I’ve put together 8 rounds of Britball questions.
Words, Geography, History, Maths (!) and a whole lot more covering all the different facets of the game (Contact/Flag, mens/womens etc).
There is a prize to giveaway. We’ll select at random anyone that subscribes to the channel and puts #eyespeeled in the comments. Any good Quiz team names too we’ll give a prize away.
Enjoy, and well done to anyone that spots a mistake in the anagram round.
Next up on our tour of the UK American Football scene, we head way up north to Aberdeen and their offensive co-ordinator. Dont forget to check out our interview with the Manchester Titans here and a whole host of podcasts over on apple podcasts/spotify. If you would be so fabulous and subscribe to our pod and leave a 5 star review, that would make our day.
On with the interview…
Name and Role: Matthew Watt – Offensive Coordinator
How long have you been with the team: 2 and a half years
How did you first get into American Football and what made you go in to coaching:
I started watching American football in 2003 when on holiday in America, with a Sunday night football game. I would watch on tv in the UK periodically over the next few years when I then started watching religiously as I got more into it. I’d always enjoyed the schematics of the game, and after a brief playing career in my university days I decided to message the team to see where I could fit in with the current coaching staff.
How would you describe the teams play style, do you have a particular way of playing and what does your team try and achieve:
Our style on both sides of the ball tends to follow a more modern style of play with a scheme made to suit the talents of our roster. Offensively we follow utilise mainly spread and air raid concepts in tandem with zone running, with consideration of our speed and agility. This coming season was due to see some new players and coaches come in to employ new ideas and play styles and we felt that we would have a great deal of success scoring points and keeping defences off balance.
Give us a quick reminder of how the team got on last season and what your or the team learned:
We ended 2019 in 3rd place of Division 1 North with a 4-6 record and it was certainly a bittersweet year. The Roughnecks clearly showed they were capable of the level of play of the division however some loses were certainly within grasp and the team hopes to continue to progress and challenge the top teams in the division.
Obviously the offseason has been disrupted, but did you manage to conduct any offseason training/rookie days (and how important are the rookie days in your view?):
Yes absolutely, we were very much in the final stages of preparation for our last preseason scrimmage and were running through the game plan for game 1 of the season before the unfortunate suspension of all activities. Rookie days are hugely vital to all teams and the sport of American football in the UK in order to keep introducing more people to the sport whether it be playing or coaching. It’s an immensely tough sport to learn so we always want to get new guys in and given as much experience as possible before playing games. We have been lucky over the past couple of years to have rookies come in and contribute for the team and continue to get better in their respective roles.
What other teams (Flag/Youth) do you have as part of the setup?
The Roughnecks are in the process of building up a youth and junior team and have had great success in building up numbers there.
What has been advised to the players to help them try and stay as well conditioned as possible considering the current pandemic?
As things stand, we’re not asking too much of the players, but we have plans in place to get started at a moments notice should we be lucky enough to get the go ahead. For now, the team is encouraged to ensure they are watching film and processing play designs as necessary.
Do you think we will see any Britball football this season and would you settle for a shortened/more compact season (i.e play each team once, less gaps between games):
I think it’s looking highly unlikely we get any competitive football as we know it this year due the worldwide situation, which is extremely unfortunate. I absolutely believe that the sport in the UK needs to have some form of games this year, I know our team have been working exceptionally hard and it would be crushing to be unable to do anything until 2021. In terms of a compacted season, I do think this could work, and there’s been ideas thrown around, although I imagine there’d be complications in working such things if promotions and relegations were factored in.
Who would win in a tug of war between your Oline and all the defence?
It would be close, but I’d have to go for the O Line this year…
Favourite/least favourite training ground drill?
I’m a big fan of any run fits or running back drills where I’m allowed to strip the ball. Preseason 1v1 drills across the team are always exciting as well.
Which player (or player position group) is most likely to forget their gumshield?
Wide receivers for sure
Which player (or player position group) is most like to sleep on an away game?
I think the unanimous answer for the Roughnecks is #4 Stu Don
Which player (or player position group) think they are in the NFL?
