The Sharks travelled north on Saturday to take on the cream of British flag football in their first appearance at the BAFL Flag Finals Day.

Having finished second in the English conference during the regular season, the Sharks were drawn to meet defending British champions and Scottish conference winners Kirkcaldy Bulls in the semi finals, held at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium.

The Bulls proved formidable opponents, with a well-executed run option scheme and pin-point passing keeping the Sharks defence at bay, and the Scots notched up 3 TDs in the first half.

The Sharks were a fingertip away from a score themselves, when QB Martyn Emmens spotted Simon Merton wide open in the end zone, only for a Bulls defender to scramble back and tip his pass away with the faintest of touches.

Emmens and his receivers took the game to the Bulls in the second half, marching the ball down to the goal line on several occasions, but the stifling Bulls defence kept them out on each occasion.

The Sharks defence was tighter in the second period, but the Bulls converted several 4th downs with perfectly executed plays, and crossed into the end zone twice more. Final score: Sharks 0 - 32 Bulls.

In the second semi-final English conference winners Leicester Eagles defeated Scotland’s second team, the Carluke Cobras, to clinch a place in the grand final — and avenge their defeat by the Cobras at this stage last year.

With a shot at the title gone, the Sharks had to pick themselves up to contest the Third Place Playoff against the Cobras, and when the Scots scored twice early on, things didn’t look good.

But the Chichester squad showed the mental strength to put their earlier defeat behind them, and came out firing. The star of the show was Sharks safety Mike Thomson, who moved on to the other side of the ball, scoring three long-distance touchdowns on offence, shredding the Cobras defence. He also ran back an interception for six points to compound the damage.

The Sharks defence eventually got the measure of the Cobras, pressuring their quarterback and restricting them short yardage plays, and when Sharks receiver Scott Wilson capped a great rookie year with another touchdown catch, the Sharks led 31 – 26 with less than 2 minutes on the clock.

But with the game there for the taking, the Sharks faltered at the last. A vital missed tackle, followed by a penalty for roughing the quarterback gave the Cobras a first down in Sharks territory, and with time ticking away, the Scots’ QB picked out a receiver in the corner of the end zone with a great pass, clinching a 32-31 victory.

In the final, the Kirkcaldy Bulls defeated the Leicester Eagles by 32-14 to clinch their second successive British title, going undefeated all year once again.

For the Sharks, it was case of what might have been, but having tasted the Finals Day once, they will be determined to be back next year.

Match report written by Toby Chopra

A great season by the Sharks was rewarded with a place in the Semi-Finals yesterday, as the Rebels lost their final game against the Eagles and fell out of contention.

London’s lost meant that both they and the Sharks finished with 11-3 records on the season. However, with the head-to-head tiebreaker even at 1-1, the Sharks took the final place by merit of a 44-40 aggregate scoreline over the two fixtures this year.

Chichester now join the first place Leicester Eagles as the English representatives at the BAFL Flag Finals Day in Doncaster next Saturday (5th Sept.). The two Scottish representatives are Kirkcaldy Bulls and the Carluke Cobras. Sharks will play the Bulls in the semi-final.

We need the best squad available for the trip so please do everything you can to be there this weekend. Travel plans will be confirmed shortly.

This Sunday (23rd) the Chichester Sharks will host the St. Albans Kings and Kent Exiles in their final games of the 2009 BAFL Flag Regular Season.

The games will be played in Oaklands Park, Chichester, beside Chichester Festival Theatre. There will be changing facilities available.

View a map here

There will be three games for the Sharks on the day – two of which are against Kent to make up a previously postponed fixture.

The playing order is as follows:

Exiles at Sharks (Kings ref)
Kings at Sharks (Exiles ref)
Sharks at Exiles (Kings ref)
Kings at Exiles (Sharks ref)

Kickoff is at 11 a.m. sharp and all Sharks players are to arrive for set up and warm up at 10 a.m.

All three games are important to the Sharks – we need to win each of them and rely on the London Rebels to drop one of their remaining games, if Chichester are to make the playoffs.

This coming Sunday sees the Sharks begin the first leg of what could be a difficult four week run of 8 BAFL Flag fixtures.

Due to the late start of the season this year, we have a stockpile of games to play mid-season, starting with 2 away games this Sunday in Cardiff. We’ll be playing against league new boys South Wales Warriors and the old ‘enemy’ the Leicester Eagles.

The next three weeks will then see us travel to Winchester and London, before playing the first of 2 August home tournaments in Chichester.

View the full schedule.

Check back after Sunday to see how the Sharks fared.

(First off, apologies for lack of updating on the website recently: moving house and work have kept me very busy)

Last Sunday saw the Chichester Sharks travel to St. Albans to face the home town Kings and league new boys Hampshire Thrashers.

The Sharks, coming off a disappointing loss to the Eagles the previous fortnight, were eager to get back on track for their run at the playoffs. Reassuringly, the team were back on form as they notched up two very encouraging victories.

On a very warm, sunny day, the Sharks played their two matches back to back having refereed the Thrashers victory over the Kings in the first game.

