“This was a tough game, against a tough team and a tough coach. But that just made it all the more fun.

And when I say tough, I don't mean bashy, I mean that I had to think a lot (which at this time of life is not always so easy!) But honestly, it was an hour or so well spent and the fact that I lost is neither here nor there.

The high elves were the lower rated team so they borrowed Prince Moranion for the day, and he proved to be reasonably useful - not really achieving much in terms of stats, but he was always there to get in the way and to provide an extra tackle when needed. And the fact he now has wrestle as well as block just makes him REALLY annoying. Anyway, on with the game...

The first drive was a long one - possibly because both teams kept up a constant stream of turnovers trying to do those things elves should be able to do in their sleep. Gengis was playing it safe, and only pushed forward when he had the players to protect the ball carrier. Italso helped their cause that Spiderplant's very first action was to take root and spend the bulk of the first half all on his little ownio in the middle of the field while everyone else was down near the endzone.

Gengis was happy enough to stall while the wood elves were treeless, so in the end I charged in and pushed his ball carrier over the line, just so I could get in some offence before the half.

But the half was not over...not by a long way. I introduced Gengis to the famous Stikki (long) bomb, and even gave him a chance for a one-turner (because I'm nice like that!). And then there was a riot, so things turned out to be quite easy for the high elves - even though Gengis looked like he was about to one-turn it anyway, just because he could.

Which then gave me the chance to do the same. But for once I chose not to bother. The front line was made up of skill-less rookies, and the back line was solid and stuffed with guards and tacklers so I thought I may as well just throw a long bomb and even the score at the top of the second half.

Which is exactly what I did.

Then the second half turned into a repeat of the first half. Air elf collected the deep kick, I ran most of my team down to get in the way of the thrower, Gengis then calmly dodged away, threw an easy pass and got the ball into my half, meaning that the most of my team that had just run downfield had to turn around and run all the way back again. And the tree took root again as well.

This time the stall lasted all the way to the end of turn 7 and by then almost every player from both teams (apart from the tree, of course) was piled into far corner. I did what I could, but it just wasn't enough and Gengis took the lead once more.

So now it was my turn to try the one-turner again, and this time I gave it a go - even though Gengis would almost certainly do the same on his final turn anyway. But you never know...

...so anyway, I failed. But at least I got off the fourth long bomb first.

As I said, it was a tough game for me - at least on defence. I was constantly trying to work out exactly where to place my players to get the best out of a fairly weak bunch, and really all I succeeded in doing was slowing Gengis down a bit. My blocking was generally poor, and on the one or two occasions where I really needed a bit of luck, I didn't get it. On offence, the passing game was perfect, and Gengis was having the same blocking issues as I was. Even with two tacklers, he just couldn't contain my three catchers and two wardancers.

So there you have it. A hard game against a clever coach and a result that was about as fair as it could have been.

And no injuries. And no lost fans. And now I finally have a tackler as well. Go offence!”