America, and viewers across the world, will gather for the Super Bowl on Sunday. Twm Owen looks back 50 years to when an American Football game was the biggest show in one Welsh town. You would expect the history of American football in Wales to start in the 1980s when William ‘the Refrigerator’ Perry of the Chicago Bears became a household name and amateurs from Cardiff to Swansea and Caernarfon to Prestatyn took to the gridiron.

A plan to honour Rugby League greats from Cardiff is being put together by the city’s council which also hopes official recognition for talents such as Billy Boston will celebrate the capital’s diversity. Before Rugby Union allowed the payment of players in 1995 many Welshmen were forced to head to the north of England and the 13 man code in order to be paid for their talents on the rugby pitch.

The South Wales Warriors’ return to the second tier of British American Football must wait a year after this season’s schedule was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Warriors, the only Welsh side in the British American Football Association (BAFA) National League, had secured promotion with victory in the Division Two (South) Britbowl in London at the end of August but this week learned no league play will take place this year. Fixtures had been due to start in April but, on the same day in March that the Football League and English football’s Premier League, as well as all football in Wales, was suspended BAFA announced it was putting all American Football activity including training sessions on hold due to coronavirus.

All British American Football activity has been suspended – just 48 hours before one Welsh university side was due to compete in a semi-final. The Cardiff University Cobras team had reached the Division One South Final of the BUCS university league and were due to face long time rivals from Southampton University the Stags in a 5pm kick-off on the south coast this Sunday for the right to play in a national championship game. But the British American Football Association (BAFA) announced it had suspended all activity from midnight with the ban impacting on the play-offs in the university championships as well as training for the more than 70 clubs that compete in the British league.

Cardiff will host three American Football games crammed into almost as many hours when Wales’ only women’s gridiron team stages its second ever tournament. The Cardiff Valkyries host the Cheshire Bears and Leicester Falcons in the final regional tournament of the season at the Cardiff International Sports Campus in Leckwith on Saturday, February 29.  The Valkyries will face their guests in two full contact 30-minute, seven V seven games on a shortened pitch in the British American Football Association (BAFA) Division Two North Sapphire series. 

The early weekends of a new year see Superbowl contenders eliminated and gridiron championships decided in America and January also signals the start of business for Britain’s American Football teams. That includes Wales’ only representatives in the British American Football Association National Leagues, the South Wales Warriors, who were last year crowned BAFA Division Two South champions. The Llanharan-based club, who draw players from across south Wales, start their preparations for the new season with two open practice sessions intended to give potential new players an introduction into full contact American Football. 

Two touchdowns at either end of the game have won the South Wales Warriors the Division Two South Britbowl XXXIII title. The championship completes a remarkable turnaround for Wales’ only senior American Football team who just two years ago endured relegation and a winless season after voluntarily giving up their place in the top tier Premiership. Last year, the Warriors’ first back in the basement division since 2011 when they also won the Britbowl, saw heartache at the semi-final stage.

The only Welsh team in the British American Football National League can win their first silverware in eight years this weekend. But standing in the way of the South Wales Warriors, in the British American Football Association (BAFA) Division Two Southern Conference Britbowl, are a team who hold a special place in their hearts for the Welsh capital. The Bournemouth Bobcats were formed in 1986 and just a year later won the Budweiser Premier Bowl, the then second tier of British gridiron, at Cardiff City FC’s infamous Ninian Park.

By Twm Owen American Football BAFA Southern Conference Division Two West South Wales Warriors 51 – Cornish Sharks 0 The South Wales Warriors ran all over the Cornish Sharks to ensure they enter the post season play-offs with a perfect record. But it was the Warriors mean defence that ensured home field advantage throughout the […]

The undefeated South Wales Warriors complete their regular season fixtures on Sunday with the final play-off places still to be decided. The visitors to Llanharan Rugby Club’s Dairy Field ground are the Cornish Sharks who have nothing but pride to play for. However the 7 and 0 Warriors are one three undefeated sides that have all secured their British American Football Association Southern Conference Division Two divisional titles.

The first of back-to-back fixtures likely to decide the destination of the British American Football Association Division Two South West title takes place this weekend. The South Wales Warriors travel to Paignton to put their 5-0 record on the line against the equally perfect Torbay Trojans.  The victors of Sunday’s clash (2pm) will hold the advantage ready for the rematch a fortnight later at the Warriors’ Llanharan home. 

Teenage quarterback Harry Taylor has plenty of experience to call on during his rookie season with the South Wales Warriors in which he’s been throwing touchdowns for fun. The 19-year-old product of the club’s youth system is being guided through the season by starting QB Dean Jackson and, as his dad says, the college student comes from “a football family”. Though Taylor, from Cardiff, is in his first season of senior British American Football Association National League action he has been involved with the Llanharan-based Warriors since he was 13 and played for an “American high school style football programme” at the SGS College Bristol Academy of Sport.