The 2011 BAFACL flag season started with a bang this weekend, with 4 of the 6 teams in action, racking up 45+ points in their opening matches.

Saturday saw the Chichester Sharks and London Rebels travel to new team, the Chiltern Fyrd. The rival Sharks and Rebels squared off first and set the tone for hopefully a competitive season.

The teams were even for most of the first half, before the Sharks were able to capitalise on late Rebel turnovers to forge a 13 point lead going into the break. Unfortunately, the Sharks intensity slipped after halftime and they allowed the Rebels to quickly claw back the two scores. Responding to the surge, the Sharks stepped up their game and exchanged TDs with the Rebels before a heartbreaking long touchdown throw put London ahead 40-33 with less than a minute to go.

Most teams consider the game over at this point, but the Sharks have a record of thriving in this scenario. Unfazed, Chichester nabbed a score in the dying seconds and converted the extra point to tie the game at 40-40.

An unusual occurrence, but the game and both teams were worthy of the tie.

The second game for the Sharks saw them up against the Chiltern Fyrd, a youthful, inexperienced, but well coached team. Unfortunately, opening weekend was a painful welcome for the squad, as they faced two of the most experienced and competitive teams in the league.

It was a points-fest for the Sharks, as the Offense and Defense racked up 10 touchdowns between them. The game was out of reach midway through the first half, but the Fyrd showed a great attitude and competitive spirit to the final whistle. The game ended 66 – 0. The Rebels also beat Fyrd 68 – 7.

With a couple of promising players on the team and a few more games under their belts, look for the Fyrd to make an impact as the season progresses.

Other results this weekend:

Coventry Jets 46 – 19 Leicester Eagles

Coventry Jets 27 – 46 Woodham Warriors

Woodham Warriors 81 – 6 Leicester Eagles

More details on individual player performances will be added later this week.

Please feel free to add your comments on the weekend’s football below…

Needing a win to qualify for the playoffs, the Chichester Sharks did it in emphatic style beating the Coventry Jets 50-7 in their final regular season game.

With Woodham Warriors (White) already qualified, four teams – Basingstoke, South Wales, London and Chichester – were fighting for the final two playoff places. After the Sharks’ last two shockingly poor home games, it was essential that they came out and made a statement. And that they did.

From the outset the Sharks controlled the game, playing aggressively on both sides of the ball. From the first through to the last score (8 TDs), the Sharks were dominant.

If we had such an award, the player of the game would have to go to Justin Handley, who managed to score 4 TDs in 4 different ways – 1 catch, 1 pass, 1 run and 1 interception return. The pick and run were both length of the field plays too (not bad for an old fella).

Justin didn’t have all the fun to himself as Simon Merton (3 TDs) and Mike Thompson (2 TDs) also joined the scoring party.

The Sharks defense played outstanding; snuffing out drive after drive and collecting 3 picks in the process. It could have been a shutout, but a miscommunication on the Sharks Offense led to a turnover and a 7 yard field for the Jets to drive for their only score.

The result put the Sharks into the playoffs and eliminated the Basingstoke Zombie Horde. The final spot is now between South Wales Warriors and the London Rebels. The Warriors currently occupy the final spot, but it will go to the London Rebels if they win 1 of their final 2 games (vs Leicester Eagles, Coventry Jets).

The finals are next Sunday in Worcester.

Bouncing back from two agonizing losses the previous week the Chichester Sharks posted two excellent wins this past weekend vs the London Rebels and previously unbeaten Basingstoke Zombie Horde in rural Northern Hampshire.

First up were the much fancied London Rebels (who the Sharks split the series with last season). A first half saw the lead exchange hands several times, with the QB to WR connection of Henderson to Merton proving particularly effective (3 TD catches for the game). In the 2nd half, the Sharks were able to make a couple of key defensive stops and managed to pull ahead to seal the victory, ending the game 34-24 to the Chichester.

In the second game the Sharks faced new league team the Basingstoke Zombie Horde, which is led by two former Sharks players. The Horde pulled out a 2 score lead at half time but strong defence in the second half by the Sharks brought them back into contention. The Sharks just manged to sneak in front as time ticked down and were able to halt the Horde as time expired for a superb 36-33 victory.

