GRIDIRON: By STEVE LIVINGSTONE
JIM Criner was happy yesterday because not only did the Scottish Claymores head coach see his team beat the London Monarchs 33-28 in front of a 15,461 crowd, but they reinforced the thought that the Claymores are the best team in the World League, banishing last week's defeat in Amsterdam into history.
The fact that Amsterdam's Admirals look like the team the Claymores will have to face again in the June 23 final, following their 24-14 away win against Rhein Fire yesterday, was not of concern to the head coach.
Criner was more interested in sending a message to the Scottish football team than worrying about who his team will face in the showpiece final.
``Our team did a great job today,'' said Criner. ``We knew it was going to be tough and it was. But we came out and performed as a team, and despite the fact that we sustained a few injuries, I feel confident that things are back on track for the World Bowl.
``Hopefully our win today in beating the English will inspire our soccer team to get after them down at Wembley in the same way our guys handled them here today.''
In many of their victories this season, it's been the Claymores hard hitting defence which has more often than not carried the day. But the Scots now have an offence to be proud, directed by back-up quarterback Jim Ballard, notching up an all-time high 33 points.
The one low note was the disappointing performance of Gavin Hastings. He had a miserable time, missing an extra point and his first field-goal attempt in front of the uprights from 19 yards out.
However, his fellow kicker, Paul McCallum, excelled, booting a 51-yard field goal - the longest in Claymore history - for four points, the first time the Scots have scored on such a kick.
The day's other heroes were Ballard, running back Siran Stacy, and receiver Yo Murphy.
Ballard threw 17 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns. Stacy, the Claymores record-breaking rusher, ran for 100 yards and went over the 2000 yards mark in his World League career.
He also scored a 44-yard touchdown to seal victory, while Murphy caught two touchdowns that were key in the Claymores victory.
Monarchs scored first when quarterback Preston Jones threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Willie Hinchcliff. Kevin Hurst's extra point made it 7-0. Claymores got on the scoreboard at the end of the first quarter with McCallum's monster kick which made it 7-4.
At the start of the second quarter, Ballard through what seemed a harmless flare pass to Ron Dickerson at London's 35-yard line, but the rusher showed good pace, powering down the sideline to dive into the endzone for the Claymore's first touchdown.
With the Claymores 10-7 ahead, Monarchs tried to get back into the game but Jones was intercepted by Claymore defensive end John DeWitt. However, the Scots failed to capitalise when Hastings missed his first field-goal attempt.
He was disappointed with the miss but kicked the Scots next PAT after Murphy ended the first half with a 12-yard touchdown.
Monarchs pulled the score back to within three points after Darren Studstill intercepted Ballard deep in Claymores territory at the start of the third quarter. Receiver Larry Wallace then caught a 10-yard lob from Jones for another London touchdown, Hurst's PAT brought it back to 14-17.
McCallum added a 30-yard field goal at the start of the fourth to make 20-14. Ten plays later the Claymores were again in the endzone, Ballard completing a 15-yard touchdown pass again to Murphy. Hastings extra point moved the Claymores to a 27-14 lead.
But London, trying to keep their feint World Bowl hopes alive, were not dead and with three minutes left, Jones found Wallace again who beat two Claymore tacklers to score. Hurst was again good with the PAT to bring the scores to 27-21.
But Stacy took control, powering in on a 44-yard touchdown after almost being tackled at the line of scrummage. Hastings missed the extra point but the Claymores were 33-21 in front.
Monarchs added a score when Mike Titley caught a one-yard touchdown pass from Jones with 13 seconds left, but a botched on-side kick gave possession back to the Claymores who ran out the remaining eight seconds.
Frankfurt Galaxy set up a World Bowl decider with Amsterdam by defeating Barcelona Dragons 24-21.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article