Averheim’s humongous Bloodweiser stadium was built for another time. A time when the River Bandits was a big team. A time like season 2, when Averheim won the Conference final against the Patriots and went to the SuperBowl. Since then, the fortune of the Averheim franchise has waned, with 23rd place being their best placement the last four seasons. However, we have seen a resurgent Averheim team this season. After a draw against the Vikings and victories against Sluggers and Thunder they even sniffed on a play-off spot.

Thus, this visit from Carroburg was foreseen with great enthusiasm here in Averheim. Until a disastrous visit to Praag in week 6 ended with superstar Louis Murphy killed and three other players missing this home game.Suddenly the game looked extremely difficult for the home team, and fans stayed home, leaving the stands to the Carroburg fans. And they were not wrong, either. The Bandits had their chances, for sure, especially when Niedermayer screwed up a simple hand-over late in the second half, and the home team’s newly drafted Free agent Bokor managed to do everything right to get to the ball in two tackle zones by shadowing players, only to fumble the pass. But the outcome was inevitable as the CCC, led by a hard-hitting Goode and a Lexer enjoying herself as the ref had fled the field, sent player after player off and moving the ball as it pleased them. A victory it was, the fourth in a row, and CCC are now in a play-off spot. The home fans have mostly left the stadium but our heroes in crimson and bright green are still there as we turn to our reporters down on the field. Hertha, are you there?

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On the field, Hertha is in a group consisting of three huge treemen and half a dozen Halfling, setting up a field kitchen and a huge picnic table on the field!

Hertha: “Hi! I’m here and hae, for a change, joined some of the CCC’s more peculiar fans. They call themselves “the travelling tavern” and have promised to make an ostentatious dinner for the team every time the team wins. I’m on my way now to meet the mastermind behind this, and…” momentarily speechless she looks at an extravagantly clothed Halfling coming out of a tent beside the kitchen. He grins widely, and she manages to continue, somewhat surprised…”Oh, it’s you Giselbert*. What in the blazes are you doing here?”

Giselbert: “Offering my services, of course!”

Hertha: “But here on the field? What do the local groundskeeper say?”

Giselbert: “He’s no problem. He came running here, waving his hand and cussing us out, but I told him to quiet down, unless he wanted the treemen agitated, because everyone knows that agitated treemen tend to take root…”

Hertha: “Isn’t there rules against you making food here at the stadium?”

Giselbert: “Yes. One might easily think so. But it is the case that the local stadium rules only bans activities and services in competition with the stadium’s own facilities.”

Hertha: (skeptically) “And a restaurant is not in competition with the stadium’s own facilities?”

Giselbert: “Again, one might think so, but section 4, sentence 34 in the city council code of Averheim defines competition as establishments selling similar products and services, and no one in their right mind would even think to claim that the local stadium restaurant can provide anything similar to my unique CarroBurgers…”

Hertha: (rolls her eyes and fights to keep sarcasm out of her voice) “I’m sure you’re right about that, and thank the Gods for all small favours!”

Giselbert: “And so we have been doing a brisk business here today. Helped along, of course, by the number of Carroburg fans here, as strangely enough the Averheim locals do not seem to be in the right mind for my special patented CarroBurger sauce…”

Hertha: (losing the battle against sarcasm…) “I’m sure they are only jealous of your talent, Giselbert!” And before the halfling can say anything more, she continues: “But now over to Günther, who has the assistant coach ready!”

Cabalvision crystals shift to another place where Günther stands with the assistant coach Cody Latimer and a tall, athletic woman with Tilean features.

Günther: “Nice to see you, Cody, and congratulations with your fourth win!”

Cody: “Thank you! Generous of you!”

Günther: “So tell us, where is Inga? We haven’t seen her in a while.”

Cody: “She’s been in L’Anguille since week four, taking care of her kid sister Renate’s funeral and arranging for her belongings.”

Günther: “Ah. So you have been the coach responsible for these four consecutive victories?”

Cody: (grins) “Not at all. It’s the team that is performing, and they deserve the credit. And truth to speak, we have also happened to meet teams that have been down on their luck lately, suffering grievous losses and having several players out with injuries.”

Günther: “Nevertheless, the Crimson Cascade is now back in a play-off spot, like last season just before midseason break. Can you hold on to it this time, Cody?”

Cody: “Who knows? We have two tough matches left before midseason break, the homematch against Thunder and then we go on the road to Erengrad to handle the Vikings. Those two matches will probably decide the rest of the season. We could break, like last season, and lose everything, including key players, or we could win and be in the lead of the division by midseason. We will do our best, and then we will find out were that takes us. We ARE one point ahead of the schedule Inga announced though, so we look to end up at 16!”

Günter scoffs, and turns to the tall woman. “Angelina, finally our viewers get to meet you! Congratulations with both TD’s tonight. This takes you to 6 total this season, half of the CCCs score so far!

Angelina: “That is right. Berndt promised he would help me, but it seems I’m saddled with that responsibility.”

Günther: “Tell us more about these two!”

Angelina: “Well. Bandits started with the ball and scored halfway into the first, but were already down to nine players on the field. We turned on the offense, and then Miriam botched the pick-up. Berndt had to help her out, pushing Landry away, and then she executed the perfect dump-off to me when Carpenter blitzed her. They tried to surround me, but Berndt came back in a blitz on Carpenter and knocked him over, chainpushing me out of the other Bandits’ reach. And then it was an easy score. In the second we had few problems against a desperately undermanned Bandits squad, who at the end of the half was reduced to only four. And then it happened… I tried a hand-off to Niedermayer well inside the protection of surrounding CCC players, but she wasn’t focused and the ball popped out of her hands and even over the head of Adrienne, and suddenly it was outside of our pocket. That brave new Free agent guy, Bokor, he managed to dodge his way to the ball and pick it up in two tackle zones, and went for the long bomb, but couldn’t make the pass happen. And then Goode and Adrienne did whatever they do to KO him and the ball was free for Bernie to pick up and pass to me for the TD.”

Günther: “That could have been a pass that would have turned the game around. You are not a bad passer yourself, would you have been able to make that pass?”

Angelina: (laughs) “Right now, leaving the field once more as a victor, I feel I can do anything! But that was a brave attempt, and with Goode and Adrienne on your back, almost suicidal. I think maybe Ken is the only quarterback who could have pulled that off, as he has Nerves of Steel. Or possibly those super-agile ones, like J-Man or Ogretree. But me, no way!”

Günther: “You have four completions so far this season and many fans discuss whether you are a catcher or a quarterback, Angelina. What’s your opinion on that?”

Angelina: “During junior play, I have held both positions. Coming onto the team, Inga said we should use this to our advantage. It gives us more options to have three passers and the opposing team needs to cover more possibilities, which means they tend to leave at least one of them free for us to exploit.”

Günther: “And with that, we go back to studio. But be sure to be at the Pool coming Wednesday at 20.00, as Thunder comes to town. It will be a battle between two play-off candidates as our heroes takes on the current divisional leader of KFC East.”

Brought to you by Hertha Wendlinger and Günther Schiele, Carroburg Tageszeitung.