“This is the kind of game it's worth staying up to play. It was exciting and fun from the very first, to the very final play, and although salvaging a draw was a bit cheeky and a big bit lucky on my part, I would happily have settled for the loss in return for such great gameplay.

I began by receiving the kick-off and temporarily forgetting I was wood elves and not orcs - two BH casualties in the first turn, and two failed passes out of my first two attempts. And even with a 9-man team, Gary_Gygax was not going to let that sort of terrible play go unpunished. He quickly recovered the ball and got it from one end of the field to the other in short order - run, pass, run, hand-off, run, score. Easy-peasy.

After that we swapped roles, Gary_Gygax claiming a KO and a SI while I got my passing game together at last. This score including the highlight of the first half for me when my thrower ran backwards - including going for it - just so he could get in a long bomb for the TD!

Elfi then showed why they really are Professionisti, by scoring twice more before I'd even had time to catch my breath. This left me with the unenviable task of attempting the one-turn score against a bunch of side-stepping dodgers. But then I was saved the effort when Gary_Gygax rolled a perfect D. So I just threw a long bomb instead.

And then, with the Elfi receiving the second-half kick-off, the score quickly went from 1-3 to 1-4. Oh well, I thought, at least I'm enjoying myself while I'm loosing. And then the magic started...

First off, I killed a poor rookie who had just skilled up - and with Gary_Gygax having already used his apo to save someone more important, that was it for the unfortunate chap. And with more players on the pitch, and a passing game that was finally firing on all cylinders, I was able to pull back a score.

And then another, when the Elfi uncharacteristically failed an easy catch.

So now it was getting exciting. With two turns left, Gary_Gygax decided to play a deep defence and protect the ball (and his one-score lead). I threw everyone I could downfield and hoped for the best...

...and that's what I got. I had to run in the catcher with guard and a spare lineman to counter the ST4 ball-carrier, then leap for the blitz with a wardancer. I rolled a POW, the elven blitzer fell back into the corner square, the ball scattered out of bounds, and the throw in couldn't have been better for me, landing right behind my free catcher who was in easy reach of the endzone...and who completely ignored the ball, running into the endzone instead so that the thrower could scoop it up, run backwards towards the half-way line, and throw a long pass. I like to think I did this to give Gary_Gygax a fair chance at the win after my incredible luck to even get hold of the ball and then to get such a lucky scatter on the throw-in, but in fact I was still passing on a 2+ anyway, it just looked more impressive this way.

And so there it was. I really did steal victory (or at least a draw) from the jaws of defeat. And what a game it was. It was funny, exciting, fast, challenging, and even quite punishing for elfbowl, and how both teams managed to lose fans afterwards is beyond me. What game were they watching?

Thursdaynight had a good game, and although he failed to pick up the MVP, he did account for one of the BH and the death - and didn't fail a single take root all game (at least not one he couldn't PRO his way out of).

And I'm now officially journeyman free as well.

For one game, at least.

Please, please, please, can I have more games like this? It was certainly worth the hour-and-a-half on Gamefinder before hand!!”