Shamrock Cup 2021

21 years ago, Comrade James and I started an Olympic Bloodbowl tradition (see here).  With 2021 being an COVID induced Olympic year, the Shamrock Cup was again up for contention. The recent lockdowns had delayed our chance to play so instead of the traditional best of 3 series, we rolled it up into our Round 5 grudgematch in our local Odin's Cup Season. My Capital Crusaders (Vampires) v James’s Vax Valley Horrors (Necromantic) winner take all!

The Teams shake out for the start of the match!

Tragically, the traditional 'chilli ball' has gone missing since the cup was last contested (I suspect dodgy Refs or a Skaven conspiracy) so the game was played with a disturbingly mundane and functional ball.

The First half saw me win the toss, receive, get a touchback and punch though with a bubble defence around the Vampire ball carrier. Despite James taking a Thrall off the pitch seriously injured in Turn 1, I had enough momentum to drive downfield, blitz off the marking players and score on Turn 3. Receiving for his drive, James had some unlucky dice and I was able to turn him over to score again at the end of the second half. Trouble for the Necro Team but with a whole half to go, anything could happen.

A quick TD saw the Vamps 1 nil up 

and then 2 nil up going into the second half

The Necro juggernought was out for blood as the second half started and thralls started leaving the pitch (2 in one turn) but the S4 Ag2+ Vamps and their hypnotic gaze are brutal players, and were lucky not to get more than stun when their fragile armour broke. After carting a Ghoul and the Werewolf off to the casualty box, the Vamps started to get the upper hand and the Thralls were being uncharacteristically resilient. After a series of ball bounces and deckings of carriers, James was unlucky to have his Ghoul trip over while sprinting down the sideline with the ball. I promptly surfed him into the crowd (Reilly will be proud) and ducked away to complete a Vamp passing action and go up 3 nil with just a few turns to go.

The Vamp ball carrier ran downfield, sprinted twice and completed a short pass in Sunny Weather

With the Ghouls and Werewolf off pitch, this was a tough spot for the Necro team

And Vamp 3 scored his first TD for the Season

And so the Vampires won the Shamrock Cup! As ever, James was a wonderful opponent and it was a very enjoyable game. I was really glad we could get our match in before I move interstate (again) in two weeks

And thus the Shamrock Cup Board of Honour records the following winners

                2000: Paul (Skaven)

                2004: James (Human)

                2008: cancelled due to excessive Warpstone consumption

                2012: Paul (Skaven)

                2016: James (Dark Elf)

                2020: delayed due to Nurgle's COVID-19 Rot

                2021: Paul (Vampire)

What a great ongoing bit of gaming fun - 2024 will see the next edition of this Grudgebowl classic!

Shamrock Cup 2012: Championship Match

With the Shamrock Cup ties up with 1 win each after the last game, the final match would decide all.  James met me last week to play for Eternal Glory...

James's Dark Elves vs my Skaven: Pre-Match Lineout

My Skaven won the toss and elected to Receive, while the Dark Elves won +1 FAME.
The ball dropped in the centre of the Rats' half, and their front line went in with a Quick Snap!

First block of the match was by Storm Vermin No 6 who went in hard, badly hurting a Dark Elf lineman - a handy start to the match!  A hole appeared in the front line and the Gutter Runners poured through deep into enemy territory.  The Skaven thrower scooped up the ball and waited for an opening.  The Dark Elves reacted quickly, running back to cover all the runners, and smashing one to the ground.  An elf Blitzer went in to foul - snake eyes - see you later, ejected for the rest of the game.  Some Skaven Linemen then caught up to clear a path and the Rat Thrower threw a beautiful long bomb right into the claws of a Gutter Runner waiting in the end zone: 1 zip

The Dark Elves lined up to receive, only to have the Skaven pull off a Blitz!  The Skaven were spread thin and deep though, so not much could be done except to get a linerat into the elf half and threaten the receiver.  The Dark Elves caged up midfield and began to slowly advance as rats threw themselves uselessly against the cage from all angles.  As time ticked away, the Dark Elves broke out of the cage to try a running play, but the Blitzer was taken down by a Storm Vermin on the sideline, and the ball popped free to be scooped up by a Skaven thrower.  The Gutter Runners were badly placed in safety positions, however, and the Skaven were obliged to form their own defensive formation half way to the endzone.  Just one turn to go as the elves formed a line between them and the score.   Some desperation dodges and blocks went my way, the Thrower handed off to a Gutter Runner who then sprinted with two Go For Its (using my last reroll) to make it into the end zone and make the score 2 nil at half time.

The half time show came and went, along with a nice bottle of "3 steps" 2008 vintage Shiraz...

The second half saw the Dark Elves receive and a crowd thrown rock stunning a Skaven Lineman.  The DE went for a rushing play down the widezone and smashed through the rats' front line.  I had positioned my Storm Vermin deep as safeties and they went in on the ball carrying Blitzer - only a push back!  Reroll: push back! I crowded in a few other players at the cost of leaving the other half of the field exposed but the Dark Elf only needed a few dodges with his 4 Ag to get home: 1.  Reroll: 1.  My Thrower darted in, scooped up the ball and dashed into the oppostion half with a Gutter Runner and another Storm Vermin covering him.  A Dark Elf tried to block into positon but a both down did him no favours.  I handed off to the Gutter Runner, who streaked downfield to rest 2 spaces short of the endzone but out of reach of any of the Elves (love that Mv 9!).  Capitalising on the two player advantage, the Skaven broke through to screen the ball carrier as the frustrated Elves wailed on anyone they could get their hands on, KOing another Gutter Runner.  With 3 turns to go I could have stalled out at least another turn but what fun is that - I crossed the line with 3 turns to go.  After winning the Cheering Fans, the Dark Elves again went for a running play but the offense peetered out, and the final siren went with the score being 3 Nil - the Skaven Win!!!!  I  must admit though that my dice were rolling hot tonight and that always helps, and that score doesnt really reflect the game as a whole.

