2012 NRL Grand Final, Background
Melbourne and Canterbury have faced each other twice in the regular season, with the Storm beating the Bulldogs 12–6 in a tight match at Melbourne's home ground in AAMI Park in round 7 whilst the Bulldogs got over the Storm later in round 16 with a score of 20–4 at Canterbury's non-traditional venue at Virgin Australia Stadium in Mackay, Queensland.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Background
Tickets to the grand final were sold out by 22 August, more than two weeks before finals playoffs begun.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Background, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs finished first on the regular season competition ladder, claiming the 2012 minor premiership with 18 wins from 24 matches and finishing on 40 premiership points. This was the club's 7th minor premiership in its history and its first since 1994. The Bulldog's 2012 season was characterised by a 12-game winning streak from round 11 to round 24, which was eventually ended after a 34–6 defeat to the Canberra Raiders in round 25. This loss gave Melbourne a chance to claim the minor premiership, however a 42–10 win over the Sydney Roosters in round 26 ensured the Bulldogs finished first.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Background, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
The Bulldogs began the 2012 finals series with a 16–10 win over the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles to ensure a preliminary final berth in week 3. They subsequently won this match 32–8 against the South Sydney Rabbitohs to qualify for the 2012 grand final against the Storm.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Background, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
This was the Bulldogs 17th grand final appearance and the club's first since 2004.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Background, Melbourne Storm
The Melbourne Storm finished second on the regular season competition leader just behind the Bulldogs on 38 premiership points, with 17 wins from 24 games. The Storm's 2012 season was characterised by a 9-game winning streak from round 1 to round 9, making them early premiership favourites. The Storm subsequently suffered a 5-game losing streak from round 16 to round 21, allowing the Bulldogs to overtake them to win the minor premiership. Despite this, the Storm finished the season winning their last 5 consecutive matches to finish second.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Background, Melbourne Storm
The Storm began week 1 of the finals with a 24–6 victory over the South Sydney Rabbitohs to qualify for a preliminary final in week 3 against modern rivals the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. The Storm won this match 40–12 to qualify for the 2012 NRL Grand Final against the Bulldogs.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Background, Melbourne Storm
This was the Storm's fifth grand final appearance in seven seasons and its sixth appearance overall.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Team lists
Note: Kevin Proctor swapped with Sika Manu from his interchange spot before the match.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Match details, 1st half
The Storm began the first half with all the early possession, punishing a number of errors by the Bulldogs with several repeat sets. The relentless pressure was rewarded with a 7th minute try to Ryan Hoffman, bursting through a yawning gap after taking Gareth Widdop's lovely short ball 10m out from the line to make it 4–0. Storm captain Cameron Smith missed the conversion. The Storm continued to pressure the Bulldogs’ try line over the next few minutes but they held strong, forcing the Storm to attempt a penalty conversion which was missed by Smith.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Match details, 1st half
The Bulldogs took this as a sign of respect to their brutal defense and went on the attack, resulting in a 25th minute try to Sam Perrett, who beat Storm fullback Billy Slater to Krisnan Inu's perfectly placed grubber kick. As Perrett dived over, Slater accidentally barged into him in his attempts to stop the try. Inu, reacting to what he thought was an illegal play by Slater, pushed the Storm fullback away, sparking an all in brawl which led to the one of the biggest controversies in Grand Final history.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Match details, 1st half
Once the fight was broken up, Slater claimed that he was bitten on the ear by Bulldogs prop James Graham. Video showed the fullback had blood coming from his ear and replays confirmed the allegations, clearly showing Graham biting Slater's ear. Referee Tony Archer placed the incident on report and it was referred straight to the judiciary; Graham later received a 12 match ban. The try was awarded to Perrett, however, Inu missed the conversion and the score was locked at 4-4.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Match details, 1st half
The Storm used the controversial incident to spur them on, relaying the pressure on the Bulldogs. They capitalized in the 32nd minute where Storm halfback Cooper Cronk delivering a sublime no look pass to Slater as he burst through a gap beating two defenders to cross for the Storm, taking the score out to 10-4 after Smith's conversion. The Storm were not done just yet, as they delivered the knockout blow a minute before halftime where Cronk supplied a pinpoint cross field bomb to Justin O’Neil who leapt over Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba to score the Storm's third try. Smith missed the conversion once more and the Storm led 14–4 at halftime.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Match details, 2nd half
The second half was a defensive slog. The Storm didn't touch the ball in the opening 10 minutes, holding out set after set of the Bulldogs attack. Bulldogs captain Michael Ennis seemed to have scored in the 49th minute only to be denied by Cameron Smith holding him up. The Storm went down the other end and Smith missed another penalty conversion, failing in his attempts to make it a two converted try lead.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Match details, 2nd half
The closest the Bulldogs came to scoring was in the 61st minute where Barba made a break down the left hand wing, kicked over the top to centre Josh Morris, who failed to capitalise due to the bounce of the ball and Slater's desperate defending. Storm prop Brian Norrie appeared to have scored a try in the 70th minute, diving over after Slater batted back Cronk's bomb, however it was to be denied as Norrie was offside. The Storm held on to win the Grand Final 14–4. Storm halfback Cooper Cronk was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal for his man of the match performance.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Match details, 2nd half
The crowd of 82,976 was the highest Grand Final attendance at ANZ Stadium ever since it was re-constructed in 2002 and it was the first Grand Final to have a scoreless half of play. The Storm's 2012 triumph was their 2nd legitimate title. The result also saw Storm coach Craig Bellamy take home his first valid championship.


2012 NRL Grand Final, Aftermath
The Melbourne Storm's premiership victory qualified them to compete against the Super League XVII champions, Leeds Rhinos in the 2013 World Club Challenge.


2012 NRL Under-20s season
The 2012 NRL Under-20s season was the fifth season of the National Rugby League's Under-20s competition. Known commercially as the 2012 Toyota Cup due to sponsorship from Toyota, the competition was solely for under-20 players. The draw and structure of the competition mirrored that of the NRL's 2012 Telstra Premiership season.


2012 NRL Under-20s season results
This article details scores and results from the 2012 NRL Under-20s season.


2012 NRL season
The 2012 NRL season was the 105th season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the first run by the newly formed Australian Rugby League Commission. The main competition, called the 2012 NRL Telstra Premiership due to sponsorship from Telstra Corporation was contested by the sixteen teams of the National Rugby League. The season started with the 2012 NRL All Stars match and culminated in the 2012 NRL grand final. The 2012 Toyota Cup season also took place alongside the Premiership. The McIntyre Final Eight System, in use since 1999, was replaced with the finals system previously used by the ARL in the 1990s.


2012 NRL season
The 2012 Premiership was won by the Melbourne Storm, officially the club's second following the removal of their 2007 and 2009 premierships, among other titles, due to salary cap breaches exposed in April 2010. They defeated minor premiers the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 14-4 in the Grand Final, which was held on Sunday 30 September at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.


2012 NRL season, Season summary
Halfway through the 2012 season, the NRL's Chief Executive Officer David Gallop stood down from his role after just over a decade in the role.


2012 NRL season, Finals series
For details on the finals see 2012 NRL season results.


2012 NRL season, Finals series
The NRL returned to the top-eight system used by the ARL in the 1990s to decide the grand finalists from the top eight finishing teams. This replaced the McIntyre Final Eight System that was used for the past 12 seasons. Only four of last year's finalists will feature in this year's finals series: Melbourne Storm, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys. For the teams that did not feature last year, the Canberra Raiders last appeared in 2010, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in 2009, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in 2008 and South Sydney in 2007. South Sydney made only their second finals appearance since 1989 and also their second preliminary final since winning the premiership in 1971. The last time the club made the preliminary final was also in 1989.


2012 NRL season, Regular season player statistics
The following statistics are correct as of the conclusion of Round 26.


2012 NRL season results
The 2012 NRL season consisted of 26 weekly regular season rounds starting on 1 March, followed by four weeks of play-offs that culminated in the grand final on 30 September. The finals format for 2012 was also changed, with the new ARL Commission dispensing with the McIntyre Final Eight System and replacing it with the finals system employed previously by the ARL in the 1990s.


2012 NRL season results, Regular season, Round 11
Players selected for Game I of the 2012 State of Origin series were not available for this round.


2012 NRW Trophy
The 2012 NRW Trophy was an international figure skating competition during the 2012–2013 season. An annual event organized by the Skating Union of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), it has been sanctioned by the Deutsche Eislauf Union and the International Skating Union since 2007.


2012 NRW Trophy
Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. The competition was held in Dortmund, Germany in two parts. The Ice Dance Trophy, in which ice dancers compete on the senior, junior, and novice levels, will be held from 2–4 November 2012. The singles and pairs portion, also with senior, junior, and novice levels, was held from 5–9 December 2012. 2010 Olympic champion Yuna Kim of Korea made her return to competition at the event. The senior gold medals were won by Kim in the ladies' singles event, Germany's Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy in pairs, Russia's Konstantin Menshov in men's singles, and France's Pernelle Carron / Lloyd Jones in ice dancing.


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament
The 2012 Men's Division III Rugby Tournament is a tournament which involves approximately 140 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NSCRO Division III college rugby as a culmination of the 2011–12 college rugby season. It began in the fall 2011 season in the northeast, midwest and mid-atlantic, and picks up again in the spring 2012 season for the southern teams, and concludes with the final four-style semifinals and championship games on April 29-30, 2012 in Glendale, CO.


