences usually separate teams more from each other than slower rounds.

This was different between Elsinore Gravity and Thunder in round four, which had a much slower sequence than round three (21-16-12). This time, two points separated the two SSL top contenders, and the Elsinore team changed the 1-point deficit after round three into a 1-point lead after winning two points in round four.

The NSL-TV videos show that Elsinore Gravity was technically better without going a faster pace than Thunder. Gravity missed one completion of Block 12 (Bundy - Bundy) and was still a whole block ahead of Thunder at the end of the working time.

The NSL News had a new judging quiz for the audience. Round 4 of the SSL meet also features AZ Fourplay, which competed with a slightly different line-up in April. Michael Wolfe filled the Center Outside slot for Eric Forshee at the second SSL Meet, which is currently running on NSL-TV.

AZ Fourplay had a score of five points posted on the scoreboard, but the records show that there were two point deductions, which reduced the score from seven points in working time to five points on the official scoresheet.

The first infringement is quite obvious when one of the two pieces drops the grips at the rough completion of Block 21 (Zig Zag - Marquis) on the hill. The Marquis did not count as a scoring formation any longer. The NSL News tried to find the second infringement and can offer two different options.

There is a little flaw at the completion of the first Block 18 (Zircon - Zircon) when one of the center positions drops the grips for the break slightly earlier than the rest of the team. However, the completion of the block still seems to be clean and clear, and this option for the second penalty situation does not seem to be the right one.

The rest of the jump is very clean and does not seem to hide any other infringements, which forced the NSL News to go back to the first infringement situation and look for an additional one at the same spot.

The Marquis as the second formation of Block 21 does not count any longer as a scoring formation after the mistake at the very end of the block's inter. The transition from the Marquis to the first Zircon of Block 18 requires a total separation, which might be questionable.

There seems to be a clear picture when all AZ Fourplay members "show at one point in time that they have released all their grips and no part of their arms have contact with another body" between the incomplete Marquis and the first Zircon. A lack of this required total separation could be the second infringement.

The NSL News audience is welcome to help finding and discuss the solution for the two lost points. It was bad luck for AZ Fourplay since the team had actually a good round with a good flow through the technically challenging sequence. Seven points on the scoreboard would have been a great score. Five points ended up as the official score.