Team Scotland go to the wire in both Eurobowl and Europen
- Jock Wright
- Oct 28
- 10 min read
If you missed out on the action from Day One of Eurobowl catch up with the first part here.
After an incredible Day One Team Scotland in the Open were sat near the top of the table as one of the few teams who’d scythed through the field recording three wins with a genuine chance to fight for the tournament win.
Whilst over in the Bowl Team Scotland were hanging on by their fingertips to the dream of hosting rights after losing their first two rounds. They were behind Lithuania by half a point, so a slice of luck was going to be needed to overhaul Fuel and his team to bring Eurobowl back to Scotland.
Hosting rights were set to go to the wire
The fourth round draw was idylic for Scotland. We’d been paired against Cyrpus, one of the smaller Eurobowl nations, whilst Lithuania had picked a fight with Germany, undoubtedly a much harder draw for them.
So it was to prove as Scotland wracked up another big 6.5 vs 1.5 points victory against Cyprus having not lost a match across the eight boards. Lithuania for the first time in the weekend were outmatched as Germany also recorded a 6.5 vs 1.5 point round win too. Scotland were now in front by a half point going into Round Five and the destiny of winning hosting rights were now in our own hands… if we could maintain the momentum.
However this is where easy street ended as we drew Finland, traditionally tough competitors. Tonalt, Finland’s captain, and I had swapped shirts earlier that morning, and he was sporting the Scotland shirt whilst he led his team to a close fought 5 vs 3 points win for Finland. We were so close to getting a result, but it was not to be.
Was this it, was this how hosting rights were to be lost, had Lithuania stolen a march, had they managed to take care of the Czechs? As fate would have it, the Czechs had held the Lithuanians to a closely fought round draw! The lion on the Czech shirt had roared just as loudly as the Scot’s Rampant Lion - and the promised shirt swap between the two nations was set to be all the sweeter as they did us a huge favour.
Going into the last round Scotland was sat on 2-0-3 whilst Lithunia were level on round points with a record of 1-2-2 having drawn against Italy and the Czechs whilst going down valiantly against the Germans and Austria.
All square, so tie-breakers was going to come into effect, and the second tie-breaker after round points was individual coach points. As luck would have it Scotland’s slow start gave us the opportunity to rack up coach points against Hungary and Cyprus and we hadn’t missed our chance - so we were still ahead, just, going into the last round.
Could Team Scotland in the Open maintain the charge from Day One
Team Scotland had impressed on Day One wracking up three good wins including against two fellow national squads; Wales and Austria. Buoyed from their performance they’d drawn the Grumpy Old Men from Sweden and on paper this looked like a winnable match, but nothing could be taken for granted from a team who was also sat on three wins.
However Team Scotland were as keen as mustard and scored a volley of touchdowns to secure the round win putting them on four wins out of four! The lads were on cloud nine, hard charging and leading the Tartan Army from the front!
Scotland going into Round Five were very much in the hunt for the tournament win and were only separated by coach points from their Team England cousins south of the border at this stage. It seemed like the Scandi nations were doing well too as Scotland had drawn Team Bøllebank from Denmark on Table 2.
As you might expect at the business end of the tournament the rounds get tougher and so it was to prove as the Scots held on for a hard-fought draw leaving them on 4-1-0, just off top spot, but definitely in with a chance for the podium should results go their way.
Scotland Futures fight hard to go undefeated navigating a tough Day Two
Scotland Futures had put their tough day one behind them after enjoying a team dinner on Saturday night. Refreshed and raring to go they drew Team Greece led by OptimusPrime, last year’s Eurobowl TO. Not overawed by a big community personality the team knuckled down and pulled out a very creditable draw against a decent national squad.
Moving on to Round Five the Futures drew Barrowlords from Devizes, down south, who they may have come across in passing at the bar in tournaments up and down the UK. With wins from GrantH and Mr_Frodo it was up to their skipper, fromherashes, to lock up a draw and secure the round win! So going into the last round a very creditable 2-1-2 record secured and the question was could they go the second day without any round losses?!
To make the last round interesting for the Futures they had drawn Thinking Man’s Fouler’s, one of the furthest travelling teams, all the way from the good ol’ US of A! With two wins each across the four boards a sporting draw was had for the last round giving the Futures a credible 2-2-2 record, chalking up no round losses on Day Two to finish in 67th, and securing a top-half finish - well done lads!
Team Scotland manage a top 15 finish in the Open!
Over on board two Team Scotland had drawn Lord Pow, an Italian team sporting British_Dog - a coach I had the pleasure of playing against at the World Cup in Alicante. This was going to be a very tough round six, as these were four quality coaches who had fought a hard tournament to be in the mix for the final round.
