All in all, a very mixed season for the Raiders’ debut in BAFA’s National Leagues (NFC 2 Central). The Raiders started the season with two tough games against Walney Terriers, losing competitive games both home and away – a nice welcome to the NFC from Walney. With big losses against eventual divison winners Leeds Bobcats and a closely 2nd placed Gateshead Senators, along with a 1pt loss against Carlisle, the Raiders’ record for their first season wasn’t what they had hoped. It is worth noting at this stage that the postponed game with Carlisle, was proposed to be played on 2nd July as the only other free date in the calendar. Unfortunately this was not mutually agreed upon by both parties due to this giving Carlisle a back-to-back run of 5 games – Knottingley are still awaiting confirmation for the result of this in relation to the league standings (though this will not affect the position in the NFC 2 Central).

The Raiders did show grit, scoring points against every team, including a “50-burger” victory against Northumberland Lightning. The Raiders weren’t the only rookie team in the NFC 2 Central in 2017, with Morecambe Bay Storm joining them. Morecambe took the victory at their home ground at the mid-season point, setting up the last game of the season, where Knottingley battled hard with The Storm to a 26-26 tie to end 2017 for both teams.

NFC 2 Central 2017

Team	W	L	T	PFor	PAgt	Pct
Leeds Bobcats + (C)	10	0	0	450	101	1.000
Gateshead Senators (+) (P)	9	1	0	439	111	0.900
Morecambe Bay Storm (P)	5	4	1	284	300	0.550
Walney Terriers	4	5	0	181	187	0.444
Carlisle Sentinels	3	6	0	91	238	0.333
Knottingley Raiders -	1	7	1	148	278	0.167
Northumberland Lightning (-)	0	9	0	28	400	0.000

The Raiders will be publishing their rookie day dates over the off-season very soon and are working hard to develop as a squad and an organisation. If you feel you could help or get involved, in any way, please do contact us.