“Woo-hoo, second win in a row. That hasn't happened for...too far back to remember. But boy, was it a struggle.

The first two turns were a breeze, with everything going my way. My new thrower got off to a nice start, not fumbling the pick-up and not messing up the pass more than once. The front line KOd two of their opposing number and another pass and a quick score followed. blackvenom99 made a lot of blocks, and not a single one of them had much effect - possibly a knockdown somewhere, but mostly skulls - and it was beginning to look decidedly one-sided.

But after that things evened out a bit. As soon as blackvenom99 began to dodge instead of make 1-dice blocks, he was unstoppable - although as he'd had to burn through his rerolls early on, he was very hesitant of doing anything that might mess up his game plan.

And after such a good start, the wood elves settled into a few turns of mediocrity. The tree failed his take root, my loners forgot how to dodge and my blocking turned soft, so that the high elves were able to get the ball down to just outside the endzone, where they parked up for a couple of turns. I did what I could to upset their plans, but in the end it was a fairly easy score for the high elf thrower who walked in, pushing my catcher into the crowd along the way.

A 1-turner was too much effort and too uncertain with so many loners, so the half fizzled out and we settled for 1-1.

The high elves came out firing on all cylinders, and then promptly misfired with an untimely failed dodge. This allowed me to get half my team downfield and blitz the ball free, but blackvenom99 made a fantastic recovery and not only got the ball back, but then managed to get it to a catcher who ran free and made it all the way to my endzone... where he stopped short.

NO! I screamed - for his sake, not mine. I hate stalling anyway, but here it was a really bad idea. The ball-carrying catcher had no support, I had players (well, a player) close enough to do something about it and as the high elves were the stronger team, there was every reason to suppose that blackvenom99 could have stood a pretty good chance of stopping my following drive. At any event, failing to stop me would have given him a draw.

But no, he stalled. I only had a catcher within range, but I had block and dodge and the ball-carrier had neither, so even at -2 dice it was a reasonable chance. Also, I made sure I hit him at an angle, so that if all I got was a pushback, then at least I could make him score and get on with my following drive.

I've always said, Nuffle hates a staller. Mostly, that's a load of rubbish, but today was different and not only did I knock the high elf over, I caught the bouncing ball. A KO or an injury would have made my coup complete, but it was not to be. Still, I had the ball, and none of the other high elves was in a position to do anything about it.

So on my following turn, I ran the ball back to midfield, made a quick pass, put the defence into as much cover as possible and set up for a score on the following turn. Sweet.

But blackvenom99 wasn't done with me, and despite my best efforts, he was still able to achieve a 2-dice blitz on the ball-carrier after another raft of desperate dodges. Sadly for him, he couldn't get me over though, and then all I needed was a 2+ dodge to run it in for the score.

Yet again, there was no real hope for a 1-turn reply, especially after I rolled a perfect D and left a load of loners to get in the way.

So there it was, 2-1 to the woodies.

It was a tough match, and it really could have gone the other way so easily. If blackvenom99's blocking had had more effect earlier, he would have been able to dominate - and could have stalled to his heart's content. His four BH all came right at the end of the match, when it no longer made a difference.

For Sensation, after my first score things were difficult. The tree failed three take roots in a row (during the high elves' first drive, on the turn 8 reset and then at the start of the second half) so he was nothing like the threat he usually is. Also, with one notable exception, the loners were junk and were just there to be awkward. The one exception was when I needed to make a 2-dice block for the ball late on, and one of them failed the dodge he needed to get into position for the assist. For about twenty seconds I debated whether or not to burn a reroll and in the end I went for it. He made it, allowing me to clear the TZ next to the ball, so my thrower could come in and pick-up, then pass for the score. He fumbled.

But it's all water under the bridge now. I got the win, however lucky, and Captain Takeroot even picked up the MVP. Sadly, the 1 I rolled on the winnings table was rerolled to another 1, so I have no new players - I was saving for a wardancer - and will, yet again, play my next game with 4 journeymen.

Also, my attempt to make my new thrower an integral part of the team rather than a showboating prima donna was only a partial success, and he still came away with stats of 4 for 24 - which is not bad for his first game and with no skills except pass (which he was forced to use at least 3 times).

Fun, fun, fun.”