I know this is a long one... feel free to just scroll to the bottom and rate it a 1 before reading it... it'll just save time that way :O)

Still riding high on the most unlikely of victories, so I'm writing this before I get too bored! I feel it deserves it, even if you lot don't ;O)

The Cunning Runts became the first Halfling team to win the Blood Bowl Open in history last night, in a series of gritty and demanding matches against their orc rivals.

The Halflings scraped through in the dying seconds of the semi-final, with a throw team-mate touchdown securing victory mere seconds before the final whistle.

The final was a daunting prospect, facing off against the 2nd place league team Boyz from da’ Ood. The Boyz had already secured an impressive 4-0 victory over other orc entrants, Iz Green, in their semi-final in order to secure a place against the Runts in the match which would gain one of them the title of Blood Bowl Cup winners 2008.

The 167TR Halfling team were in good spirits before the match, undaunted by the might of their 220TR opponents. They never expected to stand a chance, but were there to enjoy the atmosphere, with a crowd of over 80,000 halflings and 50,000 orcs who had turned out for the match.

The Runts took the first kick-off of the Big Match, against the imposing wall of orc players intent on smashing their opponents into the pitch. The orcs obviously under-estimated their opponents early on, as they created a gap which their players swarmed through, swamping the orcish ball carrier. After a scrappy few minutes, the Halflings managed to break clear with the ball after an impressive display of agility, stretching over the line to make it 1-0. Orc fans allege that an extra Halfling appeared from nowhere during the drive, seemingly from underneath the pitch, in order to collect the ball and score the following turn. Nothing has been proven however, as it was almost impossible to keep count amongst the swarming mass.

The orcs responded with a brutal advance against the Halflings in the next drive, sending several players off the pitch with a variety of injuries. Despite the violent onslaught from the orcs, the Halflings didn’t give up hope, throwing themselves at the orcs in the slight hope that it may slow their progress enough to keep the score at 1-0 until the end of the half. It looked for a second as though they had managed this, even flooring the ball carrier in the closing seconds of the drive. The orcs managed to reclaim the ball however, and ran it over the line apparently after the whistle had blown for half time. The touchdown stood though, leaving the score at 1-1 at half-time.

The Halflings were looking less confident as the second half began, but were given a slight boost by the support from the Halfling crowd, who sang with enthusiasm throughout the match.

As the second half got underway, the Halflings decided on a desperate throw team-mate to attempt to regain the lead as quickly as possible, fearing being overwhelmed by the superior strength and blocking power of the orcs. This looked to be paying off as the ball was delivered into the hands of a waiting player who was hurled across the pitch and landed safely deep in the other half of the pitch. They landed slightly less far into the orcs’ half as intended, and fell while over-stretching themselves in an effort to cross the line before being blitzed by an angry orc team.

The orcs collected the loose ball at leisure. A pass which fell from the air half-way to its target saw another opportunity for the Halflings to snatch victory, but their treeman were either unable to move after having taken root, or did not manage to throw a Halfling anywhere near the ball.

The orcs smashed their way through the Halfling defence, and despite several valiant efforts by the Halflings, they were unable to take down the ball carrier. They resorted to throwing themselves in the way of the orc team, trying somehow to slow their advance. This worked to a degree, but at a huge cost to the team, resulting in the death of two of their more experienced players.

One heroic, lone Halfling remained between the orcs and the endzone toward the end of the match, with the others either off the pitch or unable to get anywhere close to the ball. The orcs needed one last blitz to clear the Halfling out of the way, and after a half where they could seemingly do nothing wrong, their overconfidence became their undoing in a dramatic and miraculous turn of events. As their head coach stood nibbling nervously on the crust of his half-time pie, the orc blitzer charged with the duty of clearing the remaining Halfling from the ball carrier ran up, and despite some unnecessarily strong support from other players, managed to fall as the whistle went for full time. (read: Big Steve says to the spectators – “well, the only thing that can save me now is a triple skull” as the dice come down…skull… skull… skull… and everyone stares in disbelief!)

Both teams left the pitch in incredulity that the scoreline still remained at 1-1 at full time. It had been a long, tense and extremely hard-fought game, and it was still continuing. The Halflings, running out of players – and pies – were understandably concerned about facing another half against their orc opponents, but their plucky spirit shone through as five out of the six Halflings who had been knocked out during the match made their way bravely back onto the pitch to the stunned silence of 135,000 fans.

The only hope for the Halflings seemed to be a throw team-mate touchdown to counter anything the orcs could do, dragging the game into sudden-death. The orcs, however, had other ideas – receiving the ball and making an early strong defence that the Halflings would find almost impossible to overcome. While forcing their way down the pitch, they set about trying to remove the Halflings only hope from the pitch by felling, and fouling, the treemen. This seemed to be working, with one tree KO’d, and the team’s apothecary forced to step in to save the other from a serious injury. Two of the orc players were ejected from the pitch for the brutality of their fouling, but plenty remained against the dwindling Halfling presence to make a seemingly impenetrable barrier as they forced their way down the side of the pitch.

The Halflings were forced to resort to desperate measures to reclaim the ball, throwing their own players at the group of orcs in an attempt to make a gap to get one of their few remaining players through. After several failed attempts and a few self-inflicted injuries, including an incident of ‘friendly fire’, the Halflings were rewarded. One of the team managed to land on the ball-carrier, knocking them down and creating a loose ball. After a brief scrap and failed attempts by either team to reclaim it, the ball bounced loose toward the edge of the orcish barrier.

One of the few remaining Halflings managed to pick up the ball and run almost out of reach toward the endzone. The last of the Halfling players set about putting themselves in the way of the orcs, risking death or seriousy injury attempting to get in the way of desperate and vicious opponents. While the Halflings were risking everything for the glory of the team, one of their tree-men managed to put himself in a position to block the remaining orcish thrower who may have been able to reach the ball-carrier.

It all looked to be over, with no orcs in reach of the ball and no time on the clock for them to draw level once the touch down was scored. It was not to be however, as in the orcs last turn the team wizard stepped up to lightning bolt the Halfling, leaving him winded and with the ball again loose on the pitch. He was able to find his feet to make one last attempt at forcing the ball across the line before the whistle, but he fumbled the ball in his hurry to get across the line, leaving the score at 1-1 after extra time.

A tense line-up ensued for a sudden-death playoff, with the Halflings risking all on one last throw team-mate touchdown to secure victory – fail, and it would all be over. Nerves began to evaporate as the ball was kicked and the Halfling fans sang their support to raise their team’s spirits for one last time.

There was a scrappy rush to get the ball to the Halfling chosen to be thrown to glory. The extra morale provided from their fans’ support helped the Halflings to get this far, the chosen Halfling became airborne and came to ground several feet short of the intended target area of the pitch. He managed to land on his feet, ran, and stretched himself to the limit to carry the ball over the line and gain the Cunning Runts an unlikely victory, an unlikely title and immortality in the annals of BloodBowl history.