So the official results of the 2012 Shamrock Cup Series are:

Game 1 - Dark Elves 3:1

Game 2 - Skaven 2 Nil  

Game 3 - Skaven 3 Nil

And so the Skaven are the Champions - 12 years after their first and last Victory!
The next scheduled Shamrock Cup  tournament is 2016, but you never know what might happen...

Winners are Grinners!  History of this treasured trophy can be found here

Shamrock Cup: 2012

Long time readers may recall that Comrade James and I play a Blood Bowl grudge competition every Olympic year called the Shamrock Cup.  This coveted trophy has a proud and beer filled history and so far the honour board looks like this:

• 2000 - Paul (Skaven)
• 2004 - James (Human)
• 2008 - Competition scratched due to excessive Warpstone consumption

So this year its time to once again contest the Shamrock Cup!  I'm taking my Skaven for the third time in a row, while Comrade J is taking Dark Elves after all his recent experience with them in Northbowl.  My standing 1 million gp Skaven team is 2 Blitzers, 4 Gutter Runners, 1 Thrower, 5 Linerats and 2 Rerolls.

The contesting teams line out for the fans in front of the glittering Prize!

Game 1: My Dice completely deserted me.  Thats my excuse anyway but I must say I was well out of practice with my rats, and I think 3 double skulls qualifies me to proclaim 'crap dice'!  James was up 2 nil at half time after I kicked to him, and then quickly smashed me for a third early in the second half.  I managed to squeek in a TD before the final siren, and thus didnt have to undergo the ignomy of a 3 nil drubbing.

Game 2:  My Skaven had their revenge this week (despite the significant pre-match beverages), climbing to a 2 nil Victory to equalize the competition standings at 1 match apiece.  The rats were in a particularly vicious mood, killing two pointy ears and KOing another 2 or 3 during the match.   The rain didn't help the Dark Elves' usual short passing game style either, but I call that exploiting the environment.

So Match 3 will be the decider, though it will be a little while until we can get together again as we live in different states.  Will the Rats take back the Cup? or will James become the first coach to take back to back pennants...

The Shamrock Cup

The fabled Shamrock Cup is steeped in tradition.  A "best of 3" match series face-off contested by Comrade James and I, it is now in its 10th year! Rumoured to be have swallowed by in a warp portal when a Skaven mage stole the trophy from the opposing team's locker room, it turns out that this lost treasure was simply misplaced under a giant stack of smelly cheese.  Its now been rinsed out and is ready to be recontested!

It all came about when after a major drought of gaming, the Comrade and I found that our programs would have us in Hong Kong for a few days at the same time.  Arrangements were made, components were packed and we met up in this jewel of the Orient to play (horrendously hung-over, it must be said) .  Now fortunately we had been wandering the Kowloon markets beforehand and found this wonderful cup which from that moment on was revered and cherished.  So that's the cup - why the name Shamrock?  The Hotel we stayed was the Shamrock Hotel, and its logo (cut from a box of matches) proudly adorns said trophy to this day.

But most mysteriously....why does it have a small red pepper glued to it?  Well, despite all our preparations, we forgot to pack a ball.  That's right, thousands of miles from home and we had a board, two teams, plastic templates, rulebooks....and no ball!  A minor setback of course - this small ornamental garnish was 'procured' (and was conveniently able to be wedged between the legs of any model) and thus was used for the inaugural three match tournament.  To commemorate this wonderful bit of ingenuity, it too was glued to the cup and remains there to this day.

And what of the tournies themselves?  We play resurrection style games to a point limit (which changes each series) and each time I have taken my Skaven and James has taken his Reikland Reavers.  There is no love lost between these two teams.

The Skaven took out the initial tourney back in 2000 with a 2 games to nil drubbing, winning the first game 4-3 and the second game 2-1.  Most amusing injury of the series was the death of Skaven star Hakflem Scuttlespike in the last seconds of the final game.  The most amusing play of the series was a stinkbomb launched by the Reavers which scattered and took out 2 Skaven and Zug, allowing gutter runners to pour through the gap and score!  Good times indeed.

The Reavers hit back in the 2004 series (its an Olympiad event - in fact we played the 2000 tourney while watching the Sydney Olympics.  Ironic really that we both lived in Sydney at the time and missed the entire thing!) and took out the cup in a closely contested 2 wins to 1.  The first match was a high scoring 6:2 Skaven victory with the Humans narrowly taking out Game two with 3 touchdowns to 2.  The final match saw some serious grinding up of players but the Humans scored twice against the Skaven's single TD - their worst performance in any Shamrock Cup match.

The projected 2008 series was postponed because of a serious case of long distance separation (2 states in fact) and all attempts to reshedule have so far proven fruitless.  It is hoped that the Man Cave will host the next event, potentially in early 2011.  Will the Skaven retake their beloved Cup or will the Humans retain the title? Or will a new team be included this time?

The competition will be tough, beer will be drunk and laughs will be had.  Bring it on!