Opening weekend of the 2016 BAFA Flag season

The 2016 season opening fixtures had a familiar feel about them and sadly the results went the same way as last year. Chichester Sharks v Reading Lions The Reading Lions, a 2015 playoff team, opened the season against the Sharks in Chichester and proved to be as difficult an opponent as expected. Like in their 39-32 loss last year, Chichester were competitive throughout the game. However, a flurry of late Lions scores inside the final two minutes gave the Sharks a less than complimentary-looking 48-27 loss. Failure to convert twice on 4th down inside the Lions' 10 yard line and three turnovers meant the offense were unable to keep pace with the impressive Reading attack. A highlight for the Sharks was the 3 TD / 1 INT game for Corey…
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2015 Opening Weekend: The Sharks Are Back

  3 seconds. Just 3 seconds away from an unbeaten opening weekend for the Sharks. Having tied the game against the Lions with 1 minute remaining, we just weren't able to hold on for one more stop. Still, given the fixtures, coming away with 2 wins and a loss should be considered a positive. It was great to play competitive football again. Last season seems so far away. That year we over-performed; we'd lost some experienced players; we had injuries and players unavailable; several rookies stepped in; and we still made the playoffs in a difficult division. This year, the team is stronger; we have numbers, with returning veterans and experienced rookies; but we're still in that blasted SEC South division. So an opening weekend set of games against the London Rebels,…
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Sharks opening weekend of BAFA 2014

If it seemed the Sharks were a little late to the party that is the 2014 season, then consider it fortunate that some of the team made it at all. As most of the squad stretched in eager anticipation of the Sharks season debut, one carload sat forlornly waiting at the roadside waiting for the arrival of the AA. Having sat by as other teams around the league rack up the games played, the rest of the Sharks were eager to get on and play, regardless of the suddenly reduced numbers. First up were the reigning Flag Champions, the London Rebels, already off to a 3-0 start, very much mimicking their unbeaten season last year. Sharks vs Rebels is always an eagerly awaited match up, with a rich tradition of…
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Crunch Time: The Season Finale

 Chichester Sharks Defender, Ed Acton, gives his account of the final weekend of games in the 2013 season.   So the Sharks home games had arrived and it was also the last day of the regular season, with 3 teams' playoff hopes resting on the days results. The Sharks needed to win all 3 games to get the last playoff spot, Cardiff Hurricanes also needed to win all 3 and Steel City Knights sat at home praying both teams lost at least 2.  Game 1 Chichester Sharks v Cardiff Hurricanes   Well this game would pretty much decide who would make the trip to Scotland for the playoffs. Both QBs started off slowly as they concentrated on not making any silly mistakes and settled for high % passing with both…
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Ain’t Half Hot Sun

  Chichester Sharks Defender, Ed Acton, gives his account of the 3rd weekend of games in the 2013 season. So our long awaited trip to Plymouth was here, and it just happened to be the hottest day of the year so far - a toasty 35C with no breeze. Chichester had two games to play back to back in the midday sun and sadly were missing some key players on both sides of the ball. Game 1 Chichester Sharks v Plymouth Extreme The heat was sapping the energy of the young and fit, so I don't need to explain what it was doing to us. Plymouth started the game on offense and nearly caught the Sharks napping with a solid drive all the way down the field. They missed out…
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Clean Sweep For Sharks in Basingstoke

Chichester Sharks Defender, Ed Acton, gives his account of the 2nd weekend of games in the 2013 season. The Chichester Sharks made a short journey up the road to Basingstoke on Sunday to play the next 3 games of the 2013 season. We would be without Jut Handley due a dislocated finger in the training session a week before, so we set about our first match against the Hackney Cougars with 8 players. Game 1 - Chichester Sharks v Hackney Cougars The previous 2 times the Sharks had played the Cougars we had lost, so we wanted to get out the gate early and set the tone. This is exactly what happened on the first play of the game, as QB Neil Henderson completed a short dump off pass to…
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Tough 3 Way Battle To Kick Off The 2013 Season

Chichester Sharks Defender, Ed Acton, gives his account of the opening weekend games of the 2013 season. This is what we had been training for all through winter, the inaugural games of the 2013 BAFA Flag Football season. The journey would take us to the home of the London Rebels to face stiff competition - the Rebels and the new look Welsh team, the Cardiff Hurricanes. After the fun and excitement of checking everybody’s pictures on the rosters, it was time to get down to business. Game 1 Hurricanes v Rebels The game started off slowly, as each team got a feel for each other, and before we knew it halftime was here and it was scoreless. The second half started much the same as the first, with each team…
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A short Finals Day

The Sharks 2012 season came to an end in the first round of Finals Day, falling to the Basingstoke Zombie Horde in a closely fought contest. London Rebels went on to represent the Southern Conference in the Finals playing the forever unbeaten Kirkcaldy Bulls in their final match before disbanding. Fittingly, the Bulls romped to another title in a convincing victory over the Rebels. On to next season!
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Sharks headed to Finals Day

The Chichester Sharks will be heading to Sheffield this weekend to compete in the 2012 Flag Finals. When I last posted news (yes I know, it has been a long time) the Sharks were 5-3 and in contention for one of the two playoff spots (Two losses to Basingstoke more or less ruled us out of grabbing the group top spot and automatic qualification). As a lot of time has passed since then (yes, I know), here is a quick summary of how the rest of the season unfolded: Fixtures in Basingstoke (June 24th)... Chichester Sharks 66 - 18 Aylesbury Spartans Summary: new team, nice bunch, good banter, pink shirts, TD passes aplenty Chichester Sharks 54 - 13 Coventry Jets Summary: old rivalry, slow start, 2nd half dominance, TD passes…
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Sharks move step closer to playoffs

In yet another wet day in the Flag 'Summer' league, the Chichester Sharks secured an important victory and came very close to nabbing another. Chichester started the day at 4-2 and realistically in the race for one of the two wildcard spots within the Southern Conference. Having lost to Basingstoke twice, it would require a number of unexpected losses by the Horde for the Sharks to claim the top spot. That meant that games against the other wildcard contending teams - currently the Steel City Knights and the Essex Showboats - would be crucial. The first of those - against the Knights - came on a very wet day in Coventry on Saturday. It was an unusual day, in that for the first time in many, many years, Neil Henderson…
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