In what became a pattern on the day, the Sharks and Thrashers were pretty even for the first half of the game. The turning point came when the Sharks showed their experience with a quick snap that caught the unsuspecting Thrashers off guard. With the Hampshire players discussing the next play in the middle of the field,  Sharks QB took the snap and fired the ball to an uncovered Scott Wilson, who took the ball the length of the pitch for the game breaking score.

From that point, Chichester were in control and the game ended 27-12 to the Sharks.

Chichester are unbeaten against the Kings, but a strong showing from a larger St. Albans squad in a pre-season friendly earlier this year gave the team good reason to be cautious going into the game.  That wariness was well founded as the Kings came out confident and aggressive, resulting in a 2 scores apiece tied ballgame at the half.

The Sharks looked the stronger team in that half however, as the Kings scores came from a short field and a couple of missed tackles. Those mistakes weren’t repeated in the 2nd half as Chichester dominated the rest of the game. The final score was 41-13.

Well done to all the Sharks players who traveled to St. Albans – it was a very impressive team effort, with everyone contributing. All three matches were played in good spirits, with our opponents making it an enjoyable and friendly day.

The results of those two matches take the Sharks to 3-1 and 2nd in the league table behind the 3-0 Leicester Eagles.

Season results so far:

Chichester Sharks 31 – 14 London Rebels

Chichester Sharks 13 – 42 Leicester Eagles

Chichester Sharks 27 – 12 Hampshire Thrashers

Chichester Sharks 41 – 13 Kings

Hopefully I’ll be able to update the player stats from these four games shortly.

Well done again everyone – please feel free to add comments about the matches.

A few weeks ago, Chichester hosted a round of trials for the Crusaders -- one of four regional development teams for the Great Britain Lions flag football team.

A number of Sharks players were successful in making the squad -- hopefully we can reveal the names soon. In the meantime, take a look at the video that was was shot on the day. Turn on your speakers if you have them.

Well done to all that took part on the day and congratulations to those that made the Crusaders flag football team. More details to follow.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qL7k2fyrKk

It was announced this week that Chichester Sharks Chairman (and coach and QB!), Neil Henderson has been appointed to the new BAFL Strategic Team.

Neil Henderson, BAFL Strategic Team

Neil will be the flag representative for England and Wales, whilst Mark Fletcher takes on the same role for Scotland. Both have been tasked to help support the BAFL Directors in running of BAFL Flag.

The extent of their roles have yet to be finalised, but it is hoped by many in the league that this move will lead to improved communication between the Committee and the member clubs.

One of the first tasks for Mark and Neil is to organise the fixture list for the 2009 season.

Well done to Neil for volunteering to take on the position.

With the 2009 BAFL Flag season running from April to September the football is about to get serious again!

It seems like an age since we last played a competitive game that meant something (7 months if you’re counting at home) and I know many of you are eager to get going again.

There are several new faces on the Sharks this year – Rob, Mike, Alex, Ben and Bob to name just a handful – the result of a good off season of recruitment. We have a good squad size now, hopefully we can start getting everyone to turn up on the same day now!

There are also some new teams in our conference this year, with the London Rebels, Hampshire Thrashers and South Wales Warriors joining the fight. The trip to the Warriors might be a bit of a long one, but we got lucky with two new ‘local’ teams.

As we head into the final few weeks before the season kicks off, lets try to make every effort to make it to training, so we have a full squad to practice with. If you can’t make a session, please let us know, otherwise we’ll see you all on Sunday.

News just in….

The Kirkcaldy Bulls have won the inaugural BAFL Flag championship title,  beating the Carluke Cobras 48-13 in the finals. This is also the 6th year in a row they have won their Scottish league/Conference. Quite a remarkable feat.

Carluke and Kirkcaldy made the final by merit of beating the English teams, Coventry and Leicester in the semi-finals. The final results are:

Semi-Finals

Coventry Jets 30-38 Kirkcaldy Bulls

Carluke Cobras 19-13 Leicester Eagles

3rd/4th Place Playoff
Leicester Eagles v Coventry Jets

National Championship Game

Kirkcaldy Bulls 48 v 13 Carluke Cobras

It’s a shame we didn’t make it to the finals this year, as I would have loved to see how we would match up with the top Scottish teams, but alas, it was not to be.

There is always next year…

* Due to a shortage of players for their remaining fixtures, The West Kent Wing Dings have announced that they regretably will have to forfeit their remaining fixtures. We were due to play the Wing Dings on the 16th August in Coventry – we’ll now be awarded the win for this match up

* Due to the Kent Exiles failing to make alternative arrangements for their fixture with Chichester, the league has confirmed that they are awarding the win to the Sharks.

Neither win is particularly satisfactory for us, it would have been better to play the games. However, it does now mean that we have a record of 10-1, with three games remaining.

Those 3 games are incredibly important. We play against Coventry, Leicester and Mildenhall – all challengers for the 2 playoff spots. It is essential that as many people as possible are available to play in those games, so please clear your diaries!