TIGERS A+

The cream of young Scottish gridiron talent converged on Wilshaw’s Beltane Playing Fields for the latest round in the BYAFA Junior Kitted Tournament Series.

Despite this being a national contest, only four Scottish gridiron franchises battled it out in the latest round robin contests which will hopefully lead to an a appearance in the UK NationalFinals later in the year.

Leading the charge at the weekend were reigning UK Champions, Clyde Valley Falcons, two teams from the Glasgow Tigers organisation, Paisley Panthers and the Highland Wildcats from Inverness.

With the game reportedly struggling at youth level and speculation concerning a Scottish senior side pulling out of this year’s schedules, (more to come on that one I am sure) here we had evidence that Scotland was thriving in terms of up coming American Football talent, male and female.

And giving have the chance you could easily drum up a formidable Scottish National side, but there would be little chance of that happening as it would disrupt the British set up’s cunning plans for developing the game up here

But I digress – not for the first time. As for the day itself, it belonged to the first string roster of the Glasgow Tigers who gave notice that they will be strong contenders for the UK title having come through the day undefeated to take the honours to take the Clyde Valley tournament.

In day that was perfect for a day of football, there was a lot on the line for these teams, who turned in some first class hard hitting football that would make an Auld Firm game look like a walk in the park.

On the opening contests it was the worst possible start to Paisley who fell to a 66 point white wash against the Wildcats.

On the other field, it was the first out of the day for the reigning champions, Clyde Valley Falcons who could not contain the powerful attacking threat of the Tigers A side, who ran up a comfortable 33-18 win.

Things started to look up for the Falcons on the next match up when they overpowered the Tigers B side 45-6. And the Glasgow side’s misfortunes were to continue when they were edged out 28-19 by Paisley.

Worse was to come for the Tigers B when they were crushed 58-0 by the Wildcats with Paisley suffering similar misfortune against Tigers A being on the receiving end of a 49 point whitewash.

Judging by the results so far there was no surprise on the next game when they Glasgow A ran riot against Glasgow B by 50-0. On the other field the scene was set for a hotly contested decider after the Wildcats overpowered the Falcons by 18 points.

The first string Tigers took the honours on the final match up of the day edging out the Highlanders 28-26, with the Falcons taking third spot with a 42 point whitewash over Paisley.