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament
The final four are determined by regional tournaments. Salve Regina University of Newport, RI won the largest region - Region 1 (New England & New York) by topping its 46 rugby programs; Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH won Region 3 (Central US) by besting 45 rugby programs.


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament
The finalists from Regions 2 University of North Florida and 4 Cal-Maritime were determined in the spring rugby season. Of some note is the fact that Regions 2 and 4 have just over one-half the rugby programs within Regions 1 and 3. Region 2 appears to have only 24 rugby programs, but there is hope that 10 teams can be added from the remnants of the former USA Rugby South Division 3 college rugby program. Region 4 claims to have 31 rugby programs, however, at least four appear to be large state universities with well developed rugby programs (e.g., University of Nevada, Las Vegas which has 28,000 undergraduates - approximately 26,000 more students than Salve Regina or Franciscan).


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament
This regional participation disparity between conferences is attributable to two things: 1) efforts to place teams within geographical regions according to traditional season (spring vs. fall); and 2) conference re-alignment as encouraged by USA Rugby.


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament
All final four matches are expected to be broadcast live on Livestream.


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament, Participating Programs, Region 1 = New England & New York => 42 NSCRO eligible clubs
New England North - Maine (4) BatesBowdoinColbyUMaine FarmingtonNew England North - Boston (4) BabsonTuftsWorcester PolyWentworthNew England South (8) Central Conn StateEastern Conn StateHartfordNew Haven U23SpringfieldTrinityWestern Conn StateWestern New EnglandNew England Central (6) Salve ReginaRoger WilliamsUMass-DartmouthMass Maritime AcademyWheatonBryantNew England West (6) Plymouth StateKeene StateAmherstWilliamsHoly CrossCastleton StateNew York State East (4) ClarksonPaul SmithsPotsdamRochester Inst. of TechSyracuse C (1)New York State West (4) AlfredBrockport C (1)CanisiusRochesterSt John FisherMet New York (6) BardDrewMolloyMontclair StateSUNY MaritimeFairleigh DickinsonRutgers C (1)Stony Brook C (1)


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament, Participating Programs, Region 2 = SouthAtlantic=> 24 NSCRO eligible clubs
Virginia (7) Christopher NewportHampden-SydneyLynchburgRoanokeVirginia CommonwealthWashington and LeeWilliam and MaryPotomac (4) AmericanFrostburgMontgomery CCWashingtonEast Penn East (6) Delaware C (1)LaSalleLehighRowanSwarthmoreUrsinusWidenerEast Penn West (7) AlbrightBucknellF&MGettysburgLock HavenPSU BerksSusquehannaFormer USARS (10) - Possible Addition LoyolaSpring HillWestern CarolinaEckerdFlorida Gulf CoastArmstrong Atlantic StateNorth FloridaCharleston SouthernNorth GeorgiaGeorgia College & State


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament, Participating Programs, Region 3 = Central => 42 NSCRO eligible clubs
Minnesota North (5) Bemidji StateBethelMoorheadMorrisNorth DakotaMinnesota Central (5) CarletonMacalesterSt. OlafSt. ThomasWisconsin-River FallsMinnesota South (5) GustavusLutherSouthwest StateSt. Mary'sViterboWisconsin (4) Michigan TechMilwaukee School of EngrgUW Eau ClaireUW Madison C (1)UW ParksideIndiana (8) AndersonDePauwGraceIndiana-Purdue Ft. WayneIndiana State 9300 ugIndiana WesleyanSouthern IndianaWabashAllegheny North (6) AlleghenyClarionDuquesneGenevaGrove CityPenn State-BehrendAllegheny South (6) Fairmont StateFranciscanJuniataPittsburgh-JohnstownRobert MorrisWashington & JeffersonWest Virginia C (1)Chicago Area (3) Elmhurst CollegeLewis UniversityUniversity of Chicago


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament, Participating Programs, Region 4 = PacWest => 31 NSCRO eligible clubs
Eastern Rockies (4) Colorado CollegeDenver 5400 ugRegisWestern StateGreat Plains (5) DoaneNebraska KearneySouth DakotaSouth Dakota StateWayne StateHeart of America (4) BenedictineEmporia StateJohn BrownPittsburg StateTexas (6) LamarMidwestern StateSouthern MethodistTexas at Dallas 11kTexas at San Antonio 26k studentsTyler JCPacific Northwest (6) GonzagaOregon Institute of TechnologyPuget SoundSeattleWhitmanWillametteSouthern California (4) Cal LutheranConcordiaUNLV - 28,000 students? Westmont Northern California (7) California Maritime AcademySacramento City College/Sonoma State University/San Francisco State/University Of San Francisco/University Of Pacific/Monterey Bay State/St. Marys C's


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament, Final 4
Salve Regina 29 vs Franciscan University 20University of North Florida 26 vs Cal Maritime 31


2012 NSCRO Men's Division III Rugby Tournament, Notes
This was Salve Regina's first ever National Championship victory in school history.


2012 NSW Premier League season
The 2012 NSW Premier League season was the 12th season of the revamped NSW Premier League. Despite the Parramatta Eagles finishing last on the ladder, Bankstown City Lions were relegated due to finishing last in the Club Championship. They are replaced by the Blacktown Spartans, who were promoted after winning the 2011 NSW Super League season.


2012 NWT/Yukon Scotties Tournament of Hearts
The 2012 NWT/Yukon Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the women's provincial curling championship for the Yukon and Northwest Territories, were originally scheduled for January 26 to 29 at the Yellowknife Curling Club in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. However, due to no entries into the Yukon Ladies Championship, the Northwest Territories Ladies Championship, held January 13–15, at the Inuvik Curling Club, in Inuvik, was used to determine a representative for the Yukon/Northwest Territories. Kerry Galusha and her team from Yellowknife won the tiebreaker final, and the right to represent Yukon/Northwest Territories, at the 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Red Deer, Alberta, where Galusha would finish round robin with a 4-7 record.


2012 NZIHL season
The 2012 NZIHL season was the eighth season of the New Zealand Ice Hockey League, the top level of ice hockey in New Zealand. Five teams participated in the league, and the Canterbury Red Devils won their second championship by defeating the Southern Stampede in the final.


2012 Nadeshiko League
The 2012 Nadeshiko League season was won by INAC Kobe Leonessa, who went undefeated the whole season and defended their 2011 title.


2012 Nadeshiko League Cup Final
2012 Nadeshiko League Cup Final was the 7th final of the Nadeshiko League Cup competition. The final was played at Omiya Football Stadium in Saitama on September 9, 2012. Nippon TV Beleza won the championship.


2012 Nadeshiko League Cup Final, Overview
Nippon TV Beleza won their 3rd title, by defeating INAC Kobe Leonessa 3–2 with Asano Nagasato and Yayoi Kobayashi goal.


2012 Nagaland Premier League
The 2012 Nagaland Premier League was the inaugural season of the Nagaland Premier League, a state league in the Indian state of Nagaland. The league kicked off on 10 March 2012.


2012 Nagaland Premier League, Overview
The Nagaland Premier League was started in 2012 as a new top state league for the state of Nagaland which is located in India. The league is considered to be the 3rd tier of the Indian football league system. The league has been started with the aim of giving the youth of Nagaland a stepping stone to become professional in the game of association football and is run by Four Four Two management. The league started the 2012 season with 10 teams based in 6 different districts. On 17 October 2011 it was announced that the Nagaland Premier League champions would be promoted to the I-League 2nd Division.


2012 Nagaland Premier League, Overview, Exhibition Match
The NPL kicked off on 2 March with an exhibition match between Life Sports FC and I-League side Shillong Lajong F.C. at the Kohima football ground. . Shillong Lajong won 4-0 over Life Sports FC.


2012 Nagaland Premier League, Venues
Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung were selected as venues for opening season.


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Nagorno-Karabakh on 19 July 2012. Incumbent President Bako Sahakyan was re-elected for a second five-year term, receiving around two-thirds of the vote.


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election, Campaign
Four candidates registered to run in the election; incumbent President Bako Sahakyan, Deputy Minister of Defence Vitaly Balasanyan, the rector of Stepanakert University Arkady Soghomonyan and Valery Khachatryan. Khachatryan later pulled out of the election race.


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election, Campaign
As part of the campaign, Balasanyan sent an open letter to Sahakyan, claiming that "authorities have accumulated a vast experience of fraud, illegal involvement of law enforcement and national security agencies in the electoral processes, an inflation of the number of voters on voters’ lists, different kinds of pressure on voters, etc. This has led to apathy in society, distrust of people in the electoral process in the country and a decline of the image of the state."


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election, Campaign
Campaigning ended on 17 July at midnight, with no campaigning allowed on the day before the election.


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election, Conduct
The elections were attended by more than 100 observers; among them were 80 international observers from countries including Russia, Armenia, the United States, France, Canada, Ireland, Poland, Cyprus, Germany, Belgium, Israel, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria. A total of 93 journalists were accredited to cover the elections, 50 from foreign media.


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election, Results
A total of 98,909 voters registered for the elections. Voting took place in 274 electoral districts, with an additional polling station in Yerevan, Armenia.


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election, Reactions
Due to Nagorno-Karabakh's being de jure part of Azerbaijan, recognised as such by the international community, the election did not receive international support.


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election, Reactions
The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton stated that the EU did not recognise the constitutional and legal framework within which the presidential election was held. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai described the election as counter-productive for a peaceful settlement of the conflict and said that NATO did not intend to recognise it. Chair of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe Eamon Gilmore released a statement according to which the OSCE does not recognise the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh and thus the election will not have any impact on the ongoing peace negotiations.


