Senior Kitted

As 2004 started 16 UK based players were selected to take part in NFL Europe Camp in Tampa, and of those the following got through to play in NFL Europe in the summer - Jeff Nicolson (Edinburgh Wolves), Robert Flickinger, Scott McCready, Rob Hart (Southern Sundevils), Scott Couper (Glasgow Tigers), Aden Durde (London O’s) and Warren Keen (London O’s).

The BSL expanded to 36 teams in 2004, after all 35 teams from 2003 re-registered and newboys Coventry Jaguars joined the league. The league was realigned to include a newly formed Division One A, to help clubs make the huge jump from Division Two football to Division One. Clubs in Division One A would play each other home and away and also one fixture against each club in their Conference in Division One.

In Division One, East Kilbride opened their season with an easy 34-0 win over Lancashire, and then put themselves in pole position for the Northern title with a 3-0 home win over Birmingham thanks to Murphy’s 28 yard field goal. Birmingham gained revenge over the Pirates in the last week of the season with a convincing 35-14 win, but an earlier tie with Gateshead cost them the Northern Conference, and it was the Pirates who took the honours there in 2004. Lancashire pulled out mid-season, and Yorkshire kept plugging away to a 2-8 finish.

In the Southern Conference, the first shock of the year occurred in week 1 as the London O’s UK record for winning games in a row stretching back six years was toppled as the PA Knights won 14-12 at home. Anthony Stitt’s 13 yard run in the fourth quarter giving them a nail-biting victory. The O’s were still dominant against other sides, but were also forced to accept a tie after their home game with Ipswich was called off due to damaged pitch. Ipswich made playoffs, with the London Blitz pulling up the rear. At the end of the regular season, the PA Knights completed the double over the London O's with a 13-2 victory in London to clinch the BSL Division One Southern Conference.

In the newly formed Division One A, the Southern Sundevils made the step up from Division Two and swept to the Southern title with a 7-3 record. They also claimed the Division One scalp of the London Blitz with a 25-6 win. Bristol came second, with Cambridgeshire Cats third and Norwich recording a second successive year of disappointment finishing last.

In the North, Gateshead took the title and gave the Division One teams a good run for their money too finishing 7-2-1. They tied 0-0 with Birmingham, and also defeated Yorkshire 48-14. Staffordshire surprisingly came second, with Nottingham third and Chester finishing 1-9.

Division Two was split into four conferences, with two teams from each qualifying for the quarterfinals. In the Scottish Conference, Dundee Hurricanes were the powerhouse finishing 6-2-1, edging out Glasgow Tigers (who Scott Couper guested for at times) into second. Edinburgh came bottom, but their record of 3-4-2 shows how competitive that Conference was. In the Northern Conference, Doncaster Mustangs (only formed in 2003) dominated and took the title with an unbeaten 8-0-1 record – their sole tie coming in week one 12-12 against the aforementioned Edinburgh preventing a perfect season. Merseyside qualified for the playoffs in second, and East Midland finished winless.

In the always competitive Southern Conferences, Chiltern Cheetahs surprised everyone by claiming the South East with a perfect 10-0 record. Sussex finished 8-2 qualifying them for the playoffs – they only defeats coming against Chiltern in two cracking games (6-14 at home and 7-13 away). Kent Exiles started the season with great publicity after their first playoff season in 2003, and coaches Phil Wood in charge. A 6-4 record for them was still impressive nonetheless, but a playoff spot was denied. Essex finished fourth, and Sabres were fifth and Maidstone were winless in sixth.

In the South West, newboys Coventry Jaguars joined the set-up, but a win was beyond them in their first season. They were involved in a real shoot-out with South Wales losing 32-60, and South Wales finished second in the end to reach the playoffs, but it was the Redditch Arrows who took the South West Conference title with a 9-0-1 record. Nene Valley finished 3^rd, Oxford 4^th and Plymouth improving from their winless season in 2003 to register a 2-6-2 record.

Come the playoffs, Sussex made the Division Two semis with a nailbiting 23-22 away win at Redditch, whilst Chiltern continued their unbeaten run by thrashing South Wales 30-6. Dundee thrashed Merseyside, and Doncaster turned over Glasgow 46-22. The Doncaster Mustangs continued their perfect season with a nailbiting 13-12 home win over the Dundee Hurricanes in the semi-finals, and they would meet the Chiltern Cheetahs who thrashed the Sussex Thunder 34-6.