Again, definitely the Wide Receivers…
In support of our BRITBALL WEEK podcasts, we have gotten in touch with a few people from different teams in order for us to know a bit more about the Britball community. We will have a series of written interviews over the coming week or so to ease up on the podcast overload!
First up we have Luke Carlton, the offensive co-ordinator for the Manchester Titans Adult contact team (Twitter/Instagram – @ljacarlton).
How long have you been with the team:
This would be my fourth season as Offensive Coordinator for the Adult Contact team, but I spent four years playing for the junior and youth teams.
How did you first get into American Football and what made you go in to coaching:
First got into American Football after being bored of playing Soccer and Rugby. Was off school ill for a few days when I was 14 and started playing my brother’s copy of ESPN NFL 2K5. Soon after, some friends at school started bringing in a football to throw around and we got playing games in the playground. Two friends and I decided to go down to the Titans in early 2008 and I’ve been infatuated with the game ever since.
On the coaching side, I was never injury prone until I got to American Football. I fractured, dislocated and chipped off part of my throwing shoulder in my first pre-season game at 11-a-side in 2010. Then came back the next year and tore my ACL and MCL in the third game of the next season in 2011. So, played four games, completed two, season ending injuries in the others. I took that as a sign that maybe I shouldn’t be playing anymore, so I got into coaching when I went off to the University of Central Lancashire a few months later in 2011, who were just in the process of setting up a team.
How would you describe the teams play style, do you have a particular way of playing and what does your team try and achieve:
We’re not a huge team in size, so our offensive hallmark is Space and Pace. We want to exploit space as fast as possible and manipulate you into covering the entire width of the pitch. We’re a calculated team, we’re never without a plan and we’re always working to take what’s available. I personally feel as though we do a great job of understanding what players can bring what to the table and work with their strengths.
Our defense does a great job of being opportunistic – they set up a plan to take away what you want to do most and force you into your plan B. As a team, we really don’t try to be something we’re not.
As for what we try to achieve – we try to play entertaining football. It sounds cliché, but for us, it’s important to put on a show and be fun to watch from the side-line. We want to bring ideas and styles to Britball that aren’t straight from the cookie cutter and allows our players to be creative. A Manchester Titans game shouldn’t look like any other game in the UK.
Give us a quick reminder of how the team got on last season and what your or the team learned:
We went 7-3 in the Premiership North for our second season in a row, with our three losses coming away to Merseyside and Edinburgh, and at home to Tamworth. Despite what we were able to accomplish, we all came away from the season feeling as though we could and probably should have come away with more, with only ourselves to blame. It felt as though in 2018, we had more to prove than we did last year. We maybe struggled to adapt to being the team with a target on their backs.
However, in the grand scheme of things, it was a successful season for us. We were able to assert ourselves once again as a playoff team in the Premiership North and beat each team in the North at least once, which is something nobody outside of the Phoenix can say they’ve done in recent years. We’ve seen our youth and Flag teams in the organisation consistently be near the top of the pile and now it finally is starting to feel as though our Adult Contact team is up there with them.
Obviously the offseason has been disrupted, but did you manage to conduct any offseason training/rookie days (and how important are the rookie days in your view?):
We’d been training since the first weekend of January all the way up until the order from BAFA came in. So we’d been training twice a week working towards a training camp that was due to take place from April 3rd-5th and our opening game taking place on April 19th.
Rookie days are massively important for us. It gives us an opportunity to fill out our roster and evaluate incoming players who are eager to impress and develop. It also allows us to continue to add to our Bee Team, which gives players who might not be able to immediately contribute at a Premiership Playoff level a chance to develop and not slip through the net. We began to realise that for where we are as a team, we need to do a better job of retaining those players within the organisation and it’s been great to see the Bee Team begin to set up and really flourish.
What other teams (Flag/Youth) do you have as part of the setup?
Oh boy, where to start! We’ve got:
– Adult Contact A Team
– Adult Contact Bee Team
– Adult Flag A Team
– Adult Flag B Team
– Women’s Contact team
– Women’s Flag Team
– U19s Contact team
– U17s North Contact team
– U17s South Contact team
– U17s Flag team
– U12s Flag team.