2012 Nagorno-Karabakh presidential election, Reactions
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan called the election "a provocative attempt," contrary to efforts in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. A spokesperson for the ministry added that every foreign citizen who attended the election as an observer would be declared persona non grata and denied entry into Azerbaijan in the future. In the following days, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Romania, Georgia, Russia, Germany, Latvia, and Iran and embassies of Israel, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, made similar statements in denying the legitimacy of the election.


2012 Nagoya Grampus season
The 2012 Nagoya Grampus season is Nagoya Grampus's 20th season in the J.League Division 1 and 29th overall in the Japanese top flight. They are also competing in the 2012 J.League Cup, 2012 Emperor's Cup, and the 2012 AFC Champions League.


2012 Nagoya Grampus season, Players, Current squad
As of March 6, 2012Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2012 Nagoya Grampus season, Players, Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2012 Nagoya Grampus season, Transfers, Winter
In:Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2012 Nagoya Grampus season, Transfers, Winter
Out:Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2012 Nagoya Grampus season, Transfers, Summer
In:Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2012 Nagoya Grampus season, Transfers, Summer
Out:Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2012 Namibian Tri-Nations
The Namibian Tri-Nations tournament (or Windhoek Lager Tri-Nations Rugby Series for sponsorship reasons) was designed to bring more international rugby union test matches to the lower tiered teams in the Confederation of African Rugby region. Originally, the hosts Namibia were invited to Europe by the International Rugby Board to play part in the 2012 International Rugby Series. However, Namibia turned the offer down to create their own tournament so they could bring more international rugby to the Namibian fans at home.


2012 Namibian Tri-Nations
The tournament consisted of two further developing rugby nations: Europe's Spain and fellow African nation Zimbabwe. The tournament was played between November 10 and November 17, but was only played on three dedicated days at Namibia's national stadium, Hage Geingob Rugby Stadium in Windhoek. The tournament opened with the hosts playing Zimbabwe and ended again with the hosts, this time playing against Spain.


2012 Namibian Tri-Nations
With the end result between Namibia and Spain, the European side won the tournament with two wins out of two.


2012 National Camogie League
The 2012 National Camogie League, known for sponsorship reasons as the Irish Daily Star National Camogie League commenced in February 2012 and was won by Cork.


2012 National Conference League
The 2012 National Conference League was the 27th season of the National Conference League, the top league for British amateur rugby league clubs, and was the first season that the league was played in the summer.


2012 National Conference League
The league was expanded to four tiers for the first time, with the new Division Three largely consisting of teams from the former Rugby League Conference National Division.


2012 National Conference League, Division Three
Of the ten clubs in the newly formed Division Three, seven joined from the former Rugby League Conference National Division and two teams were promoted from the RLC Premier Divisions (Bristol Sonics and St Albans Centurions). The tenth club, South Wales Hornets, were a newly founded team. The Grand Final winners were Hemel Stags, defeating Underbank Rangers 17–10.


2012 National Conference League, Division Three
At the end of the season, all clubs apart from Underbank Rangers and Coventry Bears withdrew from the league for various reasons:


2012 National Finals Rodeo
The 2012 National Finals Rodeo were held from December 6–15, 2012 in Paradise, Nevada with the exception of steer roping which was held in Guthrie, Oklahoma from November 2–3, 2012. All events are sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association with the exception of barrel racing which is sanctioned by the Women's Professional Rodeo Association.


2012 National Football League (Ireland)
The 2012 National Football League known for sponsorship reasons as the Allianz National Football League was the 81st staging of the National Football League (NFL), an annual Gaelic football tournament for the Gaelic Athletic Association county teams of Ireland. The League began on Saturday 4 February 2012. Thirty-two Gaelic football county teams from the island of Ireland, plus London, participated.


2012 National Football League (Ireland)
On 29 April, Cork defeated Mayo by 2-10 to 0-11 to win their eight league title and their third in a row.


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Format, League structure
The 2012 format of the National Football League was a system of four divisions. The top three divisions consisted of 8 teams, and Division 4 contained nine teams. Each team played every other team in its division once, either home or away. 2 points were awarded for a win and 1 for a draw.


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Format, Tie-breaker
If three or more teams were level on points, points difference was used to rank the teams.


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Format, Finals, promotions and relegations
The top four teams in Division 1 contested the 2012 NFL semi-finals (first played fourth and second played third) and final. The top two teams in divisions 2, 3 and 4 were promoted, and contested the finals of their respective divisions. The bottom two teams in divisions 1, 2 and 3 were relegated.


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 1, Table
Compete in Division 1 semi-finals  Automatic relegation to Division 2


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 1, Table
1Dublin are placed ahead of Donegal because they won the head-to-head game between the teams (2-16 to 0-13).


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 1, Division 1 Final
2Attendance figure is total of the Division 1 and Division 2 finals played consecutively


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 2, Table
Compete in Division 2 final and automatic promotion to Division 1  Automatic relegation to Division 3


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 2, Table
1Louth are placed ahead of Westmeath because they won the head-to-head game between the teams (0-12 to 1-06).


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 2, Table
2Meath are placed ahead of Monaghan because they won the head-to-head game between the teams (1-15 to 1-09).


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 2, Division 2 Final
2Attendance figure is total of the Division 1 and Division 2 finals played consecutively


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 3, Table
Compete in Division 3 final and automatic promotion to Division 2  Automatic relegation to Division 4


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 3, Division 3 Final
3Attendance figure is total of the Division 3 and Division 4 finals played consecutively


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 4, Table
Compete in Division 4 final and automatic promotion to Division 3


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 4, Table
1Wicklow are placed ahead of Clare because they won the head-to-head game between the teams (1-15 to 1-12).


2012 National Football League (Ireland), Division 4, Division 4 Final
4Attendance figure is total of the Division 3 and Division 4 finals played consecutively


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game
The 2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, (also known as the 2012 Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Game) took place on January 29, 2012, at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa. This edition of the All-Star Game featured the "fantasy draft" format first seen in the previous 2011 NHL All-Star Game. The participating players voted for team captains, selecting Daniel Alfredsson of the All-Star host Ottawa Senators and Zdeno Chara of the defending Stanley Cup champion, the Boston Bruins.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game
The event marked the first time the city of Ottawa hosted an NHL All-Star Game. Ottawa has hosted two NHL Entry Drafts, a Stanley Cup Final and the World Junior Championships all in the past five years. It marked the 20th anniversary of the Ottawa Senators joining the NHL. It was the second All-Star Game that Canada has hosted in the past three years, as the Montreal Canadiens hosted it in 2009. Winning goaltender Tim Thomas became the only goaltender in NHL history to win four consecutive All-Star games.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, Rosters, Fan balloting
Voting for NHL all-star players started on November 14, 2011. Online voting required fans to register with the NHL.com web site, with votes limited to 30 votes per "platform", i.e. desktop computer, web-enabled mobile devices and SMS text. Fans were presented a list of 127 players, sub-divided into Forwards, Defence and Goaltending. Three forwards, two defence and one goaltender could be selected from the League-wide list of players. The selection of League-wide list of players was done in 2011, which used the "fantasy team" format.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, Rosters, Fan balloting
After voting closed, Erik Karlsson was the leading vote-getter with 939,951. Senators fans voted in force, electing not only Karlsson but all three forwards as well (Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek) to the starting lineup. The only skater not coming from the hometown Senators was Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Dion Phaneuf. Phaneuf beat out Senators defenceman Sergei Gonchar by  only 11,305 votes. Reigning Vezina and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Tim Thomas was elected as the fan-voted goaltender.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, Rosters, Draft
After naming the remaining All-Stars, the participating players voted for team captains, selecting Daniel Alfredsson of the hosting Ottawa Senators and Zdeno Chara of the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. Alfredsson's team would wear white, while Team Chara would wear blue. The NHL named the coaches: head coach Claude Julien, and assistants Doug Houda, Doug Jarvis and Geoff Ward of the Boston Bruins for Team Chara; and John Tortorella of the New York Rangers and Todd McLellan of the San Jose Sharks as co-coaches for Team Alfredsson.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, Rosters, Draft
The draft of the players took place on January 26, 2012, from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm, Eastern time. It was held at the Théâtre du Casino du Lac-Leamy, in Gatineau, Quebec. Team Chara won the puck flip and selected first.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, Rosters, Rookies
Prior to the draft several players withdrew due to injury or personal reasons:


