“The ELF team turned up to play one of the three non-elven, non-stunty teams they have yet to face. Having performed well against the supposedly broken Chaos Pact and Old World teams, they were reasonably confident they could give as good as they got.

Both teams started brightly, and the Dark Elves had an opening luck rating that topped 80%. A-dodging and a-leaping they were able to put pressure on the Lustrian ball handlers right from the start, and the match continued with a flurry of blocks (double skulls for Magmabeast) and dodges (snake-eyes for me).

With Mandae the block-dodge-leap-stripballing Ag5 super-blitzer coming in handy as a cagebreaker, eventually a scattered ball got a lucky bounce into the hands of Joran Frostar, and the Dark Elves used their superior agility and speed to sprint off into the distance and score on the break.

Two double-skull blocks after the kick-off gave the Mentalists a shot at doubling their lead, but great Cython defence locked the ball in a tough spot. A 1dblock strip-ball worked again, but the ball bounced back to the Lustrians.

The second half began with a bad-kick toucback, and the Dark Elves went straight for the 2 turn TD. However, the Lustrians were able to form an almost impenetrable defence. Only boneheads afflicting both Ogre and Kroxigor spoiled their perfect tactics, and even then it took a mighty 2 1dblocks and 5 2+ rolls (with 2 rerolls) for Mandae to leap, dodge and GFI his way to the second score.

Even the Dark Elf coach was shocked by the move, having fervently expected to have to run backward and regroup in a most cowardly and humiliating manner.

The Lustrians responded in style (despite having 4 players stunned after a pitch invasion), scoring a well-worked 2 turn TD thanks to their own super-blitzer, the Ma7 Thorgrim. A leap that wouldn't deselect left Dr. Thranst out of position and unable to put a key second TZ on the ball, and Thorgrim was foolishly left unmarked (the Dark Elves underestimating his pace).

A snake-eyes fumbled pick-up at the next kick-off put the Mentalists under pressure for the final turns, and with three men down caging wasn't easy. A break-tackle blitz from the Ogre freed up the ball, but the score was just out of range and the Dark Elves clung on for the win.

Another stat increase, this an Ma time for Bitesy was nice, but still no doubles in Har Ganeth (25 rolls, come on boys, we *need* guard).”