It’s probably the part of the organisation I’m most proud of – being able to consistently offer American Football to so many people in North West.
What has been advised to the players to help them try and stay as well conditioned as possible considering the current pandemic?
We’re just telling them to not be idiots and follow instructions laid out by the government. While Football is important, there are more important things happening in the world that take precedent over it right now. We’ve got a few Personal Trainers in the team so one of our players (shout out Cade Makin) has put together a training programme for our guys who are interested. Other people like Sam Fossey is uploading videos of different home workouts to try. Outside of that, our hands are really tied. We can’t set the timeline for this, only the virus can. Once we understand when we’ll be back, we’ll start discussing what we need from our players.
Do you think we will see any Britball football this season and would you settle for a shortened/more compact season (i.e play each team once, less gaps between games):
I’d be surprised. Given the game plan from the government seems to be to time the peak for the Summer, it’ll be a struggle to give teams the appropriate amount of preparation time to safely be ready for the start of a season. Throw in the logistical issues of ensuring grounds and venues can be booked on certain weekends and then you’ve got to take into account the limited amount of refereeing crews, I think it’ll be a logistical nightmare to be able to get anything official off the ground. If I had to guess something, I think it’d be on teams to arrange friendlies and joint scrimmage days against other teams for Football to go ahead this season.
Quickfire:
Who would win in a tug of war between your O-Line and all the defence?
I’m never going to bet against my O-Line. Sorry, D!
Favourite/least favourite training ground drill?
Favourite – Run Skelly. It’s nasty, physical, realistic and it’s so much fun throwing in a play action and we get to call out linebackers for assuming it’s a run.
Least Favourite – Any drill where the defense knows what the play is/where it’s going before the ball is even snapped. It’s not realistic and there are creative ways around it to ensure the defense can practice reaction and swarm.
Which player (or player position group) is most likely to forget their gumshield?
Wide Receivers. I won’t name names, but they know who they are.
Which player (or player position group) is most like to sleep on an away game?
Defensive Backs.
Which player (or player position group) think they are in the NFL?
Defensive Line.
In association with the UKAFS Facebook page
All Games Sunday 17/11/19 unless stated
🎥 = Live Stream
🏈 PREMIER NORTH 🏈
🏈 PREMIER SOUTH 🏈
🏈 D1 NORTH 🏈
🏈 D1 YORKSHIRE/LANCS 🏈
🏈 D1 MIDLANDS 🏈
🏈 D1 SOUTH 🏈
🏈 D1 SOUTH EAST 🏈
🏈 D1 SOUTH WEST 🏈
🏈 D2 BORDERS 🏈
🏈 D2 NORTH 🏈
🏈 D2 MIDLANDS 🏈
🏈 D2 SOUTH 🏈
🏈 D2 SOUTH EAST 🏈
🏈 D2 SOUTH WEST 🏈
3/11/2019 – Week 1
Nottingham 6 – 13 Stirling
Leeds Beckett (W/O) – Coventry
Swansea 20 – 0 East Anglia
UWE 26 – 0 Hertfordshire
Northumbria 6 – 14 Hull
Edinburgh 2 – 22 Newcastle
Loughborough 9 – 30 Derby
Warwick 11 – 7 Nottingham Trent
UCLan 8 – 32 Sheffield Hallam
Southampton 26 – 0 Bath
Worcester V-V Cardiff
Royal Holloway 32 – 8 Brighton
Kent 42 – 14 Imperial
Glasgow 17 – 12 Heriot-Watt
York St John 42 – 20 UWS
Edge Hill 20 – 6 Lancaster
Chester 12 – 18 Leicester
Staffordshire 50 – 6 Huddersfield
Bournemouth 47 – 0 Bath Spa
UWE 0 – 33 Solent
Bristol 38 – 11 Plymouth
Kingston 32 – 0 Winchester
Kings College 36 – 0 East London
By Tim Monk – @Tim_MonkF10Y
The Bowl games have been decided. Promotion for some already secured, but we all know that isn’t enough. Winner’s medals are there for the taking, shaking bottles of champagne and drenching your mates with the UK’s answer to Gatorade is what they are all after. Let’s recap last week’s results and see how it all went down and what that means for the Finals.
