The Broncos travelled to Toryglen in Glasgow last weekend for the third Flagging New Year tournament.
Over the course of the two days 24 teams played 92 games of Flag Football to crown one team as Champions for 2018.
The field for this year’s edition of the tournament was even better than last year. In attendance were the six Scottish teams who made the BAFA Northern Regional Finals in 2017, the Oilcats, Comets, Dragons, Outlaws, Hornets and Broncos plus Carnegie Flag.
From South of the border there were 8 teams – Aylesbury Vale Spartans, Baker Street Buttonhookers, Chichester Sharks, Coventry Cougars, Manchester Titans, Newcastle Blackhawks, Sheffield Giants and Victoria Park Panthers.
From overseas we had nine entries. Craigavon Cowboys (Ireland), Dutch Lions (Holland), Purmerend Barbarians (Holland), Reckless Russians (Russia), Solerod Gold Diggers (Denmark), Uppsala 86ers, Utrecht Dominators (Holland), Vienna Spartans and Walldorf Wanderers.
There were four groups of six teams for the early part of the competition. The Broncos in group one would play:-
The Baker Street Buttonhookers, last year’s FNY Winners and current BAFA League British Champions.
Newcastle Blackhawks, a perennial BAFA playoff team who were MEC ~1 seeds in 2017, going undefeated in the regular season.
Reckless Russians, a combination of Zyuzino Zombies and Moscow Tough Nuts, both teams with big tournament experience.
Craigavon Cowboys, Emerald Bowl winners in 2016 and fourth last year.
Carnegie Flag Football, with the Renegades and Steelers both so close to play-offs last season combining their efforts, they will be a much stronger squad. Add in Neil Arnold and they could be a stumbling block.
When Group One was drawn, the Broncos thought they had been stuck in a tough group for the second year in a row, only to realise as the other groups came out, they were all tough.
The Broncos first game of 2018 was a game against the Reckless Russians.
The Broncos failed to score on their first drive and their task became even harder when the Russians got on the scoreboard with a touchdown after a long time consuming drive. On their extra point attempt, Callum Woods intercepted the pass and took it to the opposite end-zone for a rare 2 
point return. That seemed to energise the Broncos who then scored their own td through a pass from Scott McKenzie to Kevin Woods. That had the Broncos up 8 – 6 coming into half time.
The second half then saw both defences step up. As the game was winding down the Broncos were playing it smart, using up the clock, then an opportunity presented itself and Liam Fleming scored a td and xp. Broncos win, 15 – 6. A good start.
Game two was to be against old rivals the Newcastle Blackhawks. The Broncos defence seemed to be on song with interceptions for Callum Woods and Liam Fleming on the Blackhawks first two drives. But the Broncos Offence was still not quite settled, failing to reach half way on their first drive.
Then, after Matty Ross tried to score with NO flags, Scott threw to Liam again for an early lead. 6 – 0.
The Defence held again, and an interception by the Blackhawks gave them a late opportunity to score before half time. They took the opportunity and the lead with a converted TD.
In the second half, the Broncos had a long drive ending with a score. A pass to Matty Ross. 12 – 7 up. Time was becoming a factor and the Broncos managed to stop the Blackhawks next drive. Next, the Offence had to use as much clock as possible and ideally score. Unfortunately, the score didn’t come, but Newcastle were left with just enough time for two plays. On the second, Fraser got the tackle on half way to end the game with the Broncos in front 12 – 7.
Next the Grangemouth team would face more local opposition, Carnegie Flag. 
The Broncos have never lost to a Carnegie team in competitive matches, but with their combined team things might be a little tougher. In the end the Broncos experience told. They were comfortable winners, 27 – 0. Two touchdowns for club new boy, Scott McCracken (against his old club), Liam Fleming scored a td and an xp, Kevin Woods returned an interception for a td, Scott Mckenzie scored a running td and xps from Matthew Ross and Callum Woods.