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, Game summary
The game was played from 4pm until 7pm local time. It was broadcast nationally in Canada on CBC, and in the United States on the NBC Sports Network. Canadian singer Drake performed during the second intermission. Javier Colon sang the American national anthem while Ottawa Senators anthem singer Lyndon Slewidge sang the Canadian national anthem.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, SuperSkills Competition
The competition was held at Scotiabank Place on January 28, 2012 between 7pm and 10pm local time. It was broadcast nationally in Canada on CBC, and in the United States on the NBC Sports Network.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, SuperSkills Competition, Fastest Skater
In this event, pairs of skaters raced each other simultaneously on parallel courses on the rink. Each race was worth one point for their winning racer's team, and the fastest two skaters then had a final race for another point.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, SuperSkills Competition, Breakaway Challenge
In this competition, competitors skated with the puck and attempted to score on the opposing team's goalie. The winner was also judged on their presentation. The winner was determined by SMS messages sent to the NHL. The winner, Patrick Kane, donned a Superman cape and Clark Kent-style glasses, skated in and dove to the ice, passed the puck from his left hand to his stick held in his right hand and scored. Runner-up Corey Perry threw away his stick and gloves and removed a hidden mini-stick from his equipment. He then skated in and deked out the goaltender with his stick. Kane, in his second attempt as Superman, shot a puck designed to explode into pieces.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, SuperSkills Competition, Accuracy Shooting
In this event, competitors were positioned in front of the net, and were passed the puck from two players situated behind the goal line. The players had to hit targets at the four corners of the net in the fastest time.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, SuperSkills Competition, Challenge Relay
In this competition, teams were selected from each side. Each player on the team had one skill to complete before the next player could start. The goal was to complete the relay in the fastest time.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, SuperSkills Competition, Hardest Shot
In this competition, players skated in from the blue line, and slapped a puck as fast as possible on the net.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, SuperSkills Competition, Elimination Shootout
In this competition, players attempted to score on the opposing team's goalie. Players who scored earned a point for their team for each goal they scored. Players were eliminated from the competition if they failed to score.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, All-Star Weekend
In conjunction with the Game and the Skills Competition, events were held from January 26 through January 29. The NHL held a "Fan Fair" at the Ottawa Convention Centre. The Fan Fair had displays of the NHL's trophies, autograph signings, interactive displays and presentations and broadcasts by the NHL's SiriusXM and NHL Network partners. Team and All-Star Game merchandise and memorabilia was also for sale. Events were held on the Rideau Canal, at Confederation Park and at the Byward Market. Ottawa's annual Winterlude winter carnival opened its site at Confederation Park one week early for the game weekend. Activities include:


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, All-Star Weekend
Weather conditions forced the closure of the Rideau Canal to public skating during the weekend. The trophy procession and junior skills competition were able to be held on the canal according to schedule. The Energizer Night Skate was moved to the Rink of Dreams ice rink nearby.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, All-Star Weekend
Interest in the four-day festivities broke records across the board in terms of North American television ratings and digital consumption, according to figures released by the NHL. Across North America, 17.7 million viewers tuned into all or part of NHL All-Star Weekend events, including the Molson Canadian NHL All-Star Fantasy Player Draft held at the Hilton Lac Leamy. Those events were televised on CBC, TSN and RDS in Canada, and by the NBC Sports Network in the United States.


2012 National Hockey League All-Star Game, All-Star Weekend
In Canada, CBC recorded its highest viewership for the NHL All-Star Game and skills competition since the current system of audience measurement was instituted in 1989–90. In all, 10.2 million viewers tuned into at least some part of CBC's coverage, representing 30% of the Canadian population. Meanwhile, the player draft attracted 1.34 million viewers on TSN and another 254,000 on RDS. A total of 3.7 million unique viewers saw at least part of the telecast.


2012 National Hurling League
The 2012 National Hurling League commenced in February 2012. 34 GAA county hurling teams: 32 from Ireland (including Fingal but not Cavan), London and Warwickshire, contested it.


2012 National Hurling League
On 6 May Kilkenny defeated Cork in the final to win their 15th NHL title, moving them to second place in the all-time roll of honour, behind Tipperary who have won 19 Leagues.


2012 National Hurling League, Format
The 2012 format was originally to consist of five divisions: Divisions 1 and 2 having eight teams in each, Division 3A six, Division 3B seven, and six teams in Division 4.


2012 National Hurling League, Format
However, this was controversially altered to a system of six divisions, with six teams in divisions 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B and 3A, and four in division 3B. This meant that many counties were effectively relegated to a lower division. It was agreed in October 2011 that here will no longer be an eight team Division 1, with the top division hurling counties giving their approval to the new system. The league settings are as follows:


2012 National Hurling League, Division 3A, Division 3A, Fixtures and results
The Monaghan team gave a walkover after a dispute with the county board, who had refused to reschedule Gaelic football club games to allow their players to rest for the final.


2012 National Hurling League, Broadcasting rights
Setanta Sports and TG4 provided live coverage of matches in Ireland with RTÉ providing highlights on Sunday nights. The finals were all shown live on TG4. Setanta Sports broadcasts live matches in Australia. Setanta Sports also provides matches from the National Hurling League in Asia.


2012 National Invitation Tournament
The 2012 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. The annual tournament began on March 13 on campus sites and ended on March 29 at Madison Square Garden. Stanford defeated Minnesota in the final game, by a score of 75–51 to become NIT champions for second time (first since 1991).


2012 National Invitation Tournament, Participants, Automatic qualifiers
The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2012 NIT field by virtue of winning their conferences' regular season championship but failing to win their conference tournament. These teams also did not receive an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament.


2012 National Invitation Tournament, Bracket
Played on the home court of the higher-seeded team except #7 seed Iowa hosts #2 seed Dayton since Dayton is the host of the NCAA First Four and cannot host a first-round NIT game.


2012 National Invitation Tournament, Bracket, Semifinals and final
Played at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 27 and March 29


2012 National League Championship Series
The 2012 National League Championship Series was a best-of-seven playoff pitting the San Francisco Giants against the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League pennant and the right to play in the 2012 World Series. The series, the 43rd NLCS in league history, began Sunday, October 14, and ended Monday, October 22, with Fox airing all games in the United States. In shades of the 1996 NLCS (a series where the Cardinals blew a 3–1 series lead where they were outscored 32–1 over the final three games), the Giants came back from a 3–1 deficit and outscored the Cardinals, 20–1, over the final three games to win the series, 4–3.


2012 National League Championship Series
This was the third postseason meeting between the Giants and the Cardinals, and also marked the first time in MLB history since the creation of the League Championship Series in 1969 that the last two World Series champions faced off against each other for the pennant. The Giants won in 2010 while the Cardinals won in 2011. Coincidentally, the last two postseason meetings between the two teams occurred in the NLCS, which both ended on October 14, the day of Game 1. The Cardinals won Game 7 of the 1987 NLCS, while the Giants triumphed in the pennant-clinching Game 5 of the 2002 NLCS.