Premiership
London Warriors 63 – 0 Manchester Titans
Tamworth Phoenix 7 – 6 London Blitz
Well, two very contrasting results in the Prem but no contrast in my predictions to the winners.
The Warriors absolutely demolished the Titans in the first half which saw 57 of the 63 points scored. I know that the Titans QB was away in Europe up until a day or 2 and I don’t what happened to the Titans, but the Warriors just took care of business and are surely favourites to take the Bowl game too.
They’ll face Tamworth after they squeezed past London Blitz. I predicted a low scoring game and just the 2 TDs were scored.
It was a defensive slugfest and plenty of back and forth between the 2 teams. Tamworth struck first and had the lead for a while before the Blitz levelled in the 4th quarter and seemingly having the momentum. The difference in the end was the XP between the two teams (actually had a funny feeling it was going to be blocked #aftertime). Was a really good game to watch on YouTube and shout out to UKAFL, even if the graphics for the time left leaves a lot to be desired.
I think HC Jason Scott enjoyed the victory and continuing to prove critics wrong…
Division 1
Sandwell Steelers 21 – 3 Northumberland Vikings
Solent Thrashers 20 – 13 Cambridgeshire Cats
I went for the Vikings in this one by a TD but the Steelers came fast out the blocks and the Vikings couldn’t catch back up. Quite surprised at how the Steelers dominated the early goings against a defence that is one of the best in the land. Whether there was any disruption to the Vikings groove as they had to travel or not I don’t know but it’s telling that so far that in both the Premiership and Division 1, all the home teams won and all the #1 seeds won.
Over in the South, the Thrashers held off the Cats. The Thrashers took the lead before the Cats scored twice to make it 13-7. The Thrashers finished the game the strongest and the Cats couldn’t keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Division 2
Halton Spartans 21 – 6 Clyde Valley Blackhawks
Birmingham Bulls 12 – 30 Inverclyde Goliaths
Essex Spartans 20 – 42 Bournemouth Bobcats
South Wales Warriors 16 – 6 London Blitz B
The Spartans defended their Halton Stadium fortress once more and had enough to take care of the Blackhawks, who scored late ruining my prediction of a 3-score game.
Good game in Birmingham, where Birmingham made a bit of a come back after going 22-6 down at half time. Stops by the Goliaths and a final nail in the coffin of a pick six sealed the celebrations for the Scottish team who are promoted in their first season in the league.
Bournemouth seem to love travelling round the M25! The only other team apart from Inverclyde to secure a victory away from home, the Bobcats put in another comprehensive victory over the #1 seeds Essex (as predicted!).
The Spartans were sent good luck messages from counterparts across the pond https://twitter.com/EssexSpartans/status/1162658631332040704 but unfortunately the Spartans actually had to go with their backup QB, which may or not have been the deciding factor in the end.
This sets up a mouth-watering clash for the Bobcats against the South Wales Warriors who took care of business in a nip and tuck game. Blitz took the lead in the first quarter but they were the only points they could muster and South Wales grew in to the game, taking the lead in the 2nd quarter and from that point on, choked the Blitz offence to run out the winners. Be interesting to see how the Bobcats approach the game on offence against a stubborn Warriors defence.
Here is confirmation of the Britball Bowl games and the dates and times as they are spread out over next few weekends:
Saturday 31st July
Division 2: 12pm – South Wales Warriors vs Bournemouth Bobcats
Division 1: 4pm – Sandwell Steelers vs Solent Thrashers
Sunday 1st September
Premiership: 4pm London Warriors vs Tamworth Phoenix
Saturday 7th September
Division 2: 2pm Inverclyde Goliaths vs Halton Spartans
We will try and bring you all the latest from at least 1 team in every match. If you are a player or coach and want to come on the podcast to talk about preparations, please get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter (@F10YBritball).
