Our First Game

[Orleanian In Exile]

Well, after three years of acquiring boards, teams, and compiling rules and collecting various technical tips, I finally took the plunge and played my first game of electric football in 32 years —and my five year old son was right with me for the ride. I'd been keeping my kit at my mum's house and decided to playtest the ideas I'd been developing all this time. My son knew the stuff was in the closet, and as we were over there today I decided it was as good a day as any to get back into the game but also to show my boy what it's all about.

Drawing two teams from a bag of figures I'd bought from TVs Chachi (clearance from an estate sale), I gave him a set of white-and-red figures while I took maroon ones with gold ram-horns on the helmets. I handled the set up of formations, kept to a very basic running game format and played possession sets —four downs to score, automatic turnover after fourth down, no kicking, and a FG awarded to the team which gained the most yardage in the set. However, when his team was on offence, he handled the clicker.

Well, my boy's team won 17-0. Number 32 of the Knights was his picked ball-carrier and he went 200+ yds with two TDs. My Golden Rams got into the red zone only once the whole game and even then his team outgained mine on yardage to collect a FG. Tough defence kept my team pinned down and unable to make any advantage. My little man was thrilled to be the winner.

It was a rather haphazard affair and a bit undiciplined, but I've at least had my first actual experiment with running a game, and my son got to have the Thrill of Victory.