The battle for the play off spots in the Nationwide leagues hits a crescendo in match day 10, with action in three of the five leagues coming to a close.
Remember the quarter finals will be played between the top two sides from Nairobi, Rift Valley and Western regions and the top sides from Coast and Central. Third tier club sides that might be in contention for a play off slot don’t qualify thus the next best team joins the fray.
Nairobi Region
The Nairobi and Western leagues still have 3 weeks to run, currently Daystar and Impala III hold the play off spots in Nairobi with 39 and 36 points respectively. Impala III however are not in contention which opens up the way for TUK on 31 points and Catholic University on 30 points.
Catholic University will have their rest weekend as TUK take on 7th placed KCA (14 points) at the latter’s Thika road ground. Other fixtures see USIU who lie 6th on 22 points host leaders Daystar (39 points). MMU host Mwamba III, Brumbies travel to Rongai to face Nazarene with Comras hosting Impala III as KEMU face Mt. Kenya at the Nairobi Railway club.
Catholic Rest
KCA vs TUK- 3pm, KCA Thika Rd
USIU vs Daystar – 3pm, USIU
Multimedia vs Mwamba III – 3pm, Multimedia Rongai
Nazarene vs Brumbies – 3pm, Nazarene Rongai
Comras vs Impala III – 3pm, Pumwani Grounds
KEMU vs Mt Kenya – 3pm, Railways
Western Region
Western conference leaders Kabras on 39 points look to have all but secured a play off berth with second placed Kakamega on 36 points facing a battle against third placed Bungoma on 33 points for the remaining slot.
Leaders Kabras can already start counting their chicks for this game week as they have already been handed the walk over result against Busia. Kakamega will play host to fifth placed Mt. Kenya at the Kakamega Show grounds. With Bungoma facing Masinde Muliro, who are pegged in fourth. Other fixtures see second from last Webuye host Homabay, Shieywe travelling to Maseno and Kisii taking on Siaya at the Kisii Stadium.
Kakamega vs Mt Kenya Uni – 3pm, Kakamega Show Ground
Masinde Muliro vs Bungoma- 3pm, Masinde
Webuye vs Homabay – 3pm, Webuye DEB
Maseno vs Shieywe – 3pm, Maseno Uni
Kabras vs Busia – (WalkOver)
Kisii vs Siaya – 3pm, Kisii Stadium
Rift Valley, Central & Coast Regions
The other three conferences, Rift Valley, Central and Coast will use this weekend to play any pending fixtures. With the backlog expected to be cleared by the end of the 26th.
The playoff spots in Rift Valley are held by University of Eldoret (34) and Nakuru III (26), due to Nakuru III’s in eligibility, Egerton Uni (25) steps up to fill the slot. Kericho RFC on 17 points can still dislodge Egerton Uni if they win both their matches and Egerton fail to win. Kericho will play Kabarak and Molo, with Egerton taking on Moi University.
The Central conference is led by KEMU on 29 points with Thika RFC breathing down their necks on 27 points. KEMU have a chance of stretching that lead when they face JKUAT who are in 5th. Third placed Laikipia on 21 points set to play Kiambu. JKUAT will be expected to play 4 matches against Kimathi, KEMU, Chuka and Karatina if they manage to win all four it will make for an interesting battle in the last match day.
The Coast conference sees Masaku lodged at the top of the standings on 32 points, closely followed by the Stormers on 29 points with a game in hand on the leaders. TUM round up the contenders for the play off slot on 28 points having 2 games in hand on Masaku.
Masaku will not be in action this weekend with the Stormers having three matches on the trot against the Raiders who are second from bottom, TUM the result from this one will definitely have a big impact on the race, and the third match will be against Malindi. In Addition to the match against the Stormers, TUM will also play the Raiders.
Fixtures:
Central Region
Embu vs Kiambu
JKUAT vs Kimathi
JKUAT vs KEMU
JKUAT vs Chuka
Kiambu vs Laikipia
Karatina vs JKUAT
Rift Valley Region
Kericho vs Kabarak
Kericho vs Molo
Moi vs Egerton
Moi vs Molo
Coast Region
Stormers vs Raiders
Pwani uni vs Shepherds
Malindi vs Raiders
Stormers vs TUM
Pwani Uni vs Taita Taveta
KEMU vs JKUAT
Raiders vs TUM
Spartans v Taita Taveta
Stormers vs Malindi
KWISHA….Nimeruka Nje!!!