“The sun was shining blindingly bright, and would through the entire game, but Dwarves don't pass, so what did we care? Two of our linedwarves, veteran Fosurn Deepdelver and relative rookie Glubur Stonesky, stayed up too late arguing over, and conducting field research into, which beer is best and ended up missing the entire first half. And it's a good thing that I asked whether we were following Ozjesting's Edict about fouling in the pre-season as our fans grabbed the ref and dunked him in a barrel of ale just as play was about to start; given that my opponent had a dirty player and I don't I probably wouldn't have been fouling all that much anyhow but it was still good to know....

The first half started out well enough. Kelin Goldsniffer delivered the first block of the game and, true to form, badly hurt lineorc Ufthak. In the same turn Troll Slayer Dorak Stoneheart seriously injured Raiders' Black Orc Grulg, delivering a potentially lasting injury, forcing coach Burtoni to use up his apothecary before the game had really started. It was all downhill from there however. The Orcs managed to slow us (quite a feat, considering how fast we usually move...) and then break our cage, the ball scattering out of Mogan Quicksilver's hands and eventually ending up in the hands of Black Orc Blocker Lugdush where it stayed until he crossed our endzone five turns later. For the rest of the half we did what Dwarves do best, we took a beating and survived. The Orcs had us effectively screened off from the ball carrier and nothing we tried to break through had any success while they stalled out the half. Our Troll Slayers seemed to have largely used themselves up on the first drive: Berak Stoneheart managed to KO himself early in the half attempting a multiple block and, for most of the half, Dorak Stoneheart consistently rolled 3's for his dauntless rolls causing several turnovers, though he did redeem himself towards the end of the half, giving Black Orc Lagash a serious concussion.

The Orcs received at the beginning of the second half and a "bad" kick placed the ball squarely in their endzone. This half started out with a bang as well, with a badly hurt blitzer and a dead STR4 lineorc by turn two. Raider's Thrower Gushnak bobbled to ball setting the Grudgebearer's up to send our Runners and Blitzer Balin Ironthew on a "dash" for the ball while the rest of the team held up the Orcs. If I knew how to use Pass Block we might have shown more finesse but Gushnak fumbled the ball anyway when he finally picked it up and we tied the game up in turn four.

In direct contrast to the first drive, the kick-off for the second drive put the ball directly behind the Orc's front line. We tried to get to the ball but, after a few turns of struggle in which the Raiders suffered yet another injury, a pinched nerve to Blitzer Lugdush, they beat us off the ball and Gushnack brought off a pass to Blitzer Shagrat. It looked like this would decide the game, Shagrat had an open field but there were a couple of Dwarves that might still break away from the pack and bring him down so he reached deep down for that little bit of extra speed and tripped over his own feet. Gloran Stoneskull scooped up the ball and went for it twice in order to get from extreme to long range, bobbled, and then, despite range and blinding sunlight, lobbed the ball to Mogan Quicksilver who neatly caught it. Grudgebearer's CAS-master Kelin Goldsniffer stuck out his foot when Raiders' Blitzer Draguga tried to dodge away to tackle the runner; Draguga fell to the ground and Quicksilver ran in the winning TD.

Sorry the welcome to the WWB was so rough Burtoni but welcome anyway, it's good to see some of the committed Saints and Sinners coaches showing up here.

Bring on the 'Zons!”