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| 2000 |
THE REGIONAL QUALIFIERS The next tournament The Cougars were invited to was an even bigger one, this was to find the East of Scotland Champions. It was held in Stirling. By now the Cougars had some game experience behind them, and they learned from that well: Craigmount 14 - 13 Burnfoot Craigmount 34 - 12 Inverness Craigmount 20 - 26 Stirling THE CLAYMORES BOWL So The Cougars had won the East of Scotland Qualifiers, what next? The Claymores Bowl. This was designed to find the Champions of Scotland. This was where The Cougars became the 2nd highest rated team in Scotland........ Craigmount 25 - 06 Stirling Craigmount 25 - 19 Burnfoot Craigmount 00 - 38 St Maurices The Cougars made it to the final but were defeated by a more experienced St Maurace's team in a game in which The Cougars lost the then Wideout Stephen Riddell with an injury to his ribs he sustained during a collision. The only consolation from the game was an interception by Fraser McAndrew in the final few minutes and a free T-Shirt from the Claymores!!! A LARGE DEPRESSION Nobody knew what it was, but after the success of the Qualifiers and The acheivements in The Claymores Bowl, The Cougars couldn't find their feet. The Craigmount Invitiational Bowl (CIB) was held allowing the Cougars to host their first tournament. But this ended in two defeats by Stirling and Burnfoot. On a positive note the cheerleaders made their first performance at a game and proved to be a huge success. A couple of other tournaments held in Dundee and Meadowbank failed to produce a win although The Cougars put up a good fight at Meadowbank. By this time though it was the summer months and 4 months since the team had won a game. It was just about time to find new players. THE RECRUITMENT This was an important time for The Cougars as the team was going through a major reshuffle. Coach Smith was looking for younger players to join the team now and he turned his attentions to 1st and 2nd years. The recruitment programme worked well and it produced some players such as Scott Davis who is now playing for the team on a regular basis. But by the Autumn most of the younger players gave up and never came back. Glen Stark left the team despite a good performance at the CIB and Donald McGhie soon followed him. NEW COACHES In Autmumn two new coaches arrives at The Cougars. Coach Bell who was appointed in charge of the Cougars D (and Fraser's Uncle) and Laura Hutchison who was to help with the fitness of the team. This hailed the change in the team's performance. Incidently David Crawford and Fraser McAndrew went out on loan to Dundee Storm as they travelled down to Leicester to face the UK champions The leicester Eagles, in a match that Dundee should have won. Fraser and David proved important players and did well in the game. SUCCESS AGAIN The Scottish League was upon us now. The opponents were Dundee, Strathclyde and Stirling (now Grangemouth). Week 1 was in Dundee and The Cougars only had 6 players for selection. Kerr Strachan who rejoined the team only a few weeks earlier was the starting QB and it was him who lead a magnificent win against The Strathclyde Posse to earn The Cougars with their first win in about 9 months. Then after the team gave Dundee a scare and Stirling fell victim to a Cougars onslaught. Craigmount 54 - 50 Strathclyde Posse Craigmount 38 - 40 Dundee Storm Craigmount 36 - 19 Stirling Broncos Week 2 was at Craigmount. The Cougars continued their fine form and at last grabbed their first win on home soil in the game against The West Coast Offence.. I can't remember all the scores of that week. But the biggest score of the day was The Cougars defeat of Dundee by a very close 32 points to 30. On to 2001. |