As is customary, a rundown of the action for your amusement.
The games took place in Dan’s very spacious, comfortable living room. With snacks and refreshments on hand it was the perfect environment for a weekend of Blood Bowl.
Round 1 arrived which ended in a solid win for the Geordies and a point on the board. The individual points were 4.5 to 1.5. Looks like a big win but that’s a little flattering; there were some very close games including an excellent comeback from Don_Vito’s Dark Elves to beat Sadface’s Woodies. The standout result of the round was Circusbear beating the Jocks’ most reliable player Garrick 2-1.
The makings of a classic were already on show when the Jocks immediately bounced back in Round 2 to level things up 1 – 1 (4 to 2 on individual points). Valen’s High Elves kicked things off by thumping rookie JvGer Warka’s Undead 3-1. Most of the rest followed suit to put things back on par.
Round 3 ended in a thrilling draw. With all results possible going into the final turns of the last three matches. Stephen82, Scally and my own matches were all extremely close affairs. If we could squeeze a win out of one of these ties then it felt as though the round win was in the bag. Unfortunately Scally registered a loss after some pretty miserable luck (so I believe) and Stephen a draw. It meant I needed to win my match to draw the round which I was fortunate enough to do! From 0-1 at half time, I managed a 2-1 win at the death after Humpty's Dark Elves couldn’t pick up the ball.
Overnight scores were level at 1.5 – 1.5 but with the Geordies holding a slender advantage on the tiebreaker, sum of individual wins. And things looked that little bit rosier when we took a narrow win in Round 4 to lead by a point going into the final round. There were a couple of standout mirror-matches in this round, with Warka beating Donshula in an Undead-off and Sadface and Stephen82 drawing 2-2 in a Wood vs Wood clash.
So we Geordies went into Round 5 needing only a couple of wins and a draw from the six matches to mean we had an unassailable lead. Sadly things didn’t turn out as we hoped. The Jocks won the tie with us only registering a win and a couple of draws; a 4 – 2 win on the individual scores. Purdindas’s comeback from 0-2 to draw 2-2 against Don_Vito may go down as the crucial moment in the round.
Remarkably this made the match a dead heat at
2.5 – 2.5 with individual scores also level at
15 – 15. The Jocks retained the trophy as winners in 2017 so we will have to win it back north of the border next year. Should be an interesting exercise ahead of the NAF World Cup and a last chance to try out rosters and tactical combos.
And finally…
The proud Jocks, having just retained the fabled trophy…
All time Jock statistics for perusal:
And the same for the Geordies:
Looking forward to next year already!
