“And just like that, the tree was felled. Thursdaynight is dead. More about that later, but first the game itself...

Playing against ogres can be a lot of fun. Yes, they hurt when they hit, but more often than not they fail to hit - at least on any regular basis. And the snots are ever so squishy. Sadly here I only had a single tackler, but he did have MB, and sure enough his first block killed poor little Ben.

The first turn also saw the wood elves using the quick snap to throw a nice long bomb for an easy first score.

And then DrClaes's very first block was skulls, which led to a second wood elf score in almost as many turns.

A more balanced following drive could have gone either way, but I was still on a roll as far as the luck went, and a third score came easily enough.

And then almost a fourth, except for the muffed pick-up.

In the second half things settled down a bit, with the wood elf side of the pitch looking a bit thin with no tree there in the centre, and with the ogres finally getting their blocking going properly. The snots were still suffering a fair bit, but once the Trollslayers gained a good numerical advantage they began to take their revenge with as many fouls as possible. Luckily - apart from the obvious - my armour rolls were pretty good and I have no one missing the next game.

And the Trollslayers did manage to squeeze in a score of their own, via their demon sprinter, Wyndon, who also BH the wood elf thrower on the way in!

And then to finish off, the wood elves managed a bit of elvish trickery on the final turn, scooping the ball out from two TZs and throwing a modest pass (well, it was only a catcher making the throw) for a final score.

So a lot of fun and a lot of nice chat with a great opponent. There will definitely be more like this in future.

Now, as for the other business...

Thursdaynight Guitarclub is dead. It was going to happen one day, and although it would be churlish to say I don't mind at all, I find myself strangle unmoved by his passing. It was a good hit, an instant kill and a failed apo, and if you're gonna go, there's no better way to do it.

He's up there near the top on quite a few of the Top Lists, and he holds the all-time number one spot for MVP, so I'm quite proud of him, and hopefully over the years new coaches will look at his record and say something along the lines of, "wow, he was great. I wish I could have a player that good." And then they can go and do it. Records are there to be broken, and his will be some day, and when they are, I'll go and congratulate the coach (if I'm still around).

I'll never have another treeman like him though - partly because he had seven skills and that doesn't happen any more - and partly because I don't think I've got the stamina to go through it all again. When all's said and done, he was an aberration. I'm only really concerned with the passing game and having a legend on the team who isn't a thrower meant my TR was always way higher than I would have liked, and there was always the problem of who was going to get the apothecary.

So now I'm going to take a deep breath, say goodbye, update his bio, and then try and think of a good name for the new guy who's going to have to fill those incredibly large boots he's left behind.

But wow, has my TR plummeted :-)”