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READING UNIVERSITY'S BCAFL TEAM |
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The 1998-9 season was a year of disruption. Three games were postponed from their original dates for various reasons, and only one of these could be subsequently rearranged. It was also a time of transition for coaching, with several people invited from Oxford Saints, and Russ Seymour departing mid-season, as a result of his work taking him abroad. Also there were a number of long-time players coming up for their last year, so things looked so promising. The first game, scheduled against Leicester Lemmings, was postponed because the Saffron Lane stadium was unavailable - as BAFA Senior League had got there first to book it for their all-star game. In fact that was nearly postponed, as there were no unallocated referees. In the end the Lemmings could not find another suitable venue, so the all-star game went ahead with the officials released from our game. Hence the season started late, and Cardiff had already a win, gained 32-6 against the Southampton Stags and came to Whiteknights expecting that it would be all over by half time. There very nearly wasn't a game at all, with heavy overnight rain rendering the field into mud, and all other sport cancelled. It went ahead though with the somewhat reluctant permission of the groundsman as it hadn't been possible to contact Cardiff beforehand. The stodgy conditions may have played their part, but instead of the easy win Cardiff was expecting, scores were still a level overtime 6-6 at full time with a firm D led by Nathan Spencer, co-ordinated by Tony Porter, and Cardiff had been losing for much of the first half. Deep into the extra quarter the Cobras broke the tie by a score gained by a sweep to the left, where both the linebackers were rookies. The following week should have been another home game against Southampton Stags. However, the ground was still unfit after the Cardiff game that this was postponed, and the two teams respective schedules meant it could never be played. After another enforced week off the Knights came out flat in their away game against Bath. Travelling under strength the O failed to score, although this saw the emergence of Californian James Reid as a two-way player, previously only notable for complaining of the cold during the first training session, which was a sunny 18C day, Reid dropped into the tail back position and performed several bruising runs. The end of the game was marred by Bath attempting a score off the last play of the game, even though by then it was well won 19-2. This would happen with more dramatic outcome in the next game, just before Christmas. Highly usually, two of the Knights' out of division games were to be played against Northern Conference opposition. It seemed at first that the game at Derby might succumb again to the cancellation theme of the season, with the weather being close to freezing and the late cancellation of service by the coach company. A mass ringing round of alternatives appeared to be fruitless until a company was located who were prepared to hire a minibus and a small coach. Both vehicles were less than satisfactory on arrival, particularly the minibus that had a huge gap between door and body to let icy air through. Nevertheless, stuffing that up the gap with paper, and curling legs into contortions to get in, the team set off for the scenic route to Derby, and an hour's scenic tour round and round the city before finally arriving at the ground. Derby was in the middle of a good season for them, but like many places their ground had suffered through the winter. It didn't help that it was marked out for several sports and it wasn't easy to tell at times which of the three parallel lines of the same colour was actually the sideline. Again the offense found it difficult going, but on a freezing day Derby's Great Britain QB, Nick Hewett also had a well-below par performance, and he appeared frustrated by it. The game ended with another gratuitous attempt for an opposing team to score on a long last play. The result here was for Hewett to be hit from both sides and end up on the floor. The referee waived off his protestation that one of the hits was late, and peace had to be enforced in his last football act by Spencer separating Hewett and Tav Wright. After Christmas history repeated again, with the Whiteknights field being unplayable once more, leading to postponement of the game against Bristol. So the Knights headed off to their neighbours and some time rivals the Surrey Stingers. They were riding high at 4-1-1, their only loss at that time being to the eventual College Bowl XIII champions the Hertfordshire Hurricanes. The Knights at 0-3 didn't look to be much in the way of them marching on to the playoffs. February 7 was another cold day, and part of the game was played in snow flurries. The Stingers were kind enough to provide a copy of their offensive playbook along with the water containers, and this may have been a help in stopping the normally high-scoring Stingers offense, although nothing ought to take the credit away from the D on the field. In a grind it out game the Knights came back twice from behind to finish winning 18-14. The final play was an interception by Phil Spratt, as the clock was ran out by taking a series of knees. Surrey appeared as bemused by the way the game had ended as with the fact that they had lost. The next game for once was uneventful with the Knights being unable to reach the same heights and falling rather flatly 22-6 against the Bees. However, the year of bizarre happenings resumed at the next game. With the rain lashing down at Saffron Lane, hasty remedial long-snapping practice was confined to the stands - necessary as long-snapper Rob Courtney had absented himself from the game (many stories have been told why). Omens didn't look at all good after the heavens opened once more just at kick-off, and after less than 10 minutes four players were out of the game injured, one of whom had not made it onto the field, having caught his toe in the perimeter gate. Another (James Reid) had to be frog-marched up to the ambulance after sneaking back onto the field as LB after coming off at RB completely breathless. This was the right course as he was later diagnosed as having several cracked ribs. The remaining players battled on, and the conditions made it a tight affair. This was broken after a bad snap along the ground from the stand-in resulted in a very short field for the Lemmings to score from. A field goal seemed to take the game further out of reach, but then the ball was later turned over in a similar position enabling the Knights to bring the score back to 10-8. This was off the back of a punt which took the ball from deep in the Knights' end zone all the way to the Lemmings five-yard line helped by the gusting wind and a ten-yard penalty. With another drive on the way though time ran out. So, the final game of the season came around with the rearrangement of the home game against Bristol. It was the biggest turnout of players of the year - 28, with quite a crowd too, on a Sunday with probably the best weather experienced that season. Only problem was that Bristol never showed up. Not wanting to disappoint the crowd (!) a short exhibition game was played, and then everything was packed away. A real anti-climax. The 1998-9 season. A season that promised so much, packed with incident, but yet in the end a disappointing record of 2-5-1. |
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