East Kilbride Pirates quarterback on surreal moment as 'lucky 13 omen' delivered title and MVP

dailyrecord.co.uk:

East Kilbride Pirates quarterback Neil Baptie admits it was all very surreal as his ‘lucky 13 omen’ delivered him not only the British title but also the MVP award in their impressive win over Cambridgeshire Cats.The club’s number 13 played a starring role in his 13th year with the team to pick up the top individual accolade, as the Pirates tasted British title success for the first time since 2011.Promotion to the Premiership was already confirmed after lifting the Northern Conference crown last month, but their 50-12 victory in London on September 4 was the icing on the cake for a dream season.The modest 33-year-old, from Nerston West, insisted he was embarrassed to win the most valuable player prize but beamed: “There was so much talk about the number 13 in the 13th year and it is unreal that it actually all came true.“Winning the MVP, I was kind of embarrassed because I definitely felt I didn’t deserve it.

I felt there was better players than me on the field.“But I couldn’t have appreciated it any more. I couldn’t have envisioned a better end to a better season in that 13th year with the 13 omen.

It was just so surreal.“I’ve got to admit it did surprise me how comfortable a win it was.“We were confident going into the game, we’d done a lot of scouting and preparation in the lead up as well so we felt really ready for the challenge.

On the day you know anything can happen. It’s the age old saying of ‘Any Given Sunday’. A team that would be underdogs can come up and win.“It was a little bit of a shock how much we dominated the game but, at the same time, it wasn’t that big of a surprise looking back when we look at the preparation we put into the game.“Even the logistics were good.