Article by Ollie Stratford

On the 21st august Hellingly Phoenix hosted the third tournament of the season where they competed against the Kent Exiles and the Wembley Stallions, unfortunately London Blitz had to pull out of the tournament because of a lack of players.

Hellingly Phoenix would sit out the first game as the Kent Exiles faced the Wembley Stallions where the score ended 35-14.

Hellingly phoenix then kicked off against the Wembley Stallions where they were looking to get the win after narrowly missing out on a win last tournament. Thanks to a strong performance from defence, Hellingly Phoenix was able to hold the Stallions to only 6 points in the entire game thanks to Lucas and Kyle Banda, who both put in strong performances at nose tackle, which kept pressure on the QB. The Hellingly Phoenix defence also held a strong lock over the run game because of strong leadership and key tackles by Sam Espie, Calvin Clark, Fin WIlson and Ryan Hedges who clamped down on the receivers. Ryan Hedges also was able to recover a forced fumble during the game. Hellingly Phoenix’s offence had one of the best games of their tournaments with a strong performance all round, Kyle Banda bullied his way into the endzone, not giving the wembley Stallions a chance to bring him down. Another amazing effort on offence by Dante furthered the score for the Hellingly Phoenix team. The game ended 16-6 to Hellingly Phoenix.

Next the Hellingly Phoenix team would play a tough Kent Exiles team who had yet to be beaten or even run close this year. Kyle Banda and Lucas kept the pressure on the Kent Exiles QB forcing them to use the run game to move up the field. A few key tackles from the Hellingly phoenix stopped the Kent Exiles from putting more scores on the board. All points for the Hellingly Phoenix team were scored by Rowan Crouch who caught a touchdown pass from Ollie Stratford and then added a two point conversion. The score ended 54-8 to the Kent Exiles.

The Hellingly Phoenix organisation is wishing all players a speedy recovery and looking forward to the next tournament which is on the 4th of September as Wembley stallions host the last games of the season.