“Their first match in years, Divine Retribution opened their account in turn 2 with a quick TD - it's perhaps not the done thing now to score fast with Elves, but I'm a believer in scoreboard pressure! 1-0.

The Chaos replied with a straightforward drive down the pitch that quickly dispatched 3 Elves to the dugout, leaving them unable to apply much pressure - the best of it was a 1db by the Dauntless Kelis Dragonclaw on the ball-arrying Chaos Warrior, but he managed only a push. 1-1.

A Perfect Defence and a disastrous attempt as a SPP pass meant another 2 despatched Elves at the end of the first half.

The start of the 2nd half resulted in the ball ending up next to the sidelines. The beastman Honorius I clumsily fumbled his pick-up into the crowd, and it was launched across the Chaos backfield, well within Elven range and without cover. Gwyndor Lightstep duly converted. 2-1.

The next drive saw the key passage of play, the Elves forged an opening in the Chaos ranks, and Donovian Starcrest stripped the ball from a beastman's hands. Ithilien Steelhart defied the odds to get the ball, but he didn't pass, and it cost him his career, carried from the pitch with a fractured skull. The Chaos recovered, and caged up. Then the hired gun Wizard stepped up, and dropped a fireball on the Chaos Warrior with the ball, knocking him down, though his colleagues survived. With this opening, the dice turned against me - Kelis Dragonclaw blized a beastman onto the loose ball, initially rolling doubleskulls, rerolling to a knockdown, and decided to follow up. Sure enough, the one thing I didn't want happened, and the ball scattered straight into his hands. Desperately trying to GFI into some cover, he of course failed and knocked himself out, before his teammates could rally to his aid. After that, they struggled back but couldn't stop the score. 2-2, with 2 turns left to prevent overtime.

The next drive did not start well, Perfect Defence being the worst KO result I could have got. Still, the High Elves squeezed around the Chaos lines and hoped for the best. The Chaos manmarked everyone in their backfield and blitzed down, but did not break the armour, of the deepest Catcher. Donovian Starcrest caught the ball in a TZ and dodged away, but a RR was burned, and with one GFI needed, fell over, only needing to make a hand-off to win the game. 2-2, and Overtime, a disaster for the already depleted Elves.

The Chaos won the toss (another disaster) and lined up v the 8 remaining High Elves. This was soon reduced to 7, and the Elves went all out to press the beastman with the ball in the backfield. The Chaos gods were smiling on him, as he stepped forward and fired a Quick Pass, with no RRs left (thus 4/9ths chance of success, less than 50%), to a waiting Chaos Warrior who charged down the pitch. Donovian Starcrest gave chase, twice blitzing him, first successfully stripping the ball, then again to knock him down, but with so little support, the score couldn't be stopped.

I'm gutted Divine Retribution lost this one, through a mix of bad luck and a few careless mistakes in terms of preserving players at the end of the first half.

Still, Zacharias was a good natured opponent and we compared a comprehensive list of beverages we both favoured. I raise my glass to his journey in this round of the FUMBBL Cup (L).



”