“The Ironforge Chronicle Early Edition

Forgers Falter at Harmony High.

Harmony High was the venue for a much anticipated match between The Forgers and Melodic Harmony. Blocknroll and Lemf have a history, mainly consisting of THAT infamous 5-0 drubbing handed out by Lemf at The Albion Coast Cup, something that still haunts Blocknroll weeks later.
The scene was set then as the two coaches prepared to do battle, with The Forgers facing a tough looking Orc team and all that the Greenskins bring to BloodBowl. The harmony High Stadium was fairly full, with a crowd of 54000 (largely Orcs) turning out to see if Lemf could conquer Blocknroll once more.

The Forgers won the toss and elected to kick, and try to see if they could break through the Harmony defence. The greenskins in the crowd loved the chance to see some squished Dorfs and helped out, felling Kelomir Ironhand with a nicely judged chuck of a rock at the kick off.
Turn one for Harmony, and Blocknroll was cursing his lack of attention to detail, as Udu used his frenzy skill to push Brenwyn Wintersted into the crowd, thankfully he was a good match for the greenskins despite their almost amorous attentions. By the end of the turn Harmony had secured the ball and made a nice break through on their left flank. A few decent blocks against BoBs and The forgers ended their turn in a reasonable position.

Turn 2 and Harmony started to move the ball up the pitch, and strengthening their position on the flank. The Forgers replied by threatening the cage, hoping to be able to crack it next turn.

Turn 3, and Lemf's instructions to form a new cage in the already prepared flank position was followed through to the letter with Bruuk Barleybeard being badly hurt in the process. The Forgers found themselves out of position and chasing the ball.

Turn 4 saw Harmony strengthen their position on the flank and take the ball into The Forgers half, with Blocknroll feeling the score was virtually unstoppable The Forgers tried to turn their hand to harassing some of Harmony's key players. A good idea but largely thwarted by Banjo's insistence on standing firm.

Turn 5, saw more progress for Harmony down the flank, and some support for the players that Blocknroll had singled out.. The Forgers desperately needed to start taking some Orcs off the pitch and out of the game but once again the Orcs proved hard to take down.

Turn 6 and Harmony decided to soak up some more punishment and dish some more out themselves. Shawm elected not to score, knowing full well that he could score at his leisure any time before half time.
Skulls two turns in a row left The Forgers having done very little damage and Shawm danced in on turn 8 to score for Melodic Harmony. The Forgers responded with some good blocking but no damage before the half, while Brette Goldfury proved again that he has a good arm completing one pass.

Half Time Melodic Harmony 1-0 The Forgers.

The second half started well for The Forgers with total dominance on the line of scrimmage, and Lemf looked on in shock as Brenwyn Wintersted killed Banjo on The Forgers right flank, preparing the way for them to advance down the sideline. To make matters worse for Harmony the job of saving Banjo proved too much for their apothecary.
Provoked into action, Udu badly hurt Gerrig Bonegrip taking him out of the game, but The Forgers had the ball well defended.

By the end of turn 2, The Forgers had the ball in the orc half, with a 4 man screen protecting Bombus Finespindle. Good positional calls by Lemf in Turn 2 saw them pressurising the ball by turn 3, but The Forgers within scoring range, though Blocknroll would have preferred to play for a 1-1 draw... The King coming up skulls did The Forgers no favours, leaving Harmony to break through the screen, somewhat forcing The Forgers' hand.

With Bombarde breathing down Bombus' neck, he decided scoring now, thought not ideal was a better option than not scoring at all so he dodged away and went for it twice to secure the TD for The Forgers. 1-1, but with plenty of time for Harmony to secure the victory many had predicted.

The glory fell to Slide Whistle who proceeded down the left flank to score and hand the victory to Melodic Harmony. The Forgers were left ruing Brette Goldfury's bad luck though. In Turn 7, Slide Whsitle found himself with little protection but the most agile player on Thh Forgers' books, failed a dodge away from the orcs, leaving the victory wide open for the greenskins.

After the game Blocknroll was heard to congratulate Lemf on a well fought victory, and was pleased to say that he'd acquitted himself better than in their previous meeting. It proved to be the dominance of Melodic Harmony's BoBs that were crucial to their victory, while The Forgers felt that they learned a lot and suffered no disgrace in defeat.
The Rumsey Rum Man of The Match Award goes to Shawm, with 20 rushing, while Blocknroll picked out 15 blocks in the game for Bimble Longberry as worthy of praise.

Individual Blocking: Bimble Longberry 15 Udu 14
Individual Rushing: Shawm 20, Bombus Finespindle 14
Individual Passing: Brette Goldfury 2 completions for 1 square (!)
MVPs: Gerrig Bonegrip, Hardanger

Team Ratings
Block: Forgers 54 Harmony 52
Rushing: Forgers 16, Harmony 38




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