By Tim Monk – @Tim_MonkF10Y
No-one remembers losing semi finalists. All these teams will be giving it their all to appear in their respective division finals and look for that promotion or the title of Britbowl Champions. Who gets in? Tim’s gives his previews below, don’t forget to check out the recent podcast where we spoke to a few teams about the upcoming games.
Premiership
Manchester Titans @ London Warriors
We love the Titans here at the Full10Yards, but I am not quite sure that they will be able to topple the defending Britbowl champions. They’ve met in previous years and we know QB Sam Bloomfield will give it his all, as will the whole team. But the travel down from Manchester to the Nation’s capital is just one of many obstacles that stand in their way and they’ll come up short here as the Warriors will make another Final.
Prediction: Warriors by a 14.
London Blitz @ Tamworth Phoenix – LIVESTREAM
The Nix are another team that have featured on this podcast a few times and I think that they’ll squeeze past the Blitz here. Tamworth have responded well after being defeated by Manchester during the regular season and HC Jason Scott will put a plan in place to ensure they get to another Britbowl final and maybe he’ll use the carrot of potentially being able to gain revenge on the Warriors.
Prediction: Nix in a low scoring game.
Division 1 – North
Northumberland Vikings @ Sandwell Steelers – LIVESTREAM
I cannot articulate how much I am looking forward to this one. The immovable object that is the Vikings Defence against a Steelers team that is full of confidence judging by HC Max Petitjean’s words on our podcast this week. The Steelers wont be able to get away with digging themselves a 20-0 hole again this week so i expect this one to be a low scoring, but thoroughly exciting game. The prize for the winner is so huge that this game will be tense from start to finish. The team that get’s their rhythm first, wins.
Prediction: Vikings by a TD
Division 1 – South
Cambridgeshire Cats @ Solent Thrashers
Solent have been pretty comfortable throughout this season, including last week’s victory vs the Hornets. Whilst I think this will be a bit closer in terms of scoreline, the Thrashers should have enough to progress here. The Cats themselves have had a solid season, losing just the one game but i feel that the Thrashers division is slightly stronger and this could be a bit of a step up for Cambridgeshire. Going through the formlines of games vs the Hornets, the Cats have a victory and a small defeat whereas the Thrashers posted a shutout last week.
Shouldn’t be too far on the travel scale so it shouldn’t put the Cats at too much of a disadvantage, but Solent here to progress through.
Prediction: Solent by 3 scores.
Division 2 – North
Inverclyde Goliaths @ Birmingham Bulls
Another long trip down the M6 for the Goliaths, but if it isn’t broke dont fix it right?
Birmingham are probably an upgrade in opponent here though and the Goliaths will be looking to #25 once more to help limit the Bull rush. The Goliaths have kept jumping over the obstacles that have been put in front of them the last few weeks and are hitting form at the right time. I just wonder if this obstacle will be too high and whether there’ll be another Gatorade shower for Matthew Sheldon.
Prediction: Bulls by 2 scores
Clyde Valley Blackhawks @ Halton Spartans
The M6 will be busy again this weekend with Clyde Valley looking to better the result their division rivals Dumfries obtained last week when travelling to the lovely Halton Stadium. Can the Blackhawks get down to business quickly and upset the odds here and not fall in to the usual trap of being awestruck by the surroundings? Probably not.
Prediction: Halton by 3 scores.
Division 2 – South
Bournemouth Bobcats @ Essex Spartans
The Spartans’ games have generally been low scoring throughout the season but may have to up that average to topple the Bobcats. The Bobcats average 47 points for in their last 4 games whilst the Spartans have only hit the 40 mark i believe once this season. Bournemouth successfully negotiated an away trip last week (even through the M25), but they have to do it once again and i think they will. Predicting a #1 seed defeat.
Prediction: Bobcats by 10
London Blitz B @ South Wales Warriors
Another game here where you have 2 potent offences and 2 stingy defences.
