“Team coach Grippa Urntung, recently retired star of the Blackrock Arrers, gathered his team in the dugout after the game, the sound of orcish jeers adding to the rage in his belly.

'I can't frekkin' beleev yoo guyz... You were as strong as em', yunger dan 'em, an' as fast as em'. Wot went wrong? Dis should have been a bloodbarf on bowf sides! An' instead, I spend half de game trying to glue de bluddy troll's leg back on!'

The orc team players hung their heads in shame. One of the blackorcs, rookie Vagor, scuffed his boot on the floor, avoiding the eyes of the retired star.

A diminutive figure tremulously lifted his hand: 'Boss?'

Grippa's deathly gaze fell on his goblin benchwarmer. Without warning, his hand flicks out, wrenching the goblin towards him, squishing his sneering visage close to the creature's snotty snout.

'Dis 'ad better be betta dan dat time you frew up in that elf post-match stew. Wottisit?'

'...but... but...' the goblin stammered, clearing his throat nervously. His eyes flickered to his cohorts, looking for support. 'but we wun de game boss. 2-1, boss, erm... boss.'

Grippa shook the gobbo 'till his teeth rattled. 'Whaddya mean, ya wun?'

'Weeeeee....wunnnnnn.....booossssssss.....'

'But we were down 1-0 with four turns left, and we wuz getting hammered. Wot 'appened? Did wun of you losers bribe the ref again?'

Dronghi Burbitz, a heavily muscled orc, new to the team spoke up. 'I watched it boss, start to finish....' he shuffled his feet, rubbing a bandage on his head. 'Well... soon as dey woke me up from dat rock after de kickoff.'

'Snagglefro chucked de ball to wun of da blitzers wiz free minnits left, boss. Ducked wun of dere players and mayde it to da endzone. Dat waz 1-1.'

'Den, wiv only a few seccunds on da clock, da Tourcs' best blitzer fell on iz ass and dropped de ball. I fink he slipped on Snickersnee's blood, boss.'

'Only he dropped de ball next to Snagglefro. Da frower picked de ball up and popped it out to gobbo Festa. Seeing as it was gettin' dark, de Tourcs didn't see 'im to mark 'im. He ran in fer de winning score.'

Grippa took a long look at the goblin quivering in his grasp, as if picturing him running to score a TD. He turned his head, looking at his players, checking for guile, deceit, lies and untruths.

He shook his head, slowly. 'I just can't tell wiv you lads. Al I can see is gyle, deeseet, lies and untroofs.'

A tear trickled down his scarred cheek.

'Youse makes me proud....'

---------------

After 12 turns of getting totally stuffed by pigsie, Gorka and Morka came to visit. A 2-turn TD later, (long throw, then a dodge and GFI) it was 1-1.

I only had 8 players by this point, so things looked pretty bleak. However, if I'm ever going to say that I feel blessed, this is the time. Pigsie's AG4 blitzer failed a gfi, dropping the ball right next to my prone AG4 thrower. One long pass later, the ball was in the hands of my goblin - seven squares away from the endzone. Two gfis and it's 2-1... totally against the run of play in the second half.

I don't know how it happened either ... but I like it. 8p

Thanks for the game Paul! Looking forward to the next one!”