In the Division Two final at Britbowl 2004, Doncaster had too much for the Chiltern Cheetahs and eased to a comfortable 32-16 victory on the back of Giovanni Viscomi’s 109 yards and 2 TDs on the ground.

In Division One A, the Southern Sundevils appeared a class apart by dismantling Staffordshire Surge 48-3 at home in the semis, and the Bristol Aztecs reached their second successive bowl game with a 24-14 win away to the Gateshead Senators. The Sundevils crushed the Aztecs 32-0 in the Bowl Game, outgunning them 304 yards to just 94, and thus gaining promotion to Division One for the 2005 campaign.

In the Division One semi-finals, the PA Knights reached their second Division One final in 3 years with a 28-7 win over the Birmingham Bulls, and the London O’s also qualified by thrashing the East Kilbride Pirates 53-0 in Glasgow. PA Knights won their first ever national title with a convincing 28-14 win over the London O's. Ashley Heath to Steve Belcher, and then Marvin Jimerson’s interception return. Roland Williams reduced the score to 14-7, but Tony Stitt (in his last ever game) extended the lead to 21-7 and then Jon Wyse sealed the game for the Knights with a 50 yard interception return. The O’s scored a late TD, but the Knights had done enough to win their first National Championship.


PA Head Coach Steve Rains receiving the Div.1 trophy

In European club football, two English sides entered European competition for the first time in many years. The PA Knights narrowly lost 21-16 away to the Danube Dragons, but progressed to the semi-finals of the EFAF Cup with a 21-13 home win over the Zurich Renegades. The London O's become first British club in 5 years to win abroad with 38-6 win in Denmark against the Roskilde Kings. Both clubs progressed to the semi-finals – the O’s fell 49-16 against the Tyrolean Raiders, and the PA Knights received a walkover win against the Donetsk Scythians. In the final in Innsbruck, the Raiders cruised to a 45-0 win.

A blow to British American Football was announced, when the Scottish Claymores franchise was withdrawn by the NFL in the Autumn, and the Hamburg Sea Vipers were given their franchise making a fifth team from Germany in NFL Europe.

In November, USA Minor League Football announced that Riq Ayub and Brian Smallworth would be inducted into their Hall of Fame. They follow other Britball coaches Dr Kurt Smeby and Terry Smith.

One of the oldest names in the Britball announced a return to the BSL - The Colchester Gladiators had their application to join the BSL accepted in December. The BSL announced another increase in teams with four new sides taking part in 2005. Along with the Gladiators, the Andover Thrashers and the West Coast Trojans join, and the Manchester Titans will also rejoin after an absence of one year. 2005 will see 37 senior kitted sides take part – the most since 1997.

There was also sad news in December, with the death of Dr Kurt Smeby – one of the all-time great coaches of British & Irish American Football.

At the end of the year, it was announced eight British American football prospects would jet off to Florida in February 2005 to compete in National Player Mini-Camp in Tampa Bay ahead of the 2005 NFL Europe League season. The eight announced were London O's wide receiver Marvin Allen, Chiltern Cheetahs cornerback Jeff Brown, former Scottish Claymores and current London O's linebacker Aden Durde, Southern Sundevils fullback Russell Goodall, London O's safeties Kevin Okpoti and Onoh Ozongwu, Southern Sundevils linebacker Shaun Smith and London O's defensive end Daniel Watts.

