The Bullets would like to congratulate the Bristol Aztec Youth Team o n completing their season unbeaten at 7-0 and crowned English Champions. Starting Centre for the Bristol Bullets Mitch Turner has been playing a key role on the line for the Aztecs and has been loving the adventure. Along side Mitch at the start of the season was the Bullet rookie Tackle Olly Sylm who was improving every week until dislocating his shoulder (twice!). He is on the road to recovery and the Bullets wish him a speedy return.

Adam Stenlake who joined the Bullets from youth last season has been playing all over the field and making both teams proud. The Bullets and Aztecs have a growing relationship and the Bullets wish the Aztecs good luck in the play-offs.

This summer saw 4 Bristol Bullets heading to the USA to represent the Great Britain Bulldogs American Football team on a ten day, two game tour of the Los Angeles area. This had been preceded by a hard earned 33-14 victory against Team Canada in Derby, which gave the team confidence before the real challenges began.

Unfortunately the first challenge seemed to be receiving your luggage at the other end due to the ineptness of Air France, but having scaled that mountain the Bulldogs had to prepare for the first game two days later against Whittier College. Obviously staying at UCLA, one of the biggest and most well equipped universities in the USA, had provided the Bulldogs with all the preparation they needed as they fought out a hard hitting game against a physically stronger team and reaped the rewards of a 7-7 draw, which is the best result the Bulldogs have ever had on US soil! Bristol’s very own Rob Hardy was integral to the Bulldogs only touchdown scored on the day, due to a devastating block that took out two covering defenders.

Early morning training sessions meant that the rest of the day was free to take in the sites and mingle with the locals, which can be translated as hitting the bars and theme parks as only Brits know how. After greatly impressing all visiting coaches and the result of the previous week the Bulldogs went into their second match of the tour, against the Claremont College Stags filled with confidence. This confidence, however, was unjustified as at half time they were losing 42-0 and were about to be on the wrong end of a cricket score. The only brightside to the first half was the performance of Bristol QB James Carter, who drove the Bulldogs close to scoring on numerous occasions only to falter at the last step. The second half proved to be a more balanced affair as the GB defence hardened up and stellar performances from Lee Richards and Kesav Nair on the front line gained them the respect of their opposition players and coaches! Final score was Claremont 56 – Bulldogs 0, many believed that without the high humidity and the opposition that the Bulldogs were sure winners!

Despite the heavy loss at the end, the tour was seen as a success through the eyes of many, and the Bristol Bullets were at the forefront of this success and hope to carry on this form into their upcoming season where they intend to remain as one of the top 5 teams in the country.

 The Bullets were very proud to hear that their Head Coach Matt Dyke was offered the Head Coaching role for the 2006 Southern All-star team called the wildcats. He attended the December camp to choose his squad that would take on the Northern Cougars. The following Bullets made the team from the camp;

• James Carter - QB
• Chris Taylor - WR
• James Anderson - K
• Rob Hardy - OL
• Kesav Nair - DL
• Mike Shawe - LB
• Adam Sparrow - DB
• Abdul Bah - DB

However during the run in to the All-star game players dropped out of the squad meaning that a few more Bullets (Dave Egbosimba RB, Alex Gillespie WR and Olly Barrett DL) got the call up. With so many players dropping out the team was mainly made up of players from the South West teams with only a couple of players from other teams. Even though these last minute changes were not perfect preparation the Wildcats managed to pull together for the game and won comfortably. Bullets and Wildcats HC Matt Dyke commented “This was a great honour for me and I am pleased that I made my team proud. I would like to personally thank Tim Macy of the Cardiff Cobras as well as all of the players that played. They made the day a fun experience and helped me develop further as a coach. For that I am grateful.” Matt Dyke was not the only coach to be involved in the Wildcats program. Paul Dolan RB, Matt Crudgington DB, Lee Richards Asst DL, and Steve Davey DL all stepped up.  From the above players and coach’s the following players made the Great Britain Bulldogs squad that will be travelling to the States in August. Rob Hardy OL, James Carter QB, Chris Taylor WR, Kasav Nair DL, Mike Shawe LB, and Abdul Bah DB. Also called up was Paul Dolan as Running Back’s Coach. The Bullets organisation wish them luck on their trip.

Below is the list of players that received awards at the Bullets end of season awards night. The season may not have ended the way the Bullets wished but the coaches are very proud of the players especially their final year players. The Bullets would like to take this chance to wish all graduating bullets all the luck in their future and HC Matt Dyke said ‘a lot of the guys that graduate this season have been there with me through my three years as HC. They helped me deal with the massive loss of Steve Jones and I never thought that being a coach could make me feel so proud of a bunch of young men. I wish all the players good luck and I hope they continue to be involved in football in the future.’ The Bullets look forward to seeing these players own the very impressive Old Boys team that help our rookies every year.

• Overall MVP - James "Jimmy C" Carter - QB/LB
• Offensive MVP - Chris "The GOAT" Taylor - WR
• Defensive MVP - Kirk "Killa" Dunn - SS
• ST MVP - James Anderson - K
• Offensive Line - Rob Hardy - OT
• Defensive Line - Rick "Rico" Walker - DE
• Rookie - Michael "Kryton" Shawe - LB
• Impact Player - Dave "Dangerous" Egbosimba - RB/LB
• Most Improved - Kesav Nair - DL
• Players Player - Kesav Nair - DL
• Coaches Player - Phil "Boyoh" Hales - OL