It always fascinates me to see 2 division winners going at it. Trying to figure out which team’s division was stronger, how much to pay attention to the PF and PA in the league standings. I don’t think there is too much to take away from either team’s results in the QF as they were both probably expectant of the results they achieved. As mentioned in previous articles and podcasts, when it’s as tight as it is, you have to give the home team the advantage just because of the logistics and how the obstacle of travelling can win games on their own in Britball. Taking a look at recent credentials, the Warriors and Blitz were the #1 and #2 seeds last year too; the Blitz B fell at this hurdle last year to the Hertfordshire Cheetahs and the Warriors suffered the same fate, losing to the Portsmouth Dreadnoughts so you cant even separate the 2 teams here either!
Should be a close one, should be a cracker.
Prediction: 1pt game going the way of the home team.
So there we have it, predictions are in. didn’t fare too badly last week so we’ll see if that can continue. Don’t forget to check out our podcasts including this week where we chatted with some more teams including Sandwell Steelers which will be up around Saturday Lunchtime. You can check it out anywhere podcasts can be found and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter as we’ll be covering the Uni game in the Winter too.
The business end of the season is here. Knockout football has started and I can tell by the twitter feeds from each of the teams that this is life or death stuff.
We have upsets, we have comebacks and everything in between and the Premiership Playoffs haven’t even started.
Let’s get in to the weekends playoff action and see how well I did with my predictions…
Division 1 – NFC
(#5) East Kilbride 20 @ 21 Sandwell Steelers (#1)
The Pirates seemingly didn’t have any travel hangover as they stormed out to a 21-0 lead and kind of took the Steelers by surprise.
I don’t know what the coach said to them at half time and we’ll try and find out for you but the Steelers managed to blow up the pirates’s ship and managed to come from behind and take the win right from under the pirates noses, scoring inside the 2 minute warning and then shutting up shop.
The prediction of a 1pt game was spot on, just for the wrong team!
(#8) Shropshire Revolution 0 @ 35 Northumberland Vikings (#3)
I had the Vikings to win by 3 scores in this one purely because of the potency and stubbornness of the Vikings and that proved to be the case. A shutout in the postseason has the hallmarks of an excellent team.
Vikings in total control of this one at home and will face the Sandwell Steelers next week. These two will serve up a feast for the eyes, they were only separated by 1 point in the playoffs last season.
Division 1 – SFC
(#6) London Hornets 0 @ 31 Solent Thrashers (#2)
Talking of shutouts, this was the 2nd of 3 in total over the weekend. Slowish start to the game, but the thrashers by all accounts dominated the 2nd half to take this one comfortably in the end. My result prediction was correct as I had Solent, by only by the one score so not perfect.
(#7) Sussex Thunder 15 @ 27 Cambridgeshire Cats (#4)
The Cats managed to outrun the thunder in this one, getting out to an early lead.
The Thunder did threaten a comeback of a similar ilk to the Sandwell Steelers, with the Cats getting out to a 21-0 lead. The Thunder roared back to make it 21-15 but the cats clawed themselves into next week’s semi-finals where they will face the Thrashers away from home.
Got my predictions wrong in this one, I went for a Thunder win with both teams scoring 25+, just needed the thunder to continue that fightback but it was a good, tense and feisty game none the less.
Division 2 – North
(#8) Staffordshire Surge 6 @ 43 Birmingham Bulls (#1)
I predicted a 50 burger shutout here for the Bulls and that went straight out of the window on the opening drive as Staffordshire “surged” in to a 6-0 lead. Birmingham, somewhat sluggish out of the blocks then never looked back once they had their scare and returned to Bull rush the visitors almost getting to the 50 burger. So not far away all told. I’m not sure Birmingham will be able to get away with another slow start next week as they face the Goliaths.
(#7) Dumfries Hunters 7 @ 37 Halton Spartans (#2)
A fairly straight forward game here for the Spartans at home. You have to wonder if the travel down the M6 and the beautiful stadium caused them to be a bit in awe like the GM Ian Derbyshire mentioned on the podcast last week. From all accounts, a straight forward victory was on the cards and that’s how it turned out, just like my prediction.
