The day was overcast. The hour was lunchtime. And the stage was set for possibly the worst cult mash-up of all time: Gryffindor versus the Imperial Federation. What’s that? Oh... I mean, Downing Lions versus Darkside.

But in all seriousness, we turned up to a confusing number of Eagles present to sideline, and an ominously large Darkside team, probably twice our numbers including more girls than you could shake a stick at. I wondered at their turnout, until Tom T reminded me that it was their entire uni team rather than half of one college, and that made me feel better. The Lions started on D, and a swift succession of short passes and then a nice huck (probably from Sam, probably to Dan or Tejas) meant: 1 point to Gryffindor!

...and then it went a bit downhill. Read: a lot downhill. Some messy D from the Lions and a few hucks from Darkside quickly secured them 3 points, before the Lions managed to take one back. It was clear by this point that we did have legs on them, but they were doing some somewhat pick-shaped cuts through the stack which was confusing/delaying the Lions and generally we weren’t being as fab on D as we could have been, and very un-chilly (hot?) on O.

Then the DCU-trademark injuries began. Firstly, Helen somehow got kicked in the head, marking the first appearance in the match of Kat ‘running off the vom’ Sammes. Then, a Darkside player I believe of the nickname ‘Dobby’ (so blates should have been playing for Gryffindor) hurt his ankle, resulting in a few minutes’ timeout as he left the pitch. Other injuries included a misguided rugby-tackle from Darkside causing Tejas a nasty fall and a hurt neck, someone poking Kaustuv in the eye, and not to mention my 1cm fleshwound caused by scratching myself with my nail, which despite its patheticness continued to bleed for the rest of the match.

At this point, the Lions had scraped back 2 points in turnovers, but going into halftime we were 7-3 down and all was not looking shiny. Tejas delivered some inspirational words, however, inspired the Lions, and we went back roaring into the second half. As with the first half, we scored the first point fairly swiftly, then a longer point with several turnovers saw Darkside take another point, and the Lions (read: possibly just me) feared a repeat of the first half.

Then the magic started, some sweet pulls by Sam, some lovely handling largely by Tebbs and Kaustuv, and the standard deep catches from Dan and Tejas resulted in the Lions pulling back not one, not two, but five points in succession. We began to punish the Darkside for their picks, and displayed some strong D, including an epic D by James Kenny (who was strong throughout the match, especially when matched against a swift guy wearing a wifebeater) and some beautiful cuts. Highlight of the pick calls had to be where Helen and Tebbs successively made pick calls, in the same point, both on the point-scoring catches. Needless to say, Darkside were a bit rattled (one guy on the sideline, on hearing the score: “Shit... that’s really shit!”) at this comeback.

Alas, as time was called, the valiant Lions had fought their way back from the claws (heh...) of an embarrassing defeat, to being 9-8 up. The softcap was set at 10, and through a long point where the Lions were so close to scoring several times, Darkside finally pulled one back, leaving the match to the final point. A cheeky timeout allowed us a few minutes of reflection on the game, eloquently summarised by Sam as “This game is like a lovely sponge cake... and winning would put some icing on it!”.

And so we lined up, facing our foes. The sky was darkening. The tension was mounting. You could practically hear the Hans Zimmer soundtrack building up to Darkside’s pull. The pull went up and... Sam called offside. Well done Sam, way to ruin the suspense. (but to be fair, they were majorly offside). SO. We lined up again, tension was mounted again, and this time we got there. After a long point with a near-catch in the end zone by Dan, and a valiant Lion attempt, Darkside unfortunately snagged it, but I think the take-home impressions from the match was that it proved how resilient we could be, and a huge effort from everyone involved.

Spirit was given as 4, as they were pretty sound and didn’t get narked at all our pick calls. MVP was James Kenny for consistently epic D throughout the match.

That’s all folks!

- Aly