Speaking about the teams performance, Sharks QB and Offensive co-coordinator Neil Henderson (who himself threw 10 TDs under centre) said “We had a tough job picking ourselves up after the losses last week but the performance today by everyone was outstanding. We were up against two very good teams today so to come away with two wins is fantastic.”

“Both games were very close and could have gone either way but our experience and patience showed as we were able to adapt to what they threw at us. We still made mistakes though and still have much to work on…..we gave up too many touchdowns and dropped too many passes so we can’t rest up”.

Game balls went to Simon Merton (5 TD receptions and 3 XP receptions) and Mike Thompson (2 TD receptions, 1 XP catch, 3 interceptions and 1 XP interception returned the length of the field for 2 pts. Next week the Sharks travel to Coventry for a game against the new Woodham Warriors (Black) team.

For an update on player stats for the season so far click here

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.

Well done to everyone that played in our first Saturday games of the season this past weekend. It was the third weekend in a row on the road, so it was good we were able to field the 10 players that we did.

The results were a bit mixed on the day, with a pleasing win over an under-strength Coventry Jets team, before a disappointing – and somewhat controversial – loss to the London Rebels.

Off to our customary slow start, it wasn’t until the 2nd half that we managed to pull away from a Jets team that struggled to move the ball against our dominating Defense. Neil Henderson was on good form, throwing no picks and 4 TDs in the game – 2 of which went to gammy legged Simon Merton in his return to action after missing the last 3 matches. Despite the pain and the medication, Simon was able to break the deadlock with a long TD reception from Neil.

Eager to stay ahead of Simon in the race for the top spot in the scoring table, Scott Wilson was not to be outdone, snagging two TDs of his own. With Dave Lee and Mike Thompson both collecting their seconds picks of the season, the D was in fine form, limiting the Jets to just one score, as the Sharks ran out comfortable winners in a 26-7 victory.

The 2nd game did not quite go to plan. The Rebels are fast, big and experienced, led by the strong arm of QB Brad Madison. They scored early and we were chasing the game by halftime. Our only score in the first period came on a reception by receiver Josh Amis – his first as a Shark. The score line would have been closer had a long TD run by Center Gary Robinson not been nullified due to a lineman’s error. Gary made up for the lost score in the 2nd half by turning another short pass into a long score.

The Sharks D had a strong game despite the scoreline (Rebels had a short field on 2 scores), limiting the Rebels to 1 score in the 2nd half. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to prevent the loss, as the Sharks dropped an important game, 26-13.

Coventry also lost to the Rebels on the day, putting a significant dent in their playoff aspirations. Leicester continue to lead the table, with London in 2nd and Chichester 3rd.

London still have one game remaining against the unbeaten Eagles. The Sharks must hope Leicester win that and we continue to win the rest of our games, as we hold the head to head point difference tiebreaker over the Rebels. In the event of Chichester and London having an identical record and tied in 2nd place in the league table at the end of the season, then Chichester would progress to the playoffs.

Next week: Home tournament at Southbourne Leisure Centre versus Coventry and Hampshire

The much awaited and much delayed 2009 season finally kicks off this weekend as the Chichester Sharks host the Leicester Eagles and London Rebels in a 3 way fixture.

The 3 matches will be played at a new venue this weekend – Bourne Community Leisure Centre in Southbourne (map)- with kickoff scheduled for 12 noon.

This will be the first competitive league match the Sharks have played since the heartbreaking lost to the Eagles last August, which eliminated them from the BAFL Flag Championship playoffs. The Eagles are expected to again play to their usual high standard, whilst new boys the Rebels bring their high scoring attack to the league.

Sharks players are to arrive for warm ups and a light scrimmage at 11 a.m. All players must wear gum shields for the games and wear shorts with no pockets. Sharks players not in possession of a team shirt as yet should wear a white tshirt or football jersey.

I’d also suggest plenty of water and sun screen as it’s going to be a hot one!

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.