“The Sleekit Skelpers finally took to the pitch against Derecho after an earlier game was abandoned following inducement calculation errors from Cachuli.

The lizards fully expected the woodies to go with the potentially game changing wizard and were not mistaken.

Woodies won the toss and elected to receive. Lizards set up centrally to try to push woodies into a quick score down one of the flanks. Woodies took the bait and although the lizards worked hard to try to force the mistake the woodies easily scored in 2 turns.

Lizards set up ready for the long grind, mindful of the wizard, trying to keep the ball carrier loosely caged yet still protected by guards. A decisive KO to the sole wardancer allowed the lizards to take a few risks in keeping the ball and after a failed attempt by the woodies to get at the ball the lizards switched play and scampered down field, loosely caged and tried to prepare for the potential wizard by judicious placement of diving tackle skinks and tackle saurus'. The wizard fireball came as expected however it only managed to knock down a single saurus, paving a way for a 2 dice strip ball which succeeded but only popped the ball free next to a saurus. Woodies scampered through tz after tz and away from the slow tackle saurus' and ineffectual diving tackle skinks managing to recover the ball and then loosely screen. Lizards were not entirely beat yet though, a single saurus was in range for a blitz and calmly smacked the ball carrier and popped the ball. Now it was the turn of the lizards to try to protect the ball but after providing the loose screen couldn't pick up the ball with a reroll. Woodies with a loose lineman upfield had a glorious chance to punt the ball free but their luck deserted them at the crucial time and the ball popped free in the middle of the lizard horde. Again the lizards got the ball into a loose cage but the ag5 woodie lineman calmly dodged in and popped it free again, though this time the woodies couldn't recover. Lizards again got the ball caged up and this time there was no last ditch tackle with the lizards able to calmly score.

1-1 at half time with 1 badly hurt skink, 1 badly hurt woodie and six in the KO bin. 3 woodies woke up including the wardancer.
From Lizards point of view perfect half and pleased to have overcome the wizard.

Second half lizards receiving and stupidly go all saurus los, stupid because woodies get blitz and with the wardancer and some ma9 catchers are able to get to and recover the ball with the wardancer. All is not lost though and the angry and slightly ashamed lizards are able to ko the wardancer ballcarrier and pop the ball loose which lands in the hands of the ma9 woodie catcher. with some los blocking to free the krox they manage to get 2 diving tackles a prehensile tail and a tackle saurus on the catcher. Woodies are only able to remove one diving tackle but the catcher fails the dodge and the ball pops free but straight into the hands of the other ma9 catcher. Lizards again pop ball free and then swarm and manage to cage the ball, only for the highly agile woodies to again pop it free but fail to recover. Lizards again try to cage the ball but fail the pickup with reroll to leave it scattered between 4 lizards. Woodies again have a chance to recover the ball and score but fail this time leaving the lizards an easy opportunity to get the ball caged safe which they take. Woodies try to get back to head off the inevitable score but the entire lizard team are able to screen and cage the ball completely safe. At this point the woodies realise that discretion is the better part of valour and retreat conserving bodies for the 1ttd attempt. Lizards score in turn 16 making it 2-1 and woodies get only 5 bodies for the 1ttd attempt.

At this point the lizards are so elated at having succeeded with the 2-1 grind completely fail to set up to stop the 1ttd score. The coach is a moron when it comes to such things and tends to rely on luck rather than clever positioning. Woodies took full advantage of the lizards tactical naivete and after dodging through a krox tz managed to recover the ball and pass it into the hands of an ma9 catcher. Catcher just needed a dodge and 3 gfi to win, with dodge and sure feet and a reroll. It looked very much like it was going to overtime. the stunned lizards watched as the catcher scampered free only to snake the first gfi, ending the match and gifting the Grey Lantern into the scaly lizard hands.

"Hooray" shouted the incredibly lucky lizard coach, pleased that nuffle had forgiven the diabolically poor positioning on the final drive and punished the woodies instead. Before the lizards could even thank the elves for a good game well played the woodies had already left the stadium and begun the long journey home.

Lizards partied long into the night holding aloft the magnificent Grey Lantern.
Their tournament victory more thanks to luck than judgment. Hopefully they can travel deep into The Ulthuan Invitational Finals and bring further glory to cold bloods.


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