“This was a game of missed opportunities for the wood elves - the first of which was that we missed the opportunity to actually turn up for the first three turns. I messed up an easy catch (twice), then messed up an easy leap (twice) then failed a GFI (and I can't remember whether I burned a reroll on that one or not).

So needless to say, BlueMillionMiles' dark elves were easily able to capitalise and get hold of the ball. I wasn't having all the bad luck - the skulls were coming thick and fast for the dark elves - but they were still able to run in a score on turn six comfortably enough.

I then got to do what I love doing more than anything - throw a long bomb from my own side of the field to a receiver already in the opponent's endzone. This left BlueMillionMiles with just the one turn, and he didn't set up for the 1-turn score. Turns out he didn't need to, because there was a riot. Then I did everything I could to stop the score, injuring the only guy who could make it to the endzone without going for it and putting the other three potential scorers in double TZs. But BlueMillionMiles simply took the hand-off in a TZ, dodged into a TZ twice and then out of it, and then went for it for the score. Can't argue with that.

The dark elves started the second half with a careful drive that kept the ball-carrier as safe as possible inside a ring of defenders as they all slowly advanced downfield. It was all looking good for another score, when a desperate blitz from the wood elves managed to strip the ball and leave it temptingly just within reach of my thrower... He picked up in two TZs, dodged out and made a nice long bomb to the open catcher downfield who was in scoring range. Sadly, the catcher forgot he had to get hold of the ball first, and made his second double muffed catch of the game, and again, this allowed the dark elves to recover, throw a more successful pass, and run in the score.

At this point the heavy rain we'd had all game finally stopped, and I was able to make my second long-bomb score of the game - this time to a journeyman who put the catcher to shame by showing him exactly how to catch.

But I was still a score down, and short of a late miracle, that was how it was going to stay.

The miracle came on the dark elves final turn, when they failed a 4+ pass, denying themselves one last score and allowing me to go for the draw. I had everything in place except that I needed to clear a bit of space for my thrower... and sadly that's when the journeymen let me down, skulling a 2-dice block that would have left the thrower with a clear path to the ball. Ah well, the catcher would probably have dropped the pass anyway.

So a frustrating game really. I was always on the back foot, and the dark elves were clearly the better team, but with a little bit more luck I might have been able to steal a draw from the jaws of defeat. Still, I survived intact and I'm back down to five journeymen for the next match. And I can now afford half a new catcher, so assuming the one I've got survives another two or three games, I might even have a proper offence once more. Woo hoo!”