Flagging New Year Recap January saw the return of one of our favourite tournaments which is luckily held by a team close to home in the Glasgow Hornets. This would be our 4th annual pilgrimage to Glasgow to compete at Flagging New Year as we have attended every event held. This would be the second year competing as just team Carnegie after finishing in what would be a disappointing 22nd in 2018. This year we were drawn in Group A alongside the Glasgow Hornets, Leeds Samurai, Balerna Beast & the Kocevje Wild Hogs which would prove to be a tough group and with 3 groups of 5 teams we wanted to try and get into the top half of our group.
Day 1 – Saturday 26th January 2019
Game 1 Vs Glasgow Hornets
Game 1 would be up against our Premier League Rivals the Glasgow Hornets which we had marked down as a tough game, knowing Glasgow would have big intentions of trying to win the whole thing so we knew we faced some tough competition from the get go. However to the surprise of many we found ourselves up 2 scores after a good first drive picking up the first 6pts and a handy interception giving good field position to get the second score however with the clock winding down to the half and Veteran QB Alan Young leading the charge of the Hornets they made a final push to end the half picking up a quick score to bring the game to 1 score. The second half seen Glasgow apply the pressure picking up a further 2 Touchdowns and they went for a 2 XP after the final Touchdown to put the game out of reach with a final 21-12 score line. It was a good first test for the Carnegie team and gave us a lot of positives going into the day ahead.
Game 2 Vs Leeds Samurai
Next up was against the Leeds Samurai which was a to and fro game with each team scoring on each other in succession. Carnegie would rue there chances to close the game out in the second half with 2 dropped interceptions and with Leeds having the ball with not much time left they would go up and score once more to take what would be the final score 19-13. Leeds certainly didn’t play like a Division One team and we much fancy them to do well in 2019 after that performance.
Game 3 Vs Kocevje Wild Hogs
The 3rd game of the day would come against the Slovenian Outfit from Kocevje the Wild Hogs. We have played this team before back at King Bowl 2018 in Utrecht and came out winners on that occasion 18-7. This time around it would be more of a team Carnegie than before so we knew it would be a tough, fast paced game and it was our favourite game of the day. Carnegie once more was able to drive the ball with great success finding the end zone for 2 scores avoiding one of the quickest blitzers we have seen and played against. Final score was 19-12 in favour of the Wild Hogs who would go the day unbeaten on the Saturday.
Game 4 Vs Balerna Beasts
The finally game of the day was against the team from Switzerland whom also had lost all 3 of their opening games and we knew that a win could maybe give us a chance of progressing to the Silver Bracket. We got off to a hot start going into the half 21-0 in front and looking comfortable for our first win of the day. This also gave the team a good chance to rotate everyone into the game and getting one more score in the second half gave the team a solid 28-0 win to end the day with 1 win and 3 losses however this score line would be enough to get us into the silver plate bracket for the Sunday Action.
Day 2 – Sunday 27th January 2019
Day 2 would see us compete in the silver bracket to compete for 7th to 11th positions respectively and this would see us compete with the Purmerend Barbarians, Leeds Samurai, Edinburgh Outlaws and the Coventry Cougars.
Game 5 Vs Edinburgh Outlaws
The first game on Sunday would be against another HNC Premier League team in the Edinburgh Outlaws and we knew this would hopefully give us an indication of how things might go in 2019 as they are a very good side and got some experienced players all over the field. The Game started well with both teams scoring early however it was the defence from Grant Hill picking up a vital interception that gave us a 2 score lead and making things a bit more comfortable going into the final moments of the game giving Carnegie a great start to day 2 with a 25-13 win.
Game 2 Vs Coventry Cougars
This game would turn out to be a new experience for the team as we have never played the cougars below so wasn’t sure what to expect as we hadn’t scouted or watched the team play. Unfortunately the cougars got off to a quick start with 2 unanswered scores in the first half but Carnegie had its chances going 4 and out within 10 yards of the end zone with Brandon Lamb just missing out on a completion early so this would mean the team were down 2 scores and it wasn’t long before the cougars added one more to make it 19-0 however not wanting to draw a blank the offence came up big with the clock running down to make a few big plays and pull a score back but a 19-6 loss was a tough one to take after our good start to the day.
Game 3 Vs Purmerend Barbarians
Next up was the Purmerend Barbarians who unfortunately found themselves in the silver bracket although having 3 wins and only 1 loss on the Saturday so we knew they were going to be one of our toughest test of the day. Very early Rookie QB Stuart Anderson exploited the defence gaps to get some early momentum and the team never really looked back picking up some 4th down stoppages on defence giving the ball back to the offence to pick up a great 21-13 win against the Barbarians.
Game 4 Vs Leeds Samurai
The final game of Day 2 and of flagging new year 2019 would be against the Leeds Samurai who we had come up short with in Day 1 so we wanted to get one back on them however Leeds came ready to play and really applied the pressure on defence early and with 2 scores in both halfs of the game it was a tough day at the office for Carnegie however not all was lost with us getting one score on the board at the end of the game however wouldn’t be enough falling 25-6 to the Samurai.
The 2-2 Record on the Sunday gave the team an overall record of 3 wins and 5 losses and we are not sure of our final position at the time of writing this post for Flagging New Year 4 but we think it was 9th based on other results but when we know we will update our post, we do want to take a moment to thank everyone involved in running and organising the day as it was a very cold 2 days outside but everything seemed to run smoothly on both days and also a huge thanks to our Carnegie Players for the Day in Heather and Tommy from the Glasgow Killerbees and Brandon from the West Lothian Chargers we appreciate your help and support. Well done to the Aberdeen Oilcats who ended up winning the Event also picking up a great win over the Glasgow Hornets in the Final.
