Final Round Crescendo as the Bowl and Open both go to the wire!
- Jock Wright
- Sep 2, 2025
- 10 min read
Updated: Sep 3, 2025
The Home Nations II packs a punch as the heat is turned up on the chilli sauce!
Tapping into the zeitgeist of team tournaments The Home Nations saw fifty-four teams, two hundred and sixteen coaches, in the Open, along with the Bowl growing to a total of two hundred and sixty eight coaches in only its second year of running.
Loughborough Students’ Union was to play host to a carnival of Blood Bowl, catching up with old friends and the making of the new as coaches from the four corners of the British Isles, Italy, Poland and Malta gathered in JC’s on Friday night to partake of a beverage. The charge was led by, what looks like a fast-forming tradition, of thirty-eight Scottish coaches who’d climbed over Hadrian’s wall for the weekend who were firmly ensconced in JC’s as the jugs of beers flowed!
Behind the scenes preparations - Thanks to event partners, LSU and volunteer coaches who we couldn’t do any of it without
With this many coaches due to attend unsurprisingly there is a giant to-do list. Coordination with lots of partners such as Black Orc Down who created our amazing Welsh Dice and stunning (get it!) stun - prone coins featuring each of the four Home Nations flowers in the tournament gifts.
Loughborough Students’ Union and the venue staff work their socks off all weekend whether on Friday afternoon to prepare the tournament room putting up and moving tables & chairs then on to sating coaches’ never-ending thirst with table service over the course of the tournament or feeding nearly three-hundred people with hot lunches.
Then there are the volunteers who ensure every coach attending gets a great experience. All the work in the background means there is always lots to do to set the scene for an atmospheric tournament at this scale. My own special thanks must go to:
ChuckDredd, always the first to offer help, and Icephoenix who were on hand to make life easier in the set-up of the rooms and packing of coach gift packs.
Barney_the_lurker and Sizzler who were so dedicated to their refereeing they could be overheard limbering up by discussing obscure scenarios over a pint in JC’s on Friday night.
Keithabixx and Stewbacca for the roster streams and wrangling of the database to give us a form guide respectively, all of it adding to the sense of anticipation of the weekend ahead.
Dizzybess and Caulee for bringing the Home Nations live to the masses through live streaming the event all weekend. (Check out the action on the pitch on Dizzy's YouTube channel)
ChrisRaff88 for creating the branding and imagery of the Home Nations, everything pretty much extends from his initial work to help me give the tournament its identity.
Last, and by no means least, Wobert, Co-Tournament Organiser who shuns the limelight but is always on hand to deploy his years of wisdom as I find my feet as a new TO.
Thanks to everyone who chips in throughout the year in so many little and unseen ways - you really have my appreciation.
Onto the action - we promised a spicy round one and boy did the tournament get off to a flyer.
There’s always an incredible buzz as coaches bustle round the hall for the first time looking to find their tables, are we downstairs or upstairs?! It wasn’t long before the rattle of dice in the dice cups and the backdrop of ‘rhubarb, rhubarb’ could be heard as coaches settled into the social affair of sharing their first game of Blood Bowl of the weekend.
Dear reader, I confess, this is my favourite part of the weekend. I can breathe out with a sigh of relief as the tournament begins to settle down and all the pre-event preparation has delivered us to this moment.
Round one in the Open had seen the favourites, according to Stewbacca’s form guide, largely miss each other but I’d picked out three matches as ones to watch:
Democratic Republic of Yorkshire with Spleggy as their notable coach versus Morg ‘n’ Bald from the northeast and GBBL who’d somehow managed to secure a pass for the weekend for Team England Coach, Don_Vito, to turn out for them. The pre-hype didn’t quite match up as Don_Vito put Spleggy to the sword 4-0 (surely a story there!) and the Geordies swept the round 3.5 vs 0.5 points.
Electric Boogaloo, Team Malta flying under the radar, had the snazziest dressers in town, one half of the Hakflem Globetrotters (Blue) to kick-off their tournament. They were not dazzled by the star spangled banner of the Hakflem’s uniform as they managed a comfortable three points to one win with only Petronikus losing to Speedingbullet who’s Tomb King’s managed five casualties, denting the hopes for the clean sweep.
Then the age old classic of travelling all that way to play your teammates saw Awesome Party People - the Originals, face off against their co-conspirators, dubbed ‘new and improved’. I can confirm that they are indeed new, but not necessarily improved as the tie ended up in a diplomatic 2-2 draw.
Round Three saw the titanic clash of Team England, in their own back yard, take on the Azzurri captained by Liam
In the Bowl, Team England versus Team Italy, was arguably the tie of the weekend that had the mouth watering before the tournament started. Although Team Poland would have their say about this later.
This was a closely fought tie with it going down to the wire. Team Italy eventually came out on top by the narrowest of margins, four points to three points. Without doubt big wins for Dirold, 2-1, against KFoged in a Zon mirror and Italy captain Liam, with Chaos Dwarfs securing a closely fought 1-0 against England stalwart Purplegoo turned the tie on its head.
Over in the Open the third round saw a big match up with Tactics and Theatrics face off against GBBL’s Morg ‘N’ Balds as the two of the early leading pack. There was a bit of a local derby with Breakmonker facing off against Warka, two coaches from the north east - back of the net 1-0 to the Morg ‘N’ Balds! That was the high point for the Geordies as T&T ruthlessly banged in seven TDs across the other three boards with only one in reply to lock up the round win three points to one!
With the first day drawing to a close T&T stood astride the top of the Open on three wins, whilst over in the Bowl Italy were the only team on three wins having tucked England away it looked like the Bowl was theirs to lose!
