League History

Senior flag football was first played in the UK, in the mid-1980s when the Leicester Panthers Supporters Club formed a make shift team to play friendly matches on an ad-hoc basis against other supporters clubs. The first attempt to launch a senior flag league came in 1996 and 1997, when teams from Leicester, Birmingham, Peterborough & Bath organised a number of games between themselves, again on an ad hoc basis.

In 1998 the National Flag Football Association (who ran the youth flag leagues at the time) approached these teams to start an official league, which was a tremendous success. The first formal senior flag 9man league featured five teams (Leicester, Sheffield, Merseyside, Chiltern and Sussex), and it was Leicester who went the season undefeated with an 8-0-0 record.

At the end of 1998, the NFFA youth leagues were absorbed into the British Youth American Football Assocation. The remaining senior flag teams renamed their league, the British Senior Flag League. A new force appeared in 1999, the Fen Harriers. The Harriers, former British Youth champions, dominated the opposition in 1999 with a 6-0-0 record. They pushed the Leicester Eagles in second place with the Doncaster Wildcats (another former youth side) in third place.

At the end of the 1999 BSFL season, BAFA announced that going forward they would be adopting the forms of flag football promoted by the IFAF and EFAF (non contact 5/7man flag). The BSFL formed their own independent league / organisation, but the year 2000 saw little action in the flag community with just two 9man tournaments scheduled in the Autumn with Leicester Eagles, Fen Harriers, Sheffield Lightning and UCLA Renegades taking part in a 4 team tournament in October (Leicester and Fen winning their two games) and then a repeat tournament a month later in Leicester. Team England also played their first ever senior flag international in 2000, when they crossed the Irish Sea to take on Ireland in Dublin. England returned after a 6-26 loss.

Early 2001 saw a website built for the league and with an influx of new teams through an extensive advertising campaign a first organised league season since 1999 took place. The 9 teams were split into a Northern and Southern Conference. It all boiled down to a battle of two new sides, with the London Gators edging the Canterbury Coyotes 21-14 on finals day at Cambridge in September. 2002 saw more new sides - the Chichester Sharks and the Brighton Tsunami on the south coast join the 9man league.

The 2002 season was a season of nip and tuck with 3 dominant sides. The Bournemouth Raiders remained unbeaten until the last regular season game where they lost 0-10 to the Leicester Eagles. The Eagles and the Invicta Coyotes (previously the Canterbury Coyotes) remained unbeaten in the regular season to reach the BSFL Finals, where they were joined by the Raiders and the Fen Harriers. The Eagles proceeded to destroy the Harriers, and the Raiders edged out the Coyotes in overtime to set up a final with the Eagles. The Eagles showed their class with a decisive 45-21 victory to capture their first title in 4 years.

Midway through 2002, the first ever visit of an allstar Team USA team visited the UK and won both senior flag tournaments in an event hosted at Derby University. In the 5man competition the USA won the final 24-0 against the Derby Dream Team. In the 9-on-9 competition, Team USA defeated the Stirling Clansmen 20-6 in the final, after the Clansmen had defeated the Leicester Eagles 6-0 in the semi-finals. 2002 also saw the first BSFL 5-on-5 championship, with all results from all 5-on-5 tournaments counting towards the final table. The Bournemouth Raiders captured that crown, narrowly edging out the Leicester Eagles into second place.

2003 opened with a BSFL Allstar team travelling to Ireland to take on the Drimnagh Cycos in a friendly, and they came away with a 18-12 victory. The 9man season never took off with just two sides (Leicester Eagles and Fen Harriers) making themselves eligible for the competition - after a two legged competition the Eagles won the title on aggregate 41-32. The Eagles also travelled to Ireland again for their annual match against the Drimnagh Cycos and came away with their first win in Ireland with a 12-6 win. The BSFL 5man league was an outstanding success with over 20 teams taking part in a series of tournaments throughout the year. As the dust settled at the end of 2003, the Chichester Sharks emerged with their first national title, pipping Leicester Eagles for the prize.

Following the set up of the Scottish Flag Football Association (with all Scottish senior flag clubs becoming members of that organisation), the decision was taken in February 2004 to amend the name of the BSFL to the ESFL (English Senior Flag League).

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.

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 May, the ESFL put together Team England who travelled to Dublin with an experienced 18 man squad drawn from 6 ESFL sides to take on Ireland in the 2nd Senior Flag International Challenge match between the countries. England emerged 13-6 victors with TD’s from Nick Moffat and Abdul Lawal.

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 ran out 20-6 winners in the final.

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.

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.

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. A special mention should be made to the final event of 2004, where the 2004 BYAFA Youth Flag champions, the South Wales Rebellion, surprised their senior flag counterparts with a stunning performance at Beach Bowl IV by sweeping the victory with four wins out of four.

In 2005, England travelled to Scotland to play two 5man internationals at Stirling University, and it was Scotland who prevailed 33-21 in the challenge match and 38-18 in the friendly that followed.

In July, ten Teams turned up at Chichester College to play in an international tournament, featuring the same team from France that had performed so well in the Fareham tournament in 2004. The French team cruised through their group, with the Staffordshire Allstars winning the other group setting up a fascinating final which the French won 20-19 after Staffordshire went and failed on the 2PAT.

The Great Britain Lions took the bronze at the 2005 Senior Flag Euro Championships in Helsinki by defeating Austria by just one point. The Lions first game in the group stage didn't go to plan as they fell to a 32 -27 defeat to Germany. Sweden and Italy proved to be tough competition in the remaining two group games, but the Lions dug deep to beat Sweden 20 - 18 and then snatch victory from Italy by 27 points to 26. Sunday's Semi Final competition saw Great Britain line up against France, who proved too strong on the day winning by 27 - 12. The Lions then faced Austria in the playoff game for the bronze position, winning by 21 points to 20. The Leicester Eagles enjoyed another stellar year, picking up the 9man championship and then completing the first “double” in ESFL history by also claiming their first 5man championship as well. The Eagles dominated the opposition in the 5man league winning 19 of their 22 games.

In another first, a Scottish club side took part in an ESFL event – Beach Bowl V. Teams from Devon, Wales, Scotland and even some players flew in from as far away as Canada to compete to Beach Bowl V in December with South Wales looking to retain their title defeating Barbarians in the first semi-final, and being joined in the final by the Scottish champions of 2003-2005, the Kirkcaldy Bulls who defeated the Bournemouth Raiders. The Final started as the sun slipped over the horizon and the winter weather gripped the already cold Lordshill Gridiron. The Kirkcaldy Bulls continued their run of championship successes by stamping their authority on the South Wales Rebellion finishing the day with a 20-0 victory.

In 2006, the ESFL member clubs voted to amend the ESFL constitution to drop contact flag from it's statutes thus adopting the forms of flag football promoted by the IFAF and EFAF. Another change approved by member clubs was for the top 4 ranking sides (based on win/lose %) in the league moving into an end of season playoff for the league championship – called "Final Four"!