“A new season, and a new hope dawns in the Premiership for the League’s most beloved Undead team (If I say it often enough you’ll believe me, right?), Real Sociedead.

The first stop on the road to glory was to be against old rivals, Bristol Reavers, home of the infamous glory hound The Duke.

There really was only one way to contain such a fiend and so Real hired the Count to make up the odds.

The mind games begun even before kickoff as even despite passing his late fitness test, Claudio Andres Bravo Munoz was berated by coach Pythrr for being “dead weight” to the team – a remark that Real’s Season CAS record holder was not about to forget.

Real received and immediately made their intentions clear as Chris Glutton fouled the troll off the pitch and a Black Orc was KO’d.

Real continued to press this advantage, KOing a lino and then Chris Glutton seriously injured another Black Orc only to have him healed by the Apothecary... the Reavers were severely under pressure and the Duke hung back deep.

By the 3rd quarter of the first half Real still held a 3 man advantage over the Reavers and were in possession deep in their half when suddenly the Reavers caught their first wind! Three blocks resulted in three KOs and more importantly the Duke had leaped into the fray to sack the ball carrier. With the Duke dangerously close to the Real Fans Real bizarrely opted not to surf him and instead concentrate on carrying the pig skin over the line, collecting it and breaking free.

The Duke however was still not finished and leapt and dodged his way to the ball carrier before stripping the ball from his ghoulish hands and taking it for himself.

The Count charged at the Duke but despite throwing two blows was unable to topple him to end the half 0 – 0, yards from the end zone.


The Orcs had little time to recover for the second half and so fielded only 10 players. Real took advantage and made a quick and perfect adjustment to their defence. The two teams battled for a while, both losing men but an out of position Troll made the Reavers feel it a little more, and so when an opening presented itself to make a deserate run they took it, only for the usually flawless Duke to tumble and knock himself out.

The game looked over there, but a fumble with the pick up cast the ball into the crowd only to be tossed in amongst a group of Orcs, amongst which was their thrower. Fearing it could now be all over for Real they were pleased to see the identity crisis stricken, is he a thrower – is he a fouler – is he a blocker?, Jo Kuffour simply assume a position near the ball rather than attempt the pick up and toss down field.

Real waded in, the charge led by both Real Mummies. The ball scattered, Ghouls dropped it, Orc Throwers dropped it, Orc Blitzers dropped it but Mummy Claudio did what all others couldn’t and scooped it up safely!

Still heavily marked however it was left to the rest of the Real team to concoct a chain push to release Claudio on a dash, err… stagger to the endzone. All that Reavers could do to stop the gargantuan blocker -come contender for season’s top scorer - was place bodies around him, none of which remained there for too long as Claudio made a 9 yrd rush to win the game, silencing his premature critic, Pythrr.


===
What began as a walk in the park with the aid of the dice turned into a real nail biter in T6 after Pyth levelled the numbers on the field and had Duke single handedly stop my score. During those last few turns I did have the chance to surf the Duke but opted, wrongly, to ignore him for a more cautious scoring opportunity – only to have him stop me again – pesky Orc!

In the second half the Perfect Defence also played its part well, ensuring Pyth couldn’t do much on the LOS – in actual fact he did less than much after he attempted a 1d blitz with his troll against Claudio and toppled himself. :D
There was one great opportunity for Pyth in the second half that involved placing his Diving Tackle on the Count and charging Duke upfield, but I spotted this and cut the DTs path to Count off with a sprinting Zombie – as it happened the Duke failed his dodge and the game should have been over then had I not fumbled the ball out of bounds.

On the whole, a great and entertaining game. It was rather poetic that the Mummy Pyth was dis’ing won the game, and that is Real’s first ever Mummy TD. With no teams taking perms it leaves Reavers strong to steal points from my opponents and us fighting fit for our loss against the High Elves! :P

GG Pyth.
”