GB Lions

Preparations for the Euro 2004 Pool B that Great Britain were taking place in were made as early as Autumn 2003 with the North v South Allstar game. This early preparation stood the squad in good stead when the squad was announced in August to take place in the championship in Amiens, France. First up in the championships was a first ever meeting between the Lions and Russia. Great Britain QB Adam Lane (a late addition to the squad, who had not competed in the BSL until 2004) completed 22 of 32 for 253 yards and 3TDs to inspire the Lions from a 14-10 half-time deficit to win their opening Euro 2004 Group B clash 24-21. GB scored in the first quarter on Lane's pass to Junior Price, and then Pete Rogers field goal closed the gap just before half-time. Russia jumped out to a 21-10 lead in the 3rd quarter before Lane's 4th quarter heroics. Lane passed for 2 TD's to East Kilbride's WR Mark Squire (the 2nd one inside the 2-minute warning). Veteran Mark Cohen caught the 2 PAT to give GB a narrow lead which they held onto. GB move onto face Spain on Wednesday afternoon. Great Britain continued their fine form with a convincing 41-0 win over Spain. Star QB Adam Lane threw for 4 TD's, and there were further rushing TD's by Anthony Perkins and Marc Saunders. GB opened the scoring with a 5-yard pass to Mark Cohen, and Perkins first TD for his country extended the lead. GB went into half-time leading 27-0 on the back of Lane's 35-yard pass to Cohen, and Junior Price's 36 yard catch from Lane. In the 3rd quarter, the result was put beyond doubt with Lane's 55 yard pass to Mark Squire, and then Marc Saunders's 1 yard run. Pete Rogers kicked 5 PAT's out of 6.

GB went on to face hosts France in their final game, with the winner qualifying for the elite Pool A competition in 2005. It was Great Britain who won it with a fantastic 18-17 victory over France. Trailing 7-0, and then having star QB Adam Lane knocked out of the game, stand-in QB Pete Rogers passed for 2 TD's to Mark Squire and Tam Bryne. Rogers tied the scores at 7-7 on a pass to Squire, but with 2.45 left in the 3rd quarter, France took a 14-7 lead. With just over 10 minutes left in the match, Rogers passed for his 2nd TD of the game (to Tam Bryne), and a courageous call by Coach Riq Ayub to go for the 2 PAT was successful when Steve Coles burst over the line to give GB a 15-14 lead. France kicked a 25 yard field-goal with 3.30 mins left to lead 17-15, but GB were not to be denied as Pete Rogers kicked a 30 yard field goal with 38 seconds remaining in the game to give the Lions the Pool B championship.


GB's D-line celebrate

GB Lions at EuroFlag

The GB Lions under-13 and under-15 sides competed in their eleventh successive Euro flag campaign in Dusseldorf in September and once again came back with honours. The under-15 squad were the defending European champions, and started the tournament with a 35-13 victory over Finland before being overturned 32-12 by Italy. In their group play off game they were narrowly squeezed out 39-31 which meant them facing Finland once more in the seventh-eighth ranking game. A 52-6 victory over the Finns proved that on another day they were still among the elite in Europe.

The under-13’s swept into the finals with a 32-21 win over muchfancied France and disposing of the Netherlands with an emphatic 35-7 score line. The Lions took on Germany in the final and the home side struck a double touchdown blow to see off the British youngsters 31-12. In the eleven years the Lions (formerly the Knights) have secured nine silver and one gold medal, proof of the standard of football that can be produced on these shores.

GB Lions Youth Kitted

In November, the GB Lions Youth Kitted team played their only fixture of 2004, when they lost 40-13 at Crystal Palace against the German Youth champions, the Dusseldorf Panthers. Ian Jacquet and Sam Fogg scored the Lions TD's on passes from QB Mead.

College

BCAFL teams got their 2003/2004 season started again after Christmas with 10 teams competing on the last Sunday in January. The unbeaten Birmingham Lions continued their winning streak overcoming Bath 21 – 6, and Brighton kept their hopes alive with a 21-0 over Reading, but in February a 6-0 away defeat to Plymouth seemed to dash their chances. Birmingham sealed the Central Division with a 26-13 deciding victory over Warwick on the back of 3 TD passes from star QB Stuart Ennis. The cold weather could not stop Birmingham Lions QB Stuart Ennis from breaking the single season TD passing record. Against Bath last week the record was tied at 23 but with 3 further TD passes in the victory over Warwick it was exceeded with still one game left in the regular season.

Staffordshire clinched the Northern Western conference with a 36-10 win over Hull Sharks in week 12, and Stirling Clansmen clinched the Borders Division with a 30-28 win over Glasgow thanks to a late TD from Jon Sutherland. Loughborough Aces crammed three games into the last 8 days of the regular season, and clinched a playoff spot with a gutsy 12-10 away win over Bath with James Hossack 40 yard catch clinching the win.

