Newcastle Hawks - Flag American Football

Blackhawks in Renfrewshire, our birds of prey fly north to seek a dub.
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Shadowhawks take the field at home today.
Time to step up.
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The Blackhawks returned to Ravenscraig 2 weeks after a frustrating 2nd place finish in Winter League – and came away with their highest ever finish in Flagging New Year (7th) – and 1 of only 3 UK teams to make the quarterfinals.

The day began with 4 wins – including a close match against Norwich Nomads. The final game of the day was a face-off for the group title – and ended with a frustrating loss (18-14) to last year’s 4th placed team Dutch Mambas.

Despite a 4-1 record, Day 2 shaped up to be especially challenging – down by 3 players from the original squad of 9 players (2 due to injury, 1 due to work). Fortunately, a Shadowhawks player was on hand (with a larger Aberdeen squad) to supplement numbers to a squad of 7 entering the Championship bracket.

First up were the eventual winners – with a final scoreline (33-20) that was closer than the reality. Next up were National League Grangemouth Broncos – in an extremely close game, the Blackhawks suffered heartbreak on the final play as time expired to lose 27-26. The day ended with a revenge victory over the Dutch Mambas 20-12

New Year, Same hunger.
The Blackhawks take on Flagging New Year. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

“Some work of noble note may yet be done.” Here’s the schedule for today’s games.

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Both teams will be back in action on 10th January for the final installment of Winter League, with training at Cochrane Park recommencing the following Tuesday

New players are always welcome, message the page to find out more 🏈

Your Shadowhawks travelled south to Halifax on Sunday afternoon in search of more CFL glory, this time in the form of 2025 Autumn Rookie Plate.

Three head to head games against the Calderdale Iron Horses awaited in near biblical conditions of heavy rain and swirling winds.

With points differential a deciding factor on the winner, the Shadowhawks tactically knelt out their final drive of game 1, when backed up against their own goal line with under 30s left to leave game 1 ending in a 20-20 tie.

This proved a wise decision as the O continued to put up scores and the D stiffened to see the Hawks take game 2 by the score of 21-6. Giving the Hawks a 15 point lead heading into the deciding game 3.

Both sides traded scores in the early going of game 3, before the Iron Horses took the win 18-12 following an unfortunate tipped pick 6, when the Hawks themselves had look set to score.

The overall score was therefore 53-44, giving the Shadowhawks a 9 point, 2 possession, win and their second CFL trophy 🏆 in their short existence.

The CFL awarded game MVPs to Hawks in each of the three games. Alex White in game 1, David Dunford in game 2 and Mark Laing in game 3.

Our overall MVP on the day was Owen Apedaile who had to fill in on O and D all day, and did so not only unselfishly for the team but also to good effect in both the scoring and tackling count.

The Shadowhawks gave themselves a solid foundation to build on in their Winter League opener, notching a win and a draw over six games against tough opposition.

With some strong rookie performances and a few highlight plays, the squad is looking to do even better in their next outing…

With one tournament in the books, the Blackhawks sit at the top of the tree at Winter League, collecting six wins out of six - including a shutout in the Battle of the Hawks in game one.

There’s still football yet to play, but it was a strong start on Saturday. Can the Blackhawks keep up the pace?

New faces. New schemes. New hope. Tomorrow, two Newcastle teams will start building for the new season at Winter League at Ravenscraig.

And it all kicks off with a hometown derby 👀

Which matchups are you looking forward to?