RABBL Match Reports

Pre-Season Friendly: Brightfire Banshees versus V: The Final Touchdown

This was the first encounter between the League’s only all-female pro-Elf team and the Lizardmen of V. The weather was looking as if it would be perfect for Blood Bowl with hardly a breeze ruffling the scales of the skinks. A huge crowd had turned out to see the Banshees, which rather uncharitably the opposition Coach suggested was not due to their ball playing skills, but to their rather skimpy outfits. The Lizardmen won the toss and opted to receive, which certainly seemed like their best plan for an early touchdown.

The Lizardmen were trialling a five saurus line up with three of these big guys taking up their positions confidently on the centre line. Team Captain, LoqBonq, as usual took up his favourite position in the middle. The Elves set up their field with all the confidence of a team who has never played Lizardmen before, however they were sensible enough to keep their catchers and throwers back.

The first kickoff was intercepted by the receiving team’s skink Zooma, a handy little player who has been showing considerable promise in this pre-season phase of the year. Although he was able to move the ball down the pitch, he fumbled a pass off to fellow skink Itza-Lotl. The ball bounced off saurus Ma-Sta-Don’s head, but he failed to even register this through his thick armour, which left things wide open for the elves to take advantage of the situation. The ball was scooped up by specialist thrower Melith and, in an example of the grace that an Elf team can bring to the pitch, she passed it to Alarnath, one of the three catchers on the Elf team, who then ran the ball in for an easy touchdown. It was a textbook play for the Elf team.

Unfortunately, after this early success, the tide of the match turned against the Elves. The next kickoff found the Elves disorganised and the Lizardmen were able to get an early advantage, with skinks moving into better positions before the Elves had worked out what was going on. The sauruses flattened the Elf blitzers and several of the line elves before forming a cage with Skink Kroxaltt in the centre. Despite the Elves’ determined efforts to sack the ball carrier by successfully collapsing the cage, Kroxaltt was able to successfully hand the ball off to Zooma who ran it in for a touchdown with only some dodging required.

At halfway through the first half the score was one all, and with the Elves receiving, they felt that they still had a good chance to turn the match around. They successfully punched a hole in the Lizardmen’s line and Sharith Tyr, star catcher and Team Captain, ran through the gap to be in position to catch the ball. Melith was able to pick up the ball and get close enough for a short pass to Tyr. Tyr once again proved that her place in the team is secure and caught the ball easily, but found herself isolated in enemy territory with the rest of her team tied up in blocking actions. A hoard of skinks overwhelmed her and carried off the ball, leaving Tyr bleeding on the ground. She was stretchered off the field and did not return for the rest of the game.

With sauruses backing up the skinks, it was only a matter of time before the battered Elf team let through the second Lizardman touchdown. The teams quickly got themselves back to the centre line for the remainder of the first half, however there was trouble in the stands. Sharith Tyr’s own personal supporters, mostly teenage men with raging hormones, took offence at her injury and started a fight with some skinks in the next stand. This small scuffle escalated and spilled onto the pitch. Four Lizardmen were knocked down in the melee and two Elf players were also stunned. Once the pitch was cleared, the players regrouped but there was too little time for either side to get the advantage. Unfortunately the sauruses took the opportunity to knock a few more of the Elves down, some of them quite hard, so that the Elf team now found itself down another two players. The first half ended with the Lizardmen up two touchdowns to one.

The second half started with the Elves taking advantage of poor kicking by the Lizardmen, getting under the ball, but their own starting line-up was now looking rather thin. Their blocking action against the saurus left wing failed, and left them floundering for a way to get the ball down the pitch. Before they could form a new attack strategy a saurus/skink combination had made it’s way through their defence and had their hands on the ball. A quick touchdown followed, leaving more Elf casualties in its wake.

This was an omen for the rest of the game which saw the Lizardmen systematically take apart the Elves’ attempts to claim the ball. The final score was 4 – 1 to the Lizardmen. By the end of the game six Elves were injured, and although one skink had sustained a head injury they were able to return to the game, something which none of the injured Elves were capable of. The Banshees will be nursing their wounds and reconsidering their strategy tonight after a disastrous match.

Their coach was quoted as saying “we’re relatively new to the Blood Bowl League and we’re sure that we can do better next time. It’s a shame that a couple of our players were killed and won’t be joining us for the season now, but we’re hopeful that we can find replacements.”

The V: The Final Touchdown coach said “We stomped them good.”