(#6) Leeds Bobcats 8 @ 26 Clyde Valley Blackhawks (#3)
You can see from the tweet what the view would have been like for a Blackhawk, prior to the swooping down and nabbing the said Bobcats.
I went for an upset here in this one, taking the bobcats but the Blackhawks swooped down and caught their prey. Clyde Valley on the field had things in control for the most part and they must be impressed with a 3 score victory in this one. Clyde Valley will be looking to extract revenge for their neighbours Dumfries and restore the Scottish pride as they now head down the M6 to face Halton.
(#5) Inverclyde Goliaths 22 @ 18 Lincolnshire Bombers (#4)
Cracking game here in Lincolnshire with the lead changing multiple times and it coming down to the last play/drive. Inverclyde got on the scoreboard first, missing the 2pt attempt afterwards to make it 6-0. RB Elliot Harvey rushed one in prior to half time to give the Bombers a 7-6 HT lead.
After the break, the bombers extended their lead to 10-6 with a FG in the 3rd quarter but the Scottish porridge started to kick in and so did the Goliaths. They converted the 2pt attempt to take it to 14-10 Goliaths and the lead was further extended, making it 22-10. The Bombers got late reinforcements as Ryan Wakeling made it 18-22 to give the Goliaths something to think about and the Bombers even got the ball back when Inverclyde fumbled with a minute left on the clock. They were unable to find the endzone and a thoroughly enjoyable game sees the Scots take the win by 4pts. Not many travelling teams won this weekend so cracking effort from Inverclyde.
Division 2 – South
(#8) Ipswich Cardinals 0 @ 21 Essex Spartans (#1)
In a rematch of the final regular season game, the Cardinals were unable to overturn the regular season result. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to trouble the scoreboard either as the Spartans posted the 3rd shutout of the weekend. The defence has been solid all season and as I said earlier, a post season shutout is something to savour. I went for a 2 score win by the Spartans and they won by three. Why do you have to be like that guys?
(#7) Bristol Apache 3 @ 28 South Wales Warriors (#2)
We predicted a comfortable game here for South Wales and The Warriors continued their fine form, trouncing the Apache 28-3. Warriors scoring a TD in each quarter kept the Apache chasing for most of the game and could only muster a field goal consolation in the 4th quarter.The Warriors now host the Blitz in one of the ties of the week.
(#6) Torbay Trojans 7 @ 37 London Blitz B (#3)
The Blitz continued what they did all regular season, making light work of teams and the Trojans were no different. The prediction was the blitz by a wide margin and I constitute 4 scores a wide margin. It will be interesting to see how they travel over to Llanharan, Wales in what should be a game worth watching! Certainly worth a #EyesPeeled there!
(#5) Bournemouth Bobcats 30 @ 6 Norwich Devils (#4)
Not sure you can call a #5 seed beating a #4 seed an upset, but as previously stated, winning away from home, especially in the playoffs, is hard to do so congratulations to Bournemouth who take a convincing victory on the west coast. We fancied the Bobcats to win by 10 and win by 3 scores!
That M25 can’t have been too bad! Good for them is that they’ll be on that beautiful car park next weekend too. They’ll face the #1 seed Essex Spartans.
So there we have it, results are in and the top 3 seeds in both divisions are through to the semi finals some with closer shaves than others. Here is how next week’s fixtures shape up, including the Premiership coming in to play!
Semi Final Lineup
Premiership
Manchester Titans @ London Warriors
London Blitz @ Tamworth Phoenix
Division 1 – North
Northumberland Vikings @ Sandwell Steelers
Division 1 – South
Cambridgeshire Cats @ Solent Thrashers
Division 2 – North
Inverclyde Goliaths @ Birmingham Bulls
Clyde Valley Blackhawks @ Halton Spartans
Division 2 – South
Bournemouth Bobcats @ Essex Spartans
London Blitz B @ South Wales Warriors
Check back later in the week for another podcast and a Semi Final preview! Don’t forget to check out the IFAF Women’s European Championships, live on YouTube all week!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr5v-g7OlBTfmdFC_A9Jpbg
EYES PEELED!