With the final week of the regular season over the playoff teams could finally be confirmed. In the North, Staffordshire, Leeds and Glasgow won their divisions and the top three seeds in that order. The next three teams were Loughborough, Nottingham and Glasgow - who beat Sheffield into the playoffs on tiebreakers. In the South Birmingham, Hertfordshire, Cardiff and Southampton all won their divisions and claimed the top four seeds again in that order, with Warwick and UEA also qualifying at the expense of Bristol who lost out on tiebreakers.

Southampton secured their place in the second round defeating Warwick at Southampton, a strong second half performance ensured the win against a Wolves team coached by former Stags coach Andy Capp. They went through to face Birmingham, and last years runners-up Hertfordshire (along with Birmingham the leagues only other unbeaten side) went through to face Cardiff. In the Northern Conference both winners came from behind to progress. Last years champions Stirling came back from an 18 point halftime deficit to beat the Glasgow Tigers 32 - 24. 3-time College Bowl champions Loughborough powered past Nottingham in the second half to come out 40 - 7 winners (Craig Flower with 2 rushing TDs). Stirling went through to face Staffordshire in a rematch of 2003’s Conference Final, only this time it would be contested south of the border. Loughborough meanwhile travelled north to take on old adversaries Leeds. Cardiff overturned UEA Pirates 8-0 away in a midweek playoff game thanks to QB Lance Godfrey’s bootleg to score.

In the quarterfinals the 2003 champion, Stirling Clansmen, lost out to Staffordshire 28 - 6. The Clansmen got the first TD in the first quarter but Staffs struck back right away returning the kick-off for a TD. They went on to score in each of the following quarters to reach their second successive Northern Conference Final. In the other playoff game in the North, Loughborough went in at the half with a 14 - 0 lead before Leeds struck back with a TD in the third and two more in the fourth quarter. They moved on to the Conference Final where they were looking to seek revenge against Staffordshire who knocked them out in the second round of the playoffs in 2003. The Southern Conference also went with seeding with both Birmingham and Hertfordshire coming off bye weeks to move into the Conference Final. Birmingham secured a shutout victory and the offense scored 33 points against the Southampton defense. The Hurricanes also had a shutout victory against the Cardiff Cobras and scored a TD in each quarter to keep the scoreboard ticking over as they came out 26 - 0 victors.

It was Hertfordshire and Staffordshire who progressed to College Bowl XVIII with semi-final victories. Staffordshire took the Northern title with a 30-22 home win over Leeds. Leeds took the lead on Joe Coultate’s run, but TD’s from Ant Charles and Brett Rosenbaum put Staffs ahead. Leeds pulled the scores level on Chris Kuc’s catch. Charles put Staffs ahead again, but again Leeds came back when Gregson powered his way into the endzone. Staffs snatched victory in the dying seconds of the game when Charles found TE Ziad Choueiri open at the back of the endzone with 22 seconds left on the clock, Prince added the 2PAT.

Hertfordshire prevailed in the battle of the two teams with perfect records in the South. Tom Scott opened the scoring for the Hurricanes, but Birmingham hit back on David Winter’s catch. Junior Price put the Hurricanes back ahead, and Adam Camp extended the lead when he recovered a fumble in the endzone for the TD. Birmingham came back into it with scores from Alexander and Winter, but the Hurricanes D stepped up, and Camp scored his second TD of the game, and Hartley sealed the win with a 5yd TD.

The Hurricanes have defeated the Staffordshire Stallions 27-6 to win College Bowl XVIII at Rams Stadium in Dewsbury. On Saturday 70 mph winds tore down a goal post at Rams Stadium, but it was not enough to deter the College League who improvised a replacement to enable the 18th College Bowl to take place. Hertfordshire were playing in their 5th College Bowl in 7 years while Staffordshire were playing in their first. The teams traded possessions in the first quarter, which remained scoreless despite good drives by both teams. The Hurricanes took the lead with 4:58 remaining in the half when RB Andy Cochrane scored on a 4 yard run. Cochrane went on to rush for 201 yards and received the Game MVP for his efforts. RB David Hartley extended the Hurricanes to 14 with just 2 seconds remaining in the half when he capped an 8-play 58-yard drive with a 1-yard plunge. The Stallions were unable to get anything going in the third quarter and went further behind with 14:53 minutes to go in the game when QB Junior Price rolled in around the right from 1 yard out to put the Hurricanes almost out of sight. Price secured the victory with a 20-yard pass to WR Richard McHugh on a perfectly timed pass in the corner of the end zone. WR Stuart Wren got a consolation score for the Stallions who refused to give in. Wren scampered in on a reverse from 33 yards out with 4:50 left in the game. The Stallions then recovered an onside kick but failed to capitalise and the Hurricanes secured their 4th title in the last 7 years. 


