British Senior Flag League Review and Details for the Finals

19th September 2001

The British Senior Flag League reaches it's climax this Sunday, with it's finals day at Coldham's Common in Cambridge. Four teams will contest the right to be crowned the British Senior Flag League champions for 2001. The teams competing on Sunday are the London Gators, Canterbury Coyotes, UCLA Renegades and the reigning champion Fen Harriers.

The format for the day is that the first semi-final between London Gators and the Fen Harriers will kick-off at 11am. The second semi-final between the UCLA Renegades and the Canterbury Coyotes will follow immediately after the first one ends. The final will be played later in the afternoon.

The 2001 BSFL season has been a tremendous success. After a disappointing 2000 when no league season was actually played due to the small amount of 'active teams', the decision was taken to go with a league at the AGM in January, in 2001 with games being played on a tournament basis during a summer season. Advertising was stepped up and when the league started in March, there were nine teams entered in the competition.

New teams from Bournemouth, Canterbury, London, Orpington, Birmingham all joined the league that already contained the established clubs of UCLA, Leicester, Fen and Sheffield. The London Gators posted an early warning sign to the rest of the league that they meant business as they dismantled the Leicester Eagles 30-0 in their very first game in Bournemouth in March. The Bournemouth Raiders, playing their first games since 1992, lost their first flag game 16-6 to Leicester, and then posted 20 points on the London Gators, but conceded 48! Canterbury Coyotes played their first league games in April, and won their opening game 14-12 against another new team, Hurricanes. In dreadful conditions, the Coyotes succumbed 30-0 to the London Gators (who defeated Hurricanes 14-0).

Bournemouth jumped into the Southern Conference playoff race with a last minute 14-8 home win against Canterbury, but successive defeats to London (26-0) and crucially Canterbury 22-6 (on the last game of the southern conference season) cost them. Canterbury and London fought out a thrilling 14-14 tie to thwart London's attempts for a perfect season, but they still took the conference title, with Canterbury finishing a deserved second.

The first result in the Northern Conference to raise eye-brows was UCLA Renegades 14-12 home victory over the defending champion, Fen Harriers. Matt Dean's 66 yard bomb to Chris Henry proving the difference. Fen Harriers responded by winning the tournament hosted by the Birmingham Raiders. They defeated the Raiders (who were playing again after 3 seasons out) 34-0 and then defeated the Leicester Eagles 30-15. Leicester themsurprisingly defeated UCLA 26-0, but a 40-8 loss to the Harriers severely dented their playoff ambitions. Even more so when UCLA got the better of the Sheffield Lightning twice to finish with a 5-1 record, and take the conference championship. Leicester defeated Fen Harriers 8-0 on the final day of the season, but the Harriers 28-6 win over Sheffield clinched a semi-final spot in the playoffs at Leicester's expense.