BritBowl 2011, Crystal Palace

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London Blitz Players celebrate their win

  This weekend saw the end of the British American football league season, the best teams in the respective divisions all headed for the nations capital to fight out for their respective national championships.  The top of the bill saw the London Blitz take on the London Warriors* (not the South Wales Warriors who would later win the Div 2 championship).

The finals have moved around the country over the last 6 years, but having the finals in London this year certainly seems to have paid off.  I've bee for the last five years and I believe the numbers for this year where at least double the norm.

To add to the drama Vernon Kay of TV fame (family fortunes, etc) played for the Warriors as safety.  One of the funniest moments happened when Vernon was flagged for a late hit and the quick thinking commentator played the sound bit used on family fortunes for a wrong answer making the crowd roar with laughter. 

Vernon Kay collects his losers medal

 The game finished 18-0 to the Blitz and was an excellent advert for the game for any neutral who made the effort. The Warriors never seemed to be able to get their offence moving and were punished by the hard hitting Blitz defence for every mistake. 

Whilst Crystal Palace is no where near what a great stadium should be it was adequate and hopefully the powers in charge will keep the finals in London.   



*The London Warriors were previously know as the London Cobras but after threatening legal action were allowed to take the name warriors, meaning there are now two warrior teams in the senior league.

BritBowl 2010

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If you've followed this blog for a while you'll know in my free time I like to watch American football.  Well this weekend was the culmination of the years efforts and the best teams in the country gathered at the sixways stadium in Worcester for their respective finals.

The finals stretched over the whole weekend and covered flag and full contact from cadet (7 and up) through junior, youth and senior.  I must say it was a joy to see the youngsters playing flag American football in the stadium, the look on their faces showed what it meant to them.

The big game was of course the senior leagues kitted final which was played on the Saturday evening between the Coventry Jets and the London Blitz.  The final was a lot closer than many had thought it would be with some incredible plays on both sides of the ball throughout the game. The final result was London Blitz 34 - Coventry Jets 20.  Unfortunately due to me having arranged to meet someone on the Sunday (who didn't turn up) I couldn't stay for the second days events but I'm sure it ran as smoothly as the first day.  All in all an excellent weekend of American football.