Scotland put up a brave performance, but unfortunately it was not enough as Lord Pow edged the round 2.5 vs 1.5 points to inflict Scotland’s only defeat over the course of the weekend. The lads were naturally a little disappointed, however they shouldn’t be.
Team Scotland went 4-1-1 finishing 13th on account of tiebreakers of individual coach points, but brilliantly only gave away four game losses all weekend across the 24 games played. An incredible feat and they’ve undoubtedly laid a marker down for inclusion in Team Scotland for the Bowl in Poland!
Belgium in the last round - Scotland wouldn’t be able to waffle their way to hosting rights!
Back in the Bowl - Going into the last round Lithuania’s individual coach record sat at 10-14-19 whilst Scotland were poised at 12-17-11. A round win of any kind would be enough to take hosting rights on tiebreak if Lithuania were triumphant over Slovenia on the table behind us.
Scotland had drawn Belgium for the sixth and final round. Having played and beat the Belgians in Athens last year the omens were good, but sat there at the board playing for hosting rights meant a different level of pressure.
Not only was it a tough two-days of hard fought and fun competition, but this was the moment, that just twenty-fours ago, after a terrible start, felt like it would never come. As skipper, I don’t mind admitting, I was all over the place mentally - I barely knew how to play and Dragou was kind enough to bear with me as I did everything I could to dial back into how to play Blood Bowl!
Having stopped his drive in the first half I was in a good position as the news came in from the different boards… there was the briefest of moments where only I knew we would win the round and hosting rights if I got the draw. It was a moment of release as the joy washed over me as I sat there knowing we’d done it, at last, hosting rights was ours.
Scotland ended up winning the round comfortably 6 vs 2 points. What a turn around from such a bad start against the French and the Slovenians!
With the result confirmed grins started to spread infectiously as we felt we’d done enough, even although Lithuania had won a close fought battle with Slovenia 4.5 vs 3.5 points. That said we weren’t full on celebrating as we definitely wanted to hear Scotland called out from the stage as the next hosts. We’d come close once before in Portugal and lost out on tiebreakers!
Team Scotland accepts hosting rights on stage declaring Glasgow 2028 as host city for Eurobowl XVIII
What a thrill to finally be called to the stage as Captain of Scotland, as a a team, to accept the hosting rights from TimeBandit. This was undoubtedly the highlight of my relatively short time playing Blood Bowl tournaments since I rediscovered the game.
The only thing that would have made it sweeter was if my Vice Captain, Purdindas, had been there to share in the moment - something he’d chased for a very long time… so this one was for you Ant!
Scotland salutes two of our very best who’ve been integral to the Eurobowl story over the years
Obviously the big news from the tournament was Scotland winning hosting rights and Team Scotland bagging a top 15 finish in the Open, but there was plenty of other moments to celebrate, two Scottish coaches in particular:
Our very own Mike Davies, Sann, was recognised with the Community Award of Eurobowl as voted by coaches for his years of dedication and unstinting support for Eurobowl TOs and coaches from far and wide - congrats Mike, recognition thoroughly deserved!
Valen, undefeated in his sixth and final Eurobowl with a 3-3-0 record, promised carnage with his dwarfs and duly delivered by winning Most Casualties and the illustrious hosting rights that he started chasing more years ago than he can probably remember!
He’s now officially retired from Team Scotland on a record of 18-11-7 (65.3%), twice Scotland Captain and is arguably Scotland’s most successful Eurobowl coach. What a way to sign-off and thank you for your service over the years. However never fear he’s promised to be back in Europen in Warsaw leading the charge and corrupting coaches who’ve yet to experience his love of a party!
Congrats to the neighbours!
It would be remiss of me not to congratulate the neighbours for an excellent Eurobowl weekend too. First up congratulations to GColeman76, Wales Captain and the whole Welsh Eurobowl Squad for coming runner-ups in Eurobowl to France, and also winners of the Celtic Cup, competed for by Scotland, Wales and Ireland
Congratulations to Team England, Europen for the impeccable 6-0-0 record and taking the tournament down in style! This year's Europen Champions!
Finally, and by no means least, congratulations to France who retained the Eurobowl for the second year in a row under the captaincy of Helborg. The rendition of La Marseilliase always rousing!
Scotland’s Results
You can see Team Scotland’s results on Tourplay. Below is the tale of the tape for Scottish coaches playing both in the Eurobowl and Europen.
Table 1.1 Team Scotland, Eurobowl
Table 1.2 Scottish Teams in the Europen
Table 1.3 Scottish Coaches (and SickasEggs - Token English!) individual results
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