“CIBBL - Y7, Autumn - Silver Division: round 5:

That night Timaris Stormwing appeared to be in a better mood than usual. His spirits had been lifted by the recent win against the Bleakwood Haunters. Excitedly he was going through his notes, looking for the game-sheet carrying the players' names to be submitted to the referee prior to the match. His long sleeves dragged some scrolls down the table, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. “Finally”, he exclaimed, “I thought I’d lost it”. At that moment the door opened behind Timaris’ back and Mereia, the Meddlers’ assistant-coach walked in, a half-empty glass of martini in her hand. “Boss”, she said, “it’s time to get the game-sheet to the referee. If we delay any longer we risk being fined”. Timaris turned around, addressing his lovely assistant. “No worries, my dear, here it is”, he told her, while handing over a slightly wrinkled paper document on which he’d had listed his starting eleven players for tonight’s games. Mereia accepted the list, turned and made ready to leave the room again, while throwing a quick eye on the game-sheet. “No surprises there”, she commented, while closing the room behind her back without waiting for Timaris’ reply. “No need for it, either”, Timaris mused, while leaning back in his black leather couch, eyes staring out of the window, witnessing the setting sun.

Later that night Timaris joined his Meddlers in the stadium, where Mereia supervised the wood elves’ warm-up session. Hauclir practiced some long bombs, while Nimrodel and Syrabeth were somersaulting in the distance. Meanwhile Belboth Bluebark was busy rubbing his bark, trying to remove the last stiffness from his impressive limbs before the game would start. With a satisfied smile on his face Timaris stopped for a few seconds observing his team before finally installing himself on the Meddlers’ bench. The ref prepared to blow his whistle, and the tumultuous supporters reduced their shouting a little while readying themselves for the first half’s kick-off. Tonight’s opponent was Eternal Ecstasy, a gang of daemons of Slaanesh whom the Meddlers had encountered twice before, with one win for each team. Both teams were in excellent condition, with no missing players and a full bench. The stadium was filled to the last seat, with some goblins that had somehow sneaked in after the income gates had closed lingering near the edge of the pitch.

Then the ref finally blew his whistle, but just at that moment one the goblins snatched a rat-on-a-stick from a particularly bad-humored orc’s claw while tapping his unsuspecting neighbor on the shoulder. By the time the orc realized he’d lost his tasty snack, the human next to him turned his face, smiling innocently. The next second the orc planted his fist in the man’s face, while the surrounding goblins all started screaming and yelling at one another. Before long, the fight turned into a riot involving nearly a third of the crowd. The stewards had to intervene, but the first one to arrive got his face smashed in as well. When the dust finally settled, the referee decided to let the game begin. “Ah, I love the sound of a good brawl in the evening”, Mereia commented, stretching her arms and then picking up her glass of martini. “It’s an omen of good luck, my lover always says”. Timaris decided not to ask about the identity of her lover and where he’d heard about such omens, adjusting his attention to the action on the field instead.

The daemons started the game with a false note, failing the pick-up in turn 1. The Meddlers didn’t hesitate and moved forwards, trying to capitalize on their opponent’s bad start. Isilvar dodged through and managed to get his hands around the ball, before it was ruthlessly smashed out of his hands again by a daemonette only seconds later. Roxetta’s claws seemed to have been overpolished as for the second turn in a row she dropped the ball (gotta love your AG5!). Syrabeth decided to demonstrate how it was properly done and leapt towards the ball, picked it up, dodged away and ran in the opening touchdown: 1-0 for the Meddlers in turn three!

After the first drive’s disastrous ball-handling by the Ecstasy, the second drive started slightly better for the daemons. At least this time they managed to pick up the ball. In turn four Nimrodel blitzed Abyssa, Haunter of Dreams, and broke some of her ribs. Exit game for that Daemonette. The Ecstasy pushed through though, oblivious to all danger, wanting to equalize the score. Perhaps they pushed it a bit too far, as Mistress Bloodwhip, crashed into the turf, trying to cover Erdreth Darkgazer’s flank. Syrabeth smelled another opportunity there, and with the help of Caelir and Kivan she took down the ballcarrier. Fast as lightning Nimrodel tumbled through the sky, recovered the ball, dodged out and handed it off to Hauclir, who ran away to safety. Roxetta blocked his way but was quickly pushed aside. As all hope of the Ecstasy seemed to fade away, the unsuspecting Hauclir slipped on a banana peel carelessly thrown away by one of the goblins that had started the riot earlier that evening. Timaris’ heartbeat skipped a beat as Hauclir unceremoniously landed on his back, losing the ball. Roxetta Dreadclaw tried to lob the ball away, but her overpolished claws were capable of nothing this evening. In the last turn of the first half Hauclir jumped up, recovered the ball, pushed Roxetta out of the way, dodged out and ran in the second touchdown of the evening: 2-0 for the Meddlers at halftime!

By the time the Meddlers received the ball in the second half, Mereia was halfway her third martini of the evening. Now showing a full blush on her delicate cheeks, she adjusted her cap backwards, straightened her tanktop and started cheering loudly, temporarily abandoning her role of assistant-coach for that of Aery, the team’s cheerleader. In the second half the Meddlers started slowly, leaving the initiative to the Ecstasy, waiting for an opportunity to present itself. One turn later Nimrodel got fouled off the pitch after some mass hypnogaze. This left the daemonettes out of position though, opening up their right flank. Timaris urged his Meddlers forward and that is what they did. But it was a trap, as suddenly the dark mistresses where everywhere, and the wood elves were hypnotized from all sides. This left Hauclir open to a blitz, but his sure hands prevented worse. No more time to lose though, he must have thought as he blitzed away Mistress Bloodwhip and ran in the third touchdown of the evening, more than a little encouraged by Mereia’s graceful moves, who was still acting as Aery’s double up on the cheerleader platform.

By then the games was played. With five turns remaining, Timaris instructed his Meddlers to not take any unnecessary risks. Eventually the Ecstasy managed to score a touchdown as well, bringing the final score to 3-1, but by then Mereia had downed her fourth martini and was long past caring. When the ref blew his whistle a final time to mark the end of the game, even one of the goblins decided to join the two dancing cheerleaders on the platform for a little fun…

Second win of the season for the Meddlers!
”