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| 2001 |
| THE LEAGUE CONTINUES And so did The Cougars' fine form. The League was supposed to be played in Stirling in week 3 but heavy snowfall prevented this and the schedule was to be played some other time. So in week 4 which was now week 3 the team travelled to Glasgow. Here a tactical change forced by Kerr Strachan's absence meant the Fraser McAndrew was to be put into the QB role. It was his link up play with Scott Davis that took the league by storm. Scott scored so many TD's and should really have got the MVP for that week. The Cougars ended the day 3-3 with wins against Galloway, West Coast and again a big win against Dundee (19 - 14), but loses to Strathclyde, Grangemouth and their old foes St Maurice's (which went into overtime) were more disapointing. THE COUGARS GET CHEATED When week 3 was postponed everyone assumed it would be played the week following week 4, but it never happened. The Cougars sitting 3rd top and still in with a shout of grabbing a final berth were felt aggreived when Dundee put themselves and Stratchlyde in the Scottish League Final. Fraser McAndrew and David Crawford went along to the final game and witnessed Strathclyde deservedly beating Dundee in a close game. PEEWEES TAKE OVER After the moderate success of the league, Head Coach Chris Smith decided to enter an under 14 team into The 2nd Annual Claymores Bowl. The tournament was held in Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh. In training the team looked good and had given the seniors a difficult game. On the day there was a large number of teams turning up. Two leagues were formed with the winners of each playing in a final. The Cougars were drawn in a group with The Inverness Blitz and The Strathclyde Posse. In their opening game, The Cougars held The Posse to a draw, but 3 wins in a row against a combination of Inverness and Strathclyde was enough to see The Cougars top their league and find themselves in The Claymores Bowl final for the second year running. For the 3 senior (David, Stephen B and Fraser) members who bothered to turn up to watch the younger team play it brought back memories of the previous year. The other finalists were the Burnfoot Dragons, a team who dispanded but reformed a while before the tournament. The teams were evenly matched for most of the game but unfortunately it was Burnfoot who ran out (literally) as winners by 39 pts to 47. It was agony for The Cougars team who performed so well all day. Either way they still proved that The Cougars are still up there with the best of the lot in Scotland when it comes to American Football. THE COUGARS FINALLY WIN From the end of The Claymores Bowl II to now there had been several key changes to the team. Another frantic few weeks in The Summer League saw The Cougars develop a new play book which was successful. The most noticeable was the change to full contact. By this time a number of the players were old enough now to play it. New players and coaches also came in. But we turn our attention to The Claymores NFL Kick-Off Tournament. This was the most successful tournament the team played in. The Cougars have beaten the Gallowy Eagles in the final of The Scottish Claymores NFL tournament in Glasgow. This may have been the best performance from the team, offennsively and defensively. The Cougars finished top of their group with a 3-0 record. The Day started good for them with a win against The West Coast Offense. PAUL GRANT played a stunner in defense with two early picks. They set up 15 and 20 yard TD passes. After that the team romped home for their first victory of the day. In the second game which was against the Tiger Sharks, Quarterback FRASER MCANDREW threw for 4 TD passes with his favourite targets being Receiver DARREN CORMACK and Running Back DAVID CRAWFORD. The defense in this game was superb with Cornerback KERR STRACHAN being particularly effective. The third game was against The Leopard Sharks and just like the first two with Fraser McAndrew hooking up with ANDREW MCKEIVER on numerous occasions. The final looked like a brilliant matchup. The Galloway Eagles swept all their opponents to one side to reach the final. On the very first play The Eagles scored. But The Cougars rallied and scored on a couple of possesions after without reply, STEPHEN BOYD was helping The Cougars' cause a great deal by scoring 2 TD's, one coming right at the end to ensure The Cougars won some silverware. Craigmount Cougars 26 V 07 West Coast Rhinos Craigmount Cougars 27 V 12 Tiger Sharks Craigmount Cougars 36 V 00 Leopard Sharks Final: Craigmount Cougars 19 V 12 Galloway Eagles The team also took part in a demo game of 5-on-5 contact with The Galloway Eagles too. All in all this was the most successful day in the team's history since they won The Regional Bowl just under two years ago. The younger players proved in the tournament that the future of this team looks bright. |