The Broncos final game on Saturday was against the Buttonhookers. Everyone expected a good game, but that the Buttonhookers would be too strong. In the end, the Broncos stayed within one score until the Buttonhookers scored as time expired for a 34 to 20 win. TDs from Liam Fleming, Matthew Ross and Callum Woods, and xps from Woods and Ross kept the Broncos in it until the end.
Day two started with the Broncos needing to at least tie with one of Ireland’s top teams the Craigavon Cowboys if they were to make the top 8 bracket. 
The Cowboys had been a surprise package on the Saturday, but the Broncos proved to be just too experienced for them. Two tds and an xp from Callum Woods, one td and an interception from Fleming, an xp from Andy Brown and a safety (2 points) for Ross meant that the Broncos won 22 – 0, and were in the top eight, already improving on their 2017 finish. Four wins and only one loss in the group stage was a good result.
Into the quarter-finals and the Broncos faced the Vienna Spartans. Austria has one of the two top international teams in Europe, and a few of those players were in the Spartans line-up. This was yet another tight game with defences more or less on top. In fact it was a defensive play which won the game for the Austrians. Both teams scored a touchdown and xp, Fleming with the td and Woods with the xp for the Broncos, but the Spartans blitzer, who won the tournament prize for best blitzer, tackled QB McKenzie in the end zone for a safety (two points). The narrowest of defeats, 9 – 7
That meant the Broncos were out of the top four, but still had a couple of games to play to see what their final position would be.
Aylesbury Vale Spartans had travelled from the south of England
for the tournament and had taken a few scalps in the tournament already. In theory the Spartans should have been a good match up for the Broncos, but even an interception thrown by McKenzie caused barely a hesitation in the Broncos step. A hat-trick of touchdowns and an xp for Callum Woods, plus xps from Brown and Fleming gave the Broncos a 21 – 7 win.
So after 5 wins out of seven games, the Broncos were playing for 5th or 6th place, only to be matched up with their oldest and fiercest rivals the Glasgow Hornets. In another low scoring game the Hornets got their noses in front and controlled the clock to grind out a 13 – 7 win. Woods getting the td and Ross the xp.
Broncos Head Coach Fraser Thomson gave his opinion on the tournament. “The standard of the teams in this year’s competition was a big step up from last year. We have confirmed again that we are one of the best teams in Britain. The Hornets were the only British teams above us in the rankings. We played in some great games this weekend and it was good that some of them were against teams we have not seen before. The only way to test and improve ourselves is to play different teams and the bigger the better. The three losses we had were against extremely good teams, and we were really close in each one.”
The first four places in the tournament were filled by the Walldorf Wanderers, this year’s champions, who beat Sollerod Gold Diggers in a thrilling final that ended with a tie and a sudden death extra point shoot out. Dutch Lions finished in third and Vienna Spartans in fourth.
Club Chairman Jimmy Thomson added, “We entered the competition this year looking to improve on last year’s ninth place finish, but well aware that the field had improved significantly. So, to come in sixth was a really good result, especially when you consider how many big teams finished below us.”
“The whole weekend has been a great success. Lots of exciting games including what was effectively a penalty shoot-out to decide the result of a high scoring final. Already looking forward to next year.”
The Broncos had to cope with a few injuries in the tournament. Liam Fleming is out for a few weeks, waiting for an assessment of the damage Kevin Woods has done to his ankle and Mark Wallace has two broken fingers. They are all going to miss the next tournament in two weeks time, Kevin and Liam for the Broncos and Mark for the Colts. With new boy Hugh Moorhead also resting an injured shoulder, it is just as well the club has depth to it’s two teams..
After a tough tournament with eight games in two days, the Grangemouth Flag Football Club have decided to cancel practice for the coming weekend (27th Jan).
The Broncos would like to thank all of the supporters who travelled to Glasgow through some horrible weather to cheer on the team. It is great to see you up in the stand.