2012 National League Championship Series
The Giants would go on to sweep the Detroit Tigers in the World Series in four games.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
Sunday, October 14, 2012 – 8:15 p.m. (EDT) at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
The Cardinals scored first in the second inning, with a Yadier Molina single followed by a two-run home run by David Freese. In the fourth inning, Daniel Descalso doubled and scored on a Pete Kozma double; Kozma then stole third base during Lance Lynn's at-bat and scored on a Jon Jay single. With Jay on first, Carlos Beltrán hit a two-run home run to give the Cardinals a 6–0 lead; Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner was then replaced by George Kontos, who got Matt Holliday to pop out to end the inning.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
The Giants rallied back against Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn in the bottom half of the fourth inning. Lynn gave up a leadoff single to Marco Scutaro, who later advanced to third on a Hunter Pence single and scored on a Brandon Belt single that also advanced Pence to third. Gregor Blanco then tripled to score Pence and Belt, and Brandon Crawford doubled to score Blanco, which cut the Cardinals' lead to 6–4. Lynn was then replaced by Joe Kelly, who got Ángel Pagán to ground into a force play to end the inning.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
Neither team's bullpen allowed a run for the rest of the game; additionally, the Giants' bullpen did not allow a runner into scoring position over 5+1⁄3 innings, while the Cardinals' bullpen only allowed one runner to advance into scoring position over the same number of innings.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
Monday, October 15, 2012 – 8:07 p.m. (EDT) at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter gave up a home run to the leadoff hitter Ángel Pagán to give the Giants an early one-run lead. The lead was short-lived, however, as Carpenter hit a double in the top of the second inning that scored Pete Kozma, who walked with two outs. The game remained tied until the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Giants scored four runs, three of which were unearned amid two Cardinals errors. Brandon Belt hit a double off Carpenter and advanced to third on Gregor Blanco's single.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
Brandon Crawford then reached first base on a throwing error by first baseman Allen Craig; Belt scored on the play and Blanco advanced to second. Crawford and Blanco then advanced to second and third, respectively, on Vogelsong's sacrifice bunt, and Pagán was walked to load the bases. Marco Scutaro—who had been involved in a collision with Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday in the first inning in what some termed a "questionable" slide into second base—then hit a single to left field that went between Holliday's legs, allowing Blanco, Crawford, and Pagán to score.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
The Giants padded their lead in the eighth inning when Ryan Theriot hit a two-RBI single with the bases loaded off of Shelby Miller, scoring Blanco and Aubrey Huff. Ryan Vogelsong pitched seven innings while Jeremy Affeldt and Sergio Romo pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth, respectively, as the Giants' 7–1 win tied the series heading to St. Louis.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 3
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 – 4:07 p.m. (EDT) at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 3
The Giants scored first in the third inning. Ángel Pagán singled to lead off the inning, advanced to third on a Marco Scutaro double, then scored on a Pablo Sandoval groundout. The Cardinals took the lead in the bottom half of that inning, when Matt Carpenter—who had replaced Carlos Beltrán due to injury in the first inning—hit a two-run home run. Giants starter Matt Cain only allowed one baserunner over the next three innings, but the Cardinals got an insurance run in the seventh inning. After David Freese doubled with one out, Cain intentionally walked Daniel Descalso. Pete Kozma then singled to load the bases. Shane Robinson then grounded out, scoring Freese on the play.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 3
After Robinson grounded out, there was a 3-hour-and-28-minute rain delay. When the game resumed—with Kozma and Descalso still on base—Javier López replaced Cain and got Jon Jay to ground out to end the inning. Jason Motte pitched two perfect innings for the Cardinals to earn his third save of the postseason.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 4
Thursday, October 18, 2012 – 8:07 p.m. (EDT) at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 4
The second-largest crowd of the year at Busch, 47,062, saw their Redbirds win, 8–3, without the benefit of a home run. Adam Wainwright went seven strong innings, giving up only four hits and one run, a homer to Hunter Pence, walking none and striking out five, while Tim Lincecum gave up four runs in 4+2⁄3 innings. The Cardinals struck first in the bottom of the first when Jon Jay hit a leadoff single and Matt Carpenter walked. Matt Holliday's RBI single and Allen Craig's sacrifice fly put St. Louis up 2–0.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 4
Carpenter doubled in the fifth and scored on Holliday's single with Holliday advancing to second on the throw to home. One out later, Yadier Molina's RBI single made it 4–1 Cardinals. Next inning, Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma hit back-to-back leadoff singles off of George Kontos. After a sacrifice bunt, Jay's two-run double off of Jose Mijares made it 6–1 Cardinals. Next inning, Craig hit a leadoff single off of Guillermo Mota and scored on Molina's double. Two outs later, Molina scored on Kozma's single off of Jeremy Affeldt. Fernando Salas pitched two innings in relief of Wainwright and, despite allowing a two-run home run to Pablo Sandoval in the ninth, held the Cardinals' lead to put them one win away from the World Series.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 5
Friday, October 19, 2012 – 8:07 p.m. (EDT) at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 5
The Cardinals had runners on second and third with no outs early in the bottom of the second inning. Giants starting pitcher Barry Zito retired Daniel Descalso and intentionally walked Pete Kozma to bring Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn to the plate. Lynn grounded into a double play, and Zito escaped the jam.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 5
Just as he had done in Game 1, Lynn pitched three scoreless innings but then gave up four runs and could not finish the fourth inning. In that inning, with one out and Marco Scutaro and Pablo Sandoval on base after two singles, Hunter Pence grounded back to Lynn, whose throw to second base to force Sandoval hit the bag and bounced into center field, allowing Scutaro to score. After another out and a walk, Brandon Crawford hit a two-RBI single, and then Zito scored another run with a bunt single. Lynn was then relieved by Joe Kelly, who finished the inning with a strikeout. Sandoval extended the Giants' lead with a home run in the top of the eighth off of Mitchell Boggs.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 5
Zito pitched shutout ball into the bottom of the eighth inning, and the final four outs were recorded by Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo as the Giants' 5–0 win forced a Game 6 in San Francisco.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 6
Sunday, October 21, 2012 – 7:45 p.m. (EDT) at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 6
Strong pitching by starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong helped the Giants to a 6–1 victory. The Giants became the first team since the 2008 Boston Red Sox to come back from a 3–1 deficit to tie the series (although the 2008 Red Sox would lose Game 7), and first in the National League since the 2003 Florida Marlins.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 6
After Marco Scutaro drew a one-out walk in the first, Pablo Sandoval doubled over the head of Jon Jay as the center fielder got turned around fighting the sun and shadows during the twilight start. Scutaro scored on Posey's groundout to third to give the Giants a 1–0 lead and the NL batting champion his first RBI of the series. Brandon Belt tripled to right-center leading off the second. Gregor Blanco struck out swinging and Brandon Crawford was intentionally walked.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 6
With Crawford trying to steal second on the pitch, Vogelsong chopped a ball that shortstop Pete Kozma could not handle as Belt scored. One out later, Scutaro doubled to left to score and Sandoval singled on the 10th pitch from Chris Carpenter to score Scutaro to put the Giants ahead 5–0.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 6
Ryan Vogelsong exceeded his career high by one with nine strikeouts, and the San Francisco Giants took a 5–1 lead over the St. Louis Cardinals through six innings. The only baserunner Vogelsong allowed was a one-out walk to Matt Carpenter in the first, until Daniel Descalso's broken-bat single to center with two outs in the fifth. Pete Kozma also singled before Vogelsong got pinch-hitter Skip Schumaker to ground out to first. Allen Craig's single in the sixth drove home Carlos Beltrán, who doubled with two outs, for the Cardinals' only run.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 6
Chris Carpenter was replaced after allowing six hits and five runs, three unearned, in four innings. He walked two and struck out six. Matt Carpenter replaced Matt Holliday at first base in the St. Louis lineup and batted second when the left fielder was scratched about 45 minutes before first pitch because of lower back tightness. Allen Craig shifted from first to left field, and Beltrán slid back a spot to third in the batting order, while playing right field.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 6
The Giants got one more run in the eighth on Ryan Theriot's RBI single off of Edward Mujica with two on, the run charged to Mark Rzepczynski.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 6
The 10 unearned runs allowed by the Cardinals in the series were the most in NLCS history, according to STATS LLC.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
Monday, October 22, 2012 – 8:07 p.m. (EDT) at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
Game 7 featured a rematch of Game 3 starters Matt Cain and Kyle Lohse.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
The Giants took an early lead in the first inning after consecutive singles by Ángel Pagán and Marco Scutaro followed by a Pablo Sandoval RBI groundout. However, the Cardinals threatened in the second inning with runners on second and third and two outs. Cain ended the threat by inducing a Lohse line-out to a leaping Brandon Crawford. The Giants added insurance in the bottom of the second after a Cain RBI single, marking the third consecutive game in which a Giants pitcher had batted in a run.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
The Giants jumped on Lohse in the bottom of the third, and the Cardinal starter's night was ended after he proceeded to give up a single to Scutaro, a double to Sandoval, and a walk to Posey to load the bases. Against Joe Kelly, Hunter Pence then hit an odd double that somehow made contact with his broken bat three times, causing it to unexpectedly knuckle away from and past the shortstop Pete Kozma. Scutaro and Sandoval scored, and center fielder Jon Jay misplayed the ball in center field, allowing Posey to score. After a single and walk reloaded the bases, Crawford and Pagán  hit into fielder's choice plays to give the Giants a 7–0 lead. Finally, Sandoval lined out to first baseman Allen Craig to end the five-run third.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
Cain went 5+2⁄3 innings without giving up a run, and the bullpen would continue to shut out the Cardinals. A run-scoring double play by Aubrey Huff off of Mitchell Boggs in the seventh inning and a home run by Brandon Belt in the eighth off of Jason Motte added to the onslaught as the Giants surged ahead 9–0. Under a steady downpour in the ninth inning, reliever Javier López notched the first two outs, but was lifted after two walks. In the sloppy conditions, closer Sergio Romo then allowed both runners to reach scoring position with a wild pitch, but ultimately got Matt Holliday to pop out to Scutaro to win the series for San Francisco.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
The victory marked the first time the Giants had ever won a postseason Game 7, having previously lost Game 7 of the 1912 World Series, the 1924 World Series, the 1962 World Series, the 1987 National League Championship Series and the 2002 World Series. It was also the second time in three games that the Giants staff had tossed a shutout; the Cardinals scored only one run over the final 28 innings of the series. San Francisco also became the second club in MLB history to win six elimination games in one postseason, following the 1985 Kansas City Royals.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
The Cardinals became the first team in MLB history to play in three winner-take-all postseason games in the same year. Meanwhile, the Giants became the first team to win both a winner-take-all Game 5 of the Division Series and a winner-take-all Game 7 in a League Championship Series in the same year.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
With three hits in the game, Series MVP Marco Scutaro finished 14-for-28 batting, tying the LCS record for hits.


2012 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 7
Nielsen ratings showed that 31.8% of households in the St. Louis area watched the game compared with 27.5 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nationally, Nielsen found that 8.1 million viewers saw this game, a 4.9% share of households. The rating peaked at 5.8 at 7:30 p.m. (Central Time Zone) before declining as viewers switched to Monday Night Football or the presidential debate.


2012 National League Championship Series, Composite line score
2012 NLCS (4–3): San Francisco Giants over St. Louis Cardinals


2012 National League Division Series
The 2012 National League Division Series were two best-of-five game series to determine the participating teams in the 2012 National League Championship Series. The three divisional winners and a fourth team—the winner of a one-game Wild Card playoff—played in two separate series.


2012 National League Division Series
This series with the Washington Nationals was their first playoff berth since moving to Washington D.C. and the first franchise playoff berth since 1981 when they were the Montreal Expos. TBS carried most of the games, with some on TNT. The Wild Card Game was held on October 5, 2012.


2012 National League Division Series
The series used the 2–3 format (three consecutive games at home for the team with home field advantage preceded by two consecutive games at home for the other team) for 2012 because Major League Baseball implemented the second wild card slot on March 2, 2012, long after the 2012 regular season schedule had been set, leaving no room for the 2–2–1 format which requires a travel day between Games 4 and 5. The 2–3 format was used for best-of-five Championship Series prior to 1985 and for the Division Series from 1995 to 1997. The matchups for the 2012 NLDS were:


2012 National League Division Series
Both series saw the first postseason meetings between the respective clubs and both went to the maximum five games.


