Champions Bowl X (Review Day 2 & 3)

 

As the Vienna Constables didn’t get luckier on the second day (Saturday), the goal of winning a medal somewhat faded slowly, but surely away. Both, the women’s and men’s team ended up in the lower bracket of the competition, but did win their placement games to conclude their 2019 campaign somehow on a positive note.

 

The men had another heartbreaker on Saturday, when they played the Walldorf Wanderers in their second game of the second group stage. After both teams exchanged a couple of touchdowns, the defenses were also able to stop the opponent’s offense once. So the game was even at halftime. The Cons then could pull away a bit and had the chance to put it away, but they let the Wanderers back in. The Germans would use their opportunity and took a one point lead about a minute before the end. Then the Cons were able to get to the two yard line and had a last down to score for the win. But two questionable no-calls on that play, which then resulted in an incompletion, ended the game with a 31:32 loss for the Cons.

 

Right after the Wanderers the disappointed Cons had to take on another German team. The Kelkheim Lizzards clearly took advantage off a weak Constables start and intercepted them on the first two possessions. Scoring on their own, the Lizzards did establish an early lead, but the Cons were able to strike back and starting scoring themselves. With help of their defense they also got closer with the end of the game. Unfortunately the comeback didn’t have a happy end as the Cons came three points short and thus lost the third game of the second group stage (39:42).

 

After three losses with combined point differential of five points the Constables did end up in the lower bracket playing for ninth place. They would have to win three games to achieve that, starting with the Buttonhookers, who surprisingly also didn’t made the quarterfinals. Again the Londoners put a up a strong display. The Cons Defense was indeed able to hold them out of the endzone a couple of times, but so was the English defense. At the end another close game, another close loss (26:31).

 

In the evening the Vienna Constables had a last chance for a win. They did play the hosts, the Barcelona Pagesos. After all they had lost every game so far and were considered to be the worst team in the competition. But the Cons weren’t really convincing over two days neither. But finally they got their stuff together and rolled over the Spanish side, defeating them 55:0. This would set up a game for 13th place the next Morning.

 

On Sunday the Constables Men wanted to conclude a disappointing tournament (and after all a disappointing season as well) with a win, when they play Refoli Trieste from Italy. The Cons offense was clicking from the start and when the defense chimed in midway through the first half the game went into the right direction. As they never looked back from there, the Constables flew to a 41:25 victory and finished in 13th place at the Champions Bowl X.

 

The Ladies on their part did not outperform the men by a whole lot. After a first group stage with too many mistakes they had to play in a bottom four group for the seventh place. There they were able to show a good performance (like beating the Sheffield Giants with 41:7) to book a 7th placement game against the Catania Pink Elephants. On Sunday morning the Ladies did beat the Italians to finish in 7th place at the Champions Bowl X.

 

In the end the Klosterneuburg Indians were capable of putting a run together and beat the Sphinx de Pau in the final 32:14 to win it all with their QB claiming MVP honours. The Walldorf Wanderers could grab the bronze medal with a win against the Vienna Vipers, who did lose the semifinal against the Indians before.

In the women’s competition the Coventry Cougars spoiled the Indians Party by defeating the Indians Ladies in the final to win the gold.

Sportunion Wien