swindongridiron: News

The start of the 2010 season for the Royals saw them travel to Kent with the brand new offensive playbook and boy did it prove effective. The team put up 57 points against Kent, much different from last years encounter. The defence only allowed 2 touchdowns in the scrimmage so the Royals came home a very happy team. It was a great chance for the young guys in the squad to get a taste of football for the first time. After the Kent game, the Royals travelled to Reading to take on the Rebels. The Rebels are a team pretty much in a similar position as the Royals, been around for a couple of years, but they were joining the league this season. It was a close tightly contested game with the Rebels coming out on top winning with a one touchdown deficit. 

What will the rest of 2010 have in store for the Royals? Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see. 

Well the team is now fully into the training camp for the Winter with a new playbook being installed to all players, new and old. The returning faces are excited about the new season and the new faces are looking forward to playing some football. With the indoor training sessions being used to really concentrate on installing the playbook, the outdoor sessions are being used to teach the fundementals of football, both sessions being enjoyed by all. With a talented bunch of guys now a part of the Wiltshire Royals team, the whole of the BAFL will be running scared when they hear the Royals are on their way into town.

 Lets have a good Winter camp guys, and enjoy it!

Ross

Wiltshire Royals running back Craig McLeod has landed in Nebraska kicking off his career in American Collegiate Football.

Midland Lutheran College play in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) div 2 in the US and are tipped for a play off position after a winning season in 2008/09. Craig will join them on the field from Monday the 14th Aug as a Tailback after receiving a scholarship to play football and signing on to study psychology at the university.

All at the Wiltshire Royals wish Craig the best of luck for the future.

Well it's been a while since the site has been updated and during this time, the Wiltshire Royals have made two road trips, one to the Hampshire Thrashers, and another to one of the top teams in the country, the London Blitz.

 Wiltshire Royals @ Hampshire Thrashers

First up came the trip to Hampshire. We set off in the morning in high spirits, the weather was perfect for football, sun was shining and only a light breeze in the air. After we got kitted up, we joined the Thrashers team in a joint mini training session so that both teams could learn from each other and our different coaching points. This went on for about half an hour but then it was friendships aside and it was football time. The Thrashers started off with 10 scripted plays from their 40 yard-line. As always, the Royals defence made the biggest impact in the blistering sun. The Royals held the Thrashers to negative yards in their first scripted set with team sack leader Dan Thorne getting a sack and Ross Parsons getting an interception to add to the impressive Royals defensive stats. For our first play of our scripted set, we put the ball in the hands of our team yardage leader, Craig McLeod. As with the Kent game, his first touch put the big six on the board with Craig taking it to the house with a 60 yard run. After another few positive gains with the run, we went to the pass. Ross threw it up top to Richard on the left flank for it to fall just out of the reach of his outstretched arms, but this was a positive sign that the Thrashers were weak in the secondary...as to be proved later. Again, after another few runs Craig broke another big run and ended up in the endzone again for his second touchdown of the day. The Thrashers took the ball again on offence but could not get past the great Royals defence. In the second set of scripted plays, the Royals went to the passing game a bit more with Ross completing 4 of 6 passes on this drive. The final pass was a completed bullet to none other of Mr.McLeod in the endzone again...putting number 3 on the board for his stats. Josh Smith also took a 5 yard scamper into the endzone to put up the 4th Royals touchdown. The coaches then decided to let the teams go at it in a full quarter of football. The Royals were confident in their ability and with the kickoff, Chris Lishman took the ball 80 yards to the house for the Royals score for the first ever Royals special teams touchdown. The defence remained strong only letting a handful of plays go for positive yards, but soon took the ball backwards with Dan Thorne notching up a few more sacks to his tally. The Royals got the ball back from a punt, and put together a solid offensive drive getting to the 15 yard line. With the ball in the red-zone, Coach Preston told us to go for the jugular. However as the ball is snapped, Ross fumbles the centre/quarterback exchange. Luckily, the offensive line gave him enough time to pick up the ball and roll out to the right, away from the play side where he only had one reciever. Josh was waiting in the back of the endzone behind a defensive-back and Ross looped a ball over his head into Josh's hands to add futher heartache for Hampshire. Craig added a few more scores to his tally and ended up setting the Royals record for touchdowns scored in one game at 5 touchdowns. Throughout the day, Hampshire had no reply for our offence and defence and it was an emphatic performance by the Royals, yet again showing why we will be a top contender for the BAFL Youth in a few years time. Stats for this game are on the Royals facebook page.