2012 National League Division Series
The Giants went on to defeat the Cardinals in the NLCS, then win the 2012 World Series defeating the American League champion Detroit Tigers.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 1
3:07 p.m. (EDT) at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 1
The series opened on a sunny afternoon in St. Louis, before 47,078 fans watching the Nationals' first playoff game since October 19, 1981, when they were the Montreal Expos. It was the first time a team from Washington D.C. played in a postseason contest since the 1933 World Series, when the Washington Senators lost to the Giants.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 1
The Nationals struck first on an RBI single by Kurt Suzuki in the second inning with two on off of Adam Wainwright, but the Cardinals responded with two of their own, as 21-game winner Gio González walked three to load the bases, then threw a wild pitch, before walking another to load the bases and allowing a sacrifice fly to Jon Jay, helping St. Louis score without the benefit of a hit.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 1
The score stayed 2–1 until the top of the eighth, when Tyler Moore delivered a two-out, pinch-hit single off of Marc Rzepczynski to give the Nationals a 3–2 lead they would not relinquish, both runs charged to Mitchell Boggs, as Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen sealed the deal out of the bullpen for the first playoff win for the franchise in 31 years.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 2
4:37 p.m. (EDT) at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 2
In Game 2, the Nationals struck first in the top of the second on Ryan Zimmerman's RBI single off of Jaime Garcia, but after back-to-back leadoff singles in the bottom of the inning off of him, David Freese's double and Daniel Descalso's single scored a run each. After a strikeout, Skip Schumaker's groundout and Jon Jay's RBI single made it 4–1 Cardinals. Allen Craig and Descalso hit home runs in the third and fourth off of Jordan Zimmermann. Pete Kozma walked in the fourth, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on an error on Jay's ground ball.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 2
Back-to-back home runs by Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche in the fourth off of Lance Lynn made it 7–3 Cardinals. Carlos Beltran's home run in the sixth off of Mike Gonzalez made it 8–3. The Nationals scored their last run of the game in the seventh on Zimmernan's sacrifice fly with runners on second and third off of Edward Mujica. In the eighth, Komza doubled with one out off of Sean Burnett and scored on Jay's two-out triple, then Beltran's second home run of the game made it 11–4.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 2
After walking Matt Holliday, Burnett was relieved by Tom Gorzelanny, who allowed an RBI double to Craig. Trevor Rosenthal struck out three of the four batters he faced in the ninth as the Cardinals tied the series with a 12–4 win. Both teams combined to use 13 pitchers, with Lance Lynn working three relief innings to get the win.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 3
Washington D.C.'s first playoff game in 79 years was not a pleasant one for the home team. The Nationals were blown out for the second straight game and left 10 men on base—including the bases loaded in the fifth inning—and didn't even get anyone on in the last three innings. Chris Carpenter ran his postseason record to 10–2 (2.88 ERA) in 16 postseason starts in 100.0 innings, in seventh place for wins, only one behind Curt Schilling (11–2, 2.23 ERA) and Greg Maddux (11–14, 3.27 ERA) for fifth place.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 3
He is now tied for fourth place in postseason winning percentage (.833). The Cardinals have won 13 of his 16 starts. He pitched extremely well for St. Louis in only his fourth start since recovering from transplanted nerve surgery on July 19, not starting a game until September 21. He pitched 5+2⁄3 innings without allowing a run in 106 pitches, his season high.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 3
The Nationals' pitching was shaky. Edwin Jackson surrendered four runs and eight hits in five innings, allowing a two-out single to Matt Holliday in the first and subsequent RBI double to Allen Craig, then a three-run home run to Pete Kozma in the second. The Cardinals added to their lead on Daniel Descalso's sacrifice fly after a hit-by-pitch and double off of Craig Stammen, who increased his ERA in the series to 11.57.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 3
Christian Garcia walked Yadier Molina with the bases loaded in the seventh to force in another run, and Ryan Mattheus got two outs in the eighth before allowing a single, double, and two-run single to Holliday to give the Cardinals an 8–0 lead. Fernando Salas and Joe Kelly pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth respectively to put the Cardinals one win from the NLCS.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 4
The Nationals had their backs against the wall in this must-win game. Adam LaRoche provided the first offense of the game with a homer for Washington in the bottom of the second off of Kyle Lohse, but the Cardinals manufactured a run in the third inning through a walk, a sacrifice bunt, an error, and a sacrifice fly by Carlos Beltran off of Ross Detwiler.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 4
It was 1–1 for the majority of the rest of the game, as both pitching staffs refused to blink. Ross Detwiler pitched very well for the Nationals, tossing six innings while giving up just three hits and one run. The bullpen, in three innings, combined for eight strikeouts—after Detwiler had fanned just three—and did not give up a hit. St. Louis turned in a similar performance, with Kyle Lohse pitching seven strong innings.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 4
In the bottom of the ninth, Jayson Werth, on the 13th pitch of a lead off at-bat against Lance Lynn, lined a homer into left field, giving the Nationals a 2–1 win and forcing a Game 5.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 5
In the deciding Game 5, St. Louis clinched a trip to the NLCS for the second straight year.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 5
The Nationals jumped out early on off of Adam Wainwright. In the first, Jayson Werth hit a leadoff double and scored on Bryce Harper's triple before Ryan Zimmerman's home run put them up 3–0. Bryce Harper's leadoff home run in the third made it 4–0, then Zimmerman doubled before Michael Morse's home run extended the Nationals' lead to 6–0. With their ace Gio González on the mound, the Nationals appeared headed towards the NLCS.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 5
In the fourth inning, Matt Holliday hit an RBI double after a walk to get the Cardinals on the board. In the fifth, St. Louis scored two more runs on a wild pitch and walk to Allen Craig, but wound up stranding the bases loaded. In the seventh, the Cardinals tacked on another run off Edwin Jackson appearing in relief on two days' rest on Holliday's RBI groundout. The Cardinals continued to chip away at the Nationals' lead when Daniel Descalso homered off Tyler Clippard to make it 6–5 Washington. The Nationals got a much-needed insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on Kurt Suzuki's RBI single off of Jason Motte, and sent out Drew Storen, who had recently replaced Clippard as the team's closer, in the hopes of getting three outs while stifling the Cardinals' comeback.


2012 National League Division Series, Washington vs. St. Louis, Game 5
Storen gave up a leadoff double to Carlos Beltrán, who then advanced to third on a Matt Holliday groundout. Allen Craig then struck out, putting the Nationals one out away from going to the NLCS for the first time in 31 years and give Washington, D.C. its first postseason victory since 1924. Yadier Molina, who had had postseason heroics in the past, walked, sending up David Freese as the go-ahead run. Freese, also known for clutch performance in the postseason, also walked. Descalso then hit a two-run single, scoring Beltrán and pinch-runner Adron Chambers which tied the game at seven. After Descalso stole second, Pete Kozma hit a two-run single, which scored Freese and Descalso making it 9–7 St. Louis. Washington went down in order in the bottom of the ninth against Jason Motte, sending the Cardinals to the NLCS for the second year in a row.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco
The San Francisco Giants upset the heavily favored Cincinnati Reds to advance to the 2012 National League Championship Series. The Reds won the first 2 games at San Francisco, but the Giants won the remaining 3 games in Cincinnati to pull off the stunning upset.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 1
9:37 p.m. (EDT) at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 1
Matt Cain and Johnny Cueto faced off against each other for the first time in 2012. Everyone expected a pitchers' duel from the two right-handed aces. In the top of the first, Brandon Belt made an amazing catch, leaping over the fence in foul territory and into the crowd, but holding on for the second out to help Cain pitch a 1–2–3 inning. In the bottom of the first, however, after Cueto struck out Ángel Pagán and then got ahead in the count 0–2 on Marco Scutaro, Cueto left the game with back spasms. Sam LeCure replaced him.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 1
LeCure got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning by getting Cain to line out to deep right. In the top of the third, Brandon Phillips put the Reds up 2–0 with a two-run home run. After a Jay Bruce home run in the fourth, Buster Posey's home run leading off the sixth off Mat Latos put the Giants on the board. Then, Gregor Blanco bunted with two out. Scott Rolen picked up the ball and threw it away, but Phillips made a great diving stop to keep Blanco off second and the Giants from scoring anymore.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 1
In the ninth, the Reds added two runs off of Santiago Casilla with two on via an RBI single from Phillips and a passed ball by Posey. In the bottom of the inning, Aroldis Chapman allowed the Giants to load the bases on a single and two walks and threw a two-out wild pitch that allowed a run to score, but struck out Posey to end the game and seal the Reds' 5–2 win to take a 1–0 series lead. This was the first Reds postseason win since 1995, breaking a seven-game losing streak in the postseason.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 2
9:37 p.m. (EDT) at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 2
Game 2 was a blowout. Reds starter Bronson Arroyo gave up just two hits in seven innings, while walking one and striking out four. J. J. Hoover and José Arredondo combined for two scoreless innings out of the bullpen.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 2
In contrast, the Giants' pitching was disappointing, as Madison Bumgarner surrendered seven hits and four runs while working just four innings, including a home run by Ryan Ludwick in the second. In the fourth, Bumgarner allowed two leadoff singles, then one out later, an RBI single to Scott Rolen and two-run single to Ryan Hanigan.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 2
Six relievers followed Bumgarner, including Tim Lincecum, who worked two scoreless innings after being demoted to the bullpen, and Guillermo Mota, who surrendered three hits and two runs in just 2⁄3 of an inning. The Reds put the game out of reach in the eighth when a leadoff single and subsequent walk was followed by Jay Bruce's two-run double off of Jose Mijares. After Santiago Casilla got one out, Hanigan's single, Drew Stubbs's triple, and Brandon Phillips's double off of Mota scored a run each.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 2
The Giants were now in a two-games-to-none hole, while Cincinnati was just one win away from going to the NLCS for the first time in 17 years, with three chances to clinch the series at home.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 3
5:37 p.m. (EDT) at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 3
In contrast to Game 2's blowout, Game 3 was a tightly contested affair that came down right to the wire.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 3
Cincinnati attacked first on Jay Bruce's RBI single in the first inning off Ryan Vogelsong, scoring Zack Cozart. That would be practically it for the Reds' offense, as the Giants' pitching composed themselves to give up just one hit the rest of the way.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 3
Homer Bailey, who had pitched a no-hitter just two starts before, was flirting with another one, not giving up a hit through 5+2⁄3 innings before Marco Scutaro broke it up with a two-strike single. That was the only hit the Giants would get in regulation, as Bailey was brilliant, pitching seven innings while striking out ten. However, the Giants still managed to score a run in the third inning with a hit by pitch, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 3
Neither team came close to scoring after that until the 10th inning, when Buster Posey and Hunter Pence got back to back singles to kick off the inning. Jonathan Broxton settled down after that to strike out the next two hitters. After the runners advanced on a passed ball, the usually sure-handed Scott Rolen bobbled a ground ball hit by Joaquín Árias, allowing Posey to score. The Reds went down quietly in the 10th inning as the Giants avoided the sweep.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 4
4:07 p.m. (EDT) at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 4
In Game 4, needing another win to keep their season alive, the Giants' offense finally came to life. Ángel Pagán hit the second pitch of the night, from emergency starter Mike Leake, over the right field wall for a lead-off home run, the first in Giants postseason history. Pitching for the Giants, Barry Zito struggled early, allowing a two-out single to Joey Votto, then walking three consecutive Reds hitters in the bottom of the first to force in a run. In the second inning, Gregor Blanco hit a two-run home run to give the Giants a 3–1 lead.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 4
Zito continued to struggle, needing 76 pitches to complete just under three innings of work and allowing a home run to Ryan Ludwick in the third that made it 3–2 Giants. George Kontos relieved Zito that inning. In the fifth, Back-to-back doubles by Joaquín Árias and Pagán off of Leake, followed by a Pablo Sandoval sacrifice fly off of Sam LeCure gave the Giants a 5–2 lead. Tim Lincecum struck out six batters in 4+1⁄3 innings for the Giants, ultimately getting the win.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 4
In the bottom of the sixth, Drew Stubbs hit a leadoff double off of Lincecum, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Brandon Phillips's sacrifice fly, but in the seventh, Arias hit a leadoff double off of Jose Arredondo, then scored on Marco Scutaro's double before Sandoval's two-run home run made it 8–3 Giants. Santiago Casilla closed out the game, and the Giants avoided elimination for the second straight night, setting up a decisive Game 5.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 5
1:07 p.m. (EDT) at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 5
The Reds' Mat Latos and the Giants' Matt Cain were locked in a pitchers' duel for four innings. In the top of the fifth, Brandon Crawford tripled home Gregor Blanco, who singled to lead off, to open the scoring. Angel Pagan then reached on an error by Zack Cozart, allowing Crawford to score the second run of the inning. After a walk to Scutaro, Sandoval singled to load the bases. Buster Posey then crushed a 2–2 pitch from Latos off the facing of the second deck for a grand slam and a 6–0 lead.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 5
The Reds slowly chipped away the lead. In the bottom of the fifth, a hit-by-pitch and single was followed by Brandon Phillips's two-run double. Next inning, Ryan Ludwick's leadoff home run made it 6–3. In the ninth, a one-out walk and single was followed by Ludwik's RBI single. The Reds brought the tying run to the plate in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, and the winning run to the plate in the ninth inning.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 5
With two men on and the Giants clinging to a two-run lead, Sergio Romo retired Jay Bruce on a harmless fly ball to left after a 12-pitch duel. Romo then settled down and struck out Scott Rolen to give the Giants the victory. The Giants became the second National League team to rally from an 0–2 Division Series deficit to advance to the Championship Series (the other being the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers) and first in Major League Baseball to advance by winning three games on the road.


