“84,000 screaming fans thought they were going to see an easy Woodsmen victory, and so it proved until a surprising turnaround late in the second half when the Polecats managed an unlikely draw on the buzzer with a swarm of skinks.

Polecats coach m0nty (playing without injured kroxigor Bailey Tron) had not broken through armour on his last two matches, and things were not looking good as the wood elves' wardancer Lord Raven stripped the ball from star skink Foodbunny on the first play of the day. Although the rookie Uncle Jeet somehow managed to juggle the ball, he was let down by fellow saurus Warren Martial, who performed the highly difficult "quadskull" maneouvre on his next block. The Woodsmen quickly exploited the confusion to stun Uncle Jeet and knock out the heavyweight saurus J.A.F.D., and Lord Raven didn't have much trouble escaping to the end zone for the first score.

When J.A.F.D. did not reappear at the restart and Caryn Hellchick dropped the pick-up, the Woodsmen pounced again. Although the elf SafeThrow Tree mis-threw under pressure from Caryn, Little Tree picked up the crumbs and the rest of the Woodsmen cleared a path for him to run the ball in for a 2-0 half time lead.

The elves were to receive the kick in the second half, and it was here that things looked darkest for the lizard men as a touchback gave the ball straight to Safethrow Tree. The only consolation was that the elves could only put 10 fit men on the field as the number of KOs began to pile up.

The restart saw the ball passed to Lord Raven, but a failed leap by Black Tree left Raven open on the next play. He was duly knocked out by the inexperienced Sgt Hulka, and there was light at the end of the tunnel. Although Wide Tree picked up and passed successfully to Red Tree, the game turned on the elves' next move, which was to hand off to SafeThrow Tree. His resulting pass put a lie to his name, spilling the game-breaking throw and leaving him open for a KO by Desiato Hotblack on the lizards' next play. DJ Mauve picked up the spilled ball, and the lizards' defensive wall closed in around the plucky skink. The elves could not penetrate the screen, and the lizards managed to badly hurt the other wardancer, Lord Eagle, on the next play. With their treeman unable to get up, the elves could not stop the lizards advancing back down the field, with Caryn Hellchick eventually scoring on turn 6.

Two turns to either side left in the match, and the elves held all the cards with a 2-1 lead and the kick to receive. Woodsmen coach Swift chose their higly agile lineman Black Tree to catch the kick, which he did after a reroll, but the game's strangest play then occurred. Instead of retaining possession deep in the back field, Black Tree advanced up the pitch and tried to pass the ball. The lineman ended up dropping it behind him just within reach of the Polecat skinks.

Four of the skinks came thundering around the offensive lines on the next play, all straining to reach Black Tree. Euri used the Polecats' last reroll to dodge past Black Tree and miraculously pick up the ball with consecutive sixes (3 and 4 needed). g3rmz then survived two dodges and two GFIs to push Black Tree away from Euri with the help of two team mates. Sgt Hulka got within striking distance of the pack, and the challenge was set.

The Woodsmen responded by desperately running back in numbers to try to intercept Euri before it was too late. Swift chose Lord Eagle to blitz the ballcarrier, but the weight of numbers of defending skinks wore him out, failing a second consecutive dodge among three opponents to lie helpless on the ground next to Euri. Sgt Hulka came to the rescue on the last turn of the game, using the help of four skinks to knock over Black Tree on a three-dice block, leaving Euri with a simple stroll for a last-second equaliser.

I'd like to thank Swift for putting up with my bitching early in the game, and I wish him better luck in second halves in future!”