Hurricanes won the College Bowl

After the 2003/4 season, the Birmingham Lions travelled to Belgium and defeated the Leuven Lions 34-0 in an end of season friendly.

The GB Bulldogs announced Graham Thorpe as their Head Coach for the 2004 season, and announced fixtures against Team Canada, the IAFL All-stars, a two-match tour of California and a game against Team USA. Before the BCAFL 2004/2005 season started, the GB Bulldogs lost 34-14 against an impressive Team Canada, and then thrashed the IAFL All-stars 69-6 in a friendly match at Moorways Stadium in Derby. The Bulldogs led 41-6 at half time, and eased to a convincing victory in the second half.


Bulldogs vs IAFL Allstars

They then departed on a two game tour of California, where they also took in an Oakland Raiders game. They scrimmaged against the Menlo College Varsity side losing 53-15. In the main game of their tour, they lost 48-7 to the NCAA Menlo College Oaks University team.

In their final fixture they lost 26-10 against a classy Team USA.

Three new sides joined the BCAFL for the 2004/2005 season, and one of them, Greenwich Mariners were competitive from the off with a 50-6 win over APU Phantoms in week 1, and then a 18-14 win over Leicester in week 4. They ended 2004 with a 2-2 record. The other 2 clubs joined the Northern Conference Scottish Division -–Napier University Edinburgh and Paisley Pyros.

As 2004 ended, six clubs were in a good position to qualify for the playoffs with each so far having perfect seasons – Glasgow Tigers (5-0), Leeds Celtics (5-0), Sheffield Hallam Warriors (4-0), Birmingham Lions (4-0) and 2004’s champions Hertfordshire Hurricanes (4-0).

Ireland

The UL Vikings opened the season playing all of their games due to the university terms. They put in solid performances but were defeated in the season opener against Cork 19-5, and also 13-0 in the return fixture. Dublin Dragons opened with a narrow 8-7 win over the Vikings, and the Carrickfergus Knights showed their intentions with a 19-0 shutout win over the Belfast Bulls. The Dublin Rebels opened their season with a crushing 50-0 win over the Vikings, and the luckless Vikings were then trounced 47-7 by Carrickfergus. The Dragons consolidated their impressive start with a 26-12 win over Cork, but then fell 20-12 to Belfast and narrowly lost 12-6 in the Dublin derby against the Rebels. The league decider came in June, when the Rebels hosted Carrickfergus at Greystones and won 26-12. Belfast Bulls showed they could push the big two when they tied 21-21 with the Knights and lost narrowly to both the Knights (20-13) and the Rebels (28-14). The semi-finals were played in August, and Dublin Dragons early season form earnt them a place against the Rebels, which the Rebels won 38-12. Carrickfergus hosted Belfast in the other semi-final, and cruised to a 23-0 win. The Dublin Rebels won Shamrock Bowl XVIII, the closest in IAFL history, with a 24-22 victory over the Carrickfergus Knights. The Knights nearly clinched victory with only 1:06 left in the fourth quarter, but had a successful 40-yard field goal cancelled by a penalty for having twelve men on the field at the time of the kick. The game, which was played at Greystones Rugby Club also attracted the largest crowd in many years and featured a half time show for the first time ever. The Rebels rallied from a 22-8 half-time deficit with 2 TD passes from Andrew Dennehy to Brian Dennehy in the 3^rd quarter, and then to Mark Kelly in the 4^th quarter. Brian Dennehy scored the crucial 2 PAT to win the game for the Rebels.