Official Scoreline: Wiltshire Royals 56-0 Hampshire Thrashers

Wiltshire Royals @ London Blitz 

After a looooonnnnnggggg road-trip to London, we met one of Britains best teams, the London Blitz. They however had the smallest squad we have ever faced, only 5 more than us, which boosted our morale. We had game-planned for this match for two weeks and where hoping to show that we could fight with the big dogs. The day started off both teams running scripted sets. The Royals defence as always made an instant-impact forcing and recovering a fumble on the very first play. Phil Bardwell showed us that he is built for the Royals on the second play, stopping the Blitz' "money play", the Jet Sweep for a loss of yards. The Royals struggled to get going on offence with a few fumbled snaps. Most runs went for a positive gain however. The Blitz got the ball back and again, the defence stepped up and forced the first ever defensive safety in Royals history. The defence remained strong and it stayed scoreless. This changed when the Royals got the ball on offence. After a few positive plays the ball was fumbled on the right side of the pitch and the Blitz taking it back to the endzone. Morale dropped slightly for the Royals but we knew our defence would pick it back up. The next scripted plays were with moving chains from the red-zone. The Blitz tried their passing game throwing one into the end-zone, unfortunatly for us to be batted into a Blitz players hands. However a bright spark for our defence was when the ball was intercepted on the 5 yard line. The Royals got the ball on offence in the same position trying to conjure up some of the magic that was seen in Hampshire. Again, a lot of run plays went for small, but positive gains but the passing game was not in good shape, until. On the last play of the scripted plays, Ross took the ball and bootlegged out right where Chris was WIDE-OPEN (seriously, no-one within 15 yards of him), Ross threw a controlled pass easy for Lishman to catch and the Royals had put a TD on the board to the disgust of the Blitz defence. After this, we went into 2 quarters of football. The Royals defence strong as ever kept the Blitz offence in check for the most part. The Royals put the first points on the board with Dan Thorne getting the first ever Royals safety to make it 2-0. Our defence continued to stay strong until they threw one deep down the right flank for a 40 yard gain, credit to London it was a spectacular pass and catch. The play after this they threw into the back of the endzone for a tip-toe catch and the score. The Royals had had enough and it was time for #80 to step-up. Craig took the ball on a pitch left, broke a few tackles, and out-raced the Blitz safety for an 80 yard touchdown...the team went crazy, great moment in Royals memory.The Blitz were then forced to punt. The Royals went out with a bit of confidence but a weak pass from Ross was picked off and taken to the endzone for the second Blitz score.The end of quarter came with our defence forcing a safety to put the score at 14-9 in favour of London. In the second quarter, it was scoreless but the Royals saw most of the ball thanks to another brilliant performance from our defence. The day ended with our heads held high showing that we can play with the big dogs. The London Blitz players being great sportsmen at the end congratulating all of us on a brilliant performance for a non-league team...but watch out London, we will be soon ;)

 Official Scoreline: London Blitz 14-9 Wiltshire Royals

Guys, it's been a great few months for the Royals...really progressing a a team with two brilliant performances. Lets keep up the good work and go and embarress Nottingham in front of their seniour team :D

Just a little word regarding Steve McNair. It's a sad time when any athlete dies, especially in a sport so close to our hearts. From the Wiltshire Royals, we send our thoughts and wishes to the McNair Family.

                                           Ross

Tasty victory over the redditch arrows on sunday. Scored 3 touchdowns whilst only conceding one in the controlled plays and this was a sign of things to come. The live 4th quarter ended in a royal victory, as we scored an impressive 3 touchdowns in a 22-0 win. Ross ran two in and completed a td pass with Craig and Balsy gettin 2 point conversions to rack up more points. Great day overall, bring on the exiles.

The last couple of months have been great for the team with 3 scrimmage games taking place and coming out with 2 wins to 1 loss. This is a great achievement for a young team.

Our first trip was to Redditch where we pulled off a rather devestating perfomance against the Arrows, offence and defence combining to make an unstoppable team.

The week after we travelled to the Kent Exclies where our defence prevailed. The Exciles were hed to very little offensive yards with our defensive line and line-backers playing hard smash-mouth football that only the Royals can do. Offensivly we were hit and miss, passing game was consistant but not productive. The stand-out player being Craig McLeod having yet another 100+ yard game and scoring all of our offensive touchdowns from the 40yard range. Injuries were a problem in this game, as a team we suffered our first concussion when Dan Thorne landed on the top of his head...video on youtube soon. Again though, a very good performance against what was a tougher challange than the Redditchgame.

A few weeks later we faced our toughest challenge yet, a trip to the Bristol Aztecs. We went into this game knowing that it would be tough, but were Royals, so we put full heart into it. We showed how much this game meant to us when we began training before the game almost an hour before the Aztecs even turned up. When they did, 40+ guys walking out onto the pitch looked intimidating but we we weren't phased, as we had been in this situation before. The game started brightly for us forcing the Aztecs to punt early. Our first play on offence almost blew the Aztecs away when Craig McLeod took a pitch to the left 60 yards and almost to the house. This was a great boost for our team but we were soon brought back down to earth when the Aztecs forced a fumble. This was the theme for the 1st half, good plays on offence, some missed opportunities and the Aztecs capitalising on this. At half-time the Aztecs were 3 touchdowns up. The second-half was a different picture. We started to enjoy the game and as a result, perfomance level went up with our defence once again being outstanding and forcing a number of turnovers and an interception in the endzone. Again though, the Aztecs capitalised on a fumble and punched the ball in the endzone one final time. Now was our time to show that we weren't pushovers. Our defence, being great in the 3rd quarter showed up again with a number of sacks and a fumble recovery. The offence got the ball again and it all started to click. Craig McLeod and Aaron Lee having a few good gains carrying the ball driving us down the field from our 40. In the red-zone we switched up and went to the passing game with it resulting in a touchdown pass from 9 yards out. However this was reversed because of a holding call. The play after the penalty we went back to the pass with Ross Parsons throwing a jump-ball for Jamie Bustin in the corner of the end-zone to pluck it out the sky from 14 yards out. This gave the team a real sense of pride and showed that we can play with the big-dogs. The remainder of the game was a defensive battle with the Royals defence getting the better of the Aztecs but no-more scores from either team. 

The Bristol game proved how far we have come as a team in such a short time and you all should be proud of yourselves. Keep up the hard work and we'll head back to Bristol one day and beat them.

A quick message regarding Coach Bennett. The whole Wiltshire Royals team wishes you good luck in the 4 months that your away.

See you soon guys...

        Ross

1-2-3 ROYALS!