The game
A year after beating them in the final, Hertfordshire met the Birmingham Lions again in the title game and lost 17–13 at the John Charles Centre in Leeds on 20 April 2013. The final should have been played on 23 March, but bad weather across the north forced the finals day to be called off and the game was put back four weeks.
Hertfordshire went in as one of the strongest sides in the club's history. They had gone 8–0 to win a fourth straight South Eastern Conference title, scoring 440 points and conceding 33. As top seed they had a first-round bye, then beat the Sheffield Sabres 37–7 and the Bath Killer Bees 41–12, both at home at the Hertfordshire Sports Village. Birmingham had a problem of their own: their starting quarterback Tristan Varney was injured, so Jonny Glover started in his place.
The game was settled by four points. Birmingham's Dan Conroy, the league's MVP for the season, was named the official MVP of the final, and Glover took the GridironTV and Double Coverage MVP award. It was the first national championship played under BUCS, and for Birmingham it was revenge for the 2012 final.
No full written account of the game has been found yet, but the whole game and several highlight reels are on video.