Broncos and Fillies flying the flag for Grangemouth

Over the past four years the tournament, which will be held at Ravenscraig on Saturday and Sunday (18-19 January) – has grown from a purely domestic competition to an event that attracts teams from all over the World.

As well as some home grown Scottish clubs, there will be teams from Austria, England, Holland, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, Russia and USA.

This year there is even more interest for the Whitecross based club. In addition to their BAFA Premier side, the Grangemouth Broncos, they will be represented in the Ladies Only section of the tournament by the new Grangemouth Fillies Ladies’ team.

There are six ladies teams playing a round-robin set of games, plus some placement games over the two days.

The Fillies will play some very experienced teams, some of whom have competed at the highest level in the UK and in Europe.

Hyde Park Renegades were runners-up in both the BAFA Opal Series and at Europe’s biggest tournament, Big Bowl, in 2019.

East Kilbride Pirates, the only other Scottish ladies team, over the past few years have regularly made the British finals and in 2019 were placed third.

Manchester Titans have been regular attendees at British finals, Sheffield Hallam Warriors are another top UK team and the Leeds Samurai Queens made good progress in their 2019 Opal Series debut.

The Ladies competition kicks off at 3:45pm on Saturday, running until 9:15pm,, and 12:25pm on Sunday with the Women’s final scheduled for 4:55pm.

In the mixed competition, the Broncos first opponents at 2:15pm, will be Coventry Cougars and in their next match at 4:15pm, the will face old rivals, the Edinburgh Outlaws.

The next game at 6:15pm will be against the Purmerend Barbarians from the Netherlands whilst the final game on Saturday for the Broncos will be against Victoria Park Panthers at 7:45pm.

The mixed competition final will be played at 5:25pm on Sunday.