John Carroll University of Ohio made the first visit of a U.S. college football team to Ireland since Notre Dame played Navy in the Shamrock Classic in 1996 and provided DeMonte with his first test as national programme co-ordinator. There have been 6 competitive games in Ireland involving visiting U.S. College teams since Boston College and Army played in the first Emerald Isle Classic in the 1980s. However, unlike the previous games, the Celtic Classic was the first time that the visitors played against an Ireland team entirely composed of players playing domestically in the Irish American Football League (IAFL). John Carroll showed their class, with a 52-2 win.

The IAFL All-stars then travelled to England to take on the GB Bulldogs (the BCAFL All-star team) in a friendly at Moorways Stadium in Derby. The IAFL All-stars suffered a 69-6 loss with RB Dave Wheeler scoring the lone score. The IAFL All-stars look to play more fixtures in 2005, which the ultimate aim of Ireland entering the EFAF European Championships at the next opportunity.

Senior Flag

Following the British Senior Flag League AGM in February, the member clubs voted overwhelmingly to amend the name of the league to the English Senior Flag League. The reason was that Scotland has the SFFA for their clubs, and the name BSFL was deemed outdated.

Team England lost all 3 World Cup matches against the three strongest opponents they could have drawn in the 2004 World Cup of Flag Football in the Dominican Republic in February - USA, Canada and Israel. They put in a great performance against Canada going down 18-6 (Chichester Sharks duo of Nick Watson and Pete Steele connecting on the TD) in arguably the greatest performance by an England side. They also defeated the Dominican Rep 36-6 in a friendly. Canada won the title with a 12-8 win over USA.

The English Senior Flag League opened their 2004 season in March with their first All-star games. The Southern Pirates took on the Northern Knights in a 9man friendly match, which the North won 28-6 thanks to a 100 yard running game and 2 TD's from MVP Michael Soboagl. The Pirates gained revenge in the 5man challenge match with an 18-6 win.

In April, the 5man season started in fine fashion with Leicester Eagles winning the opening ESFL tournament of 2004 at Birmingham in Easter Bowl II with three wins out of three. North Devon and Staffordshire also finished the tournament unbeaten.

In May, England travelled to Dublin to compete in the second Senior Flag 7man international between the two countries. The England side was made up of 18 experienced players that had been drawn from 6 ESFL sides, and emerged victorious 13-6 in a tight game. Following Andre Clarke's interception, QB Roy Tanton (North Devon) picked out Nick Moffat (Fen Harriers) from two yards out to put England ahead on half time. Nick Watson (Chichester Sharks) found Gurkinder Mann (Staffordshire) for the 1PAT. Ireland pulled the score back to 7-6, but Abdul Lawal's (Bournemouth Raiders) 21yard-interception return for a TD sealed the win for England.

The ESFL entered a Northern and Southern England side in the Flag Oceane competition, and a Scottish side also entered the competition. It was the Scots who did the best finishing 11th, with ESFL North coming 13th and ESFL South 15th in the 20 team competition in Le Havre, France.

In June, Team USA jetted over to England to compete in an IFFF World Cup qualifier over two days in Fareham. They were joined by the French League champions, the Troyes Pygargues, and both sides reached the 5man final on the Saturday. USA trailed 6-0 to the French team at half time of the final, but they rebounded with 4 scores without reply to win 25-6 in the final. 9 sides took part in the day's event with a round robin stage followed by a knockout competition. The top English sides were from Bournemouth and Derby who reached the semi-finals. Troyes defeated Bournemouth 27-6 in the semi-finals, with USA edging out Derby 28-13.

Team USA won the 9man senior flag competition on the Sunday to complete a double victory in the IFFF World Cup qualifier. For the second successive day they faced French opposition in the final. The tournament was made up of 4 other sides from England, with Leicester Eagles and Andover Thrashers reaching the semi-finals. USA turned over Leicester 14-0, and Troyes defeated Andover by the same score. In the Championship game, Team USA's Adam Desanctis started off the scoring on a 60 yard scamper, Jim Zimolka then caught a 15 yard pass from Pat Connelly to give the USA a comfortable 13-0 lead. Troyes scored on a 10 yard pass from QB Flavien Charles to WR Eric Pierre to pull the French side within a point. The games final score came on Desanctis's 60 yard TD jaunt, as USA ran out 20-6 winners. Adam Desanctis scored six touchdowns on the day as he was awarded MVP Honours.

