As has been previously posted… There is NO down time on the Flag calendar.
Over the past few weeks the Club has been extremely busy.
Since the last report on the Winter League, the Club has been involved in a total of 21 games.
The Broncos played in Flagging New Year IV over two days, 26th-27th January.
The tournament was meant to be played inside, out of the Scottish weather. Unfortunately, maintenance work forced everyone out into the wet (on day 1) and cold (on day 2). While it wasn’t ideal, the weather could have been worse.
In the Day 1 group stages the team played four games, three wins and a tie.
Broncos 18 – Edinburgh Outlaws 14
Broncos 27 – Vienna Spartans 27
Broncos 32 – Craigavon Cowboys 12
Broncos 21 – Coventry Cougars 0
The Broncos had lost to the Spartans in last FNY quarter-finals so the tie, a high scoring tie, was a reasonably satisfying result. Always good to get a win against the Outlaws who certainly have the ability to beat you if you are not on your “A” game. The Cougars and Cowboys games were fairly relaxed once we got our noses in front.
On Day 2, the Broncos were playing a round robin against the other group winners and runners up. That meant facing old rivals, Aberdeen Oilcats and Glasgow Hornets, Slovenian team the Kocevje Wild Hogs, Victoria Park Panthers and a second match against the Spartans.
Game 1 against the Oilcats was close, but the running clock was the Broncos downfall. A 14 – 20 loss.
Game 2 was another tight match with the Spartans. This time, the Broncos got the win. 26 – 20.
Game 3 against the Wild Hogs was closer than the 22 – 7 win might suggest. So, a good result.
Game 4 was against new opposition. The Panthers play in one of the toughest divisions in Flag, so to win 27 – 19 was another good result.
Game 5 was against the Hornets. Win and into the final, otherwise it would depend on other results. Once again, the Broncos were driving to try to tie the score, but ran out of time.
That result put the Broncos into the 3rd/4th place play-off, against the Spartans for the third time in the weekend. Yet another tight game, but the Broncos held their nerve for the 27 – 20 win and tournament third place.
Just three weekend later both the Club teams, Broncos and Colts were involved in the Flagging Iron Man tournament. Once again, the tournament was outside instead of in the relative warmth of the indoor arena.
Going into the weekend, the Colts definitely had the tougher of the groups. Carluke Cobras, Carnegie Flag, Glasgow Hornets, Smoke Grey and Renfrew Raptors. All tough matches. It would be difficult to get many wins out of this tournament.
Meanwhile, the Broncos group was also pretty tough. Edinburgh Outlaws , London Smoke, Strathclyde Hawks, Inglorious Basterds (mostly Comets) and Legion of Broon (past and present Newcastle Blackhawks).
Broncos “A” game once again prevailed against the Outlaws, 27 – 6
Colts hung tough for a while against the Cobras, but eventually lost 0 – 18
Broncos lost to the Smoke, once again trying to get the catch up score as time expired. 14 – 21
Colts didn’t perform well against Carnegie, hence the 0 – 31 scoreline.
Broncos made it tough on themselves, but eventually ground out a 15 – 0 win over the Hawks.
Colts showed some determination to record a win against the Raptors, 14 – 13
Broncos dominated the game against Inglorious, 34 – 0
Colts did reasonably well against the Hornets. the Hornets scoreline padded a little as the Colts went for broke – 0 – 34
Broncos maybe got a little complacent knowing they were into the quarter-final. They lost 0 -14 to the Legion of Broon.
The unfortunate impact of that last loss was to drop them to 8th seed, and they would play the top seed, London Smoke. Again!
In the qf match against the Smoke, the Broncos were not at their best and
lost 6 – 21. One of these days, the Broncos will meet with more than three of their starters fit.
The next game day arranged is the Colts at the Oriam in the fourth Winter League fixture. 3rd of March, kicking off at 11:00.