2012 National League Division Series, Cincinnati vs. San Francisco, Game 5
Cincinnati joins the 1984 Chicago Cubs and 1981 Houston Astros as the only National League teams to blow a 2–0 lead in a best–of–five series. This series also joins the 2010 ALDS matchup between the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays as the second MLB postseason series in which the road team won every game. The Reds to date have yet to win a postseason game at Great American Ball Park (0–4) and a six-game home losing streak in the postseason, losing their last two at Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field in the 1995 NLCS.


2012 National League Wild Card Game
The 2012 National League Wild Card Game was a play-in game during Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2012 postseason played between the National League's (NL) two wild card teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves. It was held at Turner Field in Atlanta, on October 5, 2012, at 1:07 p.m. EDT. The Cardinals won by a 6–3 score and advanced to play the Washington Nationals in the NL Division Series. In addition to being the inaugural NL Wild Card Game, it is notable for being the final game of Chipper Jones's career, as well as for a controversial infield fly rule call made by umpire Sam Holbrook. The game was televised on TBS.


2012 National League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
The Braves started Kris Medlen, who had a 9–0 win–loss record and 0.97 earned run average (ERA) in 12 games started during the 2012 season. The Cardinals selected Kyle Lohse, who had a 16–3 win–loss record and 2.86 ERA during the season, as their starting pitcher.


2012 National League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Lohse allowed a two-run home run to David Ross in the second inning. The Cardinals scored three runs in the fourth inning, in which Chipper Jones committed a throwing error, taking a 3–2 lead. Medlen allowed a home run to Matt Holliday in the sixth inning. After the Cardinals scored two more runs in the top of the seventh inning, the Braves scored one in the bottom of the seventh.


2012 National League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Andrelton Simmons hit a fly ball to left field that dropped in between Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma and left fielder Holliday. Left field umpire Sam Holbrook called Simmons out, citing the infield fly rule. Had an infield fly not been called, Simmons would have been credited with a single and Atlanta would have had the bases loaded with one out, trailing 6–3.


2012 National League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Fans littered the field with trash, delaying the game for 19 minutes before a message over the Turner Field public address system advised fans the game was subject to forfeiture by the umpires if the field continued to remain unplayable due to the thrown debris. Atlanta manager Fredi González announced that the Braves would play the rest of the game under protest. The protest was denied shortly after the game by Joe Torre, MLB executive vice president for baseball operations, saying it was a judgment call—which cannot be protested under MLB rules. Prior to the game, MLB's official Twitter bio included the joke "We don't understand the infield fly rule either". This was quickly removed in light of the controversial call.


2012 National League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
In the bottom of the ninth inning, batting against Cardinals closer Jason Motte, Chipper Jones reached first base on an infield single in his final Major League at-bat. Freddie Freeman hit a ground rule double, bringing Dan Uggla to bat as the potential tying run. Motte retired Uggla with a groundout to record the save, then both teams rushed off the field after fans resumed throwing debris.


2012 National League speedway season
The 2012 season of the National League was the third tier/division of British speedway and was contested by eight teams.


2012 National League speedway season, Summary
Newport and Belle Vue did not return from 2011, and Hackney opted to run at Rye House only, renaming the team Rye House Raiders.


2012 National League speedway season, Summary
Mildenhall Fen Tigers beat Dudley Heathens in the play-off final to become champions.


2012 National League speedway season, Final table
PL = Matches; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; Pts = Total Points


2012 National League speedway season, Final table
SCORING SYSTEMHome loss by any number of points = 0Home draw = 1Home win by between 1 and 6 points = 2Home win by 7 points or more = 3Away loss by 7 points or more = 0Away loss by 6 points or less = 1Away draw = 2Away win by between 1 and 6 points = 3Away win by 7 points or more = 4


2012 National League speedway season, Play Offs
Top four teams race off in two-legged semi-finals and final to decide championship. Mildenhall Fen Tigers defeated Dudley Heathens in the final.


2012 National League speedway season, National League Knockout Cup
The 2012 National League Knockout Cup was the 15th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier three teams. Mildenhall Fen Tigers were the winners for the second successive year.


2012 National People's Congress
The 5th Session of the 11th National People's Congress held its annual meeting in March 2012 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. The event opened on 5 March and concluded on 14 March. Premier Wen Jiabao delivered his work report as Premier.


2012 National People's Congress, Government work report
Premier Wen delivered the central government's work report on 5 March, stating GDP growth will be at 7.5 percent. This is slower than the 8 to 10 percent of preceding years and decades. The government is targeting inflation to be around 4 percent. Wen also indicated about 9 million new jobs will be created in towns and cities. The official urban unemployment rate is expected to be 4.6 percent or lower. He mentioned China's volume of total exports and imports is projected to be about 10 percent. Central government will need to make further reforms in industrial restructuring, innovation, energy conservation, and emissions reduction, and real income increases for the people are in line with economic growth.


2012 National People's Congress, Government work report
The work report reflects the growing challenges of managing growth and subduing inflation while the Communist Party maps out a leadership transition and at the same time maintaining high employment and a high emphasis on safeguarding stability.


2012 National People's Congress, Premier Wen's press conference
In this year National People's Congress convention, there were intense domestic and international media interest on Premier Wen and his views as this is his last year in office, home stretch to retirement. The media also wanted to hear Premier Wen's assessment of his term in office, insights to the challenges to the future and the legacy he will leave behind.


2012 National People's Congress, Premier Wen's press conference
In the premier's last official press conference for his work report, he emphasized China requires further economic and political reforms to keep the gains from over the years and keep on improving people's livelihoods. Wen alluded to the Cultural Revolution which was a travesty for the Chinese people and political reforms should still continue. He reflected there were many unfinished business and regrets in his nine-year stint as premier. Wen was apologetic for the social and economic problems over the last decade and conceded there were room for improvements and took responsibility for it.


2012 National People's Congress, Premier Wen's press conference
Wen also reiterated poignantly the investigation into the Wang Lijun incident in Chongqing had yielded significant progress and local authorities should ponder and learn from the incident. On 15 March 2012, Bo Xilai the Chongqing party chief has been replaced.