Leicester Eagles continued their domination of the 2004 9-man league with wins over Fen Harriers (26-6) and Andover Thrashers (26-16) in the Harriers Challenge Cup. The Harriers beat Andover 32 - 12 to post a 1-1 record for their first tournament of the year, and Andover Thrashers record dropped to 1-3.

The Leicester Eagles then travelled over to the Irish Republic to play the Drimnagh Cycos in the 8th Anglo-Irish Flag American Football Challenge in Dublin in July, and it was the Eagles who came out on top for the second successive year, 28-6. James Hossack scoring two TD's and catching two interceptions.

Team England got their training for the 2005 World Cup in Miami off to a slow start as they fell to a 16-12 defeat against Andover in September, and continued their preparations for the tournament with further training sessions in the Autumn.

Leicester Eagles sealed the 9man title with two wins in September against the Fen Harriers and the Chatham Sharks to complete a perfect 6-0-0 season. The Eagles retained the title they won in 2003 and 2002.

After a gap of four months from the Fareham 5man tournament, the Barbarians took the next ESFL 5man tournament on points scored from the Bournemouth Raiders in Autumn Bowl II at Chichester. Barbarians finished with two wins out of three, as did Bournemouth, with Chichester and the Bournemouth Deckchairs finishing 1-2-0.

Horsham College hosted four teams in a friendly 5man tournament, which was one by Chichester Sharks in November.

Team England announced the squad and management for the 2005 World Cup in December with Nick Watson, Jason Prowse and Hitesh Patel joining the team management, and being joined by a squad of 27 made up from 6 different ESFL clubs. There are high hopes for this group of players in February 2005.

Once again the Youth Kitted season schedule had to be revamped due to teams pulling out, some a week before the first game, with the originally intended three Conferences having to be reduced to two. The Scottish and Northern Conferences became the Northern Conference, Southern stayed the same. The season opened with Bristol winning 15-14 at London Blitz, but the Blitz bounced back 2 weeks later with a stunning 50-18 against newcomers Kent Brewers. Perennial achievers, the Lancashire Wolverines started off with a sound 32-0 win over Milton Keynes Pathfinders. Bristol continued their winning start to the season with two wins over Kent (36-18 and 54-34). Bath Cardinals after coming so close in 2003, opened their season with 3 successive wins, and then in June crucially won 11-8 against arch-rivals, the Bristol Aztecs. Bristol won 19-5 in the return fixture, but it was Bath who took the Southern title.

In the North, the 2003 British champions, the Clyde Valley Hawks opened with a 40-12 win over rivals, the North Lanarkshire Rams, and in the highest scoring game in many a year Harrogate won 60-38 at Milton Keynes. The Rams bounced back to win at home to Harrogate, and then stunned everyone by winning 14-12 against the Hawks in their return fixture. A 32-28 win over Glasgow in their last regular season game clinched the Scottish title.

Bath Cardinals won BYAFA Bowl XVI with an 18-14 win over the North Lanarkshire Rams. The Plate Final saw the Lancashire Wolverines take on Kent Brewers who literally stepped in at the last minute to save the day. Lancashire won the game against a continuously battling Kent side.

The news for 2005 is that the London O's are busy rebuilding and may be back next year, and a team in Birmingham called the Greets Green Gators are also looking to enter .The Yorkshire Rams are also hopeful of starting a youth team in 2005, and in Scotland it is hoped to see the return of the Inverclyde Sharks and the Moray Firth Dolphins in 2005.

In December, England took on Scotland at Stirling in the 6^th Under-19 fixture between the countries – Scotland levelled the series at 3-3, with a convincing 27-0 win. Two touchdowns by Glasgow Tigers and game MVP Ian "Sparky"Dick along with a score apiece from club team mates, Rafe Shanmugan and Derek Russell wiped out any chance that the English had.

BYAFA also ran their first Junior 5 on 5 tournament season, with a total of 10 individual teams taking part. PA Knights defeated the Inverclyde Raiders 24-12 for the British Championship, with the MK Pathfinders winning 56-8 against the Yorkshire Rams in the 3^rd place playoff.

Scotland