“As always against Swampserpent, this was a fun and challenging game. The first half was especially close and tough, and it was only through some unreasonably lucky luck in the second half that I was able to pull ahead.

I began the game by receiving the kick and then making a complete mess of my first pass, actually dumping the ball onto the ground beside me rather than throwing the long bomb I was intending. I think what happened was that I selected the receiver, realised he was one square out of range and then tried to move the thrower without deselecting the throw first. A rookie mistake and one that should have cost me the first TD, but fortunately I was able to recover thanks to some unlucky dice from Swampserpent who wasn't able to pick up the loose ball, despite trying twice.

After I'd finally put away the first score, Swampserpent then went and returned the favour in a much more controlled and elegant manner, cruising in with not much in the way of defence to stop him.

Then I scored again - this time making sure I knew what I was doing with the pass! This left the Valkyries with a chance for a one-turner to close out the half, but sadly for Swampserpent his bad dice were back and he failed the catch.

However, he did make up for it with a clinical score at the top of the second half. I then returned the favour and it was beginning to look like being a close run thing all the way to the end. But then things became a lot one-sided in my favour. First off, a blitz, which didn't get me the ball and which actually left much of my team out in the middle of nowhere after Swampserpent collected the ball from his end zone, threw a pass across field, handed off, and ended the turn with the ball in scoring range, with the carrier pretty well protected by three or four players. I shouldn't have been able to recover from that, but I did, by going for it twice to blitz, getting a POW, getting a favourable scatter, going for it with the thrower to reach the ball, throwing across field to the rookie wardancer who caught, ran and handed off to the rookie catcher, who ran it in for the score. Fun, but completely unfair, with not a single failed die roll in there.

And then I rolled another blitz on the kick-off. That's harsh. In this situation, a gentleman might have chosen to forego the blitz and ended his turn straight away, but having been censured in the past for such behaviour - it being, technically, against the site rules - I chose instead to run a few players off towards the ball that was way off to one side and out of range. The rest of the team was in a good enough position anyway.

And without much trouble, the Valkyries then scored a nice two-turn TD despite my best efforts to stop them.

I was still a TD up, and a slip-up here could easily have tied the scores once more. But no blitz for Swampserpent (only a thrown rock that stunned one of his players) so I was able to regain the two-score lead.

And with nothing to play for, Swampserpent could easily have just spent his final turn bashing me, but instead chose to go for a one-turn score - which he managed quite elegantly. Sadly, I wasn't up to the task on my own final turn - partly because I still had the win anyway, but mostly because of those annoying side-stepping elven blitzes who were book-ending the front line.

So it was a good (and very lucky) recovery for me after a pathetic attempt at a first pass, and a very lucky second-half which saw me steal the game from a very hard-done-by Swampserpent. Still, nothing to show for it except a single MNG, we both picked up some good cash, and my two rookies collected a +AG and a +ST for their efforts. Result!

A great way to spend the morning. But now I need coffee.”