Double Coverage: Photography Competition!

It's that time again!

Last month we asked you, the British American Footballing community, to submit your best photographs to feature on our Facebook Page.

The competition was a rousing success with Denzil Byron becoming the face of the Double Coverage franchise for a month with this picture:

BAFANL: The Rule Changes – What you need to know.

Every year BUAFL adopt most of the rule changes from the previous year’s NCAA competition. BAFANL are even quicker on the uptake in that they adopt the rules a couple of months after the NCAA is over. There have been some significant rule changes, so make sure you’re clued up before you take the field come October this year, or even sooner come April.

BUAFL & BAFANL Match Reports

With the increasing amount of match reports we are receiving every week we have decided to make this statement to let you guys know how we want to receive them and to give you some pointers as to what we are looking for.

1) We ask that all match reports sent to us are attached as a Microsoft word document, with 12pt Calibri font as the body text and 12pt Calibri bold font as the header text.

2) We can only guarantee publishing match reports we receive by Wednesday lunchtime (12pm). After this our schedule is full of predictions and other weekend related content, so there can be no guarantee your work will be published (and we do hate leaving good work behind).

3) Try and mention as many names as possible, including the opposition teams names (all it takes is a quick email or facebook message)! One of our goals at Double Coverage is to give British American Football a "face" people recognise. Every team has their stars and legends, so give them an opportunity to be recognised through us.

4) Always try and add a photo (also attached) to the report. This also plays into giving Britball a face. If you can't get a photo then we will still publish your article, it just might not get as much attention as one full of photography.

If you are using a photographers photos please ask permission first and also ask how they want to be credited on the site. We are trying hard to work with the communities photographers, who are a crucial part of getting the image of American Football in the UK out to the world.

5) Details! The more detail the better! If you can include stats from the game we can edit them in or add them where we think appropriate. Any time you can get comment from head coaches or players is also great and adds to the depth of a reprot.

Thankyou for taking the time to read this and we look forward to reading your match reports!

BAFANL: Farnham Knights take a year out! What now?

With the sad news yesterday that the Farnham Knights would be closing down senior operations for the 2012 season and returning in 2013 in division 2 one huge question was thrown into the spotlight.

How else could BAFANL have changed the league and/or schedule in the Premier League?

We've been discussing this at Double Coverage and have come up with 4 possible permutations for you to mull over:

EDIT: AFTER WRITING THIS ARTICLE WE FOUND THAT IT HAS ALREADY BEEN DECIDED WHAT BAFANL ARE GOING TO DO. THEY HAVE ANNOUNCED THAT EACH TEAM PLAYING FARNHAM WILL BE AWARDED A 1-0 WIN (Option 2)!

BAFANL: Farnham Knights take a year out!

Earlier today our sources reported a rumour that the Farnham Knights had decided to take a year out. Reaction to this at first was shock, but when asked for official comment the Knights confirmed and said a press release was pending. Below is their release:

BUAFL: Edinburgh Varsity game report

Cheap Kit on the Horizon for the BUAFL and BAFANL?

From IFAF.com

The International Federation of American Football today launched the IFAF Equipment Program to benefit its 62 member federations and further the international growth of the sport.

The initiative aims to increase the number of participants worldwide by eliminating the greatest barriers to entry - the accessibility and affordability of playing equipment.

Dbl Coverage: Christmas Schedule

Remember, if you're not following us on Facebook, you're considerably less cooler than those who do.

The Christmas break is upon us! Normally a time of purgatory for blogs covering British American Football we at Dbl Coverage towers have put our collective brains together and formulated the following features we will be running to keep your hunger for BUAFL and Britball based banter/information/opinion satisfied!

As It Stands: A Feature where we will project the playoffs using the standings as they are now the first half of the season is done. Each game from the Champ Playoffs and Challenge Cup (Plate) playoffs will have it's own fictional game report, which I am sure will lead to much derision/conversation/admiration from many...

The Breakdown: We will take a look at each division in the BUAFL and breakdown how each team has done so far this season and how we expect them to do for the rest of the season. We will shortly be contacting teams for details to fill out this feature, the more detail you give us, the more we can write about you! Rep your team!

Photo Challenge: As many of you will have noticed (and if you haven't you need to like the Facebook page and follow us already) the top of our Facebook page is a barren wasteland. We want to fill it with the top 5 photos from this seasons BUAFL. What we want people to do is to upload their picture to imageshack (with the permission of the tog on your team if you need it) and post the forum link on our Facebook Page.

Then you will need to get everyone you know to vote for your picture! The top 5 pics will  be added to our Facebook page, so if you don't want to see a load of pics of Herts or Brum on there (ED: I can see organised pic bombing and vote rigging on the horizon) you need to get on and REP YOUR TEAM!

We will be launching this during the week, so keep your eyes peeled!

The Powerless Rankings: A look at the bottom  of the BUAFL food chain as we put together our Powerless rankings, otherwise known as the "Lame report". Remember, we didn't put you here, you put you here!

Interviews: Following on from our excellent (Ed: If we do say so ourselves) interview with London Blitz Head Coach Mark Moss, we are currently stocking up on Christmas interviews from around the BUAFL, Britball and European leagues. We have some exciting interviews lined up with some of the big names around the country and will be bringing you their views and opinions on the game at large and how they got into American Football!

College Bowl Predictions: Some of you may be aware that they occasionally play a game of football across the pond. Those of you that are will know the the NCAA Football Bowl season is upon us! We will take a look at each bowl game and try and predict the winners!

Top 5: Our standard Wednesday Top 5 will still run over the Christmas break! We will be looking at the best and worst dressed teams in Britball, as well as the top coaches and players!

Alongside all these features we will be sure to bring you the latest news from around the leagues as well as the results from a heated round table debate on the need (or lack thereof) for a tiered BUAFL.

Keep it locked and follow us on Facebook already!!

BAFANL Exclusive

Following on from our article on Coach Graham Kelly taking on the Head Coaching role at the Tamworth Phoenix yesterday, we secured an exclusive comment from the man of the hour.

Coach Kelly had this to say on his appointment:

"It is both an honour and a privilege to be given the opportunity to be the Head Coach of Tamworth Phoenix. In five years the Phoenix have enjoyed a meteoric rise from an affiliate team to genuine premiership contenders. The main reason for this achievement is the work put in by the four founding members, Jay Alexander, Ryan Baker, Dave Winter and Ed Winter. Without these four and their commitment to develop in the ‘right way’ this success wouldn’t have happened.

Tamworth Phoenix Announce new HC

According to their Facebook page the Tamworth Phoenix have announced that Running Backs Coach Graham Kelly will be their new head coach for the 2012 season.

Coach Kelly will be given the task of guiding the Phoenix through the newly formed Northern Conference and will be hoping that he can follow last years form and reach the playoffs again.

BAFANL Alignment: Division 1 and 2

The rest of the league structure for the 2012 season

Be sure to like us on Facebook to get the latest news hot off the press

DIVISION 1

NORTH
Gateshead Senators
Merseyside Nighthawks
Lancashire Wolverines
Shropshire Revolution
Nottingham Caesars
Coventry Jets
West Coast Trojans

CENTRAL/SOUTH
Cambridge Cats
South Wales Warriors
Sussex Thunder
Hampshire Thrashers
East Kent Mavericks
Berkshire Renegades
Kent Exiles
Essex Spartans

BAFANL Premier Re Alignment

News coming out of the End of Season meeting for the BAFANL leagues is that there will be a long awaited re alignment in the Premier league.

The Prem will be split into North and South divisions with the schedule yet to be confirmed. Here are the provisional teams: