Team notes: ASHTON ALLEYCATS was their name they started a side with just a group of youngsters in ashton under lyne greater manchester in king george playingfields,we were about 13-17 yrs old and week in and week out every time we turned up to have a quick game there were more and more people that turned up wanting to get involved,so it was at the time ch 4 really was pushing the game to the uk and we got ourselfs a manager an ex player from manchester allstars mr green we entered in to every game we could or who would play us including manchester minetours and our local rivals the stockport falcons anyway to cut a long long story short we went on to win every game we played by very convincing results infact i recall manchester minetours throwing the towel in by half time i think we were 48-0 up.we used to play the game full contact with hardly any real protection i know now it was crazy but its the way it was everyone on bothe teams loved it.Then the officals stepped in and that boring game flag football was introduced well i mean nobody liked it and we as a team just couldnt adapt so after winning every trophy we entered including team of the month numerous times by that great magazine of the time gridiron we all dicided to fold,but from out of the blue we had an offer from our local senior semi pro side the manchester spartans they would provide kit ground (hyde united fc) and i even recall our local rag ashton advertizer and manchester evening news stating the headlines ALLEYCATS GET THE CREAM it was great beleve it or not we even had young kids asking for our autograph lol anyway at first week in training we advertized for players and an amazing 150 people turned up fantastic frome then on the spartans were a succesfull team and the youth mainly were trying to break into the senior side and as we all know it all started to fizz out so many of the players went there own way and that was the end of that but i am still a keen follower of american football mainly the nfl tampabay buccaneers ive been not to a match but near stadium i would love to try and get involved somehow with a british side any good sites ?anyway i have my memories the alleycats.........by Mark Esbach number 69 offencive guard and defenceive end.please reply