ESFL Review of 2004

1st January 2005

It's congratulations to two of the English Senior Flag League's oldest clubs at the end of 2004. Leicester Eagles won their third successive 9man title following a perfect season, and the Bournemouth Raiders won their second 5man title in three years.

Following the British Senior Flag League AGM in February, the member clubs voted overwhelmingly to amend the name of the league to the English Senior Flag League. The reason was that Scotland has the SFFA for their clubs, and the name BSFL was deemed outdated.

Team England lost all 3 World Cup matches against the three strongest opponents they could have drawn in the 2004 World Cup of Flag Football in the Dominican Republic in February - USA, Canada and Israel. They put in a great performance against Canada going down 18-6 (Chichester Sharks duo of Nick Watson and Pete Steele connecting on the TD) in arguably the greatest performance by an England side. They also defeated the Dominican Rep 36-6 in a friendly. Canada won the title with a 12-8 win over USA.

The English Senior Flag League opened their 2004 season in March with their first Allstar games. The Southern Pirates took on the Northern Knights in a 9man friendly match, which the North won 28-6 thanks to a 100 yard running game and 2 TD's from MVP Michael Soboagl. The Pirates gained revenge in the 5man challenge match with a 18-6 win.

In April, the 5man season started in fine fashion with Leicester Eagles winning the opening ESFL tournament of 2004 at Birmingham in Easter Bowl II with three wins out of three. North Devon and Staffordshire also finished the tournament unbeaten.

In May, England travelled to Dublin to compete in the second Senior Flag 7man international between the two countries. The England side was made up of 18 experienced players that had been drawn from 6 ESFL sides, and emerged victorious 13-6 in a tight game. Following Andre Clarke's interception, QB Roy Tanton (North Devon) picked out Nick Moffat (Fen Harriers) from two yards out to put England ahead on half-time. Nick Watson (Chichester Sharks) found Gurkinder Mann (Staffordshire) for the 1PAT. Ireland pulled the score back to 7-6, but Abdul Lawal's (Bournemouth Raiders) 21yard interception return for a TD sealed the win for England.

The ESFL entered a Northern and Southern England side in the Flag Oceane competition, and a Scottish side also entered the competition. It was the Scots who did the best finishing 11th, with ESFL North coming 13th and ESFL South 15th in the 20 team competition in Le Havre, France.

In June, Team USA jetted over to England to compete in an IFFF World Cup qualifier over two days in Fareham. They were joined by the French League champions, the Troyes Pygargues, and both sides reached the 5man final on the Saturday. USA trailed 6-0 to the French team at half-time of the final, but they rebounded with 4 scores without reply to win 25-6 in the final. 9 sides took part in the day's event with a round robin stage followed by a knockout competition. The top English sides were from Bournemouth and Derby who reached the semi-finals. Troyes defeated Bournemouth 27-6 in the semi-finals, with USA edging out Derby 28-13.

Team USA won the 9man senior flag competition on the Sunday to complete a double victory in the IFFF World Cup qualifier. For the second successive day they faced French opposition in the final. The tournament was made up of 4 other sides from England, with Leicester Eagles and Andover Thrashers reaching the semi-finals. USA turned over Leicester 14-0, and Troyes defeated Andover by the same score. In the Championship game, Team USA's Adam Desanctis started off the scoring on a 60 yard scamper, Jim Zimolka then caught a 15 yard pass from Pat Connelly to give the USA a comfortable 13-0 lead. Troyes scored on a 10 yard pass from QB Flavien Charles to WR Eric Pierre to pull the French side within a point. The games final score came on Desanctis's 60 yard TD jaunt, as USA ran out 20-6 winners. Adam Desanctis scored six touchdowns on the day as he was awarded MVP Honors.

Leicester Eagles continued their domination of the 2004 9-man league with wins over Fen Harriers (26-6) and Andover Thrashers (26-16) in the Harriers Challenge Cup. The Harriers beat Andover 32 - 12 to post a 1-1 record for their first tournament of the year, and Andover Thrashers record dropped to 1-3.

The Leicester Eagles then travelled over to the Irish Republic to play the Drimnagh Cycos in the 8th Anglo-Irish Flag American Football Challenge in Dublin in July, and it was the Eagles who came out on top for the second successive year, 28-6. James Hossack scoring two TD's and catching two interceptions.

Team England got their training for the 2005 World Cup in Miami off to a slow start as they fell to a 16-12 defeat against Andover in September, and continued their preparations for the tournament with further training sessions in the Autumn.

Leicester Eagles sealed the 9man title with two wins in September against the Fen Harriers and the Chatham Sharks to complete a perfect 6-0-0 season. The Eagles retained the title they won in 2003 and 2002.

After a gap of four months from the Fareham 5man tournament, the Barbarians took the next ESFL 5man tournament on points scored from the Bournemouth Raiders in Autumn Bowl II at Chichester. Barbarians finished with two wins out of three, as did Bournemouth, with Chichester and the Bournemouth Deckchairs finishing 1-2-0.

Horsham College hosted four teams in a friendly 5man tournament, which was won by Chichester Sharks in November.

Team England announced the squad and management for the 2005 World Cup in December with Nick Watson, Jason Prowse and Hitesh Patel joining the team management, and being joined by a squad of 27 made up from 6 different ESFL clubs. There are high hopes for this group of players in February 2005.

In the final event of 2004, the 2004 BYAFA Youth Flag champions, the South Wales Rebellion, surprised their senior flag counterparts with a stunning performance at Beach Bowl IV in Andover. In the highlight of the ESFL 5man calendar eight sides took part, and it was the Rebellion who swept past Chatham, Bournemouth and Andover Thrashers B enroute to the final where they defeated Andover Thrashers A 21-12 to clinch the tournament title.

The ESFL 5man title qualification was amended in the 2004 AGM to specify that to qualify for the title, teams had to compete in three or more tournaments. Bournemouth Raiders ended the season on top after seven wins out of their nine matches winning their second 5man title in three years, with last seasons champions. Chichester Sharks finished in second place.