The Lancashire Academy of American Football made a great start to the 2013 by coming together and welcoming the BBC's Mike Bushell and his film crew to try out the sport of American Football. On a cold friday evening at UCLan University over 100 representatives from youth teams Burnley Tornados, Chorley Buccaneers, Preston Pythons and Standish Raiders, university teams UCLan Rams and Lancaster Bombers and the Lancashire Wolverines & Colts were in attendance to show him the ropes in both flag and contact football.

The BBC joined the Academy to film an example of the sport to air on Saturday's BBC Breakfast show before this year's Superbowl in New Orleans.

Academy chairman Simon Purcell said "This has been a fantastic night not only for the Academy but for Britball as a whole. For us to have been given the opportunity to represent the British game just before the Superbowl is a privilege and shows how hard everyone in the Academy has worked in enabling us to become a beacon in the football community."

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Photography courtesy Nathan James Sharrocks

The Lancashire Academy of American Football were represented on BBC Radio Lancashire today (18th December) by Academy directors Caro Freeman and Dave Parker. They were on the show to spread the word of the fantastic work that the Academy has done with growth and achievement in the county.

Thank you to all that tuned in, have a look at around the site to see which Academy team is best suited to you!

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The Chorley Buccaneers have been a long-standing member of both the local community and the American football community in on field success and off field leadership.

And the team has been rewarded for its efforts with several nominations for local awards.

The Chorley Sports Awards run by the local Chorley Council has put forth the Buccs for the “Grassroots Club of the Year” and “Performance Club of the Year” titles as well as individual nominations for two coaches at the club.

Coach Ian Nicolson and Coach Lawrence Quinn both receive nods in the “Performance Coach of the Year” category after leading the youth kitted and youth flag teams respectively to their National Finals.

The club, which hosts its own awards night at Chorley Football Club on December 9^th, continues to uphold a huge reputation in the football community with many graduates going on to play junior and then senior football within the Lancashire Academy and even with the Great Britain Lions setup.

Coach Nicolson said of the nominations, “I think the fact that our club and coaches have been recognised for the Chorley Sports Awards is another fantastic achievement for the Bucs. Last year we were up for the Performance Club of the Year along with other clubs like Chorley FC, which is just simply amazing for our small club. Even if we don't win the fact that we are being noticed so much shows that our club is doing something right and heading in the right direction.”

A hard fought battle ended in a UCLan victory in their first competitive American football game. The team itself was a long time in the making, with the committee members putting in a lot of work to get the Rams up and running so it was great to see their perseverance rewarded on the field.

The Rams started badly, throwing an early interception, with MMU’s Chris Pullin getting the pick.

However the home team’s defence turned up the heat, with Chris Anderson recovering the ball immediately, diving on a fumbled snap.

A few exchanges followed, with neither side able to impose themselves on the other.

The offence finally began to roll, with running back Joe Nicholson and quarterback Jamie Coulston running strongly together on the option plays.

However MMU stopped them again, and Anderson missed the field goal attempt, leaving the score at 0-0 heading into the second quarter.

Stephen Lythgoe and Sam Bloomfield racked up back-to-back sacks to pin the Eagles deep and a great punt return resulted in the Rams starting on Manchester’s 30-yard line. The offence turned the ball over on downs but MMU were deep in their half.

Tom Hargreaves threw a pick on the next play, Anderson turning the ball over yet again, but this time returning it for six with some great blocking in front of him.

Bloomfield and Emmanuel Salami grabbed a pick each for the Rams whilst Tim Griffin grabbed one for MMU to wrap up what was a defensive first half.

The Eagles started the second half much brighter, driving the ball downfield strongly until the Rams stepped up in the redzone. The field goal attempt was fluffed, with Anderson dragging down the kicker to turn the ball back over to the home side.

Exchanges followed before Anderson, who had a great game, blocked an MMU punt, giving the Rams the ball on the away side’s 2-yard line. After failing along the ground, the Rams took to the air, with Coulston hitting Bloomfield for a touchdown.

The Rams led 12-0 but proceedings were soured slightly with a bad lower back injury to MMU’s Chris Pullin resulting in a long delay whilst he was stretchered off and taken to hospital.

The fourth quarter saw UCLan running the ball to burn the clock before punting back to Manchester. The Eagles began to drive, looking dangerous through the air with Tom Hargreaves throwing well. With 15 seconds left to grab a consolation score the Eagles threw towards the endzone but Bloomfield got up high, intercepting with a one handed grab to close out the game and grab a victory for the UCLan Rams.

“[I’m] really proud of the lads after a hard fought game!” said team captain Sam Bloomfield after the match. “MMU brought some game today as expected and thanks to our preparation we were able to carry on through to the final whistle. Next week we’ve got a huge effort against powerhouse Hallam and we’re getting ourselves mentally and physically ready for taking on a big time team.”

Courtesy Nathan James Sharrocks. www.DBLCoverage.com