“FUMBBL SMACK Sched ELI CLXV - Round 1

This looked competitive on paper and it was one of the best games I can remember playing.

With no bench for the dwarves, I opted to receive. Bribes from the kick off result and 2 early casualties made the game look as if it was going to be decided in the 1st half but Richie had other ideas. First the dwarf blitzer resisted a +5 foul, then he leapt up to seriously injure my ball carrying AG5 hobgoblin. When Mason failed to pick up the slippery ball, the blitzer held off the chaos dwarf maul single handedly. Mason then failed the pick up again! Finally Richie was overrun but it meant 0-0 at half time but not before another dwarf was badly hurt.

11 vs 8 in my favour second half so Richie's heroics still left PC with a tough task. His dwarves were lifted by their team mate Richie's 1st half performance and took 3 out almost immediately, and the referee dismissed the fouling hobgoblin, refusing the Ministry's bribe. Now the dwarves were a man up and almost 7 turns remained! There was a scrap on though as Mason got a little too close to the action. He was brought down and the ball spilled. Office Gordon galloped in to try and pick it up but it was by the feet of a dwarf - the legend bull could not hold it and it bounced through the entire maul until it reached the dwarf at the back. It was Richie and he caught it! Drat!

PC couldn't break enough cover from the maul as Richie ran for glory and Office Gordon relieved him of the ball and achieved what Mason could not, making the defensive pick up and avoiding the troll slayer to run home a dramatic winner.

Footnote: this is the first time I've beaten PurpleChest who holds a 4/3/1 record over me”