2012 National People's Congress, Premier Wen's press conference
The premier stressed the new leadership will need to press on with political structural reform which are necessary to implement successful structural economic reforms.


2012 National People's Congress election in Hong Kong
The election for the Hong Kong deputies to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) was held on 19 December 2012. 36 Hong Kong deputies were elected by an electoral college composed of 1,620 members.


2012 National People's Congress election in Hong Kong, Overview
The election took place at the second plenary meeting of the 12th National People's Congress election meeting on 19 December. It was attended by Li Jianguo, vice-chairman and secretary-general of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) as the representative of the NPCSC, and presided by Leung Chun-ying, executive chairman of the 19-strong presidium which included former Chief Executives Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, as well as Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, and Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) chairman Tam Yiu-chung.


2012 National People's Congress election in Hong Kong, Overview
52 candidates ran for 36 seats with 23 outgoing delegates, including Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, member of the NPCSC, Maria Tam Wai-chu, deputy convenor of the Hong Kong delegation, and Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, Executive Council member and Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's former top aide. New faces included former Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong and Li Yinquan, vice-president of the China Merchants Group. Only two contenders are pan-democrats, Fong King-lok, executive committee member of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union and Dutch-born Southern District councillor Paul Zimmerman, who quit the Civic Party in summer.


2012 National People's Congress election in Hong Kong, Overview
1,488 of the 1,620 electoral college members cast their votes. Each elector had to choose 36 candidates. The top 36 candidates in the ballot, as long as they receive more than 50 per cent support, would be elected. 36 of the 52 candidates were elected while 7 candidates were elected as supplementary deputies.


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season
The 2012 National Pro Fastpitch season was the ninth season of professional softball under the name National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) for  the only professional women's softball league in the United States. From 1997 to 2002, NPF operated under the names Women's Pro Fastpitch (WPF) and Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL). The 2012 season is especially notable because due to weather and scheduling issues, the NPF Championship Series was not completed and no Cowles Cup champion was named.


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season, Milestones and events
NPF announced the Carolina Diamonds as a new team for the 2012 season, owned by Amelia Nemeth and husband Alan Demaske . Carolina replaced the NPF Diamonds, a travelling team operated by NPF. The team was headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and played its home games in various venues throughout the Carolinas.


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season, Player acquisition, College draft
The 2012 NPF College Draft was held in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee on March 7 at 5:00 CST. USSSA Pride selected pitcher Brittany Mack of LSU as the first overall pick.


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season, NPF Championship
With only four teams in the league, every team qualified for the postseason. Teams are seeded by the final standings. No. 1 seed USSSA Pride faced No. 4 seed Akron Racers in one best-of-three semifinal series, while the No. 2 seed Chicago Bandits faced the No. 3 seed Carolina Diamonds in another. The winners were scheduled to advance to the best-of-three championship series.


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season, NPF Championship
After winning their semifinal series, the Bandits and Pride played the first game of the championship series, with the Bandits winning 2-1.


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season, NPF Championship
On Sunday August 26, the start of game was delayed for hours due to rain. After one out in the first inning, the field was deemed unplayable, and the game was cancelled. No makeup game was scheduled and the series was ended without naming a champion.


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season, NPF Championship
Conflicting comments were made regarding the possibility of finishing the series on Monday. Citing owners' costs and players' travel obligations, NPF commissioner Cheri Kempf said that "The Bandits had six players that could not change plans, including [starting pitcher] Monica Abbott going to Japan" and,"I can say that the championship wasn't complete, and it wasn't complete because Chicago stated it had six players that could not finish. So therefore, I don't feel like that the right thing to do is to award the championship on one game." However, Bandits owner Bill Sokolis said,"We could have put nine players on the field,". On her blog Monica Abbott wrote that no one asked her to change her flight to Japan, but that she "would have done so in a heartbeat."


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season, NPF Championship
NPF announced that a committee would be formed to make recommendations to avoid unfinished championships in the future.


2012 National Pro Fastpitch season, Annual awards
On August 22 NPF hosted a banquet in Rosemont, Illinois, at which the league's annual awards were announced and the All-NPF Team was named:


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA
The 2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA was the declassification and donation to NASA of two identical space telescopes by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. The donation has been described by scientists as a substantial improvement over NASA's current Hubble Space Telescope. Although the telescopes themselves were given to NASA at no cost, the space agency must still pay for the cost of instruments and electronics for the telescopes, as well as the launch of the telescopes. On February 17, 2016, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (then known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope or WFIRST) was formally designated as a mission by NASA, predicated on using one of the space telescopes.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Background
While the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Hubble Space Telescope has collected a large amount of astrophysical data, has outlived all expectations, and has been described as one of the space agency's most successful missions, the instrument will soon succumb to the extreme environment of space. In addition, with the James Webb Space Telescope costing at least US$9 billion, the agency's astrophysics budget is extremely strained. As a result, NASA's other astrophysics missions have been delayed until funding becomes available.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Background
In January 2011 the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) revealed to NASA the existence of two unneeded telescopes, originally built as reconnaissance satellites, and available to the civilian agency. NASA accepted the offer in August 2011 and announced the donation on 4 June 2012. The instruments were constructed between the late 1990s and early 2000s, reportedly for NRO's unsuccessful Future Imagery Architecture program; in addition to the two completed telescopes, a primary mirror and other parts for a third also exist.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Background
While NRO considers them to be obsolete, the telescopes are nevertheless new and unused. All CCDs and electronics have been removed, however, and NASA must add them at its own expense. When the telescopes' specifications were presented to scientists, large portions were censored due to national security. An unnamed space analyst stated that the instruments may be a part of the KH-11 Kennen line of satellites which have been launched since 1976, but which have now been largely superseded by newer telescopes with wider fields of view than the KH-11. The analyst stated, however, that the telescopes have "state-of-the art optics" despite their obsolescence for reconnaissance purposes.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Potential uses
The early consensus for the usage of the telescopes was to follow the NASA Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey of 2010, which lists the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) as its highest priority. Observing in the infrared section of the electromagnetic spectrum, WFIRST will be used to study the role of dark energy in the Universe, as well as to directly image Jupiter-sized extrasolar planets.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Potential uses
The NRO telescope design has several features which make it useful for Roman/WFIRST and superior to the Hubble. The NRO instrument's 2.4m primary mirror is the same size and quality as the Hubble's. With double the mirror diameter of the original WFIRST design, it allows for up to twice the image resolution and gathers four times the light. Unlike civilian telescopes, the NRO instrument also has a steerable secondary mirror for additional precision.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Potential uses
The telescope has a much wider field of view than Hubble due to its shorter focal length, allowing it to observe about 100 times the area at any given time as Hubble can. This has led to the donated telescopes' characterization as "Stubby Hubbles". Their obstructed design, however, may make imaging extrasolar planets more challenging, and would be unsuitable for imaging the most distant galaxies at its longest infrared wavelengths, which requires cooling beyond the original NRO design temperature range.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Potential uses
Whether using the NRO telescopes would save NASA money is unclear. While each is worth at least $250 million, their larger size compared to the proposed WFIRST design would require a larger rocket and camera. According to one NASA estimate using an NRO telescope would raise the cost of WFIRST by $250 million above its $1.5 billion budget. Another estimate states that NASA would save up to $250 million. The agency's deputy acting director for astrophysics Michael Moore states that using both telescopes may ultimately save NASA $1.5 billion. David Spergel estimated that using an NRO telescope would add about $100 million to WFIRST's cost, but would prefer to spend another $200 million for a coronagraph to improve its direct-imaging capability.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Potential uses
Due to the budgetary constraints arising from the continued construction of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA has stated that Roman/WFIRST may not be launched until 2024 at the earliest, despite early speculation that by using an NRO telescope the mission might launch by roughly 2020, at about the same time as the European Space Agency's Euclid. In addition, the availability of a telescope is believed to increase the probability that the mission will be launched at all.


2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA, Potential uses
While the first telescope is now in use as the basis for Roman/WFIRST, NASA currently does not have plans or funding for the usage of the second. Astronomers had studied possible additional uses, and NASA considered dozens of proposals; the only prohibition is Earth observation, a condition of the NRO donation. Possibilities include observing Earth's aurora and ionosphere, or asteroids and other faint objects within the solar system. NASA has also suggested that the telescope could be sent to Mars, photographing the surface with a resolution about four times finer than the current Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE instrument. From Martian orbit the telescope could also view the outer Solar System and the asteroid belt.


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards
The 47th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 5 January 2013, honored the best in film for 2012.


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards, Winners
Film titles are listed, following the number of votes each received:


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards, Winners, Best Picture
1. Amour (28) 2. The Master (25) 3. Zero Dark Thirty (18)


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards, Winners, Best Director
1. Michael Haneke – Amour (27) 2. Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty (24) 2. Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master (24)


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards, Winners, Best Actor
1. Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln (59) 2. Denis Lavant – Holy Motors (49) 2. Joaquin Phoenix – The Master (49)


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards, Winners, Best Actress
1. Emmanuelle Riva – Amour (50) 2. Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook (42) 3. Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty (32)


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards, Winners, Best Supporting Actor
1. Matthew McConaughey – Bernie and Magic Mike (27) 2. Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln (22) 3. Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master (19)


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards, Winners, Best Supporting Actress
1. Amy Adams – The Master (34) 2. Sally Field – Lincoln (23) 3. Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables (13)


2012 National Society of Film Critics Awards, Winners, Best Screenplay
1. Tony Kushner – Lincoln (59) 2. Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master (27) 3. David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook (19)