“A highly stressful game in the end, the two td margin belieing a game in the balance right to the last turn.

A great first half for us. A touchback (the kick landing two meters in field but suspiciously handballed into the crowd) lead to a relatively painless touchdown. Then two turnovers, one from a leaping blitz by B.L.T., the other a desperate recovery by The Gopher in front of our endzone which ended up being passed back upfield. This left us up 3-0, leading to some complacency.

But then Emily, who'd been hiding in the reserves box up until then, made her appearance. I'd chosen against putting the expensive sidesteppers Goodsie and Kieren Jack on the LOS, thinking it better to preserve their existance than prevent the one-turner. Next thing I know, it's 3-2 before I've even played another turn.

Perfect defence and a short kick meant a bit of an irregular offence, which came quite close to going pear shaped were it not for a fortunate bounce, as B.L.T. was slammed to the ground but Kieran Jack scooped it straight up and had a relatively easy run in. Now 4-2, and foolishly feeling safe once again.

This time we put our sidesteppers on the LOS, only to discover just how hard it is to stop Emily even in two turns. She took it easy to stretch it out to three, but 4-3 with plenty of turns to play and the pressure was back on.

Jetta held the ball back for a change, with Spooner covering him, but three gutter runners charging down the field took down Spooner and marked Jetta, leaving me with high levels of stress as I had to dodge him away. He made the dodge, but Goodsie dropped the pass and the ball was loose. A struggle for the ball ensued, culminating in Bernard running free with it and needing only a 3+ pass to a gutter runner waiting in the end zone to tie the game. Fortunately for me the pass went loose, and I spent the final turn of the game succeeding in a comparitively much more unlikely series of plays to make the final score look like the game was much more comfortable than it was.

Thanks for a great game eganra, even if I did spend the whole second half just wanting it to be over.”