East Kilbride Pirates’ number 13 is hoping the stars align to deliver the British Division One title in his 13th year with the club.
Quarterback Neil Baptie has led the Pirates to Sunday’s Britbowl final against Cambridgeshire Cats and victory in London would cap quite a turnaround in fortunes for the team in recent years.
You have to go back to 2011 for the last time the Pirates tasted success in a British final, a stage when Baptie was playing understudy to Ryan Hunter on the roster.
Fast-forward 11 years and Baptie has already emulated Hunter by winning the Conference title this season, but he hopes to add to that by claiming the club’s second British title this weekend.
Number 13 may be unlucky for some, but Baptie hopes success is written in the stars for the Pirates when he dons his favourite figure once again in Sunday’s clash.
The 33-year-old – the son of former Falkirk, Motherwell and Hamilton footballer Crawford – said: “This is my 13th year, funnily enough, and I certainly hope it’s a lucky omen for me.
“I’ve been into tattoos and tattoo culture for years and 13 is always a lucky number in that circle.
“The team never had a 13 when I arrived and when it came to ordering the new jerseys one season, I asked for it and I’ve always held onto it since then. So we’ll see what happens.
“We beat Leicester in the Conference final the other week there, the same team we beat in the 2011 Britbowl final, so there’s that as well.
“For me personally, it was a big goal to get to a final. Ryan Hunter did it before me and that 2011 season was his height, so when I was succeeding him at the club a good few years ago, it was always the goal for me to win a championship with the team.
“Being able to do that now in my 13th year, maybe that is a good omen for us to win the British title.
“Hopefully everything is aligning for us. The team is completely different now and we found out just how much so in the last game when one of the Leicester players came up in our practice and asked who was still around like him from 2011.
“It turned out there are three us of still playing and our head coach Andrew McGowan also played in that game, so there’s not many of that era still kicking about. The team is much more fresh faced and I think the average age of the team is something like 23.
“Andrew started the same year as me and now he’s gone all the way up to head coach, so it’s been a journey for him.”
The Pirates have been through the wringer since their last success, suffering four successive semi-final defeats to London Blitz in the top flight play-offs before enduring an embarrassing 0-10 season in 2018 that saw them relegated to Division One
Their comeback has been disrupted by Covid and league restructures, but with promotion back to the Premiership guaranteed for next season following last week’s Conference title win over Leicester Falcons, Pirates are ready to dine at the top table in the BAFANL once again.
A British title would be the icing on the cake, but regardless of what happens at the New River Stadium on Sunday Baptie knows first-hand the blood, sweat and tears that has gone into getting the team back to the top.
Players including captain Brodie McDonald couldn’t hide their emotions in Leicester as Pirates were crowned Northern Conference champions and Baptie, who lives in Nerston, explained: “We had that peak in 2011 going on into 2015. It went a bit downhill from there when we had a few guys retiring and guys moving on.
“So there are still a lot of players who were involved in the downward spiral, the relegation in the 2018 season – a 0-10 season – and that was a very tough time. But they’ve come through all that and I think that’s where a lot of the emotion we saw at Leicester came from.
“They’ve been there at the rock bottom of a winless season and relegation, and then working our butts off to get back to where we are.”
The clash with Cambridgeshire Cats, who lifted the Southern Conference title after defeating Hertfordshire Cheetahs, will be the first time the sides have ever faced each other.
And Baptie believes that could be a good thing.
He added: “The good thing is the Cats haven’t played a team like us. We’ve got a very specific and very specialised offence, I feel, so I think we will offer something different to what they’ve seen this season.
“Also our defence has been the rock of this team this whole season. We’ve let in very few points, we’ve put teams three-and-out constantly.
“The phrase goes that offense wins games, defences wins championships – and that’s definitely true with this team this year. The amount of the work the coaches are putting in away from the field is fantastic and we’ve got a wee break now to get ourselves ready.
“It has been quite a gruelling season and there’s been time when we’ve had back-to-back games, so getting a couple of weeks off before the final is great.
“We will go into this confident in ourselves and our ability because of the performances during the season, but also having that time to get ourselves prepped well for the game.”
The match is a 2.30pm kick-off in London and you can follow the Pirates on Facebook and Twitter for updates.
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