Grangemouth Broncos gear up for BAFA finals

Grangemouth Broncos (orange and white) v Aberdeen Oilcats (black). (picture: Michael Gillen)

The Broncos will be playing on Saturday in the BAFA Premier League Finals and, on Sunday, the Colts will be playing in the Division 1 Plate competition.

The Broncos earned their place at Finals weekend by finishing top of the Highland North Conference (HNC) with 14 wins and only one defeat.

In the first round of Finals day, the quarter-finals of the British Championship, the Broncos will meet the fourth seed from the South region, the Northants Titans. The Titans sneaked into the finals with a seven wins and six losses record, but with a crucial win against the more fancied London Rebels. On paper, the Broncos should win the encounter, but this is now a knock-out competition and anything could happen. However, the Broncos should have more fire-power, with GB Lions player Callum Woods, plus GB reservists, Calum Young and Liam Fleming.

If the Broncos do progress past the first round, they will already surpass their best efforts. But that is when the competition will heat up. In the semi-finals, unless there is a shock result in the other half of the draw, the Broncos will face either Cardiff Hurricanes or old enemies the Glasgow Hornets. In the other two quarter-finals, Carnegie Flag (from Dunfermline) are going to be hard pressed to get much out of their game against the champions from the last two seasons, the Baker Street Buttonhookers, and London Smoke are likely to have too many weapons for Manchester Titans to cope with.

On Sunday, the Grangemouth Colts will be playing in the Division 1 Plate competition. This is a tournament for the best eight teams which didn’t make the Division 1 Finals. With seven Division 1 leagues around the country, only division winners, plus the best of the rest, get a place in the finals. The next eight teams with the best wins to losses record get to play in the Plate.

Unlikely as it seemed, the results just kept falling the Colts’ way and they suddenly realised they too were on their way to Manchester. Only problem with sneaking in at the last is, you are the bottom-seeded team and you will be playing the top seeds, the Buckinhamshire Wolves. Last year in the post season, the Colts were not at their best.

Both Broncos and Colts will each have to play three games on their day for the final placings.