“After their first round opponents had difficulty reaching their stadium AM were still short of their target Ogre and therefore lacked some bash against a tough Lizard team. However with star blitzer Von Fraunhofer fit and a recent friendly victory over the Xini Warseers AM's spirits were high.

With a disastrous opening block from the Kroxigor, AM tried to seize the advantage, Von Fraunhofer SI a Skink on the way. The speedy skinks tried a full length of the pitch break but botched a pass leaving a contested ball. AM recovered it and passed to a deep Fraunhofer who was then brought down by a Saurus and his Skink buddies and then taken out of the game a turn later. Not trusting passing again a Skink Bitzy made good progress and survived a re-rolled 2D block against a block player and then another re-rolled 2D block against a block+tackle player to put XW in the lead.

AM had two turns to equalise before half-time and flooded the opposition half with receivers but the AM Thrower miserably fumbled his pass.

Three blitzers down for the second half AM were worried as their Guard skills had been instrumental in AMs previous win over the Xinis. AM passed to a deep catcher who dropped it at his feet but then survived a frenzied Saurus blitz to keep a TZ on the ball. A Skink recovered the ball but BH himself when dodging out to leave the ball free for AM to pick up and pass to catcher in the endzone.

A tense drive then followed with misfortune and lucky streaks abound. With a touchback XW made a strong opening push up the field but a failed bonehead left a potential blitz on the ball carrying Skink but Von Ardenne managed to kill himself on the 3+ dodge required (apothecaried !) letting the Xinis off the hook. Streaming up the pitch the Xinis then had another opportunity for a Skink break but their ball handling let them down again. AM however decided them to let them have a go and fumbled the pickup into Skink hands again. With XW re-rolls exhausted the Skink failed its second GFI and KO himself over the line. AM recovered and worked the ball down field with a pass to a free catcher (thanks to another Skink KOing itself). The last man Skink managed a heroic one dice pow to seeming take the game into overtime but after taking time to crowdpush a Saurus in an attempt to even out numbers AM then managed a manoeuvre requiring numerous dodges and a lineman GFI, pick up and short pass to snatch victory in the dying seconds - all without requiring a RR! (I calculated the odds of success at slightly over 2.5%). The stunned Xinis seemed disheartened and could not manage a consolation CAS (Although they had done well prior to this!)

AM were thankful as they would have been 10 - 11 in terms of players but AMs 4 RR for overtime compared to XWs 0 RRs would have made things interesting.

A very enjoyable and tense game throughout but things will surely only get more tense as AM move into a semifinal clash with the giant killing Never Ahand, Always Afoot .”