Round 4 the Polish Eagle roared into action against Team Italy
With only five rounds in the Bowl, rather than six, like in the Open, it meant the Bowl coaches enjoyed a long lie-in before starting later in the morning. Clearly Team Poland had made use of the extra hours of sleep as they came roaring out the blocks to steam-roll Italy five points to two with only Barbossa on Dark Elves and Mezogna on Necro recording two wins.
Whilst on the other table England clearly stung from their loss to end day one smashed Ireland six points to nil giving up no losses. There we were in an unbelievable position where we had three of the national teams on three wins, one loss, all tied going into the final round. With head to head being the first tie breaker and England beating Poland, Poland beating Italy and Italy being England this was looking like it was going to present a TO-sized headache!
Round 5 in the Open - Team England defending Champions take on in-form Tactics and Theatrics
Defending champions Team England had kept motoring along through the first four rounds with four wins. They inevitably had to face Tactics and Theatrics, the in-form team in Europe coming off the back of a team win at Italy’s Tilean Team Cup. England might have been slightly fancied as some of the Tactics and Theatrics stable were actually playing in the Bowl for England - congrats to Thulean and Torquemada on their call-ups. However this was still going to be a monstrous battle on the pitch.
I’m sure from a board’s eye view the round was hotly contested, but Tourplay was to tell a different story. Tactics and Theatrics theatrically swept the board four points to nil and all without conceding a single TD! On five wins out of five a draw in the final round would be enough, but for now they were celebrating a big scalp as legend of the game PeteW on his favoured Dark Elves had his wings clipped 2-0 by Bashto coaching Vampires.
Final Round Crescendo in the Bowl
The final round of the Bowl was a script straight from Hollywood. England, Italy and Poland could all win, and having all played each other it was going to be the teams from the bottom half of the table who might have their say on where the brand spanking new trophy from Black Orc Down was going!
Up until the fifth and final round Ireland had been propping up the table having lost their first round to Scotland and were very much in line for the wooden spoon for the second year running.
Like last year the Celtic tigers woke from their slumber to shock the tournament with a closely fought, but impressive four points to three win over Poland! Danton’s result 3-0 with his Humans being the pick of the board results. Just like last year Ireland had saved the best to last recording their two wins over the two tournaments both in the final round.
The loss, a crushing blow to Poland’s hopes meant it was a straight shoot out between England and Italy. If they both won then the first tie-breaker was head-to-head results and would make England the bridesmaid on countback for the second year running.
Sure enough Italy’s class shone through with an impressive four points to nil win over Scotland. Whilst England went up against Wales, where there’s so much history between the nations in rugby. This tie was a little closer, but England came away with a four points to two win.
The Azzuri had done it! Liam had steered Italy to victory by the narrowest of margins and England were left to rue a missed opportunity. The Home Nations Bowl; another fantastic round of matches delivering bragging rights, glory and forged friendships across Europe in readiness for Budapest later in the year.
Meanwhile… over in the Open the top four teams had it all still to play for.
Tactics and Theatrics were drawn against London’s very own SBL Nomad’s, captained by SaltyMurcutt, of Channelled Fury podcast fame in the final round. A draw would be enough for T&T, but a loss would see either SBL Nomad’s, Morg ‘N’ Balds or even Team England sneak past them at the final hurdle.
Over on table two Morg ‘N’ Balds faced off against Team England who’d been chastened by T&T the round previous. Would they strike back with vengeance or would the Geordies hold them off? On the top board Team England’s Don_Vito, for the Geordies, was facing off against fellow England teammate Elplanet4 playing Skaven and Elven Union respectively. Odds were good for a high scoring match, but it was a lock down with Don_Vito sneaking a 1-0 win to set the round up.
Bucky1398, their captain, playing humans held onto the coat tails of the hopping Slann master GreenskinPhil securing a draw whilst Stick_with_poo_on_the_end (a legendary NAF coach name dating back to 2005!) with years of experience Nurgled his way to victory over Scouseboy, last year’s Open MVP. The Morg ‘N’ Balds had done it, they’d beaten England two points to one!
Back over on board one Tactics and Theatrics were keen to keep destiny in their own hands with three wins and one loss, completing the perfect round score of 6-0-0 and winning their third big team title of the season after triumphing at long-standing MonkeyBowl, run by Breakmonker, and the Tilean Team Cup held in beautiful Florence.Honourable mention also goes to Team Redshirts representing the CBBL league who kept plugging away all weekend and capitalised to come third overall picking up the League Trophy title for the highest placed league. You can read Wotfudboy’s blog on their weekend here.
The Results and Prizes!
Obviously there are winners in tournaments. However I think the weekend was firmly enjoyed by all who attended whether it was the all-stunty teams wreaking havoc to those chasing silverware at the top and everything in between, or the curry night where seventy coaches sat down to break naan bread together.
The winners below:
Winners: Team Italy in the Bowl, Tactics and Theatrics in the Open
Runners-Up: Team England in the Bow and Morg ‘N’ Bald in the Open
League Champions: highest placed league team in the Open - Team Redshirts
Best Painted: Docminiature
MVP: El_Spoonio in the Open
Stunty Cup: Lord_Bonan
Home Nations III - Tickets on Sale, 7 September at 11am, UK
If you’re keen to get in on the action with this fantastic weekend then don’t miss out on tickets going on sale for Home Nations III on Sunday 7 September at 11am, UK. The event will take place in Loughborough on 4-5 July 2026.
Team Captains will need to register at https://www.homenationsbloodbowl.com/register
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